Budget 101 by an intellect and a dog musher

Who better to talk about 624 pages of numbers than an intellect with clear language and a dog musher/attorney with an honest smile. Listen to the engaging conversation of Borough Attorney Nick Spiropoulos and Assembly Member Vern Halter on what makes up the Borough's budget. What is a mill levy? What are service areas? Why is Fund 100 so informative?

This video is designed to give citizens a starting point on a very complex subject. The hour-long presentation is broken up into short 1-3 minute segments that you can scroll or skip through via text subject markers. 

"When people hear that we have a $409 million budget, the biggest part of that is not Borough revenues, the total Borough revenue is $125 million, there's a huge chunk, $290 million, that's coming from state and federal and other revenue, I guess that's the crux of the matter," Halter said in the video.

On property tax exemptions, did you know that senior citizens and disabled veterans have an exemption on a home assessed at up to $218,000. If such a person has a house assessed at $200,000, they pay no property taxes.

Listen to these subjects and more.

The video is broken into subjects that you can scroll to

1) Total Revenue

2) Areawide Taxes

3) Service Areas

4) Mill Rate

5) Assessed Value

6) Other Revenue

7) Fund 100, the general operating monies for the Borough

8) Schools

9) Revenue Allocation

10) Property Tax Exemptions

11) Ag Land Exemption

12) Enterprise Fund

13) Budget Process

14) Mayor's Role in the Budget

15) Budget Deadline

16) State Role in the Budget

17) How to Read the Budget

18) Grants

19) Funding for Schools

20) Increasing Demand for Services

Video by Mat-Su Borough Public Affairs, Stefan Hinman & Patty Sullivan. Email Sullivan for more, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.