Assembly rejects cannabis retail tax ballot prop on split vote
Posted by Katherine Rose | Jul 14, 2021
(KCAW/Cameron Clark)
Voters in this fall’s municipal election in Sitka won’t get to weigh in on a new marijuana tax after all. When the Sitka Assembly met last night (7-13-21), members split over a ballot question proposal to levy a new tax on cannabis retail products.
The consumers’ sales tax for marijuana would have levied an additional 5 percent tax on cannabis retail products. The assembly approved it, on first reading in June. The revenue generated from the fund would have gone to the Sitka School District’s student activities fund.
Garbage fires spur new shipping regulations, but who will pay the price?
Posted by Katherine Rose | May 14, 2021
The last time an open-topped Sitka garbage container caught fire was 2016 (pictured above). Republic Services shared the image in a presentation to the Assembly on Tuesday. (City of Sitka)
The cost to ship Sitka’s trash may increase soon. When the Sitka Assembly met on Tuesday night (5-11-21), the group heard a presentation from the city’s solid waste contractor about policy changes for barging trash. But the city is pushing back on footing the bill.
Last fall, Alaska Marine Lines announced it would begin refusing shipments of solid waste in open containers on June 1. That poses a problem for Sitka because the city currently ships its solid waste in containers without lids. Switching to closed containers and fully compacting the trash would require a significant investment in new equipment that
Assembly votes to accept $1M donation from international cruise company
Posted by Katherine Rose | Apr 28, 2021
The 4000 passenger Norwegian Bliss prepares to disembark from Juneau on June 5, 2018. Sitka doesn’t receive Norwegian Cruise Line’s biggest mega ships, but does see smaller ships from its subsidiary companies regularly. (KTOO/Adelyn Baxter)
The city may receive a $1 million donation from an international cruise line, which the company says comes with “no strings attached.”
When the Sitka Assembly met on Tuesday (4-27-21), it voted to accept the donation. But it held off on deciding how to spend the funds.
City Administrator John Leach told the assembly that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. is offering the City of Sitka $1 million to ease the economic effects of the ongoing cruise suspension in Alaska.
COVID-19 impacts challenge city budget process for FY22
Posted by Katherine Rose | Dec 21, 2020
A slide from the FY22 Budget Preview presented to the Sitka Assembly on Thursday (12-17-20) complete with an image of an angry virus superimposed on top of the General Fund Revenue chart for the last two years. The coronavirus has impacted the city’s bottom-line and caused a lot of uncertainty for next year’s budget (CBS Photo)
The Sitka Assembly is already starting the budget process for next year. And while where the budget will end up is always pretty hazy this early in the budgeting cycle, the full impacts of the coronavirus and a timeline for Sitka’s economic recovery are still mostly unknown.