The Portage Cove Harbor. (Gabe Thomas)
Alaska levies a raw fish tax on the state’s fishing industry. The revenue from the tax is shared with coastal communities where fishermen and seafood processors operate. Under Governor Dunleavy’s budget proposal, that sharing would end. About $28 million would stay with the state instead of going to communities.
If you live in Southeast Alaska, you’ve probably been hearing a lot about the fish tax lately. That’s really two taxes: the fisheries business tax and the fishery resource landing tax. The Governor’s proposal would repeal the allocation municipalities receive from the business tax and repeal revenue sharing from the landing tax.
According to Haines Borough Finance Director Jila Stuart that’s an average of a quarter million dollars per year for Haines. This fiscal year it was over $350,000.
“It would be a big impact. It goes into the general fund, so we use it for everything. Schools, library, just the general administration, running of the borough, pool, museum. It would have to be offset either by cutting services or raising other revenues,” she said.
This isn’t the hardest hit municipal coffers may take under the proposed budget. It’s just one source of revenue of several that the municipality may lose.
Haines Harbor Master Sean Bell has bigger fish to fry. He says the cut doesn’t have an outsized influence on the Harbor Budget. Most of their income comes from moorage fees, so his operating budget is covered.
“It would have an effect; not a significant effect. Traditionally, raw fish tax to the harbor has ranged from $30,000 to the most recent $90,000 [per year],” he said.
In other communities, the raw fish tax is a more significant source of revenue. The only pain point Bell foresees is not being able to put money in the Harbor’s enterprise fund. That’s money that goes to things like fuel maintenance and potentially more moorage floats for the harbor.
“It’s definitely not easy to make up any additional revenue,” he said. “But we make way one way or the other.”
Since the money from the taxes goes into the municipality’s general fund, no one program should take a crippling blow. And for now at least the budget proposal is just that—a proposal. Finance Director Stuart says it’s just a starting point and she hopes it will undergo some changes as it makes its way through the legislature.
“We don’t want to panic, but we don’t want to be unprepared either,” she said.
For Stuart, that means looking at the data. For the assembly, that could mean hard decisions in the future.
