Ballot proposition restoring property tax cap to 12 mills certified for Oct. 6 municipal election

Measure seeks to undo reduction of cap to nine mills passed by voters a year ago

Election signs at City Hall on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Juneau voters will be asked if they want to undo a reduction in property taxes passed during last year’s election, as a charter amendment petition restoring the tax cap to 12 mills has been certified by the municipal clerk’s office.

Supporters of the measure turned in 2,986 signatures on June 17 and enough of them were valid to meet the 2,566-signature minimum to qualify for the ballot, according to Municipal Clerk Breckan Hendricks in a June 25 certification letter.

Voters last year reduced the property tax cap to nine mills, with 5,168 votes in favor and 5,006 votes opposed. The measure on this fall’s ballot will restore the cap to 12 mills. Pat Race, one of the organizers of this year’s petition, said Tuesday he believes residents have a better sense now of the impacts to city services that the tax cuts passed last year are having.

"I think people are generally supportive of keeping all these facilities open, and they recognize that it's going to cost money to do that," he said. "There's certainly some rumbling dissatisfaction in the community with kind of a couple decisions the city's made over the last few years, but largely I think everyone's on board and understands that we need to pay to have services."

The language on the petition for the proposed change states "reducing the property tax millage rate cap has added pressure for cuts to beloved services, programs and facilities enjoyed by the families and citizens of Juneau."

The cap does not include debt service payments. As such, the Juneau Assembly this month passed a budget for the coming fiscal year that sets the mill rate at 9.92, with the 0.92 mills of debt service a reduction of 0.16 mills from the current fiscal year that ends Tuesday. The cap passed by voters forced the Assembly to lower the remaining mill rate by an additional 0.16 mills to reach the nine-mill cap.

City leaders said during initial budget discussions the lower mill rate might cost the city about $1 million, but subsequently said the actual impact was minimal due to higher assessed property values. However, concerns about the lower cap preventing city leaders from raising property taxes to pay for unexpected or emergency needs have also been expressed.

"I think it's important to have the headroom," Race said. "We can't be up against the cap. If we're up against the cap, we have no suspension in our car. If we have a major flood, or an avalanche downtown, or a crisis that we need funding the easiest thing the city can do is adjust the mill rate. By taking that option off the table, by crushing us down against the cap, we're really tying the Assembly's hands in not a good way."

Another ballot petition implementing a 1% sales tax from April 1 to Sept. 30 was certified earlier this month. The Assembly is also expected to put a renewal of a temporary 3% sales tax that has been approved by voters every five years for decades on the ballot.

"We don't have concrete plans for a campaign yet, but we will have a campaign of some sort," Race said. "I'm really pushing for kind of a ‘yes, yes, yes’ campaign. I'd love to support both ballot measures and the 3% sales tax, because if we don't pass (the latter) we're going to have an even bigger problem."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.