Assembly Delays Vote on Vehicle Registration Ordinance

The vote on a proposed ordinance that would change vehicle registration rules for many in the Mat-Su Borough was delayed at Tuesday night’s Borough Assembly meeting.  The ordinance is the result of a recently-passed state law allowing municipalities to choose whether or not to make the changes, which Borough Manager John Moosey outlined on Wednesday on KTNA’s Su-Valley Voice.

“Essentially, what the bill has said is any vehicle eight years or older has to be registered one time for the life of that vehicle.”

While that would mean a convenience for many vehicle owners in the borough, it would also mean a hit to revenue totaling about $2.4 million across all of the Mat-Su.  That money goes toward road maintenance funds and fire service areas.  John Moosey says the borough is going to take a closer look at the implications of the revenue loss.

“What they’re looking for is the negative impact, especially to road service areas….I believe we’ll get a little bit more information to try to thread the needle on passing the proposal but not having as deep an impact on road service areas that is currently going to occur.”

The delay for more information comes at the request of Assembly Member Jim Colver, who is sponsoring the proposed ordinance.  He believes that the registration changes can be tweaked in such a way as to minimize the impact.

“I would mention that we did adjust the formula.  I believe it was last budget cycle when we actually added more into the road service areas…I think I can do a little tweaking to this to have it accomplish the mission that we’re not taxing vehicles that are sitting in people’s yards and not on the streets, but trying to get as much money as we can toward road maintenance.”

There was no objection to the delay of the vote.  The issue will be taken up again at the Borough Assembly meeting on September 2nd.