Anchorage’s biggest tax grab in decades: City Hall wants 3% more from your wallet

By BRETT HUBER

Anchorage taxpayers, brace yourselves. The mayor and Assembly have decided that after years of presiding over a city in visible decline, with crumbling infrastructure, half-dead downtown, record addiction crisis, and a visitor satisfaction rate barely scraping 55%, the real problem is that you haven’t been taxed enough.

This fall, they dropped Ordinance No. AO 2025-133, a monster ballot proposition that would amend the Home Rule Charter to create a brand-new 3% citywide sales and use tax. They say they will be divvying it up one third each to property tax relief, child care and housing, and public safety and infrastructure – all the positive spin, but no guarantees!

Oh, and they want permission to borrow from the MOA Trust Fund corpus – Anchorage’s inheritance – to cover start-up costs of this brand new tax machine.

All of this is scheduled for Assembly introduction on Tuesday, Nov. 18. And in classic fashion, they’ve already penciled in a public hearing for Dec. 2, because why not keep the holiday cheer going?

Let me be absolutely clear: This is the biggest government expansion Anchorage has attempted in decades.

And the sales pitch? A classic hollow political promise: “Trust us. Property taxes will go down.”

This is not our first rodeo. Remember the alcohol tax? Anchorage voters fell hard for that one, as city leaders promised to turn the tide on homelessness and addiction. Instead, disorder exploded, encampments multiplied. Now, the people-in-charge at City Hall want more money to fix the problems they failed to fix the first time –problems that got worse after they received the new revenue.

Money is fungible. The mayor and assembly will use it where they wish andAnchorage government loves using that fungibility to grow itself.

This new tax isn’t about “equity,” “relief,” or “fairness.” That’s just what they are trying to sell you.
It’s about growth: Growth of bureaucracy, growth of government, and growth of a system that continues to fail the people who fund it.

In case they haven’t noticed, Anchorage is in bad shape.

Businesses are still limping from the Covid shutdown policies of the city. Downtown has all the vibrancy of a boarded-up film set. Homelessness and crime are running rampant, and the city’s own visitor survey shows tourists are unimpressed.

And the Assembly solution?

Tax the same people who are already tapped out.

As Winston Churchill famously said:

“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

If Churchill were alive, he’d add: “…and apparently that man would be serving on the Anchorage Assembly.”

Here’s what AO 2025-133 really requires: a massive new tax bureaucracy.

The city admits it will need to roughly double the size of the Treasury Division. That means:

• 28 new full-time employees
• New attorneys
• New hearing officers
• New support staff
• New office space (because City Hall is apparently full)
• Brand-new custom software (no cost quote yet)
• Thousands of hours building systems, code, regulations, and enforcement structures

And that’s just to start.

Projected start-up costs:

• $2.5 million in capital expenditures
• $4.0 million for setup, staffing, and outreach
• Total: $6.5 million before a single penny is collected

And guess who’s paying for all this? Oh right – you. Eventually through the tax itself.

But first, through borrowing from the MOA Trust Fund, because for years Anchorage government has not met a trust account it didn’t want to raid.

This isn’t a “lightweight sales tax.” It’s a full-blown new department with an annual cost by 2029 of $4.8 Million set up to take an estimated $200 million out of your pocket!

Once the system is running, the annual price tag will grow every year. Remember when they said this was “revenue neutral”? Funny how neutral keeps getting more expensive. Because when Anchorage creates a tax, they don’t just build a tool. They build an empire.

The city’s own analysis admits the sales tax is regressive. The lowest-income households will pay three times more of their income than anyone else.

The mayor’s office also claims one-third of the revenue will go to property tax relief. Even if we take their numbers at face value:

• 2028 partial-year sales tax would reduce 2029 property taxes by $22 million
• Full-year 2029 sales tax would reduce 2030 property taxes by $53 million

But here’s the catch:

Property tax offsets depend entirely on who owns Anchorage property. If non-residents own less than 36% of the city’s taxable property, as is likely, residents shoulder more of the new sales tax burden than they receive in property tax relief.

Translation: “We cheat the other guy and pass the savings along to you.”

To get this on the ballot, the Assembly needs 8 of 12 votes. Then it goes to voters in April 2026, where only 50% plus one vote is needed and the pro-tax “nonprofits” (which don’t pay taxes) will come out in full force to try to fool voters once again.

If turnout is low, and it always is in April, this could pass with only a fraction of Anchorage residents voting. We all know that during municipal elections, city workers and school employees vote in high numbers and the rest of the public is too busy trying to pay their bills.

So let’s review what they’re asking for:

• A new 3% sales tax
• A doubled Treasury Division
• A new enforcement bureaucracy
• Millions in setup costs
• Millions each year to operate
• Brand-new office space
• Untested custom software
• Raiding the MOA Trust Fund
• A regressive tax structure
• And blind trust from taxpayers who’ve watched them botch every major initiative for a decade

All this from the same leaders who can’t keep parks clean, can’t keep businesses from fleeing, and can’t restore basic civic pride.

Anchorage doesn’t need another tax Anchorage needs accountability, not an ever-expanding bureaucracy funded by struggling families.

Anchorage needs a government that can restore confidence, not one that demands more money as the city crumbles around it.

Anchorage needs officials who solve problems—not create new ones.

Until then, here’s the answer to AO 2025-133:

Absolutely not. Not one penny more. Not until you fix the Anchorage you already have.

Brett Huber is State Director for Americans for Prosperity-Alaska. He brings three decades of Alaska public-policy and oil-and-gas experience to his writing, including service as commissioner and chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Since arriving in Alaska in 1984, he has worked across both the private sector and state government, holding senior roles in the Alaska Legislature and later in the Dunleavy Administration as senior policy advisor, policy director, and communications director. His lifelong focus on natural-resource policy, especially oil and gas, continues to shape his work today.

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