Assembly postpones permanent registration vote, again

BIG LAKE — Amid concerns that it would adversely impact service district budgets that provide road maintenance and fire protection, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly decided delay until November a proposal to allow motorists to permanently register older vehicles.

Although vehicle registration is something the state does, that revenue is distributed to municipalities like the borough. So, when Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, put together legislation allowing vehicles older than eight years to receive a slightly more expensive permanent registration and not have to re-register every other year, he had to make it conditional. Municipalities have to sign off.

Were Mat-Su to sign off on a permanent registration, it would be the first municipality in the state to do so. Assemblyman Jim Colver proposed that Mat-Su do that, but his assembly colleagues worried about the move’s consequences for the budget.

“I guess the question is if we’re terminating the tax on the vehicles, yes it saves borough residents money but the governor’s (budget is) $2.5 billion in the hole and we may have a similar situation for our own budget next year,” Assemblyman Jim Sykes said of the proposal.

Assemblyman Vern Halter said that permanent registration might seem like a good deal to vehicle owners but it would just shift costs. Road service areas that receive a lot of the borough’s vehicle registration money would increase their mill rates.

“The property tax on your road service area is just going to go up to pay for the loss of revenue from the vehicle taxes,” Halter said.

He pointed out that “the big board” — borough-speak for a board made up of delegates from each of the local road service area boards of supervisors that meets regularly for borough-wide road maintenance issues — unanimous opposed the permanent registration idea.

Borough Finance Director Tammy Clayton told the assembly that between 60 percent 65 percent of the vehicles in Mat-Su would qualify for the exemption.

Colver maintained it was a good idea.

“The question for the assembly is should people registering their vehicles be subsidizing the areawide fund,” he said.

He also brought to the table fixes he said would restore some of that money to the road service areas. Colver wasn’t able to make up all the money but, he pointed out, the assembly had bumped up the amount the RSAs receive from the registration fees twice in the past year. The RSAs had received $3 per person in the district. That rate increased to $8 in 2013 and then, recently, to $11. He said that, with his fixes, that second increase would disappear.

“We went from $3 to $8 to $11 and now we’re back to $8,” he said.

And Colver did have some supporters. Assemblyman Steve Colligan said that the cost isn’t just in having to pay the fee it’s also in inconvenience. Folks in far-flung areas of the borough have to spend time and gas money getting to Palmer to pay their fees.

“There’s a cost to the public of doing business with the government,” he said. For residents of a place like Talkeetna, “you’ve got at least $30 in gas every time you’re back and forth.”

And then there’s just the cost in inconvenience.

“It irks me every year when I have to register a trailer that I use once or twice a year to drag a block down the street,” he said.

The assembly postponee action on the matter until Nov. 19.

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