Borough tax rate nears 10 mills

PALMER — Educators lauded the Mat-Su Borough Assembly Wednesday for adding roughly $1.4 million in funding for education, even as members grappled with possible additional expenditures and fee increases.

The budget’s proposed mill rate for fiscal year also approached 10 mills for the first time since 2009 when the mill rate was 10.326.

The budget has not yet been adopted, and none of its provisions will take effect until at least next week, when additional deliberations are scheduled. Any provisions could potentially face a mayoral veto, which could be overridden by a majority vote of the assembly.

The budget was not approved by the end of a second day of budget deliberations May 13. The next budget meeting is May 20.

A mill is a property tax unit representing $1,000 of assessed property value. A house assessed at $200,000 would pay $2,000 under a 10-mill rate.

By the end of the meeting after all of the budget additions had been considered, the mill rate stood at 9.981, meaning the owner of that same $200,000 property would pay $1,996.20 toward the borough’s areawide services portion of the property tax bill, the largest component of local property tax bills. The borough manager’s original proposed mill rate was 9.815.

The assembly added $900,000 eight personnel to the borough’s ambulance service, which passed after prolonged discussion Monday.

Discontent over the present state of the ambulance service drew tough questions from assembly members. Newly appointed fire chief Bill Gamble told the assembly all ambulance services outside of the borough’s core service area — roughly consisting of Palmer, Central, and West Lakes fire departments — are presently staffed only by part-time employees.

When District 3 Assemblyman Ron Arvin asked if he would rather have $500,000 for more equipment or more people, Gamble said both may ultimately be required.

“I think we’re talking apples and oranges,” Gamble said. “If we don’t have those ambulances that don’t respond strategically in Trapper Creek and Sutton and we’re just responding with full-time staff out of the core area, our response times will be … ridiculous.”

Arvin asked Gamble to clarify that there are no full-time ambulance employees outside of the core area.

“That’s correct,” Gamble replied.

The measure was postponed, but would have pushed the mill rate over the 10-mill mark.

Assembly members tabled a provision to allow the school system to carry over 100 percent of its unreserved fund balance from the previous year, which amounts to an additional $1.5 million in funding for the district. That measure was postponed by a 6-1 vote on a motion from Arvin.

Assembly members passed several Parks and Recreation measures in a lump on an amendment proposed by District 1 Assemblyman Jim Sykes, including improvements for the Alcantra soccer fields ($40,000), a new parks and vehicle ($30,000) to replace the current 1980s-vintage pickup, and equipment fixes at the Birch Harbor subdivision park ($20,000).

The measures came even as borough officials received a memo showing that state-funded revenue components of the borough’s budget (including the Payment In Lieu of Taxes) could be reduced in the next two years. That amount is presently set at $3.4 million. State revenue sharing also is expected to be eliminated by 2019.

Local reductions could create hardships as well. The repeal of the Motor Vehicle Tax will account for about $1.7 million in revenue, according to a memo by borough finance director Tammy Clayton. A Senior Citizen and Disabled Veteran Exemption passed this year will cost the borough about $1.6 million.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.