Juneau city officials have proposed a multimillion-dollar wastewater bond package to offset utility rate hikes. The Juneau Assembly will decide in the coming months whether the proposal will appear on October’s municipal ballot.
This comes as Juneau residents could face a significant increase in water and sewer rates in July. On Wednesday night, the Assembly finance committee unanimously moved forward with a plan for either a $10 or $20 million bond question.
That’s despite hesitation from some members. Assembly member Wade Bryson said he thinks voters need a break.
“I want to continue to have the cleanest water in Alaska. We need $20 million to do it. I just want to wait one year and not ask the citizens to have a bond question on this election,” Bryson said. “We’ve asked them year after year, and they are saying no.”
The potential bond would fund critical repairs to the city’s water and sewer systems as much of the infrastructure reaches the end of its lifespan. In December, municipal utility staff said the city would need to raise residents’ rates by more than 60% over the next five years to address those urgent repairs.
Juneau’s Water Utilities Division proposed increasing the flat residential water rate by just over 10% starting this July. Then, the rate would increase another 10% each July until 2029. The proposed sewer increase would be 13% each year.
Juneau’s utility rates have gone up 2% each year since 2020. The last increase was in July. According to the division’s website, those smaller increases are less than what’s recommended by studies and have left the division in a revenue deficit.
At Wednesday’s meeting, City Manager Katie Koester said passing a $10 million bond measure would help keep rates down — and a $20 million bond could offset them even more.
She said the Assembly could also curb the rates by using sales tax dollars for street and transportation projects on utility infrastructure instead. She said doing that in tandem with a bond measure could make a significant dent in the proposed rate hikes.
“We could buy down essentially the wastewater rate to 5.5% year after year, and the water rate to 0% year after year,” Koester said.
She warned the Assembly that doing that could mean the city takes on fewer street and transportation projects.
Despite the initial approval, the plan still needs to go through a few committees before the Assembly votes on whether to put it on the ballot. The Juneau Assembly will also decide whether or not to increase utility rates.
If the bond measure goes to voters, it would be the second one to do so in just two years. Last fall Juneau voters approved a different $10 million wastewater bond to replace infrastructure at the Juneau Douglas Wastewater Treatment Plant.
