Unanimous Assembly votes secure $1.1B financing option for Port of Alaska and construction contract

Anchorage Daily News
By Zachariah Hughes

The Anchorage Assembly approved two measures this week that clear a path for funding and finishing a longstanding overhaul of the state’s main port facility.

“If you’ve been on the journey of the Port for the past decade, you know these two items represent significant milestones,” Assembly Vice Chair Meg Zaletel said in a statement after the votes took place at a special Assembly meeting Wednesday afternoon.

One of the ordinances approved gives the city the ability to sell up to $1.1 billion in revenue bonds to pay for construction work at the Don Young Port of Alaska as part of the port’s ongoing modernization project. Unlike the general obligation bonds that are paid back over time through local property taxes to finance things like road improvements and school upgrades, revenue bonds are long-term debt repaid through fees.

In this case, that means surcharges collected on material coming through the port that are passed along to consumers as part of the prices they pay when they buy groceries, fuel and other goods imported to Alaska through the port. Shoppers and consumers in Alaska already pay those fees for the cargo coming into the port. Future revenue bonds mean they will go up down the road.

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https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2025/04/17/unanimous-assembly-votes-secure-11b-financing-option-for-port-of-alaska-and-construction-contract/