Wasilla begins budget process

WASILLA — The city of Wasilla began the presentation of their budget during two meetings this week, which will be followed up next week by another two scheduled meetings on the city’s biennial budget on Monday and Wednesday. Finance Director Troy Tankersly presented a detailed breakdown of the city’s budget picture in relation to past trends for spending and revenue.

“One of the goals, goal number one set by council was to pass a sustainable budget in which operating expenditures don’t exceed operating revenues and as you can see that this budget does not do that. We have a net operating plus, if you will of $3.5 million,” said Tankersly. “In this year even though we had $3.5 million of operating, we’re actually appropriating $4.7, almost $4.8 mil in capital outlay which is getting that $1.2 million appropriation of fund balance and that’s actually made up of three areas. It’s about $787,000 of general fund fund balance, $430,000 in the enterprise funds and $11,000 in special revenue funds.”

Tankersly noted the conservative approach to city spending and said that the only staffing increases proposed would be a mechanic for Wasilla police vehicles, an IT manager and upgrading the part-time museum staff to full-time.

“Goal number three said that we would maintain zero mill levy and once again this budget does that and to equate that, using a two mill cap that equates about $2.8 million that is saved by the city residents,” said Tankersly.

Sales tax accounts for 64 percent of revenues for Wasilla and public safety accounts for 53 percent of expenditures, both of which are in line with trends from recent years. Tankersly was proud to note that Wasilla is scheduled to make it’s last debt service payment in March of 2022 and noted an increase in the population in the Mat-Su Borough and Wasilla specifically.

“It is clear that the city definitely gains by the overall Mat-Su Borough population with the city of Wasilla being the retail hub,” said Tankersly.

The council had scheduled an update on COVID-19 mitigation. Mayor Glenda Ledford said that no changes had been made, but Councilman Tim Johnson used his council comments to plead to Wasilla residents to become vaccinated.

“I’ve been following our COVID-19 testing positive numbers along with our vaccine inoculation. I’m a little bit discouraged,” said Johnson. “In terms of the state we were at 21 percent or something like that whereas Anchorage was close to 30 and other communities were at 40 to 50. So we in the Valley here, I think we tend to have a go it alone, don’t tell me what to do government, but on the other hand if you actually look at the efficacy of the vaccines you’ll also see that we in the Mat-Su region are still probably leading in terms of the percentage of active vaccine finds. We need to get the word out. Get vaccinated. It is effective. It will work. It will stop this curse on us.”

Ledford also introduced new Deputy Administrator Crystal Nygard.

“It’s an honor to serve on this administration,” said Nygard. “I come from the private sector, a very strong advocate of the private sector and a champion for small business and government to work as partners. I know that the Mayor is focused on economic development and engaging both the private and the public sector in developing our economy in a very balanced manner.”

Wasilla Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jessica Viera also noted that more visitors had been seen around Wasilla.

“We have been seeing an uptick in visitor information requests,” said Viera. “We’re really looking forward to a return of summer tourist season that looks a little closer to normal than we got last year, but we’re very optimistic.”