NOTN- Juneau voters are set to approve two tax-cutting measures according to unofficial results from the City and Borough of Juneau’s municipal election released Friday.
Early results show challenger Nathaniel “Nano” Brooks leading incumbent Wade Bryson 4,652 votes to 4,242 in the city’s only contested Assembly race.
Greg Smith and Ella Adkison, both running unopposed, secured their seats for District 1 and the areawide Assembly positions, respectively.
In the race for the Board of Education, Steve Whitney leads, followed by Melissa Cullum, Jenny Thomas, Jeremy “JJJ” Johnson and Deedie Sorensen.
Speaking Wednesday morning, Weldon said due to high voter turnout, preliminary numbers for Ballot propositions 1 through 3 won’t likely change.
“Ballot Proposition 2, taking the sales tax off food, that’s not going to change. The seasonal sales tax is not going to change. Proposition 1 has a possibility of changing, but is likely going to stay that way.” Weldon Said.
Proposition 1, which would lower the city’s property tax cap from 12 to 9 mills, is ahead with 5,002 votes in favor and 4,807 opposed.
Proposition 2, which exempts food and residential utilities from sales tax, passed by a wide margin 6,842 votes to 2,995 .
Proposition 3, which would have created a seasonal sales tax aimed at shifting more of the burden to tourists, was rejected 5,681 to 4,174.
The updated totals include all ballots received and verified through Thursday. Additional mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day are still being processed, with final certification expected on Oct. 21.
“We’ll just evaluate and figure out where we can fill the hole with cutting services a bit and other things, the biggest hit to the budget was taking sales tax off food without filling that hole. So that’s, you know, somewhere around $8 million.” Weldon said, “It’s easy to cut $8 million one time, but it’s a little more difficult to cut it year after year after year. But we’ll just go back to work and our finance means will be pretty interesting.” She said.
