Matching grants funds vital to Valley nonprofits

To the editor:

I am dismayed by the Mat-Su Borough mayor’s proposal to eliminate borough funding for the Human Services Community Matching Grant Program — a vital resource for non-profit organizations that provide invaluable services to Valley residents whose needs would otherwise go unmet. The program helps meet needs for food, emergency shelter, crisis intervention, senior services, assistance for abused women and children and more.

The majority of funds (70 percent) for the grant program come from the state of Alaska, while borough monies account for the remaining 30 percent. The state allotments are fully contingent upon local participation. No borough buy-in means no state funds for the already-stretched budgets of organizations that contribute so much to the well-being of Mat-Su individuals and families. The state has a responsibility to ensure its residents that state tax dollars are well spent. Accordingly, it is reasonable and prudent for the state to expect financial participation from spending stakeholders. In the case of the Mat-Su Borough Human Services Community Matching Grant, the stakeholders are the taxpayers of Mat-Su. In essence, it makes no more sense for the state to “throw good money after bad” than it does for the borough to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

In 2010, according to its annual report, the borough’s contribution to the program under discussion was $128,000, or roughly .03 percent of total borough expenditures. Every business and every household feels the anxiety of making tough budgetary and investment decisions. Is leaving state money for this program on the table a good investment decision for a community that cares about its members? Let’s be sure that we make the right call on this one.

Danny Preston Gray

Volunteer board member,

Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Agency of Alaska