Cost of ed takes focus

April 29, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - All sides say they support educating the children, they just haven't agreed how much that will cost.

On Tuesday, a crowd of Mat-Su Borough School District officials and their supporters filled the borough assembly chambers to reiterate the district's request for more funding from the borough.

The district's proposed budget requests more than $40 million from the borough for the upcoming school year - a $6 million increase over last year. Borough Manager John Duffy doesn't think the borough should go that far and has recommended that the assembly approve a $1.9 million increase.

School district officials, however, said they expect 897 more students next year, and their budget includes requests for approximately 92 new positions, including 71 new teaching positions. They also cited the growing cost of retirement benefits and the need to keep class sizes down, while maintaining programs for

troubled students.

School Board President Mike Chmielewski told assembly members that the school district's budget was aiming to enhance, not just maintain, education.

"Terms like 'status quo' or 'we can live with it' and so on don't do justice to what we are talking about," he said. "The dollar amounts that move here represent either additions or deletions of programs."

On Tuesday, assembly members stated their desire to fund Mat-Su schools but said they need to weigh education funding levels against the cost of running the rest of the borough. With borough assessments on single family homes up roughly 16 percent this year and taxes likely to increase, taxpayer burdens took center stage Tuesday.

"We just need to see how much we can afford," said assembly member Jim Colver, who began the meeting by telling school district officials that he was upset by their decision to launch a "media blitz" in the newspapers lambasting Duffy's budget recommendation.

Colver said the district actions were "bullying tactics" and had no place in budget discussions.

"I don't think it was appropriate to launch this discussion off the way it has happened," he said.

"From what I'm hearing, people are very scared that their assessed [property] values have gone up. We have to balance that against the needs of the school district."

According to Duffy's report, the district's request for $4 million more than his proposed budget would increase the mill rate by .81 mills, equivalent to a $162 dollar jump on a $200,000 home.

Borough Mayor Tim Anderson said the assembly's decision will be affected by the will of borough residents.

"We have to consider all the borough's needs," he said.

Anderson added that the assembly will listen carefully to the desires of borough residents at upcoming public hearings regarding the budget, but said he expects to hear more of the same, that people are upset about property assessments and the prospects of paying more taxes.

During his budget presentation, Duffy suggested a few ideas for alternative funding sources for the borough. Duffy floated the prospects of a 1$ a pack tobacco tax, a severance tax for gravel, timber and other materials extracted from the borough, as well as a possible one percent sales tax to help pay for voter approved bond debt.

"I don't see how we can fully fund [the district's budget] request on the backs of the homeowners," Colver said.

"I just think we have to look at all the options for revenue, and I don't think we can keep going to the homeowners every year and expect that we can keep doing that."

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@ frontiersman.com.