Assembly Report - District 7
June 3, 2007
Hello Folks - it’s been a couple months of seemingly non-stop budget
deliberations and the results felt like a positive step for residents of the
borough. With Inn-keeping season upon me I expect to find it tough to
attend all the Council meetings that are going-on in District 7 over the
summer. Here is a brief recap of how the budget turned-out this year and
some notes on various activities in the Assembly and how the legislature
came through with revenue sharing to help us out.
I’ll plan to publish Assembly Reports through the summer and hope to make it
to as many Council meetings as I possibly can.
Regards, Tom Kluberton
During the past couple months the Mat-Su Assembly has been met eight times
in preparation of the FY08 budget. On Wednesday, May 30th the final budget
was approved in a way that provides a property tax deduction based on this
year’s State revenue sharing proceeds coupled with $1.4 million of last
year’s revenue sharing funds that were set aside during last year’s budget
deliberations.
The result is that the mil rate held steady at 9.644 mils and tax bills will
show a further deduction based on the revenue sharing contributions that
make the effective mil rate 9.332. That means the owner of a valley home
valued at the average of $230,000 would receive a $117 tax relief deduction.
Schools were funded at the level the School District called for to allow
them to operate at the same levels as last year, and then the Assembly added
an increase of $1.6M targeted to assist kids with learning deficits as early
as possible in their school careers. That brought the entire education
package to $43.6 million dollars. In FY08, 77% of property tax revenue
will be put toward education.
Financing to permit moving forward with an upgrade to the animal shelter was
included in the FY08 budget. Next to schools this issue drew the largest
audiences at public hearings on the budget.
Grants to Wasilla and Palmer in support of their libraries were made at a
levels reduced toward a five-year phase out. Wasilla will receive $288,335
and Palmer $236,905 this year. Money was appropriated to allow a 1600 sq
ft library to be added to the already funded Trapper Creek Ambulance Bay.
This will enable the Borough to save $2,000 a month in space lease costs for
the current space which is seriously undersized.
Earmarks were tagged onto Bed Tax revenues in the amounts of $40,000 to
build a couple additional restroom facilities at recreational sites in the
Borough and $40,000 toward maintaining all the Borough’s restroom
facilities. I am hoping this will become an on-going means to provide
sanitary conditions at our ever-popular fishing grounds and various public
recreation sites.
Aside from the Budget setting deliberations, the Assembly has been
discussing the possibility of preparing a ballot measure aimed at creating a
borough-wide sales tax to supplement property taxes which are currently the
Borough’s only significant revenue source aside from state and federal
grants. The goal of these discussions is to find a way to diversify the
borough’s revenue sources in hopes of further reducing property tax levels.
Should housing values decline mil rates can escalate dramatically (as
happened during the recession of the late ‘80′s) making property taxes all
the more burdensome. This Assembly feels it good practice to diversify the
revenue streams starting with a sales tax and hoping for more commercial
development as Port MacKenzie comes online.
The legislature did approve funds for an Environmental Assessment for the
proposed rail spur to the port from the existing line. Much of this
activity will undoubtedly be focused in and about Willow where the spur is
expected to depart the main line. As I recall, this is a $12M project and
should provide a full public process for locating this facility.
It was an interesting experience to watch the state legislative session
outcome merge with the Borough’s budget plans and see the results transform
into a mil rate. I found it impressive that we were able to get taxes down
while keeping the schools intact and not having to pull the rug out from
under the libraries.
Here’s hoping we continue to ease taxes while keeping a quality education
available to our kids in coming years.
Governmental Affairs Committee
Linda Oxley, Chair, WACO
Phone: 2615 Email:
chair@waco-ak.org
Erin McLarnon
