By SUZANNE DOWNING
A major Anchorage tax proposal may be headed for the sidelines before it ever reaches voters.
Assemblyman Keith McCormick, who represents South Anchorage, said on Facebook Friday that he is hearing a rumor that Mayor Suzanne LaFrance plans to withdraw her proposal to place a 3% sales tax on the April municipal ballot. No announcement has been made by the mayor’s office, but if the proposal is pulled, it would likely signal that Assembly leadership has concluded it does not have the votes needed to advance the measure.
It also may mean there will be an alternative proposal to raise funds for the city.
Under Anchorage rules, the Assembly must approve ballot propositions before they can be sent to voters. The next chance for that to happen is the Assembly meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 13.
The tax proposal in question, Ordinance AO 2025-133, would ask voters to amend the Anchorage Home Rule Charter to authorize a new 3% sales and use tax.
The plan divides the tax into three separate components: one-third for property-tax relief, one-third for public safety and infrastructure, and one-third for childcare and housing. It also includes authorization for the municipality to borrow from the Municipal Trust Fund corpus to cover start-up costs.
The ordinance is still officially alive and remains on Tuesday’s agenda under a continued public hearing that was first opened Dec. 2. It is sponsored by the mayor.
However, McCormick’s statement has fueled speculation that Assembly Chair Chris Constant has informed LaFrance that the votes are not there to pass the ordinance. Pulling the item would avoid a public defeat on the Assembly floor just days before ballot deadlines.
If the mayor’s 3% sales tax is withdrawn, it would not end the tax debate. Two separate tax proposals are also scheduled for consideration on Jan. 13.
Assembly Vice-Chair Anna Brawley has sponsored Ordinance AO 2025-117, which would place before voters a 2% tax to fund public infrastructure and capital improvements related to housing construction and cultural and recreational facilities. That proposal requires approval by a simple majority of voters.
A substitute version, AO 2025-117(S), instead proposes a 2% room rental tax for the same purposes. Both versions have been repeatedly postponed since October and remain tied to Assembly Memoranda AM 760-2025 and AM 777-2025, along with an economic impact summary.
All of the tax proposals face mounting public skepticism, as Anchorage residents continue to grapple with high property taxes, inflation, and rising utility costs. Public testimony in recent months has included strong opposition from homeowners, renters, and business owners who argue additional taxes would worsen affordability and drive economic activity out of the city.
With the Assembly meeting just days away, the question now is whether Mayor LaFrance will officially pull her 3% sales tax proposal, or whether it will be left on the agenda to face a likely vote that could decide its fate in public.
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5 thoughts on “Is Mayor LaFrance going to pull the 3% daycare tax proposal off Tuesday’s agenda?”
No, just no, why should the general public foot the bill for child care?( even discounting how corrupt public funding of child care has been shown to be)
Anchorage does have the funds without increasing taxes nor adding a new tax
These guys just need to Reorder and Reorganize the budget that wouldn’t be very popular to their government dependent friends
A child care tax doesn’t do anything for the city than using taxpayer money for rebuilding, redesigning, and repaving neighborhood roads
Anchorage looks like its five years away from looking like a dirt road third world country by how our streets look and drive over
“It also may mean there will be an alternative proposal to raise funds for the city.” this is where I’d place my bet. And that alternative proposal would involve bilking city taxpayers without their vote.
I would feel a lot more like donating to her cause if only Lafrance and her cronies would go out on the street corners and panhandle like all of her clients do. I always have some over ripe fruit sitting on the counter that needs a donor.
#117 a 2% tax for “housing, cultural & recreational facilities” – oh, what a bucket of cash for a nebulously named existence penalty. Read: the BOC (bucket o’ cash) will be put towards diversity equity and inclusion without really terming it as such. Korea trips, murals arches and muni seal costs will be followed by Sweetened Beverage tax, Commercial Parking tax, Social Housing Svc tax, Firearms tax, and the omnipresent Homeless Industrial Complex tax.
Full stop.