Assembly making critical decisions with your taxpayer dollars

Why should anyone bother to vote in the upcoming Mat-Su Borough Assembly races? Your taxpayer dollars that are spent by the borough affect our daily lives in meaningful ways.

We face tough decisions to provide excellent education for our kids, ensure emergency and fire services, invite positive economic growth with good jobs, and maintain our roads and public structures. Who makes those decisions needs to be involved with their community, use good problem solving skills and have the ability to work well with people who deserve a strong voice in an open and transparent process. That is my background and now that I am newly retired, I have the time to do the job well.

My community problem-solving began in the roadless area northeast of Talkeetna in the mid-1980s. People felt steamrolled by the then-federal railroad, the state and borough. I helped form a community council that gave new strength to people’s voices. Then I chaired the first borough community plan and signed-on Talkeetna Community radio.

All of these projects involved listening to a very wide cross section of ideas and opinions, then getting facts, finding workable options and arriving at a good decision. I have used this process in professional and public life where success is best accomplished by inviting people to consider all workable ideas to solve a particular problem. We need more of this at the borough.

The M/V Susitna ferry could cost borough taxpayers many millions of dollars. Actually, the assembly voted to sell the ferry a year ago, but we still have it. Yet, the borough appears confused and indecisive.

We really need to end our Susitna ferry tale and get real — real facts and a real cost/benefit analysis where we can compare the options side-by-side and see what the actual costs will be. Then we can make a reasonable decision instead of floating around in a sea of rudderless ideas.

If we decide to sell it, I am ready to work with our delegation to get us off the federal financial hook. The navy normally builds these kinds of experimental vessels then scraps them after the testing. Maybe that is the eventual fate for this very interesting multi-use, but expensive, vessel.

We need better financial accountability and the borough checkbook needs to be online. After last fall’s flooding, we discovered millions of dollars had been drained from emergency funds and other reserve accounts. So where did the money go? Somebody probably knows, but it isn’t widespread public knowledge. If we had the borough checkbook online everyone could see where out taxpayer dollars are spent with the click of a mouse.

Accountability is also at stake in the current ballot proposal for a 5 percent tax on alcohol. Proponents say that the taxes raised will help pay for health-related problems. As one who has worked for better community health I like the idea of more money for it.

However, our second-class borough doesn’t have authority over health matters. The funds are really general funds that can be spent somewhere else, as in the case of the disappearing contingency funds. Since we don’t have the checkbook online yet, it’s not clear how the funds will actually be spent even with all the good intent. Again, the borough checkbook needs to be online.

We need to listen to people with local knowledge and respect our many unique communities. Since my wife and I built our straw bale home on Lazy Mountain in 1999, I’ve been lucky to talk with lots of old-timers. With recent Matanuska River flooding and erosion, lots of interesting facts and stories have come my way about influencing where the river runs.

Channeling and dredging, used in the past, need to be back on the table for reconsideration. At least the Butte community was united against a recent proposal that was not well thought out by the borough and that’s a start toward amplifying the community voice to reach a good solution.

My community involvement in the recent past included Lazy Mountain Community Council president, chairing the Mat-Su Borough Ethics Board and being a member of the Alaska Energy Authority’s Railbelt Energy Advisory Group for several years. I bring useful experience to the assembly table.

I look forward to building more meaningful relationships with our neighbors in Anchorage, Denali and Fairbanks boroughs and continue our good relationships with policymakers and legislators at the state and federal levels.

Please visit SykesforAssembly.com or the Facebook page for more information on other issues and background. Call me anytime at 354-6962.

Please be involved in your community and borough. I would appreciate your vote on Oct. 1. Let’s keep our Valley the best possible place to live.

Jim Sykes is a candidate for the seat representing District 1 on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly.