Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance unveiled a proposed $656.9 million operating budget for 2026 on October 2, emphasizing fiscal restraint while prioritizing public safety and addressing homelessness amid warnings of a looming “fiscal cliff.” The plan, largely flat compared to 2025, stays $175,000 under the property tax cap, avoiding a mill rate increase despite pressures from inflation, population stagnation, and declining state funding. Property taxes remain the dominant revenue source at over 62%, totaling about $391 million, with other key streams including room taxes ($44 million) and tobacco taxes ($21 million).
Public safety dominates expenditures, with the Anchorage Police Department allocated $151.3 million (22.7% of direct costs) and the Fire Department $132 million (19.8%). A significant focus is homelessness, with nearly $27 million embedded across departments—$10.4 million for Health Department shelters, outreach, and mental health contracts; $4.6 million for non-congregate winter shelters; and additional funds for police encampment response ($4 million), fire crisis teams ($4.4 million), and parks cleanup ($822,000). This equates to roughly 4.1% of the budget, aiming to provide year-round support and camp abatement.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives receive $2.1 million municipality-wide, including $431,000 for the Equity & Inclusion Department to handle data, training, and community forums; $771,000 for the Equal Rights Commission; and embedded costs in human resources ($275,000) and police bias training ($300,000). Per household, this represents about $19 annually based on median property taxes of $3,555.
Residents may see no direct tax hike, but rising home values could drive up property tax to bills for average households. The budget projects a $61 million cumulative deficit by 2031 without new revenues, potentially leading to service cuts.
“We narrowly avoided cuts and service reductions in the 2026 budget proposal,” Mayor LaFrance said in a press briefing.
DEI? Did she miss the message. Racism fostered by the government is out.
lafarce just does not get it, but then again, she/it is a libratard, so no surprise!
Clown clown clown. That’s who voted in
Not Grown ups ,
Why was there no mention on how they spend on education? 27mil for homeless people is far cheaper than than Fairbanks proposed 33mil for homeless pets.
I love our police and fire but truly wonder
Why the amount We spend On police budget has Little Effect on crime. Seems maybe leadership should listen to cops on the streets not their leadership with bloated salaries!
They need to post the annual salaries of the highest paid police officers with the most seniority who garner the bulk of the overtime pay benefits like they did in the past. (they were the ones invited to ACES hockey games wearing uniforms on weekends)
That single amount of info provided the public with the best reason for the bloated budget along with the failed corrupt payroll system they were using which paid muni employees more than time and a half for OT pay scale.
The payroll dept. employees must have all been ASD grads from the “fortyniners club” where math was not taught with any amount of proficiency.
I agree , when the Anchorage police department submits an expense of $ 200,000 from the Trump/Putin summit we are definitely getting boned. They never left JBER.
What you get when you have a democrat mayor and Assembly a scam of DEI didn’t earn it.
Nearly 100% of the alcohol sales tax has gone towards providing everything Anchorage’s homeless population wants (hotels, electric, gas, water, cable television, internet services, laundry services, three meals a day, phones, and whatever else. They are also not cited for breaches of the land use code or laws and have made a mess of the Loussac Library such that many of us no longer use that property tax-funded facility. You and I have to budget and pay for our living expenses (and citations we may be assessed), but the homeless people living in Anchorage do not have any responsibilities. They are largely a huge and unreasonable drain on the muni budget and property taxes we pay.
DO NOT VOTE for the new sales tax the mayor and some on the assembly want. These funds will be wasted on the homeless, too, because these people have little or no incentive to improve their lives when everything is provided to them. I am tired of paying for all that the homeless want, being unable to use the Loussac Library due to their “un-library” behaviors, and seeing them flaunt the laws with no consequences what so ever.
Every one of those homeless individuals that receive a rent free apartment are a source of income for multiple NGO’s that provide all the housing, services, entertainment, cell phones, etc. More importantly, the newly housed, highly dependent individual also receives a mailing address to which a ballot can be sent at election time. Then, helpful volunteers from all the interested NGO’s can visit them and assist them with their ballot. Even if they are not in an apartment, it’s entirely possible that they can receive mail at a central location such as a shelter or halfway house. Either way, they are a tremendous asset for the political machine that now runs the city.
Very well said.
You just explained in clear detail why Joe and his “border czars” opened the gates and sent out invitations to the worlds freeloaders with welcome wagon loads of gifts all bought and paid for by the working class.
20-30 million votes spread across America is enough to swing future elections.
Smart long range plan engineered by his handlers.
Great article! But frustrating, too: for between 1,700 and 3,000 people, LaFrance wants to spend $27 million!? Why not give each one $2,700 provided they agree (by legal contract!) to leave Anchorage permanently? We’d certainly save money?
DEI is contrary to equal rights and therefore unlawful. You do realize you get to vote for Assembly members! Don’t complain if you don’t vote. We are Seattle Lite and it’s not going to improve if you don’t vote.
Let them go broke.
She always has a look of lost and confused.
That’s her Blasey-Ford smudged, hanging, eyeglasses look. LOL
Why does she want to spend $2.1 million of our money to PROMOTE racism?
“Residents may see no direct tax hike, but rising home values could drive up property tax to bills for average households.”
The organized crime (government) shell game on clear display. “Average households” translates as “working class families” and other lower income property owners. Taxation on unrealized gains and based on the assets of other “similar”properties and then value taken by force is THEFT. Prove me wrong.
Correct.
///Residents may see no direct tax hike, but rising home values could drive up property tax to bills for average households.\\\
No Milley rate increase: we’ll screw the citizens through artificial valuation increases.
We just sent 90 day notice to our tenants.
We are selling our hime in Anchorage.
There is a bleak future and zero leadership for a once great city.
So. enough is enough.
Time for a complete public review of the details of this operating budget. Bring in auditors. What happened to the COVID funds? I DID NOT CONSENT to funding DEI or homeless shelters. Anchorage should NOT be considered a sanctuary city. Where is the State of Alaska and Villages in this effort? Anchorage Taxpayers should not be funding either of these efforts. Crime is at an all time high. Streets are crumbling. Pot holes everywhere.
Time to change to paper ballots, in person voting with IDs – then we will see if these crazy liberals will win! NO MORE mail in ballots and ballot harvesting.
The liberals created the “Fiscal Cliff!” Someone needs to start a RECALL CAMPAIGN on these crazy liberals before they ruin Anchorage for good!
I hope Trump cancels all this dip squats federal money. This POS is a blight on Anchorage
What a joke. Are people really this easily lead?
My question is one that I am waiting for a god investigative journalist to pursue: why were APD INSTRUCTED TO CLEAN UP DOWNTOWN for AFN but not for the international summit this summer? And how much $$$ ultimately goes into o La France from this budget given her role in the homeless coalition? Does La France really want to solve homelessness? Or does she have too much of a vested and conflicted role in profiting from homelessness?
Right On !!!
The cycle continues of supporting the cabal that runs the city and the elections, so they can continue to milk the city dry and marginalize those of us paying the bills. The DEI spending is 100% spent on those that Don’t Earn It.
Time to recall the mayor.
How much of the $27 million is slated for our mayor and assembly members homeless housing businesses? Enquiring minds want to know….
Funny how we have implemented this “plan” to attempt to end homelessness yet have never asked ourselves if it’s actually working. Each year the homeless population grows and we keep doing the same thing expecting different results. When will enough be enough? When will we require our leadership to provide results? If they expect results within 5 years, I sure as heck expect to see a breakdown of whether or not we’re hitting those goals or not, and I also expect that the plan will change if not. So far, none of that has happened.
How much of that Twenty Seven Million Dollars ($27,000,000) is going into Mark Begich’s pocket?
You mean Lisa since she is a democrat.
How much did they spend on their trip to Japan last week
Does anyone ever wonder why the funding for the homeless is never part of a bond initiative? Somehow, the assembly always has the funds to spend on the vagrants, but never seem to have enough for the schools and roads. Those end up on bonds.
You’re on point! They waste copious amounts of our money and propose bonds for Police, Fire Dept. or other necessities to raise the tax cap.
Bonds are issued for capital items, not operating needs.
Understood.
So, where is the bond for the intake center they established at great cost in midtown?
Or the one for the aborted navigation center Bronson was going to build?
.
And, check the last ballot. We were issuing bonds for police and firefighting equipment, but nothing for building homeless shelters.
“…emphasizing fiscal restraint…”
.
If spending $27M on the vagrants, and an addition $2M on meaningless feel good claptrap is fiscal restraint, I am terrified to see what her budget could have been.
States w/ the highest % of homeless residents:
Hawaii … Oregon … Calif … NY.
I see a trend here.
La France has no concept of the value of the Alaskan dollar. She pays her staff over 100K. She buys new curtain for her office before she is even officially in office. She take tax money from Anchorage tax payers over and over to support the homeless and solves nothing. What is her purpose of Mayor but to waste/spend tax dollars of the hard working people of Anchorage.
P.S. She get more that $14 million a year for Homeless projects from the Alcohol Tax.
I wonder how many other Tax benefits she covets? Marijuana, cigarettes…