Borough fees ruffle Wasilla council's feathers

WASILLA -- In a Monday meeting, Wasilla city council member Noel Lowe criticized the Mat-Su Borough Assembly's refusal to waive a borough policy that charges administrative fees when state grant dollars are accepted by the borough and subsequently granted to local governments.

In funding jargon, the grant in question is called a "pass-through grant" -- in this case the grant was appropriated by the Alaska Legislature in the amount of $32,500 for Wasilla's Armed Forces Honor Garden, a project council members say is close to their hearts. In this case the borough charged an administrative fee of $2,800 and will write Wasilla a check for $29,700.

"I'm not against the borough's policy of having administrative fees for pass-through grants," council member Noel Lowe said the next day. What irked Lowe was the borough assembly's decision not to waive fees for this particular grant, because it was for a project that recognizes veterans and members of the U.S. armed forces.

The topic came up during assembly member Dan Kelly's presentation to the city council on borough affairs. Lowe and council member Dianne Keller both wanted to know if Kelly had asked the assembly to waive the fee. Kelly said he had, and while he didn't defend the assembly's decision not to waive the fee, he did speak briefly about the borough government as a whole.

"It isn't like the borough is made up of a bunch of evil people trying to rob you," Kelly told the council.

According to the Mat-Su Borough finance department, the schedule for administrative fees on pass-through grants starts at 10 percent for the first $10,000 and goes down from there. The fees on grants are assessed according to a schedule that charges a base amount plus a percentage rate for grants within six specific ranges. The honor garden grant is in the second range -- $10,001 to $50,000 -- and was charged a base fee of $1,000 plus 8 percent of the grant amount. The schedule's lowest percentage fees are for grants of more than $200,001, which are charged $10,200 plus 0.5 percent.

The borough's schedule for state grant audit and administration fees has not changed since 1989. Prior to the 1989 change the borough charged a flat fee of 1 percent for each grant.