The Haines Borough Assembly voted unanimously on Tuesday to charge a new $9 head tax for cruise ship passengers. The resolution, which still has to be voted into law and would not go into effect until 2025, would go towards port development and other services tied to the industry. And, one dollar from each tariff would go towards cultural preservation.

 

Haines Tourism Director Rebecca Hylton calls the ‘cultural heritage preservation fee’“ground breaking”.  She told KHNS that the fee idea came after a February meeting between Commerce Committee Chairperson Debra Schnabel and the Chilkat Indian Association.

The meeting, as described in a memo from Schnabel, was intended to explore an inclusive approach to sharing revenue from cruise ships.  The memo states, “It is the beauty of our community–an asset belonging to everyone–that brings people to our port.  No one owns that, and so it seems that we should work collaboratively to reap the most benefit from the industry markets.”  

Hylton says that she liked the idea of a port fee that included the governments working together.

“The impetus behind that is that CIA, once they heard of our port development, they wanted to participate and be a part of it. And so personally, ethically, I think it’s the right thing to do,” Hylton said.

Hylton says that while a “cultural heritage fee” is unprecedented as a head tax, port fees are nothing new.  She says that the Assembly’s vote to charge a head tax for each cruise ship passenger is  “not reinventing the wheel.”  

Ketichikan charges $11 and Juneau charges $9 per visitor, and those fees go toward port development.  Hylton says that while some communities like Sitka and Hoonah don’t charge port fees, in those instances that’s because cruise lines are already heavily invested in building and maintaining the port infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Skagway charges thirteen dollars and fifty cents per passenger.  Hylton says that’s on the high-end of the spectrum. Skagway’s fee doesn’t go towards port development, but instead goes towards ‘public impact.’  It helps account for the financial effect cruise ship passengers have on the Borough each time they get off the ship.  

“You can just think of the ways that that impacts our community and our infrastructure,” Hylton said.  ” Public safety. We have more police calls. We have more reasons to have EMS available.  They are flushing toilets, that’s our sewer. They are taking on water, that’s our water systems. They’re inundating our library and using the Wifi.  They are impacting our communities.”

The Haines’ revenue would be split up in three different ways. A third of it would go towards ‘public impact.’ Five dollars would go towards port development. Hylton says the port development money is intended for projects that the Borough has already set into motion, such as building a floating dock and constructing a catwalk to the existing dolphins.  

And the remaining dollar would go to the local tribes.  But Hylton cautions that this portion of the tariff, which she calls a “cultural heritage preservation fee” is a “trail blazing” effort, and that it needs further legal evaluation. She says that in the Borough’s February meeting with CIA, the tribe proposed that the funds go towards “Tribal Lands Acknowledgement Fee,” but she thought the term was too broad. 

“But knowing taxes and the lawsuits that have happened regarding these kinds of taxes on cruise ships, it’s important that we specifically have these dollars allocated towards something tangible,” Hylton said. “So I thought of the idea of having it as a cultural heritage preservation, because that’s the goal, right? We want to preserve culture, and we want to recognize it as well. So in my mind, we’ll see how these fees actually get allocated. But Klukwan has a cultural heritage center that tourists go to. That cruise ship’s passengers visit. And that’s a very important part of preserving their heritage. But you also have language programs. We want to do signs around town. Even street signs.  Interpretive signage. There’s so many places that these funds could go that would specifically be acknowledging but also preserving the culture.”

Hylton told KHNS that if the one dollar per-passenger fee is defined as “cultural heritage preservation” then funds would likely go to both local tribes – CIA and CIV, Chilkat Indian Village.   

She says that for now, passing a resolution is a first step in the process.  A resolution is a statement of intention.  She says the Borough will need to conduct future discussions with both CIA and CIV before drafting official language and voting the port fee into Borough code.

“There’s so much positivity behind this,” Hylton said. “Just the PR alone, I’m really hoping that the cruise lines embrace this.”

Opponents to head taxes for cruise ships argue that the fee could cost the Borough business.  And the revenue generated has legal ramifications if it is spent on items outside of what it is allocated for.  

In 2016, the Cruise Lines International Association sued the city of Juneau for using its port fees to build a whale statue. In the lawsuit, the cruise association challenged the legality of head tax fees.  It took over two years of litigation before a judge ruled that the city’s port development fee was legal, but that the money was mishandled.

At the time this story went into production, the cruise association was unavailable to comment.  KHNS reached out to ask how a head tax fee might impact cruise ship visits to Haines, and if a cultural heritage preservation fee would be embraced in the industry.