$125,000 just landed in homer

and it's been sitting in a state account for years.

The state just split up thirty-seven and a half million dollars in cruise ship passenger taxes and sent it out to sixteen port towns. Homer's cut is a hundred twenty-five thousand dollars.

Here's where that money comes from. Every passenger on a big cruise ship pays the state thirty-four fifty, and a share of that is meant to flow back to the towns those ships actually visit. Voters set that whole system up through a citizens initiative about twenty years ago.

The account had been piling up unspent, and this payout basically empties it. The big winners are down in Southeast, where the ships stack up all summer. Skagway walks away with nine million, Ketchikan pulls in close to seven million, and Juneau lands six million.

Homer's slice is smaller because fewer ships stop there, but the rules on the money are strict. It has to go toward the port and harbor, passenger safety, and services for the ships and the folks they bring to town.

So if you keep a boat in the Homer harbor, or your summer paycheck comes from the visitors walking off those ships, this lands close to home. Keep an eye on what the city decides to fix with it.