The Assembly Finance Committee is not wasting time. At its April 10 meeting, it moved forward the Capital Improvement Program, as well as the sections of the budget pertaining to the Airport and Docks & Harbors. What it means to move items forward is that the committee won’t plan to address these items again during this committee process. The public will have an opportunity to comment on them during a Special Assembly Meeting public hearing on the budget April 24 at 5:30 p.m.

To learn more about the Capital Improvement Program, read this resolution and this memo. You’ll see there are projects on the list that use Marine Passenger Fees. Marine Passenger Fee project recommendations are still going through the public process – the public has until May 2 to comment – and the Assembly Finance Committee is well aware of that. Any changes that come from that process will apply to this budget process.

If you want to dig a little more into the budget, here’s a list of budget increases, which are part of the $6 million increase in proposed expenditure over FY19. The increases include having to fund decreases in program revenues.

The finance committee meets next this Wednesday, April 17 at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Chambers. Here’s the agenda. It’s scheduled to hear funding requests from Travel Juneau and Juneau Economic Development Forum, and review the Marine Passenger Fee recommendations. It’ll also hear an update on Water and Wastewater utility rates.