Empire editorial: Legislature needs to find middle ground with city harbors
Since 1992, Alaska cities have ended up with not only ownership of the state's harbors, but also the massive financial headaches that came with them.
This week, harbormasters asked Alaska lawmakers to bring them some relief. Legislators would serve the state well by listening to them.
When the state began handing off harbors to municipalities, many of the aging ports were in need of millions of dollars of repairs. Cities were given only a quarter or half of the amount of money needed to make repairs that had been delayed for years, according to the Alaska Association of Harbormasters and Port Administrators. Juneau, for instance, received $7 million from the state, when it needed to make $25 million in repairs to its docks and harbors.
The association is asking the state to meet cities halfway - by splitting the cost of bringing harbors up to snuff.
In a state where harbors are an essential part of the economy and Alaskan lifestyles, it would be a huge mistake to turn this request down. Across the state, cities are raising user fees to help pay for the cost of repairs. This makes sense and may be overdue in some places. However, the cost of repairs is so enormous in many towns that user fees cannot reasonably cover the expense of keeping the harbors in operation. Juneau is raising its moorage fees by 250 percent over the next five years, an increase that could ultimately backfire on the city.
The fee increase could shrink Juneau's commercial fishing fleet by forcing some commercial fishermen to move their base to other towns that already have better infrastructures for fishing, according to Chris McDowell, chairman of the Fishery Development Committee in Juneau.
The hike in user fees also will hit Juneau liveaboards hard. Often, owning a boat is the one affordable housing option in a city with sky-high real-estate prices. The lack of affordable housing already discourages people from living in Juneau. Taking away the liveaboard-boat option will only make Juneau's housing problem worse.
But Juneau is just one among many towns that is seeing the ripple effects of neglecting the harbors. The harbormaster association's request for additional funding is more than reasonable. If Alaska is to keep its coastal communities strong, the state needs to step up and help cities pay for the costs of keeping up safe and usable harbors.