Borough Briefs

Hatcher Pass skiing

topic of debate

PALMER — It wasn’t a major expenditure — $20,000 to hire a project overseer — but the deliberation on money for the Hatcher Pass ski area project brought out a bit of how borough assembly members feel about the project.

“What I hear all the time is, ‘Yeah, it’d be great to have a ski resort up at Hatcher Pass, but how’re you going to pay for it?’” said Assemblywoman Michelle Church. “I’m not going to support spending any more money on it.”

Church later said that she’s all for a Nordic ski area, which she sees as a doable project, but not so much in favor of a downhill ski area.

Borough Manager John Duffy said the $20,000 is to pay a consultant — hopefully Ron Swanson, who has already done quite a lot of Hatcher Pass work for the borough — to oversee the borough’s work on an environmental impact statement and its work to build roads to the proposed Nordic ski area as well as to coordinate efforts with the state, which is doing its own study in the area.

Assemblyman Mark Ewing asked about the Nordic ski area proposed for the area and whether it will generate income for the borough.

Duffy said it’s too early to say if the area would even cover its costs. Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine said she never thought it would be a moneymaker.

“I don’t think any of us expect the Nordic ski area to pay, just like swimming pools and hockey rinks and parks,” she said.

Assembly members Lynne Woods and Tom Kluberton noted that Nordic ski areas often have benefits beyond just the fees for using the track.

Ski races in Talkeetna, his home district, tend to fill up every bed and occupy every business, Kluberton said.

Rob Wells, whose borough assembly seat represents the area encompassing the pass, said he supports the project and noted that downhill ski areas like the one proposed here — a day ski area serving local folks — tend to be more stable economically and better able to cover their costs than destination resorts.

Assembly still working on possible borough sales tax

PALMER — Work to get a sales tax proposal before voters of the borough proceeds apace.

The borough assembly met Tuesday to hammer out some specifics of the ordinance and pepper their finance department with questions. The proposal calls for a 3 percent tax coupled with property tax relief. The borough tax would be levied in addition to existing sales taxes in the cities of Houston, Palmer and Wasilla. The matter is planned for the borough’s October ballot.

Cheyenne Heindel, a financial analyst with the borough, said she was asked if there was any way the borough could share some of the tax revenue it collects with the cities.

“That might be seen as an attempt to raise their sales tax without voter approval so we couldn’t do that,” she said.

Heindel said the borough also needs to take a look at how it would tax real estate transactions — whether they would keep it to just taxing brokers in their area or taxing broker fees for parcels sold in the borough using agents operating outside its boundaries.

“I could see a lot of them moving their offices from the Valley to Eagle River or Anchorage just to get away from that tax,” said Assemblyman Mark Ewing.

Heindel said the borough, in addition to taking over tax collection duties from the cities, would have to take over delinquent accounts.

“What would the city’s recourse be if they honestly or validly thought we weren’t doing a good enough job collecting?” asked Assemblyman Pete Houston.

Borough Attorney Nick Spiropoulos said he’d have to get back to the assembly on that.

Spiropoulos was later asked if the borough could contract with the cities and have the cities collect the taxes in their areas. The attorney said that on a plain reading of state law he believes the borough could but said he has to do more research on the topic.

“Looks like I’ll be heading to the library this week,” he said.

The tax ordinance is next due before the assembly for a public hearing July 21.