Valdez opens applications for $595 energy credit and home tax exemption

The City of Valdez opened applications Monday for two programs that cut household costs, and residents who don't apply won't get either one.

One is a $595 credit toward a home's winter electric or fuel bill, with applications due by 5 pm Dec. 31. The other is a property tax exemption for homeowners that the City Council expanded last month. It used to be applied automatically. Now homeowners have to apply every year, starting with a Jan. 15 deadline.

The credit is the same as last year's. The city pays it straight to the account the applicant picks: Copper Valley Electric Association, one of the two fuel companies, Crowley or North Pacific, or Valdez Harbor for live-aboards. The whole credit goes toward one bill, electric or fuel.

To qualify, the home has to be the applicant's primary residence inside city limits, with an active electric or fuel oil account in the applicant's name. It's one credit per dwelling, and businesses can't apply. Harbor live-aboards qualify if they paid the residential surcharge in full in 2026 and are on the harbor's live-aboard list.

Applicants need a photo ID and an electric or fuel bill from the last four months showing their name, physical address and account number. They can apply online or at City Hall. Mailed applications must be notarized and arrive by Dec. 31, the city's program page says. Postmarks don't count.

The application form has some fine print. If an applicant is past due on another city account, the credit pays that debt first. The form also warns that the credit "will likely be considered taxable income" by the IRS.

It also requires the city's household population survey. The city uses it in working with the state on Valdez's official population estimate, which affects state revenue sharing and helps set the city's cap on property tax revenue, the form says.

The council supports the program "subject to appropriations," according to the city. The proposed 2027 budget sets aside $700,000 for it, the same as this year. A public hearing on the full budget is set for Nov. 17, with adoption scheduled for Dec. 1.

The tax exemption change came Oct. 20, when the council passed Ordinance 26-06, after discussing it at an August work session. It takes 77% off a home's remaining taxable value after other exemptions, including the existing primary residence exemption and the ones for seniors, disabled veterans and volunteer firefighters and EMS workers, according to the city's announcement.

A state law passed this year, House Bill 13, lets cities offer any level of exemption on a primary residence, the city says.

To qualify, homeowners must own the home and live in it at least 185 days a year, the same standard the state uses for the Permanent Fund dividend, the city says. Rentals and second homes don't count. Applicants need proof they live there most of the year, such as a PFD record tied to the address, and one form now covers all the exemptions tied to a primary residence.

Even homeowners who've gotten the exemption before have to apply, by 5 pm Jan. 15. "No application. No exemption. No exceptions," the city's announcement of the two programs says.