Palmer gives OK to $12M budget

PALMER — The city of Palmer recently approved a budget of more than $12 million, setting the city’s course for 2009.

The budget divvies up city funds into 11 sections, including an airport fund, solid-waste collection, a neighborhood parks fund and others.

The city’s general fund, used for expenditures, received the most money, with more than $9 million.

Palmer City Councilman Kevin Brown said the approval process for the budget went smoothly.

Council members were treated to nearly two months of presentations from various city departments putting forth their budget needs for the year.

Brown said one unique aspect to this year’s budget is a contingency plan that will be put in place by Palmer City Manager Bill Allen.

Dean Baugh, Palmer’s director of administration, said Friday a secondary budget item will soon be on the agenda to prepare for possible economic trouble in Palmer.

“What do we have to do to make sure the city of Palmer survives?” Baugh asked, referring to a recession in Alaska.

Recently, state economist Neil Fried, with the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development, has been in the news hypothesizing Alaska will not stay isolated from the nation’s recession for long. Fried, in a recent interview with KTUU, said Alaska’s isolation in terms of economy will likely run out.

Baugh said the city will, in essence, create a “plan B” budget in case “something happens.”

He added Allen will go through the budget with a scenario of revenues falling through the bottom. From that information, the city should know what it will have to do during hard financial times.

City officials have also prepared a list of additional projects they hope the state legislature will fund.

The city will likely send representatives to Juneau during this year’s legislative session to lobby for the projects, Baugh said.

Part of a resolution titled Palmer’s Five-Year Programs for Progress, the projects read like a wish-list of capital improvement over the next five years.

The city council, in an official document, is calling the projects high priority.

Projects ranging from Sherrod area water and street improvements to Palmer Visitor Center restrooms, are including in the list of 20 improvements.

Baugh said having a list of projects at the ready is beneficial to getting them funded.

“Sometimes money can come from different places for certain kinds of projects,” Baugh said. “If you have that kind of project they will plug it in.”

With the budget passed, Baugh said it will be put into operation. Projects left over from 2008 will also be completed.

As of today it’s unclear when a economic downturn similar to the one affecting the Lower 48 will hit Alaska.

Regardless, city officials say the forth coming contingency plan should cover the bases.

“We have something in place if a recession hits Palmer,” Brown said.