Juneau's proposed Statter Harbor fee would more than triple operators' costs

Juneau wants Statter Harbor's charter and whale-watching operators to pay roughly $1.8 million a year in passenger fees — more than triple the $500,000 or so they paid last year — under a rate the port director has put before the Docks & Harbors Board.

The proposal would raise the per-passenger fee from $2.05 to $7.50. Port Director Carl Uchytil argued in an August memo that the jump "could be reasonably justified" by the services the harbor provides and the cost of expanding it, and asked the board to hold a public hearing before deciding.

The operators are pushing back. Their trade group, the Southeast Alaska Whale Watching Association, calls it a 266% increase and says companies can't simply pass it to customers, because many hold pricing agreements locked in for one to three years. The association also rejects the comparison the harbor has drawn to Mendenhall Glacier — where the Forest Service charges permitted operators about $2 a head — arguing that Statter is just a place to load and moor boats, not a destination. It's asking the board to drop or rethink the $7.50 figure, separate the harbor's day-to-day operating costs from its fundraising for big projects, and consider a smaller, phased increase instead.

Behind the fee sit two pressures. The harbor is crowded — about 27 vessels regularly use its passenger floats, causing congestion and delaying maintenance, and the number of charter companies there has nearly doubled since 2017, to about 37. And the harbor's finances are tightening: its enterprise fund is projected to fall to $1.2 million by mid-2027, losing $450,000 a year now that a state fisheries tax no longer flows into it. Looming over all of it is a replacement breakwater whose local share alone is expected to run $20 million.

The fee, first set at $1.10 in 2005, has climbed with inflation since. No rate has been set, and the board hasn't scheduled its public hearing; the next step is an Operations & Planning Committee meeting at 5 pm Sept. 16, where the public can weigh in.