Borough Assembly candidate proposes a plan of action

Spectrum, by Helene Antel

I will not be a member of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly that just sat by while the coal-bed methane industry jeopardized our Valley way of life.

I will not support drilling without the property owners' permission, and not unless the property owner shares in the profits.

I will not support coal-bed methane drilling if any recreational or residential property, water or other natural resources are placed at risk, or if local residents will be tormented by noise or eyesores.

I will not support continued delay by the assembly about a problem that has virtually the entire community concerned.

I do support growth and economic development, although we need to reach consensus soon about what kind of community we'd like to be 30 years from now. The borough cannot continue to fund local government on the backs of local property-tax payers. Diversification of our tax base is essential.

Tourism will help the Valley become more accessible to visitors and year-round residents. More trails for hikers, skiers and snowmachiners, more accommodations, restaurants, galleries and athletic events will enhance what we already have to offer.

The growing health-care industry, construction and the residential housing market will continue to put local people to work in good jobs. New businesses will add additional revenue to the borough's budget, but reliance upon business property-tax increases alone is not wise or fair. We have to make the Valley more, rather than less, attractive to new business owners.

Full funding of the school district's budget is appropriate and necessary, but there are other things the assembly can and should do to support quality education in the Mat-Su.

The school district and assembly need to embrace forward funding, and start budgeting for more than one year at a time. The borough and school district should adopt the same budget cycle.

Consolidated purchasing among individual schools, the school district and the borough should be pursued with a passion. A great deal of wasteful duplication of effort and services exists and should be eliminated. The workplace stress created by the Draconian approach to human resources and personnel management practiced by the chief administrative officer of the school district and his administrative staff is only making a bad situation worse.

There are several important decisions to make Oct. 5. In addition to the school board and assembly races, a proposed 1-percent sales tax is on the ballot. Clearly it's a stop-gap solution, but if the community wants more services than the current level of funding will permit, the tax should be approved. If the proposed sales tax is not approved by the voters and I am chosen to serve on the assembly, I will not try to force services on the community that the community does not want to pay for. I will not spend the borough into the red.

I was born in a low-income housing project in the South Bronx of New York City. That's a polite way of saying a not-so-bad slum. The public education system found and refined me. I made it out of the neighborhood. After law school, I looked for a place of beauty, where the government had not yet regulated the excitement out of life. In 1978, I fell in love with Alaska. In 1988, Palmer became home and I became a mother and an independent small-business woman with a successful home-office law practice.

I am a past member of the United Way of Mat-Su and Alaska Family Resource Center boards, and a 2001 national gold medalist in tae kwon do -- an honor I am very proud of.

I am currently a member of the Mat-Su Board of Adjustment and Appeals and a volunteer government teacher at Academy Charter School. I served on the Mat-Su School Board from 1998 to 2002.

I have been a guest speaker at numerous local, state and national conferences. I've also served as assistant municipal attorney for the city of Anchorage, and as a state prosecutor. I am admitted to practice law before Alaska's state and federal courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Choices between candidates are always difficult. There are two things about me you can rely on. I will call it like I see it and I will not spend three years in office running for re-election. Please vote for me Oct. 5. It's not about me, it's about us.

Helene Antel is a candidate for Mat-Su Borough Assembly District 2.