Vote ad's message refuted

April 28, 2006

By DARRELL L. BREESE

Frontiersman

PALMER - The Mat-Su Borough received a flood of calls seeking clarification after a Mat-Su Property Owners Association advertisement was published Wednesday opposing the upcoming $39.7 million bond election.

&#8220People are calling in trying to find out if the claims made in the flyer are true,” Mat-Su Borough finance director Tammy Clayton said.

Mat-Su School District Information Specialist Kim Floyd indicated she, too, had been busy fielding questions since the advertisement ran.

Released by the Property Owners Association and run as an insert in the Wednesday edition of the Anchorage Daily News, the flyer addressed the additional financial burden the bonds would place on property owners, the proposed school budget for the coming year, and a recent study completed by the school district.

The advertisement included bullet points stating that: passing the bonds would result in a 16.4 percent increase in property taxes; under the borough's current indebtedness, the bonds would result in $5,191 in taxes per property owner; the new debt from the school bonds would be $851.55 per property owner; the cost-per-student would be more than $11,500; 24 percent of students in the district are failing; and the money would be spent for unfunded childcare.

Officials with the school district and the borough questioned the accuracy of those numbers.

&#8220The numbers and statements are hugely and grossly blown out of proportion,” Floyd said. &#8220I'm curious with how they arrived at some of their numbers.”

Clayton said the first error was the claim that there would be a property tax increase of 16.4 percent.

&#8220I imagine that it was simply an error in placing the decimal point,” Clayton explained. &#8220In reality, if voters approve the general obligation bonds on Tuesday, it will increase the tax burden by 1.63 percent.”

According to Clayton, the rest of the flyer contains some questionable calculations.

&#8220The big difference in how we calculate the numbers and how the numbers were figured on the flyer is that we do it per resident and not per property owners,” Clayton explained. &#8220That is the standard method for determining such numbers for financial reports used to determine bond ratings.”

Despite the different method in determining the numbers, things still are skewed on the flyer, Clayton said.

&#8220The flyer stated the current debt per property owner is $5,191. In fact, the current debt per resident is $1,971.92,” Clayton said in a press release Thursday. &#8220Incidentally, this amount will decrease to $1,960.97 on May 1, after payoff of the 1994 school bonds. It also indicated the cost of the proposed new debt per property owner is $851.55. In fact, the proposed new debt for the borough would be $520.72 per resident for the term of the bonds.”

According to borough assessor Allen Black, there were 63,411 property tax bills sent out earlier this year, slightly lower than the current population of the borough, which is 76,238. Using that data and current borough financial reports, the cost per property owner results in a different total than indicated on the flyer. The cost of the current debt per property owner works out to $2,378. The new debt per property owner would add $557.

One total that isn't disputed by the borough or school district is the cost per student in relation to the total funding for the school budget. Based on last year's enrollment, the total in school funds was distributed at the rate of $11,500 per student. The $182 million in total education funding for the 2007 budget results in a cost of $11,801 per student.

Clayton looks at the breakdown of funding per student a little differently.

&#8220The fact is, the borough's contribution for education is only $2,376 per student,” Clayton said. &#8220The majority of the funding for the school district comes from the state of Alaska, as mandated by the Alaska Constitution. The borough is proposing just over $38 million for schools in the current budget, the remaining $140 million comes from state and federal funds.”

Floyd also took exception to the claim made that nearly a quarter of the students in the district are failing.

&#8220It is a reference to a review of first semester grades from the district's high schools,” Floyd said. &#8220The 24 percent doesn't reflect the entire school district, and all the kids included in that number are not failing.”

According to the review, 24 percent of high schoolers have a 2.0 or lower grade point average, which means they received a grade of D or F at the end of the first semester.

&#8220It's important to note that they are not all failing,” Floyd said. &#8220While we view a D grade as not up to standards, it is adequate to pass a class.”

Multiple calls seeking comment from Mat-Su Property Owners Association chair Link Fannon and treasurer Annette Harpster were not returned.

Contact Darrell L. Breese at

352-2267 or at darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.