The city will begin collecting more money from car rental companies in Sitka this fall. When the Sitka Assembly met last night, on a 5-1 vote it approved an increase to the city’s driver facility charge from 4% to 8%.
City staff estimate the rate hike will bring in an additional $150,000 in revenue every year. The money collected will go toward the airport terminal fund at a time when the city and state are kicking off a major renovation of the airport.
Assembly member JJ Carlson was the lone vote against the measure. She said a four percent increase was a lot when it’s considered alongside the city’s six percent sales tax and a 10% rental vehicle tax from the state.
“And that’s a pretty big percentage, 20% is big, 24%, even bigger, nd I’m really wanting to make that clear,” carlson said. “I don’t know where we stand in this state, that’s fairly comparable to large cities in the United States where I’ve rented vehicles. And I don’t know if we want to be in that class.”
Assembly member Kevin Mosher said he understood Carlson’s concerns, but since the extra fee would mostly impact visitors and would help fund the airport expansion project, he could support it
“People asked why we can’t go back to where it was. Well, that would be nice,” Mosher said. “But there’s a lot more federal regulations and such that cause it, so we we have to do a lot of these things. It’s not really a choice. So we are getting a huge influx of money to build this new airport, and we have to pay for it.”
The ordinance passed 5-1 on second reading with Carlson opposed. The fee increase will begin on October 1.
