PROGRESS: Cash Strapped Borough May Seek New Road Bond Package

Borough officials are preparing to present a new road bond package proposal to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly as soon as June, a Borough official said this week, in an effort to come up with the cash to build or update the area’s roads.

“We’re been asked by the Borough Manager [John Moosey] to put together a recommendation for the Assembly on a future road bond,” Terry Dolan, director of the Borough’s public works department said this month. “What we’re shooting for is to get it on the ballot this fall.”

The road bond proposal under development would likely be for $50 million funded by the Borough’s property taxes, with an additional $50 million should the Borough receive matching state or federal funds, Dolan said.

Whether or not such a proposal makes it to voters on a 2018 fall ballot would be up to the Assembly, Dolan said. And what projects the bond would cover or how much it would impact property tax bills per $100,000 of assessed value is still under development, he said.

But without new taxpayer funding the Borough has no cash for major road development or extension projects, said Jude Bilifer, who directs the capital projects office which manages such improvements.

“The only legal way that money can be spent to build big new collector type roads and above is a vote of the people,” Bilifer said. “We are not funded for the construction of any roads at any time as part of our budget.”

The state has not given the Borough any road building funds for three years, said Brad Sworts, the Borough’s capital projects pre-design and engineering manager. And a federal grant from the Department of Transportation’s community transportation program that officials had hoped would fund one to two major projects recently fell through, Sworts said.

Dolan’s office receives funding from the Borough to complete minor improvement and maintenance projects, such as resurfacing or drainage maintenance through what’s known as a property tax mill rate. About $14 million in such maintenance across the Borough’s road service areas has been approved for this year.

Bilifer said his office is still using for small projects some leftover funding from a school access road bond package that voters gave the OK in 2013. That bond paid for the extension of Trunk Road.

But any new major projects, such as extending Tex-Al Road, which would help relieve congestion on Bogard Road, cannot be completed without a new source of funds, he said.

Which areas would get the Borough’s attention should money become available would be decided based on a variety of factors including use, safety, average traffic and any utility relocation or right-of-way purchases that the Borough would need to complete the project, Bilifer said.

Whether or not the Assembly will agree to put a new bond package on the ballot for voters is up for debate, Dolan said.

“It might not get passed the Assembly, it might not get passed to the voters, especially in the current fiscal situation we’re in that the state isn’t able to help us,” he said. “It might turn out that the assembly isn’t willing to put it on the ballot.”