Anchorage

In April 2023, Anchorage voters approved Proposition 14, a ballot measure that allocates an additional $5 million to $6 million per year for child care and early education. Brought before voters with bipartisan support, Proposition 14 created the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund (ACCEEF), which takes the revenue generated by the City of Anchorage’s 5 percent sales tax on marijuana purchases and dedicates it to child care and early education for Anchorage families. Instead of being funneled into the city’s general fund, as it has been for years, the revenue generated will be used to support child care or early education provider training, professional development, staffing, and wages; to fund the upkeep or the development of child care facilities; or to make child care slots more accessible for individual families. The ACCEEF will start accumulating in January 2024, and will be delivered in a variety of ways, including vouchers or grants to individual families and grants to early learning centers.  The measure also creates an Accountability Board of Child Care and Early Education, to be appointed by the mayor of Anchorage and confirmed by the Anchorage Assembly. The board will determine how best to use the tax revenues to make child care more accessible in Anchorage and to drive effective implementation. The board will advise the mayor and Assembly on use of the funds and will present a proposed budget to both annually. After the budget is reviewed and finalized by the mayor and Assembly, funds will be dispersed beginning in 2025. LEARN MORE: ANCHORAGE CHILD CARE AND EARLY EDUCATION FUND Sources: Care for Kids Anchorage. (n.d.). About. Alaska Public Media. (2023). Anchorage voters to decide on using marijuana taxes to fund early education, child care programs. Anchorage Daily News. (2023). A ballot proposition aims to put Anchorage marijuana tax revenue toward easing the city’s child care crisis.