Mat-Su Borough Assembly Passes Budget; Mayoral Veto Likely

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly has passed a budget for the fiscal year beginning in July, but Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss says to expect some vetoes.

On Wednesday evening, the assembly met for the third time to deliberate on and amend the borough’s budget for fiscal year 2016.  The proposed budget submitted by Borough Manager John Moosey at the beginning of the process was right around $400 million.  In the course of its deliberations, the assembly added funding for schools, maintenance at Port MacKenzie, eight emergency services positions, two ambulances, and a full-time recycling and community cleanup position.  The assembly also voted to allow the Mat-Su Borough School District to keep all of it’s $10.9 million fund balance, which is money not yet spent from the last budget.

At the end of the process, the borough’s areawide mill rate was set at 9.984, which means just under ten dollars in taxes per thousand dollars of property value.  Other mill rates, such as for service areas, are added on top of that to determine each property owner’s property taxes.

At a previous meeting, Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss said that he would likely get out his veto pen if the areawide mill rate rose above ten mills.  Even though the mill rate remained below that mark, DeVilbiss’ last remark at Wednesday’s meeting was that a veto document would be forthcoming.  The mayor has until the next regular meeting, scheduled for next week, to decide what line items to reduce or zero out.  An override of a mayoral veto takes five votes from the assembly.