Borough budget gets mild reception

WASILLA — As the Mat-Su Borough prepares its 2009 fiscal year budget, the process so far has been relatively calm.

At the first public comment session April 24, eight people spoke about the Borough’s proposed budget. A second meeting this past week drew slightly more than a dozen residents looking to talk budget, most there to talk about schools.

Officials meet again at 6 p.m. Thursday in assembly chambers to work on the Borough budget.

Leslie Overland, a mother of students at Tanina Elementary School who also works as a resource monitor there, said she supports an increase in the Mat-Su Borough School District’s budget to fund half-time counselors for elementary schools.

As a recess monitor, “Students have spoken to me about parents who are in jail for drug use, seeing their stepfathers abuse their mothers,” Overland said.

Counselors could help address these issues, she said.

The fiscal year 2009 proposed budget, which the Borough reports is very similar to 2008’s, comes in at $282 million with $188 million of that going to the Mat-Su Borough School District.

The budget also recommends a hike in property taxes over last year. Borough Manager John Duffy has said that amounts to an increase of $100 for the average Borough home, defined as one valued at $225,000. In terms of the mill rate, it’s a .62-mill increase.

Other testimony came in favor of adding a clerical position to reduce the workload of special education teachers and literacy coaches to provide reading help at small elementary schools. Large elementary schools already have the coaches.

A handful of folks testified on topics other than schools.

Johnny Murdock with the Borough’s Department of Emergency Services said he supports items in the budget that would add positions to the department. He said the Borough’s ratio of paid-on-call-to-career employees is staggering.

“You have roughly 30 people supporting 500,” Murdock said. “What we need is to improve that ratio.”

Casey Ressler with the Mat-Su Convention and Visitor’s Bureau advocated raising the share of bed taxes handed over to the bureau.

“The more people we get to come here, the smaller percentage of the bed tax we get,” Ressler said.

Emerson Kruger said he testified as a private resident, rather than in his capacity as a planner for the Borough. He advocates a plan to move to paperless records management at the Borough.

The Borough chews through 10 tons of paper each year, which equals 312 trees, he said. He advocates moving to reduce that amount to 156 trees through an electronic record management system.

The Borough assembly has until May 30 to pass a budget for fiscal year 2009.

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