Thirty residents from the “trail mecca” of Willow turned out on a sunny Friday night (May 2) to participate in a public hearing for the proposed budget for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Trail grooming, road work, a heating system conversion, and the Big Brothers, Big Sisters were subjects on the minds of the five who testified.
Resident Randall Kowalke asked the Assembly for $12,500 in road service area funding for straightening the alignment of Sunday Drive.
Steve Charles with the Willow Trail Committee called Willow the mecca for outdoor recreation and trails. Charles asked the Assembly for help on Sunday Drive.
“To show you our commitment, we’re contributing $23,000,” Charles said.
John Anderson asked for help in converting the heating system of the 30-year-old Willow community center from fuel oil to ground source heat pump. The fuel bill last year was $34,000. The borough pays to heat the center due to library being located in the same building.
“The world spins on a different axis for us up here, who have to use heating fuel, $4/gallon,” Anderson said.
Rita Goetz with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Mat-Su office asked that the budget include Human Services Community Matching grant.
The grant is included in a proposed addition to the budget and found in a memo from Borough Manager John Moosey to the Assembly on our budget website at this link:
Assembly Member Jim Sykes compiled charts from the 2013 audit report of the budget and former audits. Sykes expressed concern over an unsustainable budget process that taps reserves and relies on grants.
"The blue line is how much taxpayers fund the budget, if you go back to 2005 taxpayers were funding 68 percent of the budget, right now we’re down to taxpayers funding 54 percent of the budget.
At same time, we’ve had a category …capital grants, operating grants, and unrestricted grants, and that category has grown… 20 percent to 33 percent. We’re now funding a third of our budget from grants. And these are grants we don’t have control of….
The trend lines big blue line taxpayer share going down, grant share going up…it’s heading us into unsustainable budget process. Capital budget cut $4 million but also spend $13 million more than take in..only reason able to do that because we took in lot of money..if you look at it as your own checking out..dip into savings…that’s what we’re doing to keep this place going," Sykes said.
Assembly Member Steve Colligan said costs of education and heating and other items are unsustainable unless some other revenues are identified. He also said he would ask for funds to accomplish online permitting and business licenses so rural residents did not have to drive to the epicenter of Palmer to do business with the government.
Assembly Member Vern Halter said grants often pay for construction that a rural fire service area could never afford, and he advocates for such grants.
At the first public hearing the night before (May 1) at Central Mat-Su Public Safety Building in Wasilla four people testified on the budget.
Communications between staff and the Assembly on the budget are posted online along with the proposed budget at this link: http://www.matsugov.us/budget
For more information email Public Affairs Director Patty Sullivan at
Photo right: Manager John Moosey, Deputy Mayor Ron Arvin, Borough Clerk Lonnie McKechnie, and Assembly Member Matthew Beck.
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