The Haines Borough Assembly on Tuesday agreed to waive 50 percent of docking fees for every new and existing cruise ship that visits the Port Chilkoot Dock during the 2017-2019 seasons.
The assembly voted 5-1 to approve the resolution granting the fee waivers, with assembly member Ron Jackson opposed.
Though assembly members tossed out vague potential changes to the resolution, including structuring the waiver program to better incentivize ships to commit to multiple dockings instead of just one, no motions were made to that effect.
Assembly member Dave Berry said if the goal of the waiver incentive program is to trigger more business development or expansion in Haines, having one or two extra cruise ships show up once a year isn’t going to do the trick.
“If I was going to think about putting in a shop wherever downtown… in order for me to feel comfortable putting in a large investment, I think I need to see where ship number one is not going to come in once, but it is going to come in 15 times. Ship number two is not coming in once, it’s coming in 12 times,” Berry said. “I wouldn’t put in anything for just one extra ship.”
Assembly member Jackson pointed out that if none of the cruise ship companies bite on the incentive, the borough will still be required to give the 50 percent waiver to the existing ships that have been coming in regularly, according to the resolution.
“I think we need to word this so that it’s more about the new ships coming in, not about giving the gift to the ones that are already coming,” Jackson said.
According to chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart, if no other large ships sign on and the borough maintains the customers it had this season (minus the Celebrity and Princess ships, which aren’t returning next year and received 100 percent waivers this year), the borough would lose about $38,000 per year in docking fees between 2017 and 2019.
Tour operator Karen Hess argued there’s no guarantee that Holland America, the company that currently brings the large cruise ships to Haines on a weekly basis, will continue to do so.
“This is a great incentive to say to them not only thank you, but we want you to come back,” Hess said.
Hess is chair of the Tourism Advisory Board, the body that proposed a fee waiver program. At Tuesday’s meeting, Hess seemed surprised to learn that the assembly was considering offering the 50 percent waiver to all ships, even those that didn’t agree to repeat visits.
“They don’t get the 50 percent if they just come once,” Hess said, before being corrected that ships deciding to come just once would indeed receive the fee waiver.
“That wasn’t our recommendation from TAB, I will tell you that,” she said. “Our recommendation from TAB was to bring ships in throughout the season on a regular basis. That’s what we’re shooting for.”
The recommendation on the 50 percent waiver option came from a joint TAB and Commerce Committee meeting, though TAB vice chair Sean Gaffney, commerce chair George Campbell and commerce committee member Diana Lapham were the only members who showed up to vote.
Tourism director Leslie Ross gave a short presentation Tuesday on why the waiver program would be beneficial for Haines, explaining how sales tax revenues would ultimately exceed what the borough would be waiving in docking fees.
According to Ross, when the Golden Princess docked in Haines on May 26, 1,200 tours were sold on board. Assuming each tour cost on average of $75, that amount of tours sold would generate about $4,950 in sales tax. That is compared to the $3,329 that the borough would have received in docking fees from the ship, which it waived this year.
The waiver program will not affect next year’s dockings, which have already been set by cruise ship companies. The companies are currently working on their 2017 schedules, Ross said.