Assembly silent on vouchers, favors retirement pay-down

PALMER — In its efforts to tell the state Legislature what it thinks, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly has spoken out on fish allocations, the railroad and retirement benefits, but its members opted to remain mum on school vouchers.

Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss had put out a resolution voicing support for an amendment to the Alaska Constitution removing language in it that prohibits state funding for public schools. The potential for an amendment has devoured a lot of the news coverage surrounding this year’s legislative session.

But at Tuesday’s assembly meeting, the issue didn’t even elicit a discussion. The first thing the assembly did was vote on a motion from assemblyman Steve Colligan to yank the resolution from the consent agenda and table it indefinitely.

Assemblymen Jim Colver and Jim Sykes tried to prevent that.

“We brought this forward, I think we ought to consider it,” Colver said.

The only assemblyman they could get to their side was Matthew Beck. Colligan, Ron Arvin, Darcie Salmon and Vern Halter voted in favor of killing the resolution.

The only person to speak on the matter was former Wasilla City Council member, Dianne Woodruff.

“Anything that has to do with the one pot of money in Juneau and how it’s divided really deserves a full discussion,” she said, voicing concern that the assembly had put the resolution in the consent agenda, a portion of the agenda where items often pass without discussion.

The other pieces of legislation that moved forward include a resolution stating the borough’s support for any moves the state makes to increase salmon returns in Mat-Su and another in support of commuter rail between Anchorage, Mat-Su and the military base complex between the communities.

The legislative resolution that drew the most discussion offers support for Gov. Sean Parnell’s plan to take $3 billion out of savings and use it to pay down the state’s pension liability to its employees.

“This is a resolution crafted by (the Alaska Municipal League) encouraging all cities and boroughs to sign on,” Borough Manager John Moosey told the assembly.

Most of the discussion revolved around whether there is a risk that if the state made moves on the Public Employee Retirement System, the portion that the pays could change with the borough asked to pay a higher percentage.

“Is there a risk? Yes,” Moosey said. But the governor’s plan doesn’t include any changes to what the borough pays. “It’s to keep our current levels so that cities and boroughs can budget with consistent numbers going forward.”

A resolution in support of the governor’s pay-down plan eventually passed unanimously.

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