Palmer City Council goes on record opposing sales tax for schools

PALMER — After an approximate one-hour discussion, the Palmer City Council officially came out on record opposing the borough’s proposed 3 percent sales tax. The action came at Tuesday evening’s regular session following a Committee of the Whole session.

With the passage of a substitute version of Resolution 14-025, Palmer is the first city in the borough to speak out either way on a borough ordinance, which if passed by the assembly, would allow Mat-Su voters to decide on the tax primarily focused on shoring up the Mat-Su Borough School District (MSBSD). In making the decision, most councilmembers made it clear they were not opposed to supporting the district or education. Reasons for opposing the tax ran the gamut from a ‘tax is not the right avenue’ to the borough is rushing the question before doing its homework, to the borough playing ‘Chicken Little’ and ‘trying to take the easy way out.’

Monica Goyette, MSBSD superintendent, addressed the council but not as an agenda item, rather under public comment as she was aware the resolution was on the meeting’s agenda. She reviewed some of the reasons why the district had to cut $13 million from the upcoming school year’s budget and answered some of the more heard questions related to the cuts.

Goyette also noted that it is her board’s intention to seek a two-cent sales tax, not the three as the borough is considering to be put before the public.

“We ask to allow the voters to choose whether or not they support education,” Goyette told the council. She said the district isn’t asking for a windfall but simply the same education as a student in Fairbanks or Anchorage.

Deputy Mayor Linda Combs began discussion noting that she requested a draft resolution so the topic could be brought forth for discussion in a timely manner.

“I want to make it clear right from the very start, my intention has nothing to do whether or not it is a good idea to fund our education. (MSBSD) is an awesome school district,” said Combs.

Combs said she had problems with the current form of the borough’s ordinance on the topic. Combs said there were far too many disparities with the ordinance, as written.

“In my estimation, any new legislation that has to be greatly amended before (approved) really needs to be redone from day one in order to be put in front of the voters,” Combs said.

Combs said the ordinance needs to be “very transparent and very, very clear” and felt it contained too many things that could be interpreted in more than one manner. The deputy mayor said she had been personally contacted by several business owners adding some are “greatly concerned about some of the language not being very clear”. Combs said she felt a tax would be a burden on young families and seniors adding she sincerely felt increasing the existing city sales tax would be devastating to some.

Like Combs, Councilman Steve Carrington noted the City of Palmer very much in favor of education noting “…we were the school district back in territorial days.” He said Goyette has a huge task ahead of her noting some of the district’s problems are not deserved. He said there are too many “loose ends” in the current borough ordinance.

“The borough wants to deal with a happy problem — institute a tax, cut a couple of other taxes, and everybody is going to buy off,” Carrington said, adding the assembly hasn’t sought out other avenues to generate revenues. “In my opinion… it’s so not-transparent it’s just uncomfortable. I think what the borough is doing is basically acting like Chicken Little and the sky is falling creating a doggone emergency that everyone is gonna knee jerk to….versus we’re just gonna throw this doggone thing out there and hope sticks.”

Councilman Brad Hanson echoed similar sentiments, stating he felt the additional tax, raising the city’s to five percent would make Palmer businesses disadvantaged when compared to Eagle River and others close communities. He also questioned the tax collection mechanisms as spelled out in the borough’s language.

“We’ve been collecting since 1951 and now borough wants to get in and take over our role. When do our payments come to us? We have a cash-flow issue as well. Our funding mechanism is through is a sales tax, the borough’s is through a property tax. To me we need to maintain our funding source,” Hanson said, adding that he felt the change would disrupt Palmer’s ability to conduct business as a city. “It’s too much for our city to take on.”

Speaking as the city manager, Nathan Wallace said he felt action on the ordinance should be postponed. He said the new funding source is not equitable throughout the Mat-Su Valley and puts those entities with an existing sales tax behind those who do not. He said more though process should be put in by assembly members along with additional public hearings before taking action. Wallace said he felt the existing ordinance was “…poorly written and doesn’t meet administrative needs. (It’s) a bridge too far for the borough to do in one night, (in) my opinion.”

The council discussed two resolutions—the original and a substitute. The substitute incorporated some of the topics brought up during the discussion that weren’t included in the original. Both documents put the City on record as opposing the borough’s ordinance to put the question to the people. When called, the question passed unanimously.

Contact reporter Chris Ford at 352-2270 or chris.ford@frontiersman.com