By SUZANNE DOWNING
Jan. 27, 2026 – The Anchorage Assembly meets Tuesday night for what city officials are calling one of the most consequential meetings of the year. For many politically tuned residents, the consequential item on the agenda is also the most rushed.
After being introduced without warning just two weeks ago, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance’s proposed 12% special tax levy for school operations is headed for a hasty public hearing and Assembly vote, with little public process, limited justification, and no clear explanation of what emergency required its fast-tracking.
The tax proposal, formally AO 2026-14, was introduced on Jan. 13 as an “emergency” measure, bypassing the normal public vetting process typically used for major tax proposals. Mayor LaFrance asked to have it “laid on the table,” which means it was snuck onto the agenda at the last minute. It would impose a one-year, voter-approved tax increase dedicated to the operational budget of the Anchorage School District — not capital projects, not construction, but day-to-day expenses.
Despite being one of the largest single tax proposals in recent years, the measure arrived without advance notice to taxpayers, without community council review, and without a documented financial crisis declaration from the administration.
The Assembly will hold a public hearing on the measure Tuesday evening at the Loussac Library Assembly Chambers before voting on whether to place it on the April 7 municipal ballot.
Assembly leadership has framed the schedule as a procedural necessity tied to ballot deadlines.
“Per Anchorage Municipal Code 28.20.015B., the Anchorage Assembly is required to act on ballot proposition language for the April 7, 2026 Regular Municipal Election by the Regular Assembly Meeting on Tuesday, January 27,” the Assembly stated in a press release.
Assembly Chair Christopher Constant described the meeting as part of the Assembly’s “duty of due diligence on ballot questions,” saying the final decision rests with voters.
Due diligence should come before a tax is rushed onto the ballot, not after.
While bond propositions typically go through months of public review and the Capital Improvement Program process, the school operations tax levy followed none of that structure. Instead, it was introduced abruptly as an emergency item, with no formal documentation as to what the emergency is.
Unlike other ballot measures scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting, AO 2026-14 is not a bond proposition tied to infrastructure investment. It is a direct tax levy for operating expenses, meaning it would raise property taxes without creating any physical assets or long-term capital improvements.
The Assembly already approved a separate $79.46 million bond package for Anchorage School District capital improvements earlier this month, meaning voters are now being asked to approve both new debt and a new tax increase for the school system within the same election cycle.
In addition to the school tax levy, the Assembly will hold public hearings on multiple bond and ballot propositions for the April election, including:
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AO 2026-15 – Charter amendment removing outdated language on the former Anchorage Telephone Utility
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AO 2026-2 – $8.99 million for areawide public safety and transit improvements
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AO 2026-3(S) – $6.05 million for parks, trails, and recreation facilities
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AO 2026-4 – $38.45 million for road and storm drainage improvements
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AO 2026-5 – $7.15 million for community facilities projects
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AO 2026-6 – $1.72 million for Chugach State Park access improvements
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AO 2026-7 – $2.5 million for fire protection improvements
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AO 2026-8 – $350,000 for improvements to the Anchorage Police Department’s Elmore Station
Public testimony on ballot questions will begin after 6 pm at the Loussac Library Assembly Chambers.
Residents may participate by:
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Signing up to testify by phone at ancgov.info/testify (deadline was 5 p.m. Jan. 26)
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Submitting written testimony at ancgov.info/testify
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Emailing Assembly members at assembly@anchorageak.gov
For Anchorage taxpayers, Tuesday’s meeting is an example of a new process: Major tax policy can now be introduced as an “emergency,” without public groundwork, financial transparency, or meaningful community process.
13 thoughts on “Anchorage Assembly to vote on Mayor LaFrance’s surprise $12 million school tax levy after public hearing”
How is this even possible? Last year we gave the schools multi-millions through the state budget process. (In April 2025, the Alaska Senate approved a compromise bill providing a $700 per-student increase to the Base Student Allocation (BSA) for the upcoming school year.) Why do they need more so soon?
There’s NO WAY, this should go thru, but of course, since they don’t really “LISTEN” to the people, they vote what they want anyway, They’ve have taxed us to “oblivian” already, and they don’t understand we the people can’t afford their budgets. AND another thing…What the schools need…is to listen to “US” the people. What I’d like someone to calculate the extra $$ spent on the DEI educational materials they had to purchase from the school budget (It wasn’t cheap) and understand and subtract that amount from the school budget. Of Course they won’t admit the high amount $$ they had to pull out of their normal budget..Now they’re trying to replace that amount by pushing this tax. ALL of us are getting SICK of all the hype for $$$ we can’t afford.
12%!!!
The state school unions are laughing at you. They loot the treasury and our pfd while returning very poor results and then they expect more money. These are criminals.
This is Chris “Drama” Constant and Mayor Whatever-her-Name-is. What do you expect?
Thank you for this!
I can’t make the meeting but submitted written testimony.
I encourage everyone to attend the meeting if they can or to submit written or phone testimony. Let’s not let this go down without a fight!
Any doubt that the decision isn’t already made…….. Anchorage Seal comes to mind
You nailed it Elvis. I always go back to the reason most of this is happening. Repubs, Conservatives and Independents aren’t getting out to vote in nearly the numbers that those who support the far left Assembly are. Either that or, there are the pissing matches that the aforementioned trio engages in that keeps them from uniting. Take a page from the Islamists: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Let’s keep our eyes on the prize in this upcoming election.
As for other posts re: the ASD budget, we tend to forget the millions of dollars that they have tucked away in their reserve fund. But, why use that when they have direct access to LaFrance and the Assembly. Can you imagine what that $12 million could do for clearing the snow by hiring more heavy equipment operators and/or uniting the State and Muni roads into one cohesive plan?
NO Doubt at all…The communist cabal, the RCV pushers, the anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, anti-America, but pro-illegal immigration, pro-Walz, pro-Tax Tax Tax Anchorage Mayor and almost the entire assembly are in control, total and absolute control…It’s painful to be governed by our inferiors!
Wouldn’t be surprised to find out the “emergency” measure is their way of getting one big bite out of everyone before Eaglexiters split and take their tax money with them.
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What if Anchorage’s sketchy election machinery can’t be finagled enough to stop Eaglexit?
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What if Assembly members ran the numbers and realized that remaining productive residents can’t be taxed enough to support Anchorage’s homeless-industrial and school-district rackets in the manner to which their officials have become entitled?
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What happens to MOA funding streams if other Anchorage neighborhoods get mad and bail out too?
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And last, might a day of reckoning for ASD be right around the corner?
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Maybe the S12M is all about covering anticipated penalties, paybacks, and lawyer fees occurring because: (a) steering, and possibly padding, contracts over $1M to union-operated contractors, and (b) harboring illegal-alien children and child look-alikes to inflate enrollment numbers are coming under federal scrutiny, Minneapolis style?
They don’t need any bonds. All those bonds costs can easily be paid out of the budget. They just need to rightsize Anchorage government and eliminate organizations and individuals who should never been taking taxpayer money
These Assembly Members and Mayor office don’t know anything about leadership and how to govern
The dismal public school results indicate that this money wouldn’t be used to get kids educated either. It’s hard to imagine they need a 12% levy with all the money they get from Anchorage property assessments and from the state. It’s obvious that it’s not a real emergency or they’d go through the normal process to explain it. Hmm, what would they deem a sudden emergency? Do they want funds to bushwhack ice agents?
Remember a couple of years ago when FNSB assembly tried to pull the tax cap using a hastily scheduled “special election” in May ? Yeah…. Same crap, different assembly.