Anchorage voters will decide this spring whether to approve a one-time, $11.8 million tax increase to fund the local school district.
That’s after the Assembly voted Tuesday night to put the tax on this April’s municipal ballot.
The proposal was brought forward by Mayor Suzanne LaFrance, with Assembly members Anna Brawley, Erin Baldwin Day and Felix Rivera co-sponsoring the ordinance.
Baldwin Day spoke in favor of the proposal, saying the district has been underfunded for years.
“We cannot continue to strip resources away from a system and then demand that it perform better,” she said. “That’s not real. That’s not how anything works in the real world.”
School district officials project an $83 million budget shortfall for the next year. Anchorage School District Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said his intention is to use all of the funding to fill more than 80 teaching positions, with the goal of reducing class sizes across the district.
“ASD is facing serious financial pressure in largely every area of the district, and we've largely exhausted our usable fund balance to protect student instructional services and programs for this school year,” Bryantt told Assembly members Tuesday. “So what this levy could do is to help mitigate some of the worst impacts that we're forecasting because of this substantial structural deficit.”
Public testimony on the ordinance was fairly even, with 10 people in favor, and 12 opposed. Many in opposition accused Anchorage schools of underperforming and questioned if the district would use the money effectively. Assembly member Jared Goecker agreed.
“I do not have, and my constituents that reached out to me do not have, any confidence in the school board or the superintendent to wisely use this money,” he said.
Assembly members voted 9 to 3 to put the tax on the April ballot, with Goecker, Keith McCormick and Scott Myers opposed.
In a statement, LaFrance said funding education was the best investment voters could make.
“Public education is essential to a healthy community and every Anchorage student, whether in a neighborhood school, a charter school, or home school, deserves the best possible education,” she wrote.
Assembly members also approved putting a number of ballot and bond propositions on the April ballot, including:
- $8,990,000 for public safety and transit improvements
- $6,050,000 for improvements to parks, trails and recreation facilities
- $38,450,000 for road and storm drainage capital improvements
- $7,150,000 for upgrades to several community buildings
- $1,720,000 for access and trail improvements in the Chugach State Park Access Service Area
- $2,500,000 for replacement fire engines
- $350,000 for parking lot improvements at the Anchorage Police Department’s Elmore station
- A ballot proposition removing outdated city code language involving the Anchorage Telephone Utility
Anchorage’s municipal election will be held on April 7.
