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.
Why not? It’s just money Anchorage doesn’t have, doesn’t benefit the public, but makes the Politburo feel good about themselves.
Amazing how good people can make themselves feel when they use other people’s money.
The Assembly continues to perform at the lowest level possible.
I hope so. I’d prefer no bonds being a passed for a few years until Municipality reorganizes its government and shrink. I am pretty sure the Equity officer position can be eliminated and what it costs can be directed to road maintenance toward faster pothole service.
Anybody that would spend that amount of money
On outhouses has no business running a city
Yes we need to put TP on the trees by her house and I am willing to help transport those in need.
The Portland Loos and the new Inlet View School bonds will pass because the left wants them, and they count the votes.
Suzanne LaFrance.
.
Anchorage’s own Porta Potty Princess…
From honey buckets to money buckets, the Democrats know no bounds when it comes to relieving themselves of someone else’s carbon.
In that pic she looks like she needs to go badly
…obsessed with poo
A vote for this freakish woman is a vote down the sh*tter. If Anchorage voters don’t see the folly in this idiot’s thinking, they are further destined to be slaves to a radical society moving closer to communism. Anchorage will be a doomed city if you don’t vote for Bronson.
Rest assured, it’ll pass.
“…where vagrants and drug abusers can have a place to relieve themselves…”.
Now that’s funny
And a handy spot to take the kiddos to molest out of public view. Or to carry on their monkeypox spreading woweee! Your tax money to provide their Glory Holes
I think Suzanne LaFrance should do a Public Service Announcement that shows her walking into one, waving, and then plopping down onto the plush, comfortable seats while narrating all the features that makes it worth $500K. Oh, and don’t forget 1% for the arts! The interior could be adorned with really “sh-tty paintings. No pun intended. Maybe.
I once asked one of Juneau’s civic leaders why they continually were surprised the homeless broke the law.
I caught him off guard. He had no answer. My guess is he knows but can’t admit it’s a fools errand.
This is just simply CRAZY! If this does indeed pass, it is but another example (among many so far) that Anchorage has lost its fundamental focus and will continue in a downward spiral of which the depths will no doubt set new lows.
How about we use half that money to send the macks and hobos to Portland?
Just another way to loo t. The tax payers. The crappers will look like the camp by Lowe’s on a few weeks
They need to put cameras inside to prevent vandalism.
Ho!..Ho!..Ho! If you think they’d stay for more then 3 seconds, You’ve got to be joking.ha..ha..ha.. you must be joking.
A Loo Cam Website
Not likely, we will pay someone(s) very well to maintain the aesthetic eye soars.
Not for long. The users will have them destroyed in a few short years.
Years? I’d say about 5 seconds
No vote applied to all propositions. Time to cut the ability to spend. Funny how the homeless pottys cost as much as the navigation center.
What’s wrong with a porta potty . Those work very well in our climate . Used them on north slope for years , tried , true and affordable to service and maintain . Let’s see , 30 high end toilets in the township of Anchorage . That’s maybe a 100 square miles . One toilet for every three miles square . Let me see , how’s that gonna work ?
Same math is being used in hard wiring the villages for internet . Does not work . Stupid idea
When has a bond ever failed in the Muni?
I cannot remember a single one ever failing. I will admit I am likely incorrect, but I cannot recall any that did not pass.
These facilities should be funded through by the users with the Bed, Hotel, Car Rental and alcohol taxes
Sure!! Use tax money to provide handy glory holes for Felix and Chris.. Both pals of LaFrance
Whaaaa? I remember your posts on here in the past stating that anchorage is a tax free city and that we need a sales tax because…well….its a tax free city. I guess short term memory is one of the first things to go.
These facilities should not exist, nor should they be on the ballot.
.
If the Assembly just stopped putting the wants of the homeless before the needs of the taxpayers, the homeless “problem” would go away immediately. (Almost.)
The thing to recognize here is one of alignment: As reasonable and sensible as Ms. LaFrance sounds, she ALWAYS sides with the WORST of the Leftist world on the Anchorage Assembly. Do not be fooled.
Vote this woman in and she’s gonna do a LaFrance on Anchorage.
Sit this one out and pay the consequences.
Flush the loo idea. LaFrance, too.
Who is going to make all the money off of this? What is their relationship to which assembly members? If it is such a great idea, why do they have to force, mandate property owners/taxpayers/renters to fund it? Is the assembly going to personally reimburse the taxpayers when these are vandalized and trashed?
Now that you mention it Forrest Dunbar has relatives in Portland…I wonder if they are in the potty business?
Probably too late to correct the record, but the Portland Loo Restroom costs about $150,000 each, not $500,000. I doubt preparing utilities and a concrete pad will cost $350,000 each so not sure where $500,000 comes from.
Sending 100 hobos to Portland would cost about 33,000 dollars. So for the cost of one outhouse at 150K we could move about 400 or so miscreants. That would solve the issue at a bargain.
Skip the loo.
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