At last night’s Regular Assembly meeting, the Anchorage Assembly approved (9-2) the Municipality’s amended 2024 general government operating budget that focuses resources on bolstering winter maintenance for roads, public transit stops and sidewalks, maintaining public safety resources, and encouraging recruitment and retention of our hardworking city employees.“Our biggest job as the Assembly is to approve a sensible, balanced budget, on time,” said Assembly Member Anna Brawley, who serves as co-chair of the Assembly Budget & Finance Committee. “Tonight is the most visible milestone in that process – but it’s important to acknowledge that getting to this point has been an intentional, thoughtful process, with collaboration and compromise to ensure we follow through on our priorities.”As amended, the 2024 General Government Operating Budget comes in roughly $2 million under the tax cap and effectuates the following:- $2.64 million to restore funding for vacant positions within municipal departments, including $750,000 to boost mission critical pay for snow plow operators;
- $3.3 million to increase wages for sworn and non-sworn Anchorage Police Department (APD) positions;
- $500,000 to establish a Housing Fund for future investments;
- Transition funding for the APD Mobile Intervention Team (MIT) and Anchorage Fire Department (AFD) Mobile Crisis Team (MCT) from the Alcohol Tax to the General Government Operating Budget.
“The Alcohol Tax provided a mechanism to ignite two well-loved, essential first responder programs - the MCT and the MIT,” said Assembly Member Meg Zaletel, Co-Chair of the Assembly Budget & Finance Committee. “Tonight, we operationalized the MCT and MIT into the general operating budget. Now it’s clear: they are here to stay.”Alongside the 2024 General Government Operating Budget, the Assembly set the 2024 Alcohol Tax Budget, with amendments including:- $150,000 to fund housing action in alignment with the Assembly’s Housing Strategic Plan, currently in development;
- $100,000 to increase funding to address substance misuse and mental health;
- $2 million to ensure full operation of the Anchorage Safety Center and Community Patrol;
- $2.4 million to continue funding the 2023-2024 Emergency Cold Weather Shelter plan through the end of the season.
The Assembly also passed the utilities and enterprise, ACDA and capital budgets. The budget takes effect January 1, 2024 and is on schedule for a smooth transition into the new fiscal year. Final budget documents will be posted to the Office of Management & Budget website: ancgov.info/budget
###
Contact: