Mayor, council need a clue

To the editor:

Within this past year we have seen a change in the political makeup of the city of Wasilla, in that we have had elected a new mayor and several new council members.

Within a year of getting elected, we have watched them begin a huge controversy by threatening to annex a huge area outside the city limits to more than double the current size of the city. This is being done without any guiding vote by the residents of the targeted annexation area. And neither is there a petition to request annexation. It also is being done without any guiding vote by the residents inside the city who will see their tax revenues diluted by 50 percent with the doubling of the city’s size. This current city has been functioning quite nicely in its current state with no property tax and with a 2.5 percent sales tax. We have about 7,000 city residents, and the city has always been pretty much well run financially.

Recently, the new mayor and council have raised the new mayor’s salary by $1,000 per month, in his first year, to $84,000 per year.

The city recently began buying a commercial building in the city core area for $1.5 million to replace the library, without a vote of the residents to get their input. Instead, we see rushing to act before anyone wakes up.

We can all see this same mayor and council levying property taxes in the near future to pay for this big spending. Somebody ought to clue them in.

Michael A. Carson

Wasilla