Public gets first look at borough budget

PALMER — Kittens mewed and screens displayed animations of the Mat-Su Borough’s development over time Wednesday night, part of an effort to allow voters to directly question the borough’s annual budget.

The open house was the second step in the annual budget cycle this week, after borough manager John Moosey introduced the formal budget ordinance at Tuesday night’s regular borough assembly meeting. The open house largely involved informational stations set up by various borough departments, ranging from the largest and most expensive Department of Emergency Services, to departments like Planning and the Clerk’s office, which usually record only minimal changes from year to year. The kittens — rescues named Louis and Larkin — were part of the borough’s Animal Care and Control exhibit.

The open house came as the borough’s proposed area-wide general fund budget shows a roughly $12-million gap between revenues ($135,653,584) and expenses ($147,637,948). Department heads have trimmed expenditures in most of the borough’s departments (the total reduction is $378,879), and are holding the mill rate unchanged at 9.984 mills. That’s equivalent $998.40 in taxes for every $100,000 of a home’s assessed value.

The gap between revenues and expenditures is by design, said manager John Moosey. Officials have in the past been able to successfully transfer savings between years. For example, the most recent year for which audited budget figures are available, in the Fiscal Year 2015, the operating deficit was closer to $1 million. The Fiscal Year 2016 amended budget — which hasn’t yet completed — shows a budget gap of about $14.3 million.

“We average about $12 million that we don’t spend in our budget, that we roll over to the next budget,” he said. “We have a dollar and we’re spending a $1.10, so we got that extra dime in our pocket. That’s pretty much how it is. Nobody spends their entire budget, unless there’s an emergency.”

Most departments spend about 90 percent of their budget allotment, Moosey said.

The projection is designed to allow borough managers flexibility to address issues using figures sometimes projected more than a year in advance, Moosey said. That extra 10 percent means some increased expenditures won’t require assembly consultation for sometimes minor changes to individual department budgets, Moosey said.

“I’m comfortable with that because typical government that you hear, people spend their whole budget so they can prove how much they need extra,” he said. “We don’t operate that way.”

That flexibility can mean savings for borough taxpayers, Moosey said. He pointed to unanticipated expenditures for the M/V Susitna and the Point Mackenzie Dock repairs as two examples where quick action by borough officials was needed to prevent even higher costs.

“The public said, ‘Hey, we want to have one, two, three, four, five public hearings on this,’” he said. “By the time we have public hearings, my $2-million project becomes a $14-million project.”

The budget also contains about $21.3 million in capital project expenditures, according to projections presented to the assembly Wednesday. Those range from $3.3 million for new construction at fire station 6-2 on Knik-Goose Bay Road to $1,450 for road improvement projects in the Trapper Creek Road Service Area. Taxes from various service areas will fund $13 million of the capital projects. Areawide taxpayers will fund about $5.8 million. The remainder will come from non-areawide sources, like fees and fines (overdue books contribute $22,600 to the borough budget), or in some cases from borough budgets.

Nor is the capital project list comprehensive. Voters may also be asked to decide on a $12-million recreational maintenance bond during the Oct. 4 election. The department of emergency services is also expected to ask for $35 million in combined bonding and certificates of participation for capital expenses this year.

The forum also represented a chance for some departments to tout possible improvements. For example, deputy director of emergency services for EMS Lisa Behrens says the Fiscal Year 2017 budget will allow the department to bulk up service in the Talkeetna and Willow areas. For now, the year-round presence will be limited to an advanced medical treatment chase car, with an additional ambulance in place for the summer months.

“There’s so much increase in the call volume tourism we’ve just watched our ambulances get pummeled up there in the summer months,” she said.

The next step in the borough budget process is an April 28 public hearing at 6 p.m. at the Central Mat-Su Public Safety Building at 101 West Swanson Avenue in Wasilla. Public hearings are also slated for the Glenn Massay Theater at 6 p.m. on May 2 and at 6 p.m. on May 5 in the Willow Community Center. Budget deliberations begin May 9, and are slated to conclude by May 17.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.