Nome, Alaska — With state budget cuts looming and industry pulling out of Alaska’s Arctic, Nome’s finances are suffering.
The state passed on about $260,000 to Nome in revenue sharing in 2016, but with Alaska’s more than $3 billion deficit, city Finance Director Julie Liew thinks that will drop to $170,000 this year and could be cut even more to $100,000 in fiscal year 2018.
Liew says that’s reflected in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2017.
“The items that we could cut, we did, with quite a heavy hand,” Liew said.
Nome’s City Council discussed how to deal with declining revenue at its mid-day work session Thursday. One thing that’s nearly certain is that the mill rate will jump from 11 to 12 in fiscal year 2017. That’s the amount of tax payable per dollar added on to a resident’s property value.
The City Council will meet for another budget work session at 7pm on Wednesday, May 18th. The jump in mill rate will be set at the council’s next regular meeting scheduled for Monday, May 23rd.
