Accepting state dollars just makes good sense

It wasn’t the flashiest thing on the Mat-Su Borough assembly’s agenda Tuesday; millions of dollars weren’t hanging in the balance and there wasn’t a lot to discuss.

But we feel the assembly’s decision to accept $313,509 from the state to help fund local nonprofits deserves recognition for at least a couple of reasons.

First of all, it almost didn’t happen.

The way the grant program works is the state will provide 70 percent of the money if the borough provides 30 percent in matching dollars.

That’s a pretty good deal. But in March and April while the assembly wrangled over the budget, Mayor Larry DeVilbiss said he didn’t think it was right for borough funds to be spent on nonprofits. He said the list of things he’s willing to spend tax money on is short — roads, schools and public safety.

The assembly eventually overrode his attempt to veto the money and included $150,000 in its budget for the program. We said at the time we disagreed with DeVilbiss’ stance on that issue, and we stick by that.

Secondly, we think the borough’s acceptance of the grant deserves notice because the nonprofits that get funding through the program deserve credit for the good they add to our community. The list of groups that received money in fiscal year 2010 include a pretty distinguished list of organizations that provide a safety net for our most vulnerable neighbors. Just to name a few:

• Wasilla Food Pantry.

• Mat-Su Services for Children and Adults.

• Access Alaska.

• Family Promise Mat-Su.

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Alaska.

• The Mat-Su Service District of the American Red Cross of Alaska.

Most of these nonprofits have something in common — they provide support to people here who most need it. Just to pick one example, the Red Cross gives food and shelter to people flooded or burned out of their homes. The Red Cross has proven itself more than capable of providing those services. We can’t imagine that the borough wants to take that duty on itself or that it could do the work more cheaply and efficiently than the Red Cross does.

Extending that logic to the rest of last year’s list, we’re pretty confident in saying that if these groups did not exist the cost to the borough would far exceed its $150,000 investment.

So thank you Mat-Su Borough Assembly and Mayor DeVilbiss for accepting these state grant dollars.

Apparently, applications were due from nonprofits by July 25, so we hope a good crop of candidates got their applications in and look forward to reading this year’s list of grantees.