Assembly ponders borough budget

WASILLA — It’s that time of year again at the borough — budget season.

Like most years, now is the time when interested parties tend to show up at borough assembly meetings advocating for an increase in one area or another.

At the meeting Thursday night, folks representing animal control and the libraries showed up. There were also teachers and parents — lots of parents.

The assembly members haven’t yet set a budget. They plan to go over the numbers in a work session Saturday and then debate changes at a meeting Tuesday.

As far as education is concerned, the borough is looking at a proposed budget that gives $46,108,048 to schools, which bumps the borough contribution about $1 million higher than last year. The school district had put forward a budget asking for an increase of $10 million. Borough Manager John Duffy said previously that such a raise would break the borough’s tax cap.

Tracy Magnon, an eighth-grade teacher at Teeland Middle School and a parent of a student there, came to say she supports full funding of education. She cited the importance of after school activities and a need to keep class size low.

“Class size is one of the most critical factors in a quality education,” Magnon said.

Dana Deedy, another parent, also advocated for full funding. Assemblyman Pete Houston asked if she’d be willing to see her property taxes go up 2 percent to pay the schools bill.

Deedy said she felt she was probably alone in her convictions but that she would gladly pay the taxes. A number of hands rose behind her to signal audience members’ agreement.

“I guess I’m not alone,” she said.

As for Animal Care and Regulation, the chair of the borough’s advisory board for the department, John Wood, said the board has asked for two new positions.

He said that in the current economic environment, he expects an up-tick in animals coming to the shelter.

“People no longer have disposable income to take care of the pets they already have,” he said.

He also pointed out that with the new shelter, the department is at something of a crossroads and the increased funding would push it in the right direction.

“You’re on the cusp of really developing a top-notch operation here,” he said.

Money for animal care and libraries comes out of the same fund. Katherine Martin-Albright with the Wasilla Library said she was hoping for an increase as well, to keep books on the shelves and maintain the library’s phone lines. Asked by Assemblyman Mark Ewing where she would propose the borough make a cut to offset a hike in library funding, she pointed to Animal Care and Regulation.

“If they’re on the verge of becoming a state-of-the-art facility, borough libraries are far from state of the art,” she said.

Another pair of audience members similarly testified on both sides of the same issue. Every year, most bed tax revenue collected in the borough is split between the Mat-Su Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and a grant program to build tourism infrastructure. The assembly decides what that split will be.

Karen Harris, president of the MSCVB’s board of directors, said she favors the split as currently written.

Dewey Taylor, who sits on the board that hands out those infrastructure grants, said that in his view the current split will “gut” the infrastructure grants program. He believed it would reduce the money available from $150,000 to $30,000.

Pointing to the hundreds of applications the program receives each year, he said, “obviously this is a very popular program.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.