Voters in Anchorage are deciding whether to pass several bonds on the April 2 ballot. Notable among them is a $5 million “Portland Loo” bond that would buy public toilets from Portland that are souped-up versions of Porta-Potties, at a cost of $500,000 apiece, and place them around Anchorage where vagrants and drug abusers can have a place to relieve themselves or shoot up in loos that cost more than the average Anchorage house.
The plan came from the Anchorage Assembly liberal majority and was opposed by Mayor Dave Bronson. At a candidate forum on March 3, former Assemblywoman Suzanne LaFrance, who is running for mayor, said she is voting for the expensive potties. Mayor Bronson said he’ll vote against them.
The $5 million expenditure by taxpayers would be outside the existing tax cap and would also come with a $300,000 per year cost of operating and maintaining the Portland Loos, also outside the tax cap. The tax cap was placed by voters to prevent the Assembly from taxing them out of house and home. Voting in favor of the toilets adds ongoing costs to city operations in perpetuity.
Assemblyman Scott Myers, who represents Chugiak Eagle River says paying $500,000 apiece for toilets is more than people pay for the average price for a home in his district: $481,795.
“Eagle River homeowners already pay $8,500 a year on average already in property taxes, or $708 a month. If we’re adding outside the tax cap, this makes housing affordability even more an an issue. And it’s not just homeowners. The average residential lease is $3,000. So tenants are paying these taxes too,” he said.
“We need to work on responsible government spending,” Myers said. “We need to be good stewards.”
The leftist Assembly majority first proposed the bond for $12.5 million for 30 of the toilets, which in other cities have had short lifespans due to vandalism. Former Assemblywoman LaFrance is in favor of the project, but she killed the Anchorage homeless navigation center, which was a solution to the growing mental health and homeless crisis that has overtaken Alaska’s largest city.
Ballot Measure 8 and LaFrance are joined at the hip as a way to import Portland’s homeless industry to Anchorage for toilets that cost more than the average Anchorage home.
Analysis of the returns shows Bronson is within striking distance of winning on the first round of voting if conservatives turn out. Some 19,000 Anchorage conservatives who are registered Republicans have not yet voted, with four days to go until the election ends on April 2.
Learn how to vote in the Anchorage election here.
