After a break from rate increases last year, Sitka residents may be paying more for utilities this year, across the board.

The Sitka Assembly, Thursday (2-20-20) spent another meeting shaping the FY21 budget. They focused on the city’s enterprise funds. Staff budgeted for two percent increases to the electric, water, and wastewater funds and a 5.5 percent rate increase for solid waste. 

But staff was unsure what to budget for the Harbor Department. They had budgeted for a three percent increase, but the Port and Harbors Commission recommended five percent. Commissioner Chris Ystad said the Harbor Department is trying to shore up some savings for long term projects. 

“Ever since I got on the harbor commission, we’ve been looking at rebuilding Eliason Harbor,” he said. “We have no state help, no proposed state help. State matching funds are going to be gone by then. So the harbor commission is actually trying to have a little foresight and save money to build the harbor instead of react after building the harbor.”  

But funding the replacement for Eliason could require increasing moorage rates by around six percent every year for the next decade, unless the Harbor Department finds another way to generate revenue. That concerned assembly member Kevin Mosher 

“I still think even five percent is just too much. In ten years people won’t be able to afford to moor their boats in there,” he said. “As much as we need these things, if people can’t pay to have their boats in there, what’s the point of having a nice, shiny new harbor.” 

Ystad said that was a concern he and the commission were considering, and he knew the rate increases would affect him.

“That’s our conundrum, at the harbor commission,” he said. “I’ve worked the math out for myself and my boat. I have a 58 foot vessel. By the time we’re done with all of these moorage rate increases to pay for Eliason, I’ve more than doubled my last year’s harbor moorage fee,” he said. “And yeah, that starts making me question, ‘Where do I want to tie up my boat?'”

The assembly approved the five percent increase for the coming fiscal year on a 4-1 vote with member Mosher opposed.  

The budget is far from finished. Until it is, nothing is certain: Assembly members can remove or add items until the final vote later this spring.