Borough assembly passes 2017 budget

PALMER — While the property tax mill rate will remain the same across the borough, some Mat-Su Borough property owners will pay more for fire service this year.

The area-wide and non-area-wide mill rates will remain fixed at 9.984 mills and 0.525 mills, respectively, for the fiscal year 2017 budget, which the Mat-Su Borough Assembly passed without objection Thursday night. However, rates for the Central Mat-Su and West Lakes fire districts will increase.

A mill is a property tax unit equal to $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. For example, a house with an assessed value of $100,000 would thus pay a $998.40 area-wide property tax bill.

The Central Mat-Su Fire Department includes the area surrounding the City of Wasilla and the West Lakes Fire Department includes the combined areas of Meadow Lakes and Big Lake.

Both increases came at the request of the local areas. The Central Mat-Su Fire Service Area board of supervisors voted to increase its mill rate from 1.99 to 2.15, while the West Lakes Fire Service Area supervisors voted to increase its mill rate from 1.92 to 2.2 mills. Assemblyman Dan Mayfield added both increases as the last budget amendment of the evening.

The borough assembly voted 6-1 to grant both increases. Assemblyman George McKee voted against both measures.

McKee said he opposed the mill rate increases because of the lack of public participation in the assembly process.

“I object to this, for this reason and this reason alone,” he said. “We have seven people up here who are going to vote on raising the mill rate for these people, and I don’t see a single one of them out there. I don’t see a letter. I don’t see anyone saying they’ve contacted the people in that area and that they’re in here saying ‘Yeah, please increase my mill rate.’ It looks like to me like we’re acting like emperors, and I wasn’t elected to be an emperor.”

Without the increase, planned expansions in facilities and replaced equipment in either fire service area would have been postponed, said Department of Emergency Services director Bill Gamble.

“We still have 1980s vintage fire trucks out there that we have to replace,” he said. “I know West Lakes has not built a new fire station since the late 1990s. In fact, the last station that they built is no more than a warm storage building. It has no office space, no training facilities. They desperately need to build a central, main fire station.”

Without improvements in equipment, the department’s rating by the International Organization for Standardization means local homeowners could pay more to ensure their properties, Department of Emergency Services officials testified.

The assembly also voted 5-2 to contribute a $100,000 grant toward the estimated $260,000 cost of hiring two new entry-level police officers for the Palmer and Wasilla police departments.

The two new officers will boost patrol numbers, allowing either department to assign a veteran officer to the Alaska State Trooper-supervised Mat-Su Drug Enforcement Unit, according to Wasilla mayor Bert Cottle. Assembly members made the grant contingent on the cities’ ability to raise an additional $100,000 in funding, which Cottle has said the cities intend to do.

Assembly members Dan Mayfield and McKee voted against adding the money to the budget. McKee objected to the total cost, while Mayfield voted against the measure after his competing amendment, which would have pulled funds for the cops from the about-$800,000 budgeted for the M/V Susitna, failed to gain passage.

Budget deliberations this year officially began May 9 and concluded on May 12. In contrast, budget deliberations in 2015 began on May 12 and — including debate over a mayoral veto — lasted until May 28. Borough mayor Vern Halter said he was pleased by both the quick process and the end result and he has no plans to issue a mayoral veto.

“I’m real pleased with the budget and the budget process,” he said. “It went very smoothly.”

For more, visit the borough online at matsugov.us.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.