The Mat-Su Borough Assembly has passed its Fiscal Year 2022 budget after a second hearing on Thursday night.
At a special meeting to deliberate the budget, the assembly took up three amendments that had been carried over from Tuesday night’s meeting. The amendment that drew the most public comment was a cut to library operations in Talkeetna, Trapper Creek, and Sutton that caught many by surprise. When that amendment came up for further discussion, Assembly Member Jesse Sumner postponed it indefinitely, essentially killing the motion.
In addition to motions brought over from the previous meeting, twelve more were expected on Thursday night, though not all ended up being moved on the floor. A number of those proposals were for capital expenditures for the borough’s emergency services department. Assembly Member George McKee moved to strike funds for new EMS command vehicles, a water rescue vehicle, and a quarter-million dollars in upgrades and modernization for rescue equipment. He also proposed eliminating nine new positions in Mat-Su Central Fire Service Area. All of those motions were either defeated or withdrawn by McKee, himself, after justification from Emergency Services Director Ken Barkley.
Assembly Member Sumner used a different tactic to address what he terms over-taxation in areas outside of the cities of the Mat-Su. He says his amendments earlier in the week were aimed to reduce the fund balance of non-areawide services, which currently stands at 2.4 million dollars. Instead of making directed cuts to department budgets, he instead opted to reduce the non-areawide mill rate. The reasoning is that services can continue at budgeted levels but use the reserve that has been built up. His new amendment passed without objection.
As is its habit, the Borough Assembly managed to keep the mill rate just under ten mills.
Throughout the deliberation process, Assembly Members Stephanie Nowers and Tam Boeve raised concerns about an amendment process that only began after all public hearings were concluded, reducing the ability of borough taxpayers to weigh in on those amendments.
Assembly members have until 5:00 pm Friday to file for any reconsideration of votes, and Borough Mayor Vern Halter has until next Tuesday to issue any vetoes.
