Little-known facts about state, local politics

April 8, 2005

Spectrum/Anne Kilkenny

Did you know that Rep. Bill Stoltze voted for elimination of a proposed $37.5 million in aid to local governments, which would have provided property tax relief in the Mat-Su?

After this vote, another state legislator remarked, "This kind of cut, it's us shifting again the burden back down" onto local property tax payers.

Did you know that Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Mary Kvalheim is working on a property tax exemption for low-income seniors?

Did you know that Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Betty Vehrs has proposed some good legislation to regulate teen night clubs?

Did you know that the Mat-Su Borough Assembly is trying to relieve the burden on property tax payers by establishing a gravel-extraction fee?

Did you know that "Wasilla" Rep. Vic Kohring was absent when a committee he sits on voted on amendments to a school-funding bill that would have provided funding addressing the request of the school district?

Did you know that Valley Rep. Carl Gatto voted for an increase in school funding that he called "not enough" - and is less than our district has requested - after he voted against a greater increase? And that Valley legislators Mark Neuman, Bill Stoltze, Vic Kohring, Lyda Green and Charlie Huggins did the same?

After these votes, another legislator commented, "We heard the public, but we did not listen."

Did you know the $887 million the Legislature is proposing for education is just smoke and mirrors, and that the reality is that it does nothing to improve school funding for this coming year and contains no promises of improved funding in future years?

Did you know that state legislators seem to consider a gas pipeline a higher priority than relieving overcrowding at schools because they are delaying action on school bond debt-reimbursement proposals?

Did you know that the legislative majority is poised to increase spending from the earnings of the permanent fund by $7 million to pay some of the expenses of negotiating the gas pipeline? (Lawyers are expensive!)

Did you know that the Seward Meridian Road project is moving along so slowly that school bond money is going to have to be spent to build a temporary access road to the voc-tech high school?

Did you know that the ADOT Seward Meridian Road traffic projections don't include the traffic generated by the new voc-tech school or recently platted subdivisions, and assume only a 3-percent growth rate, rather than

4.77 percent, the growth rate for the last 15 years, according to Port MacKenzie officials, or the rate of traffic-volume increases (which exceed population growth rates)?

Did you know that Wasilla City Council Member Diana Straub no longer works in Juneau?

Did you know that 417 customers (about half) of Wasilla's water utility are being charged for more water than they use?

Did you know that Conoco Phillips has significantly distorted the findings of a recent study by the international consulting group Wood Mackenzie, bought by both Conoco Phillips and the state of Alaska? It shows Alaska's overall operation and tax costs are lower than in most places in the world. It also shows that with its low oil taxes, Alaska is more profitable than most places in the world.

Did you know that tax loopholes likely will cost Alaska more than $1 billion this year in lost oil revenues because significant quantities of oil are being given away to oil companies, tax free?

If you know these things, it's because you listen to the Legislature on your computer at http://www.ktoo.org/gavel/audio.cfm, and go to Wasilla City Council meetings like I do.

Anne Kilkenny is a Wasilla resident.