With all
the fish you caught packed away in the freezer its time to take a moment to
unpack the ugly luggage sitting on the carousel for tomorrow evening's (8/7)
Assembly meeting. Here's hoping this little preview doesn't send you to the
fainting couch.
YOU’RE
GONNA NEED MORE CLIFF NOTES TO FIGURE OUT THIS BALLOT
The
effort to select and arrange the upcoming borough ballot election items continues. Pay attention now as the dancing begins with
the boys in the corral two stepping to give us all homework for the upcoming
October election.
·
Assemblyman
Colligan is back NOW asking voters to give their blessing to move borough
elections to April to take place when Anchorage (still finding ballots in dark
corners from the last election) voters cast their city ballots. Seems to beg a couple questions-If all this
hoopla to change up when borough residents vote is about increasing turn out
why not look at a mail in ballot which has been used successfully in Oregon
since 1998? It has substantially
increased voter turnout there and other places and is gaining in popularity
across the country. Now we know private business hasn’t entirely taken over the mail service yet and mailing it
might involve that evil government entity called the post office, but heck,
with all the snowbirds in the valley the numbers for absentee ballots continues
to increase and essentially that is mail in right? We wonder if
Mr.Colligan knows just because he is a daily commuter to his business to
Anchorage the move to change the borough election won’t allow him to save some time to cast his ballot while in Anchorage
working. Nobody seems to support this
change except the tea party.
·
Voters
may be asked to approve a $20,000 residential real property valuation exemption
for an owner occupied residence. This would be in addition to the $150,000
senior and veteran exemption the state mandates but unfailingly does not
reimburse the borough coffers for. Surely the sponsors are counting on people
to be jumping at the chance for an exemption and not learning that it could
result in a almost 15% cut in revenue for operations and another hit in the
credit rating of the borough. It should
be no surprise this is brought to the table by the ceremonial mayor and the
member that spends most of his time in China (Arvin) who are both up for
re-election this fall. Sounds like a Chilkoot Charlies commercial to us. "Cheat
the other guy and pass the savings on to you". Except it looks like the
other guy they are planning to cheat again is folks like some homeowners, small
business, apartment owners, renters and again the working poor. But that's small change next to votes when
some candidates are up for re-election.
· Folks
in Willow may be asked to vote on an increase to their property tax mill levy
for the Willow Fire Service from 1.37 to 2.50 to keep up with a growing demand
for emergency services in the area.
We'll let you do the math on how that plays out for your own
budget. Folks don’t always see the importance of the ambulance and EMS until
they are the ones in need and EMS is on another call or can’t get there because of substandard roads or access.
OH NO NOT THE VETO PEN...AGAIN
The
ceremonial mayor must have put a refill cartridge in his veto pen. He is now seemingly scatter shooting Hatcher
Pass Nordic skiers and Matsu Transit (fondly known as MASCOT). The use of area wide funds ($180,000)
allotted for MASCOT to provide bus service (for a charge) to Hatcher Pass was something
directed during the already adopted budget, but glaringly missing from being
online at the borough website never the less is in the veto bull’s-eye this time.
Mr. Mayor’s carrot top is off on this one because he is bothered by
the borough foreclosing on people that don't pay their property taxes and then
granting monies to non profits to charge
skiers to bus to Hatcher Pass to ski.
Plus he thinks the service should be put out to bid competitively. Probably no surprise that the for- profit
owner of those pink buses is a big supporter of the mayor and have we mentioned
it's an election year?
GOT GAS???
There is
a bundle of ordinances regarding gas LID's(limited improvement district) and if
you live in Eagles Bluff, Bella Haven, Bench View, North Carousel Way, South
Starlight Lane, Gold Rush Estates, Shadowmere Estates, North Meadow Lakes Loop,
South Alan's Drive, West Dagg Drive, Pamela Drive they are going to be talking
about you and some development costs that might be headed your way.
WE'RE ALL HUMAN…we
think
Another
ordinance concerning matching human service grants might get a whirl around the
dance floor before being voted up or down. The ceremonial mayor and some other
ultra conservative members have a track record of not being a fan of the whole
social service scene so there could well be some surprises here yet. There will
at least be some serious sniffing to make sure no liberal, tree hugger types
are getting any funds.
NO NOTIFICATION NECESSARY
RIGHT??
What's
not on the agenda might be the big story of what comes out of this assembly
meeting. Expect the microphone to get warmed up during audience participation
by some residents that are less than happy about a BIG cell tower that Verizon
is building in their neighborhood off Trunk Road near the Mat Su College. You
may recall that last November the majority held ultra extreame members of the assembly voted to eliminate ANY
REGULATION in the borough concerning cell towers to the dismay of many who worked
for several years on an acceptable plan between industry and stakeholders. This tower is in the process of being built
in a very established neighborhood that isn't taking kindly to the lack of
public process, notification (that the assembly in their wisdom did away with)
and the loss of their unobstructed view that is now about to be the home of a
big metal antenna. This very well could
be part of YOUR OWN backyard coming non-attractions.
So anyone keeping track of what has been the cost to our
communities of making the "borough open for business"? Just thought we would ask…
Count on
some arm waving and big bloviating about how the Knik Arm Bridge would have
saved the day because crazed people being chased by troopers and not ending
well for the baseball bat swinger that then resulted in backing up all kinds of
traffic to now be the expected daily occurrence. Visualize Chicken Little here. Undoubtedly there will be a need to pull out
the soap box to talk about to one of those 4 or was it 6 resolutions in support
of KABATA along with the $30,000 special lobbyist money. By the way, anyone seen a report from that
lobbyist?
There are
plenty of ways to engage in what's about to happen. We are thinking the folks
off Trunk Road that will be there about the cell tower now wish they had been
paying attention and at the assembly meeting in November.
You can
read the assembly
packet. While you’re there you can look at the
packet for the special meeting the assembly has scheduled for the 9th
which mainly consists on tidying up what they decide to put on your ballot plus
discussion about that pesky ferry problem.
Just in case they need one more day to roll the fun ball they
tentatively have a meeting set for the 10th which is the last day to
decide what goes on the ballot for your voting pleasure, but surely they will
be out of bloviating air by then.
Show up
at the meeting Tuesday @6pm that will be held at the school district
administration building, or at least tune in to Radio Free Palmer who will be streaming
the meeting and saving the podcast in its archive. Remember, if you can’t tune in to 89.5 on the radio you can stream it from your
favorite computer or smart phone. Just remember not to text during the meeting
that seems to be reserved for some members of the assembly and school board ……
If all
else fails listen to a recap during the Citizen Lobbyist hour 8a-9a Thursday on
Radio Free Palmer where we try to keep the weeping to a minimum for the
listeners because that’s just how we roll around here.
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