Air carriers lay on more passenger capacity for Interior
Airlines are planning an increase in passenger capacity to Fairbanks this summer mainly in the May and August “shoulder” seasons. Delta plans a 37 percent increase in seats in May and United’s seats will be up 33 percent. Capacity for June and July will be similar to last year for the two carriers. Alaska Airlines, however, estimates its capacity will be up 20 percent all through the summer. That’s mainly due to Alaska’s switch in its Fairbanks service back to Boeing 737s instead of the smaller Bombardier Q400 turboprops. What’s driving the increases is the expectation of another record tourist season. Cruise Lines International, the cruise ship trade group, estimates the summer one-way passenger voyages at a record 404,200. When visitors come one-way on a cruise they typically travel on to Denali National Park and the Interior and return home by plane. That entourages air carriers to lay on more capacity.

TOURISM BOOSTS KETCHIKAN’S SALE TAX REVENUE: Tourism boosted Ketchikan’s sales tax revenues last year. Revenues reached $11.93 million in 2017, a gain of $582,179, or 5.1 percent, over the prior year. First quarter 2018 sales tax income is up marginally – $1.946 million compared with $1.93 million for the same period of 2017 (and a non-tourist period). The impact of another record-setting visitor season will be felt in the second and third quarter sales tax numbers, city officials said.

SEALASKA POSTS $43.3 MILLION OPERATING PROFIT: Sealaska Corp. posted net income from its operating companies of $43.3 million last year, the Juneau-based Alaska Native regional corporation said. Sealaska has been digging out from a $35 million loss in 2013 and its operating companies did not show pro ts for the next three years. Other income, from investment earnings and Section 7i revenue-sharing from other Native corporations, helped the corporation’s overall nances. But now the operating companies are showing pro ts. Sealaska increased its spring dividend payout to $23.1 million, up from $10.6 million last year.

WALKER, MALLOTT RUN AGAIN ON INDEPENDENT TICKET: It’s official now that Gov. Bill Walker will seek reelection as an independent, and is joined again by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallot. In April the state supreme court upheld an earlier Superior Court decision to overturn a state law barring voters in the Republican and Democratic primary elections from voting for an independent. For a while Walker, previously a Republican, was considering ling as a Democrat. The state primary election is Aug. 21, and the general election is Nov. 6.

UTQIAGVIK VOTES IN A MARIJUANA SALES TAX: Utqiagvik, formerly Barrow, voted to institute a 8 percent local sales taxes on sales of marijuana or marijuana products. In a special election, 171 residents voted for the tax and 29 were opposed. There are no retail marijuana sales outlets yet in Utqiagvik but city officials wanted to get the tax in place as part of a local policy toward marijuana.

MARIJUANA TAX REVENUE REACHED $1 MILLION IN MARCH; INDUSTRY EMPLOYS 536: Marijuana tax revenue reached $1 million in March, state revenue officials said. The industry is on par to reach a $9 million estimated revenues by the end of the scal year on June 30. Meanwhile a state labor department report said employment in the state’s small marijuana industry reached 536 in January, up from 79 in January 2017. The industry paid workers $8.5 million in wages in 2017, the report said.

TARA SWEENEY MOVES TOWARD SENATE CONFIRMATION FOR INTERIOR JOB: Tara Sweeny, an Inupiat vice president of Arctic Slope Regional Corp., was cleared for U.S. Senate con rmation as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the U.S. Dept. of the Interior after hearings in the Senate’s Interior and Energy Affairs Committee. Sweeny was nominated months ago as one of a handful of Alaskans picked for top Trump administration jobs but the con rmation was held up over questions about Sweeny’s shares in ASRC, an Alaska Native regional corporation. Normally, a top federal appointee would sell or place shares in a blind trust but that is not possible for shares in corporations like ASRC established by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. One of Sweeney’s immediate tasks will be addressing serious management problems in the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which will be under her jurisdiction.

ALASKA NUMBER TWO STATE IN NATIONAL PARK VISITOR SPENDING: Alaska scored in the number two position among states last year in visitor spending in national parks, the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey said in a report. Visitor to Alaska’s national parks spent $1.3 billion in local communities identi ed as “gateways” to parks. That is up from $1.1 billion in 2012, when the last economic survey was done. The study estimated that 18,900 jobs were created by visitor spending within a 60-mile radius of parks, up from 16,200 jobs in 2012. California was the number one state for parking spending, with $1.9 billion spent last year. Thirty percent of the Alaska spending was for transportation, followed by hotels, restaurants and recreation. Alaska has 15 national parks.

HOMER VOTES ON BONDS FOR NEW FACILITIES: Homer residents will vote in a special city election on a proposed $5 million sale of municipal general obligation bonds to build a new police building. Residents will also vote on a 1 percent increase in the city sales tax from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent to help pay for improved public safety facilities.

 

MORE FUNDS COMMITTED TO HELP RELOCATE COASTAL VILLAGE: The Denali Commission will spend $22 million this year to help the village of Newtok, threatened by coastal erosion, relocate to a safer site nine miles away. The community of 375 is 500 miles west of Anchorage. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated the total costs of the move at $130 million in 2006, which adjusted for in ation would be $150 million today.

CRUISE SHIPS ARRIVE IN SOUTHEAST; LEGISLATURE APPROVES NEW VESSEL DOCKS: Juneau received its rst three cruise ships April 30 and May 1 and 2, in typical Southeast soggy weather. The South- east city saw 1.1 million cruise passengers in 2017, and the number is expected to grow to 1.3 million in 2019. Improvements for cruise ship docks in Hoonah and Ketchikan will be funded under the state capital budget approved by the Legislature May 12. The work is funded by state cruise passenger tax revenue.

A SUPER-SIZED CRUISE SHIPS IN ALASKA THIS SUMMER: A new super-sized cruise ship will be in Alaska waters this summer. Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Norwegian Bliss is making its rst voyages in U.S. waters and will be in Alaska this summer. The 1,903-foot vessel has a capacity for 4,000 passengers, which is more people that live in some of the small Southeast communities on the vessel’s call list.

TOUR INDUSTRY SQUABBLE SINKS SELF-FUNDED TRAVEL MARKETING: The Legislature turned down a proposal by the Alaska Travel Industry Association for a tour-industry funded Alaska marketing promotion program due to complications on how member assessments would be made. State lawmakers did approve $3 million in state funds for tourism promotion, however.

Some form of generic Alaska tourism marketing is needed, tour industry people say, to help attract independent travellers who tend stay longer and spend more than cruise visitors, studies have shown.

STATE PICKS 25 AREAS AS “OPPORTUNITY ZONES” FOR FEDERAL INVESTMENT TAX CREDITS: The state economic development of ce has identi ed 25 areas eligible as federal “Opportunity Zones,” eligible for special federal tax treatment for investors. Areas selected must meet certain income and poverty thresholds. Using census data the U.S. Treasury Dept. identi ed 60 eligible low-income areas in Alaska and asked the state to reduce the list to 25. Several areas in Anchorage and Fairbanks are included on the list, and some are near Joint Base Elmendorf/Richardson in Anchorage and Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks.

The designations could help initiatives now underway to build new military housing both in Anchorage and Fairbanks. The Fairbanks Economic Development Corp. is particularly keen to spur new housing for Air Force families coming in with the F-35 fighter squadrons to be based at Eielson Air Force Base. An estimated 900 housing units will be needed to accommodate the new Air Force personnel, FEDC said. Some of this can be accommodated within the existing housing stock but there will be a need for 200 to 600 new units.