The City of Homer and the Alaska Department of Transportation are negotiating how much DOT owes the city in natural gas assessments.
Last year DOT refused to pay for eight of their properties in the city’s Natural Gas Assessment District. Jill Reese with DOT told KBBI in November those properties can’t be taxed.
“It’s not subject to the assessment since there’s no opportunity to develop the property and take advantage of the gas line,” Reese said.
The city disagreed at first, but City Manager Katie Koester says DOT recently provided documentation justifying its position on some of those properties.
“DOT has provided sufficient documentation that justifies exemption per standards adopted by city council and others we’re still in negotiations with DOT on,” Koester said.
Koester couldn’t immediately say how many properties DOT proved should be exempt from the assessment.
She says only the Homer City Council can exempt a property. She expects the council to consider the DOT exemptions within the next couple of months.
Quinton Chandler is a reporter at KTOO in Juneau.
