Mayor seeks to continue sales tax increase

WASILLA — Construction on the new Wasilla library is underway, but city council members will decide two lingering issues from the run up to its construction at their regular Monday meeting.

Wasilla city council members will first consider a resolution putting a permanent 1 percent increase in the sales tax before the voters. Voters had approved a temporary increase from 2 percent to 3 percent in order to set aside $15 million for the new library, which combined with an ongoing capital campaign and various grant sources will cover the cost of library construction. A separate resolution would established a closed-bid process for the Meta-Rose Square building, originally purchased as a prospective library, but eventually determined to be structurally inadequate for the purpose.

Citing numerous anticipated capital works projects in the near future, Mayor Bert Cottle will introduce an ordinance seeking to put the question on the ballot at the council meeting Monday.

Wasilla “has experienced an increase (in) operating costs, and additional operating costs are expected when the new library opens in 2016,” Cottle wrote, in a summary statement for the ordinance. “The current 3 percent is sufficient to fund capital improvement projects and operational increases of the City for many years. The City finds that maintaining its current sales tax rate is a more equitable method of raising additional revenue than an increase in property tax, since a sales tax will be borne by all resident and non-resident users of City assets.”

Cottle also pointed to looming decreases in the availability of the federal and state funds to help with city operations and capital improvements.

The increase would provide an additional $6 million in revenue each year, according to an accompanying financial statement.

Among the $85 million in possible capital projects Cottle mentions in the supporting materials are:

• $28 million for two airport projects, including a $12-million apron improvement and a $16 million runway extension.

• $12.6 million for a new train station.

• $10 million to extend sewage and water service to existing city neighborhoods at about $1 million per mile, per line.

• $8.7 million to pave 15 miles of gravel roads in residential areas, including 8 miles needing additional replacements.

• $6 million to cover the cost of improvements for the Downtown Overlay District, recently referred back to the Planning and Zoning Commission amid opposition from local business owners. Improvements would include: sidewalks and lighting. One sticking point among business owners opposing the district was that some share of the costs of sidewalk and lighting improvements would be born by business owners.

• $2.4 million to replace five miles of aging pavement in the next three years.

• $1.7 million to construct almost a mile of new paved road from Endeavor Street to Center Point Subdivision.

Both measures have faced questioning or some opposition in the past. Councilman Stu Graham has said at past meetings he wanted to see the question of the sale of Meta-Rose Square revisited.

And at least one member — councilwoman Colleen Sullivan-Leonard — has penned opposition to making the tax increase permanent. Voters would not have approved the tax increase in October 2013, if they had known it could potentially have been permanent, she said. The total amount needed to fund the library has not yet been collected, but officials were already asking for more money, thus damaging the city’s credibility, Sullivan-Leonard suggested.

“The mayor’s ordinance 15-20 has a long wish list of capital projects that have not gone through a vetting process or feasibility study to back them up,” she wrote, in a letter to the editor published in the June 26, Frontiersman. “The most important issue is that our reputation at the city is now questioned, and our reputation is now tarnished, just by bringing this tax issue forward for consideration.”

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.