Sitka Assembly weighs asking voters for a summer sales tax bump to fund child care

The Sitka Assembly on Tuesday takes its first look at asking voters for an extra half-cent on the dollar each summer to pay for child care.

If the Assembly approves the ordinance at a second reading Nov. 10, voters would decide Feb. 2 whether to raise the sales tax from 6% to 6.5% from April through September. The winter rate would stay at 5%.

At the register, a $10 summer purchase would carry a nickel more in tax, and a $100 purchase 50 cents more, according to a city FAQ.

The city estimates the half point would raise about $1.19 million a year.

That money would be set aside for child care grants and the cost of running the program. The sponsors, Mayor Kevin Mosher and Assembly members Thor Christianson and Katie Riley, laid out a rough split after administrative costs in a memo: 60% to child care providers to keep spots open and add new ones, 20% to recruiting and keeping staff, 15% to family scholarships on a sliding income scale and 5% to a career training pathway for future child care workers.

An outside organization, chosen through a competitive process, would hand out the money and report results to the Assembly each year.

Center-based infant care in Sitka costs $24,413 a year, about a quarter of the area's median household income, Alaska News reported when the Assembly discussed the tax in September. Some speakers at that meeting worried the increase would fall hardest on lower-income and working families.

The tax would expire March 31, 2037, unless voters renew it.

It wouldn't touch the summer point already set aside for school buildings. That's the point that comes off every October, as it did this year on Oct. 1.