Borough's funding challenges explained

May 6, 2005

Spectrum/Jim Colver

With the budget process in full swing, the debate over how to spend the public's money is heating up again. This piece sheds some light on how we got here, and the challenge the Mat-Su Borough faces funding local services and schools.

Our state government is flush with cash this year, but inaction on solving the state budget fiscal gap over the past decade has your local government trying to climb out of a crevasse as costs have been passed on to you.

In spite of soaring oil revenue, the state no longer funds mandated services at the local level. This means all costs for borough operations, including fire, road maintenance and emergency services, are now completely funded by Mat-Su property owners.

In addition, you are picking up the tab for unfunded mandates such as the $6 million in senior tax exemptions, which are mandated but not funded by the state.

You are also helping fund the Valley's growth. It costs the borough about $2,300 per student. The average single-family dwelling raises about that much in property taxes. If a family with two children moves to the borough, it creates a $2,300 deficit, just to fund education.

Given our current method of school funding, growth isn't paying its own way. That is not all. Our state troopers have not been adequately funded, so, no surprise, state leaders are looking to local taxpayers again.

It's fair to expect residents to fund critical services in their communities and to keep important functions afloat. But you can only let so much helium out of the balloon before it won't even support its own weight.

What's all the commotion about the school budget? The fact is, no existing tenured or nontenured teachers or other personnel are being cut. The school district wants more funding to hire 101 teachers. That number includes 31 replacements for retiring or departing teachers and about 57 additional positions to respond to the projected enrollment growth.

It's important to point out that the replacement teachers will begin at a significantly lower salary than the retirees they're replacing. It's also important to note that

even under the borough manager's proposed budget, the district still gains 13

new positions. No one will be laid off.

It's very important that everyone understands where we are in the process right now - and that the process is working as it should. The borough manager and finance director prepared a proposed budget for the assembly - as they are required to do. They did

it according to ordinance.

The assembly now must take that proposal under consideration (using it like a working model) and determine what the final budget will actually look like.

To do that, we will consider the manager's proposal, the school district's requests, the cost of running the rest of the government, and the burden upon local taxpayers - which, in our case, are property owners.

While the assembly has always been extremely supportive of education, it also has to be responsive and accountable to taxpayers. Last year, voters again rejected a borough sales tax. Property assessments rose dramatically this year, and the state is no longer funding mandated services and programs at the local level.

We care about the parents of schoolchildren. We also care about grandparents. Those parents and grandparents are also taxpayers - we represent them as parents, citizens and grandparents, and we have to find a balance that works for all of them.

Children must have good schools to attend, but we also have to ensure the roads are safe for the buses that take them to school, and that emergency services are available if they're injured. In providing all of that, we can't forget that it's taxpayers in our community who are footing the bill.

The only way we can get this right is if we hear from our constituents. I hope thoughtful people will attend the public hearings on May 5 and May 12 and take part in this critical process.

Jim Colver, deputy borough mayor, serves on the assembly, representing north Wasilla and north Palmer.