The proposed annexation, not yet submitted to the LBC, would allow Sand Point to levy a 2% raw fish tax to help cover the cost of City services.
The City of Sand Point is seeking to expand their boundary to cover nearly ten times more area, including all of Popof Island and the water surrounding it.
The proposed annexation would allow the City to levy a 2% raw fish tax.
City Administrator Andy Varner says Sand Point has the largest fishing fleet in the Aleutians, but a lot of those fishermen deliver their catch of salmon or groundfish to tenders outside City waters.
“Then those tenders will take the product to a different community, and that community will reap the benefits of a raw fish tax," says Varner. "And so our fishermen -- who reside in Sand Point, and use the clinic and the roads and the harbor and the school -- the tax dollars on their catch go to a different community. So we’re trying to keep those tax dollars in the community.”
The additional revenue would also fund Sand Point’s emergency response services.
In the past, the City has sent Public Safety out on Popof Island or the city fire boat to respond to distress calls miles away from town.
"Whether it’s in the some of the old abandoned villages around Sand Point, or just popular commercial fishing holes where boats have been in distress, our fire boat has made calls to some of those areas," says Varner. "So it's sort of helping to cover some of the costs of providing that service."
Varner says the annexation would allow the boundaries to catch up with growth that’s occurred in the past 20 years – for instance, it would take in the landfill, which currently lies outside City limits.
The City will hold its first public hearing on the annexation March 8th, before filing the petition with the Local Boundary Commission in April. Sand Point is moving forward with the legislative review process; Varner hopes the petition will go before lawmakers in 2017.