Dare to Compare Rupright’s record with Gattis’ record

The Verne Rupright for State House District 7 campaign has been running a positive campaign, a nice break from all the negativity we’ve been seeing this political season.

Personally, I don’t even think this necessary as my husband’s record of accomplishments and his true open-door policy speak for themselves. But this is an avenue to address a question of concern to some and one of the main reasons for Verne to run as an independent.

My husband is in this race to most specifically try to put an end to the type of political posturing that is filling up the airwaves and your mailboxes. This is the exact posturing tactic that has us divided and distracted from the true issue: good government.

What does that look like? It looks like my husbands’ record. The cities financial books are open for all to see. Verne has indeed cut the Wasilla City budget operations 19 percent.

During the past six years, the city sales tax revenue was below the Cost of Living due to the downturn of the economy beginning in 2008. It has taken five years for the economy to catch up and now just begin to start to match up with the inflation rate. One of those years, the sales tax growth was barely 1 percent! With no property tax instituted, and half of the sales tax reduced as promised (and early).

The other cost driver is personnel. There are personnel increases annually due to contracts. The first year of Verne’s administration budget was set by the previous administration, that budget (08-09) saw a substantial increase due to union contracts coming in for the first time, having been voted in 2007.

Yet Verne still managed to cut 5.9 percent out of that operations budget. My husband managed to cut more out every year — to the tune of 19 percent. Again, the books are open. This last budget cycle there was a whopping 14 percent increase in health care costs for personnel due to national health care changes. That is a word of warning to you all — the full effects haven’t kicked in yet. In the face of these huge financial obstacles my husband did what was right — cut the budget and still built more infrastructure and improved more community amenities in six years than I dare anyone to compare. He also put more money in the city reserve.

As for political posturing, my husband just doesn’t do it. He was re-elected as mayor while having to increase the water/sewer rates with the-then city council in his first term because they needed to be increased. There had not been but two very minor increases in 12 years and the enterprise fund was depleted. Otherwise, everyone who pays city sales tax, including non-city residents, was paying for sewer and water users’ service.

That is not how an enterprise fund works. It is set up as its own fund to provide to the people who receive that service through rate fees. Any kind of substantial water or sewer disaster would have broken the back of the city budget similar to what happened in Palmer. My husband caught flack for this decision during his second run for mayor, but he did what was right during his first term no matter the political consequences.

Lastly, I want to mention one more thing — forward funding. Last October, the city of Wasilla residents voted in the one percent sales tax for the new Wasilla Library. It will break ground in spring 2015. It is to be built with no debt incurred which is an incredible thing — a very original idea. Ideally, the one cent should have been split 50/50 and 50 percent restricted to forward funding all of Wasilla’s infrastructure needs.

This plan would have carried Wasilla for another 15 to 20 years without a city property tax being imposed. That plan was killed off by guess what? Political posturing!

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how future administrations and councils deal with financing for infrastructure improvements — and the increased operational funds necessary to keep them operational.

Wasilla is still the jewel, no, in fact the envy of the state with her finances. No property tax. Only two percent base on the first $500 of purchase sales tax. No lay-offs or decreased services. Who does that? Only my husband, Verne Rupright.