In the last of its budget meetings Wednesday the assembly voted to set the mill rate at 9.980.
Last year, the mill rate was set at 10.326 but revenue sharing from the state pulled that down to 9.645.
|
|
The original budget, as proposed by Borough Manager John Duffy, set the mill levy at 10.326. One mill is equivalent to $100 per $100,000 of a home’s assessed value.
Through a series of nips and tucks — $160,000 taken out of the project to modernize locks at borough headquarters, $35,000 saved holding off on buying a search and rescue ATV, etc. — the assembly dropped Duffy’s proposed mill rate.
Interestingly, Assemblyman Rob Wells, long an advocate of farming in the Valley, proposed a motion, which eventually passed, to drop the borough’s contribution to a farmland conservation program from $300,000 to $100,000. He said the move was an effort to get the state and others on board with the program.
“I just don’t believe the taxpayers of the Mat-Su Borough should be pulling this cart ourselves,” he said.
But the biggest drop came in the amount of money the assembly decided to give to the school district. As initially proposed, the budget would have provided $46,108,048 to the school district.
On a motion from Houston, the assembly dropped the borough’s contribution to $45,097,365, eliminating most of Duffy’s proposed increase over last year of $1,390,160. That increase was, itself, quite a bit less than the more than $10 million the district requested.
Houston said he was simply asking the school district, just as the assembly had asked every other department, to keep its budget static.
“In my mind it’s fiscal responsibility,” he said, noting that the though the borough had asked all departments to not hire anyone new, the district’s zero-based budget, supposedly with no increase over last year, had “upwards of 40 new people.”
On the other side, Assemblyman Rob Wells argued that education is not something the borough should “go cheap on,” especially if the assembly was trying to push taxes down below 10 mills, “just to say we did it.”
“The education budget is the largest portion of our budget and it represents, to me, the primary reason for this government’s existence,” Wells said.
Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine brought up a point seconded by Assemblyman Tom Kluberton: Federal and state money hasn’t yet been factored into the school budget.
Bettine said that with federal stimulus money, in her mind, the district would likely end up adding programs and getting used to a budget that’s substantially larger than last year’s.
Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.
Comments
11 comment(s)To JP wrote on May 16, 2009 12:13 PM:
Wasillans PAY FOR the better PALMER Schools wrote on May 16, 2009 8:30 AM:
Shouldn't Wasilla be getting the better teachers, labs, resources, TROXEL? Oh, that's right you live next to COLONY! "
bob wrote on May 16, 2009 7:44 AM:
Are you aware that by capping property taxes, you have given a tax break to large corporations who pay taxes? I am sure they are all for your idea. Are you also aware that a sales tax hurts poor people because more of their money, percentage wise, goes to pay for food, clothing and medicine?
Caps and tax trades are easy, but they are not fair. If you think that any tax 'cap' will last long, you haven't been reading your history books. In the end, you get both taxes. "
ATV wrote on May 15, 2009 3:58 PM:
offsaopstone wrote on May 15, 2009 1:45 PM:
offsaopstone wrote on May 15, 2009 1:35 PM:
Amazed wrote on May 15, 2009 12:52 PM:
Observer wrote on May 15, 2009 12:24 PM:
PROPERTY TAX OR SALES TAX-YOU CAN'T HAVE BOTH!!!!!
A "TAX CAP" IS A TRICK TO GET HIGHER TAXES-IT HAPPENS EVERYWHERE GULLABLE PEOPLE FALL FOR IT!!!!!! "
jp wrote on May 15, 2009 10:56 AM:
share the tax burden wrote on May 15, 2009 7:48 AM:
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES!
TAX CAP YES! SALES TAX YES! "
THANK YOU wrote on May 15, 2009 7:06 AM: