Assembly OKs nearly $8 million in additional spending BUDGET: Property taxes will increase $21 for a $100,000 home.

The Anchorage Assembly decided Tuesday night to add nearly $8 million in spending to this year's city budget, most of it for changes Mayor Dan Sullivan sought.
The new budget total: about $443.4 million.
The city usually readjusts its budget after the first quarter of each year, right before sending out property tax bills for city government and the School District in May.
Taxes for each $100,000 worth of property will rise by $21 over last year with the latest changes, said city budget director Cheryl Frasca. If you have a $300,000 house, triple that to $63.
The average tax bill per each $100,000 in property will be $1,519 - or $4,557 for a $300,000 house.
The tax increase is lower than it might have been because the administration applied $6.7 million from $11 million in leftover funding from 2010 to reducing taxes.
The administration has proposals to spend the rest of the 2010 savings, but they have not gone before the Assembly yet.
Sullivan incorporated a handful of proposals from Assembly members into his version of the revised 2011 budget, including a few reductions.
Only three Assembly amendments passed: one to rehabilitate the train engine on the Delaney Park Strip; one to keep Fairview Recreation Center open until 10 p.m. on weeknights; and one to eliminate $270,000 from the police department budget with the intention of later replacing that money with federal funds.
But efforts by Assembly members to eliminate some fees the city intends to charge the School District for such things as school sports teams' use of the Anchorage Football Stadium and city trails failed 5-6.
It was sponsored by Assembly members Harriet Drummond, Elvi Gray-Jackson and Dick Traini.
The trio also tried to get the city to cancel a charge of $495,000 to the district for its share of the cost of sending out property tax bills. That failed 4-7.
Assembly member Paul Honeman said he supported canceling the city charges to the School District because "we're ... just shifting the money."
Assembly member Ernie Hall said he was voting no on most Assembly initiatives to increase spending, including the School District givebacks, because he thinks many Anchorage residents are hurting.
When he gets coffee in the morning at a gas station, Hall said, he sees people making purchases "struggling to get two to three gallons of gas."
The mayor's proposed changes passed with a 10-1 vote.
His additions are mostly to pay for unanticipated expenses and some priorities that weren't funded when the 2011 budget originally passed last December.
For example, the mayor's amendments include $1.8 million for higher workers' compensation costs than were expected and $227,000 more for People Mover bus fuel.
There's $610,000 for an academy to train new Anchorage police officers, and $203,000 to match a federal grant for hiring new firefighters.

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Find Rosemary Shinohara online at adn.com/contact/rshinohara or call her at 257-4340.