Tax cap push begins

March 31, 2006

DARRELL L. BREESE

Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - After fighting with the Mat-Su Borough for two years to establish a property tax cap, Penny Nixon's battle ended when the borough assembly approved a similar tax cap last summer.

Now Nixon is preparing to launch a new campaign to collect the signatures needed to place his latest initiatives on the ballot for the October election.

He is proposing two voter initiatives. One would make the tax cap permanent - removing the 2007 expiration of the one passed by the assembly. The other would require the borough to compensate landowners when land-use regulations lower property values or restrict what a person can do with their property.

Nixon said he simply is trying to get ahead of the game.

&#8220As the tax cap is written now, it will be gone after the 2007 fiscal year,” Nixon said. &#8220Without this initiative, I believe that the assembly will simply not renew the tax cap on its own or will act to repeal it all together.”

According to Nixon, state law requires a voter initiative to be placed on the ballot every two years to prevent the assembly from amending or repealing an ordinance. He added that voters from the Fairbanks-North Star Borough have voted on a similar tax cap initiative every two years since 1985, and voters approved the initiative each time.

The assembly voted in September to establish the tax cap, which limits how much the borough can collect in property taxes each year.

&#8220Timing is crucial,” Nixon explained. &#8220Without the initiative, the borough will have about a two-month window when they could make changes. If passed by the voters, the initiative will keep that window closed.”

Nixon said the initiatives wouldn't undo any legislation already on the books; instead they target future legislation.

The second initiative is modeled after a voter-approved initiative from Oregon, which would require the borough to reimburse property owners for the value of property that would be changed by the establishments of land-use regulations.

&#8220The family home is typically the primary life investment for most people,” Nixon explained.

His proposed initiative preserves the property owner's rights, he said, and prevents the government from establishing regulations that would devalue the land.

Some examples of restrictive regulations being established include measures that would prevent people from subdividing their land, and limit how many trees a person can cut down on their property.

A specific example cited by Nixon is the recently approved Meadow Lakes Comprehensive Plan, which included a regulation requiring property owners to leave a buffer of trees bordering their lots.

Nixon and fellow tax-cap advocate Dennis Oakland dropped off their initiative to the borough clerk late Wednesday afternoon. The clerk's office has two weeks to review the language and determine whether it meets borough code. If approved, the petition sponsors have 90 days to collect the required signatures.

Borough clerk Michelle McGehee said the sponsors would need to collect signatures from residents equal to 15 percent of the votes cast in the last election - 2,013 signatures of registered voters - to get the proposal on the ballot for the October election.

&#8220We collected 4,400 signatures for the last tax-cap initiative, so I am confident we can meet the requirement this time,” Nixon said. &#8220I would hope we can far surpass that number for these two important measures.”

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@ frontiersman.com.