Brett Huber: Mayor LaFrance’s tax switcheroo shows why Anchorage taxpayers can’t let their guard down

By BRETT HUBER

Anchorage residents have forced a major change at City Hall. After weeks of testimony, emails, phone calls, and grassroots organizing, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance announced plans to pull her proposed 3% sales tax from the Anchorage Assembly agenda.

That happened because people spoke up.

Families, business owners, and everyday taxpayers made it clear that raising the cost of living through a sales tax was unacceptable. The message got through. Citizens changed the outcome.

But within minutes, a new tax proposal appeared.

Instead of a sales tax, the mayor now plans to drop a $12 million special property tax levy for schools onto Tuesday night’s agenda as a “laid on the table” item — a procedural move meant for emergencies, not major tax decisions. It arrives with virtually no notice, no public outreach, and no time for residents to understand what they are being asked to pay.

This kind of maneuver should worry anyone who cares about transparency and accountability.

There was no meaningful public engagement before the sales tax was introduced, and there was none before it was replaced. Anchorage residents were not invited into the conversation. They are simply being handed a bill and expected to accept it.

We have seen this playbook before. When the city changed its official seal, overwhelming public opposition was brushed aside. Survey responses that did not align with the Assembly’s preferred outcome were discarded, and The Alaska Story later revealed that the new seal, or an iteration of it, had already been in use before the public was ever asked. So…when major financial decisions are rushed through, the public is right to be alarmed.  We have seen their tricks before.

The push for more school funding also comes at a time when the Anchorage School District just received the largest Base Student Allocation increase in more than a decade from the Legislature. And voters have already approved roughly $100 million in additional bonds that have not yet been sold. Largest budget in years, bonding  authority approved and on the shelf and yet city leaders are once again demanding more from taxpayers?  And this while student enrollment continues to decline.

Just weeks ago, the mayor argued her 3% sales tax was necessary to fund daycare, housing, and public safety. When that ran into resistance, she pivoted to schools — an area she knows voters are more likely to support. What happened to all those other priorities?  Or is this simply choosing what’s likely to “sell” to the voters.

All of this is unfolding under the largest city budget in Anchorage history.

It also comes after a relentless run of tax proposals on everything from soup to nuts over the past year. In roughly 12 months, Anchorage officials have attempted to pass six taxes:

• A 3% “Project Anchorage” sales tax in 2024–25, postponed after months of public backlash.

• A separate 1% “Penny for Progress” (pet projects) sales tax in 2025.

• A 5% short-term rental tax aimed at small business Airbnbs.

• A proposed 2% bed tax increase on hotels and lodging.

• The mayor’s own 3% sales tax, withdrawn Monday.

• And now a $12 million property tax levy for schools, which is in addition to the taxes that property owners already pay.

This is a pattern of reaching back into taxpayers’ pockets, while growing the city’s own budget, adding new executive positions to an already bloated government while telling taxpayers we are falling off the fiscal cliff.  It just doesn’t add up and Anchorage residents know it!

Families across Anchorage have had to tighten their belts. City Hall has not. Spending continues to rise, and when the money runs short, leaders simply look for another thing to tax.

This is why residents cannot relax just because one proposal was pulled. Another one has been slipped into its place.

Anchorage taxpayers proved they can make a difference. They can do it again, but only if they stay engaged, stay informed, and refuse to be treated as an afterthought.

The Anchorage Assembly meets at 5:30 pm tonight Tuesday, Jan. 13 in the Assembly Chambers at the Loussac Library. I encourage residents to show up and testify when public comment begins. Americans for Prosperity–Alaska will be there, continuing to stand proudly with Anchorage families against a city government with an insatiable appetite for higher taxes.

Brett Huber is Americans for Prosperity–Alaska’s state director and a longtime Alaskan.

Brett Huber: City Hall talks affordability but plots a 3% tax on everything you buy