Supporting Our Community

 
 
 

In 2020, Anchorage voters approved Proposition 13 to establish a 5% sales tax on alcoholic beverages in the Municipality of Anchorage. The funding from the tax is restricted and dedicated to the following purposes:

1.

Improving public safety

2.

Preventing child abuse, sexual assault, and domestic violence

3a.

Treating substance misuse, promoting mental health

3b.

Addressing homelessness

Read Proposition 13

Roadmap for Safety and Wellbeing

On Sept 10, 2024, the Anchorage Assembly approved a new strategic plan to guide investments of future alcohol tax revenues.

Why have a strategic plan for the alcohol tax?
Anchorage’s Alcohol Tax has clearly defined uses, however, there are many ways to prevent and address these community issues. The draft roadmap draws from input from community experts, people with lived experience of the issues, other relevant plans, and best practice research to guide the Municipal Administration and Assembly to:

  • Set a community vision, mission and values for Alcohol Tax investments.

  • Inform budgeting and disbursing each year’s Alcohol Tax investments.

  • Ensure community input, transparency, and efficient use of the funds.

  • Make investments that address near-term issues and increase long-term safety and wellbeing.

Roadmap Process
A steering committee of community members, Assembly members, and representatives from organizations that advocated to create the Alcohol Tax, developed this roadmap, supported by staff from the Municipality of Anchorage and contractor, Agnew::Beck.

This plan draws from public input and from other plans to invest in strategies that Alaskans support. The project team gathered input from the community through presentations and focus groups and a survey fielded from February 14 to May 1, 2024.

The draft plan was presented and reviewed at a Work Session with the Anchorage Assembly on May 10, 2024 and a revised draft was shared at an Assembly Rules Committee meeting on June 13, 2024. The final plan was adopted on September 10, 2024.

View the Appendixes in the Roadmap to see a list of the project team, community engagement and survey results and other information on the creation of the draft roadmap.