Anchorage Assembly passes Mayor LaFrance’s city budget with few changes

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday unanimously approved the 2025 city budget after making just a few changes to Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s $638.9 million general spending plan.

The budget is about $235,000 below the municipality’s estimated tax cap, which is the limit on how much money the city can collect from property taxes, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Ona Brause. Property taxes fund about 60% of the city budget.

That left very little wiggle room for the Assembly to add or adjust funding for its remaining priorities. But before Tuesday’s meeting, the LaFrance administration had already made several changes based on feedback from the Assembly and after public testimony during recent meetings.

One proposed change that would have helped lay groundwork to establish independent civilian oversight of Anchorage police set off a protracted debate among Assembly members on Tuesday. Members ultimately voted down two variations of the amendment — which LaFrance also opposed — despite recent public calls for police department reform.

LaFrance’s budget is largely a continuation of last year’s spending plan, but with key tweaks such as building in year-round funding for the city’s homeless shelter at East 56th Avenue, increasing pay for snow removal operators and other municipal staff to bolster recruitment and retention, and expanding the fire department’s Mobile Crisis Team to 24/7 service.

“Our team focused on building a budget that provides long-term strategies for addressing big challenges while delivering quality public services each day,” LaFrance said during her opening remarks Tuesday night.

The approved budget is slightly different from LaFrance’s draft proposal in October.

For example, after pushback from residents and Assembly members, LaFrance reversed a $1 million cut to the alcohol tax spending plan, adding back grants that last year went to several programs, such as the Anchorage Youth Court.

She also directed an additional $1 million to the Health Department for funding permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programs for homeless residents.

LaFrance’s budget also shores up bloated alcohol tax spending budgets seen in recent years with a significant spending reduction, bringing it down to about $15.9 million. In recent years, alcohol tax spending plans were upward of $21 million – larger than the annual tax revenue because some funds went unspent and rolled over from year to year.

Next year’s budget also includes the first spending of marijuana tax revenue on early childhood education and child care, following a 2023 ballot measure that redirected the annual revenue to the effort.

The city budgeted about $8.8 million in marijuana tax spending for 2025. The funding is split between grants to help with operational costs for licensed child care and early education organizations, subsidies to pay for child care for child care workers and early educators, and funding for innovative pilot projects to boost the child care sector.

In one last-minute change, the Assembly unanimously approved adding a $400,000 grant to the Boys and Girls Club of Southcentral Alaska to reduce or eliminate barriers and fees for families to access programs located at the Mountain View Community Center, Northeast Community Center, Woodland Park Club and Eagle River Club.

This year’s budgeting process was markedly different from how it went the last three years under former Mayor Dave Bronson, who regularly proposed budgets millions beneath the tax cap with cuts to city services. The Assembly would generally add millions back into the city spending plan. The process often resulted in acrimony, mayoral vetoes and veto overrides.

In comments before the vote, a few Assembly members remarked on the difference.

“It is a refreshing change,” said Assembly Vice Chair Meg Zaletel, thanking the administration for it’s “collaborative approach.”

Still, disagreements among Assembly members ignited over the proposal to set aside $75,000 to explore the potential for establishing civilian oversight of police.

Anchorage police have shot eight people since May, killing five, including 16-year-old Easter Leafa. Many residents and several Assembly members have pushed for reform and oversight in the wake of the shootings. During Tuesday’s meeting, more than a dozen people in the audience held up small signs that urged the Assembly to approve the funding.

The Assembly’s nonvoting youth member, Kyneddi Grady, spoke out in support of police reform.

“Any system in which a public servant shoots a teenager is so vastly at fault that we cannot let it be. This is not a commitment to any later board or project — just a single chance to do what’s right,” Grady said.

Assembly members Felix Rivera, Daniel Volland and Anna Brawley pushed for members to approve a contract with the National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement to provide technical support for the process. When that failed, they supported another version along with member Kameron Perez-Verdia and Vice Chair Zaletel that would have put the contract out for public bid. That failed in a 5-7 vote.

Those opposed voiced concerns that more oversight could negatively affect morale among the understaffed department, and others said the Assembly should give the administration time to make its own changes.

LaFrance said her administration is already implementing two outside reviews, including an investigation into Leafa’s shooting, and a “comprehensive outside review” of the department’s use of force policies and training.

“The administration is taking unprecedented action to obtain outside expertise to review APD training, tactics and operations and build public trust,” LaFrance said.