You can support local recreation and vote no on Proposition C

City Parks and Recreation staff hand out bubbles, earplugs, and Passports to Play at Trucks N' Stuff at Dimond Park on July 12, 2025. (Ellie Ruel / Juneau Independent)

By Laura McDonnell

I support recreation in Juneau. And I’m voting no on Proposition C, the seasonal sales tax.

Those two positions are not contradictory.

As the parent of a fourth grader who uses CBJ recreation facilities on an almost daily basis, I know firsthand what these facilities mean to Juneau families. Our pools, fieldhouse, ice rink, trails and recreation programs are part of what makes this a community where people want to raise their children and put down roots.

And as a local business owner deeply invested in the success of Juneau’s economy, I understand the economic value of recreation, too. Attracting and retaining families and workers is one of the biggest challenges facing Juneau. Quality of life matters. Recreation matters.

But so does thoughtful, long-term tax policy.

Proposition C would add a permanent 1% sales tax from April through September. It is often talked about as a way to capture more revenue from summer visitors. But this is not simply a tax on tourists.

It is a tax paid during the busiest economic months of the year by Juneau residents and businesses across our economy — tourism, construction, seafood, mining and virtually every other industry making purchases and investing in equipment, supplies and infrastructure during the summer.

For seasonal businesses like mine, nearly all of our operating expenses occur during those same months. We order inventory, make repairs, purchase equipment and supplies, and invest in our businesses when we are open and generating revenue, we pay all of our commercial rent for the entire year, which is subject to CBJ sales tax during those months. For a seasonal business incurring nearly all of its expenses during those six months, an additional 1% sales tax means an additional 1% on taxable operating expenses.

At a time when businesses are already absorbing extraordinary increases in wages, insurance, freight, utilities, supplies and virtually every other operating expense, that hits harder than you might assume.

And those increases don’t happen in a vacuum.

Our nonprofit and community organizations rely enormously on the generosity of Juneau’s business community. At my one local business alone, I receive an average of two requests for donations or sponsorships every week. I already have to make difficult choices about which organizations, teams, events and causes I can afford to support. It breaks my heart every time I have to say no.

When businesses have to find another 1% here, another increase there, those decisions become harder. There isn’t an unlimited pool of money sitting behind the cash registers of Juneau’s small businesses.

We recently heard loud and clear that our community expects local for-profit businesses to carry the sales-tax burden that funds the services we all rely upon. I understand that responsibility. But if we’re going to ask businesses to be revenue generators, tax collectors, employers and major supporters of our nonprofit community, we also need to listen when those businesses tell us that continually increasing their costs has consequences.

There is another reason I believe Proposition C comes at the wrong time: we don’t yet have all the numbers.

The Assembly demonstrated restraint during this year’s difficult budget process. Faced with uncertainty about the size of the budget shortfall, members took a tempered approach. They kept recreation facilities operating while recognizing that it made sense to wait for actual revenue numbers before making additional long-term financial decisions.

They were right.

And the numbers we have received since then are looking significantly better than the original forecasts.

The latest sales-tax numbers came in $5.9 million higher than the initial budget projections, due to a combination of the increase in Juneau’s sales-tax cap and stronger-than-anticipated sales-tax revenues.

That is not a small adjustment. It significantly changes the financial picture we were looking at when this conversation began.

And we still don’t have the complete picture.

Additional collections under the higher sales-tax cap and actual third- and fourth-quarter revenues will give us more information about where Juneau’s finances truly stand. Until those numbers are in, we simply cannot know the size of the budget gap — if there ultimately is one — that must be filled to maintain the services our community values.

How can we ask voters to solve a very important math equation when we only have half the numbers?

That is especially concerning because Proposition C isn’t a temporary bridge while we figure things out. It is a permanent tax.

Proposition C is estimated to raise $6.8 million every year. While its stated intent is to support indoor and outdoor recreation, those revenues are not legally dedicated to recreation; future Assemblies retain the authority to appropriate them.

So voters aren’t simply being asked whether they support recreation.

We are being asked to permanently change Juneau’s tax structure before we know the actual revenue picture or the size of the problem we’re trying to solve.

I am not an anti-tax business owner. I like nice things. I know nice things have a cost. I also believe strong public services are an important part of a healthy economy and a thriving community.

Once we have all of the actual data, if additional revenue is still necessary to maintain the services Juneau values, then let’s have that conversation.

And let’s have a serious discussion about a broad-based, equitable solution. Perhaps the answer is a smaller year-round increase — maybe half a percent — rather than concentrating an additional 1% tax into the six months when so much of Juneau’s economic activity and business investment occurs.

Maybe it isn’t.

We can’t know yet, because we don’t have the real numbers yet.

Taxes are much easier to put in place than they are to take away. A permanent tax deserves more than a good cause attached to it. It deserves a demonstrated need, reliable numbers and a thoughtful discussion about who should bear the cost.

I support recreation in Juneau. It is vital to our families, our quality of life and the long-term economic stability of our community.

So is responsible tax policy.

Let’s allow the data to lead our decisions. Let’s understand the problem before permanently choosing the solution.

This October, I’m voting no on Proposition C.

• Laura McDonnell is a lifelong resident of Juneau. She owner of a family business, Caribou Crossings, which has operated locally in Juneau for nearly 30 years. She has served both CBJ and the business community on the Economic Stabilization Task Force, the Blueprint Downtown Committee, as past president of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, and is the incoming chair of the Alaska Chamber of Commerce — however views expressed here are entirely her own, and do not speak for official positions of these organizations.