Borough budget process sparks many questions

Editor’s note: This letter was sent to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and read as public comment during a Mat-Su Borough budget hearing May 2.

To the editor:

Mr. Mayor, assembly, staff. (I’m) Patricia Rosnel (and) I am here to comment on the fiscal year 2014 borough budget public process and the need for amendment to Ordinance 13-013, to reflect good government, economic budgeting and the best interests of our borough community.

Aside from individual issues, why are borough residents not actively engaged in the full spectrum of budget issues that concern them? Where is the interactive balance-the-budget game at the borough website? Where are the riveting videos with background audio and voiceovers from the Public Affairs Office that has often enough shared with us their prizewinning multiple port and rail productions? What is the mysterious $27.5 million balance missing from Tuesday’s Frontiersman article?

Direction is set by governance, yet where is your reflection of Valley resident vision translated into clear budget direction? What good is “open for business” if that business doesn’t contribute its fair share and more to make this borough better for all — something small local businesses do naturally, recognizing that good for customers is good for community and good for profits, too. With all your current focus on economic development, and nearly all of you businessmen yourselves, how have you missed this very key economic concept?

Where is your recognition of changing circumstances and your flexibility to adapt or step down? Bullying through expensive long-term projects is unproductive when we need immediate flexible solutions from a menu of alternatives, including the nontraditional, ecological, low-impact, low-cost and maybe even at-home.

Clearly, our experienced borough manager was not allowed even a first budget draft without political intervention. How can we reconcile your insistence on a flat area-wide mill rate and unchanging staff size with increasing costs, increasing population and with our consistently growing economic health described by state economist Neal Fried? How do you justify not investing in core economic development activities of education and libraries, keeping residents safe from infection at public pools, even providing the relatively small match to attract state funds for local human services? We are reminded that our manager serves at the pleasure of the assembly, and we note your string of secret executive session evaluations when we might instead be reading your publicly accessible memo directives to him.

I shall in the morning provide you with a three-page list of specific budget recommendations. By changing focus and direction, we can maintain or even increase service and sustainability, and provide real economic development without incurring unmanageable debt.

Patricia Rosnel

Palmer