By Mayor Kristin Smith
From the combination of much lower raw fish tax revenue (from the 2024 season, received in October, 2025), a huge cut in the federal Secure Rural Schools program (loss of $740,000 in timber receipts revenue sharing for roads and schools), a lower reimbursement from the state for school bond debt, and lower than anticipated sales tax revenues in 2025, the City of Cordova needed to cut $1,600,000 from its operating budget to achieve a balanced budget for 2026.
You have likely heard by now what that means for our small community in 2026: Cutting a pool lifeguard, cutting a grant writing and communications staff position, cutting a part-time librarian, cutting several temporary positions (streets, maintenance, library), no chip sealing on our roads next year, elimination of staff travel, and elimination of a city comptroller position.
Some savings came also from several city staff positions that were unfilled in 2024 and 2025, and will remain unfilled. The city also drastically reduced its financial support to community partner organizations that provide important services (Cordova School District, Cordova Family Resource Center, Cordova Chamber of Commerce, and Mt. Eyak Ski Hill).
I know that Cordova will do what it’s always done: Prove our self-reliance, every day, in ways big and small. We are going to need community members to step up to help fill the gaps.
There will be training available for those who are willing to volunteer as a lifeguard at the pool. The Friends of the Library are working on organizing volunteers to help fill the gap left by a staff cut. Our trails around town will need some love, and the city’s Trails Committee will likely be organizing some volunteer trail maintenance days next summer. Please look for opportunities to help out, or contribute to the many fundraisers that support travel for Close Up, and for our local sports teams and academic competition groups.
I do also want to ask, though, that we not let the state and federal governments disinvest in our communities. What’s allowed communities all over our state, and the country, to flourish has been a model of some of our collective tax dollars coming back to us to support a range of community services: Education, transportation, public safety, water and sewer utilities, energy system innovations. These are basic public services for which communities had been able to apply for funding, most often competitively, for decades. That model is shifting as our tax dollars are being redirected elsewhere.
If we want safe, functional infrastructure, teachers and school buildings, water and sewer treatment systems, and a new public safety building, we need to take every opportunity to remind our elected officials how important these essentials are.
