The City and Borough of Juneau Finance Committee continues to review budgets and approved funding for two local entities during its meeting at Assembly Chambers Wednesday evening.
The Juneau Economic Development Center received unanimous approval for its request of $300,000 in funding. Other funding requests were moved to the pending list to be considered by the committee later on in the budget process. A total of $325,000 for the standard funding would match the totals from Fiscal Years 2013 and 2014.
Assembly member Loren Jones explained why the committee would move increased funding to the pending list.
“In all fairness this is how we handle an ask for increase in funding,” Jones said. “Anytime, anyone asks for more (funding) we move it to the pending list. It gives us an opportunity to look over (the request).”
Brian Holst, Executive Director of JEDC, said that he understands the request being moved to the pending list, but hopes they will ultimately be honored to help JEDC get back to the budget it had before it took a decrease in funding.
“We took a decrease in funding four years ago and the increase (of $25,000) is just getting us back to that previous level,” Holst said. “The increase we are asking from the Assembly (of $165,000) helps us be proactive.”
Holst explained with the predicted increase in tourism coming to Juneau, having a plan in order will only be beneficial and the extra funding will go toward preparing for that and for working on programs, such as Choose Juneau — a resource to help bring people to Juneau.
“We are seeing an unprecedented growth in the tourism industry,” Holst said. “There is no indication that the growth is going to stop. How do we translate that into yearlong growth? It is not something the cruise industry would be interested in, but it is something we bring to the table.”
Travel Juneau, which has asked for funding in the past, is not asking for funding this year due to having those incremental funds leftover from year. Those funds will go towards finalizing projects Travel Juneau is currently working on.
Liz Perry, Vice President of Travel Juneau, presented the Fiscal Year 2019 budget and explained this year’s upcoming goals include adding more videos to Travel Juneau’s website.
“We want to provide our visitors the best possible experience (on our website),” she said.
Travel Juneau’s proposed budget for FY19 stands at $1,233,100 which is down from FY18 actual budget projection of $1,380,600. It includes funding from the hotel bed tax ($860,000) and from Marine Passenger Fee Grant ($237,000). The hotel bed tax stands at 5 percent in Juneau. The bed tax was approved unanimously at the Committee meeting Wednesday.
The Committee also unanimously approved a request for $28,500 — the same amount as FY19 — for Juneau Small Business Developmental Center.
Jennifer Adams, Director of Juneau Small Business Developmental Center, gave the FY19 plan with goals listed of what the center would like to accomplish. Adams said the Center would like to contribute 1,000 advising hours, sustain five long-term Juneau clients, start 17 new business and 50 new jobs that could generate $3.2 million capital infusion into Juneau. Adams said the projections are generated by the Center’s small business administrator.
In standard overview budget requests, the Aquatics Board FY19 budget, presented by Board Chair Max Mertz and Park &Recreation Director Kirk Duncan, was also unanimously approved. The FY19 budget expenditure of 2,663,400 is down from FY18 actuals of $2,735,600. Duncan explained that the City is spending less toward the pools because of the increase in demand and sales at both Dimond Park and Augustus Brown pools.
The Finance Committee will continue to meet every Wednesday through May 16. A public hearing will be held during a Special Assembly Meeting at 5:30 p.m. April 25. Following that, the Finance Committee will also hear presentations from Youth Activities Board (YAB) and Bartlett Regional Hospital. There will also be a proposed mill rate and debt service presentation. The committee will also look into general government budget balancing options.
• Contact reporter Gregory Philson at gphilson@juneauempire.com or call at 523-2265. Follow him on Twitter at @GTPhilson.
