Daily Sitka Sentinel

Assembly Can’t Agree On Funds For Schools

By SHANNON HAUGLAND

Sentinel Staff Writer

More money for harbors, less for city hall, more for public works projects and a $1.6 million transfer from the general fund to the electric fund to stabilize rates.

Those were among a number of decisions the Assembly made Thursday, acting on the list of recommendations from the Citizens’ Task Force toward balancing the general fund budget.

However, one of the more contested funding issues was left unresolved after the three-hour meeting in a packed room at Sealing Cove Business Center.

While the task force had recommended $200,000 less for schools than the amount of funding provided by the city last year, the motion before the Assembly Thursday night was to provide only $100,000 less. That motion failed on a 3-2 vote by the five Assembly members present.

It was not clear afterward, in the absence of any other decision on school funding at the meeting, whether the majority wished to provide the same amount as last year or wished – on the other hand – to go along with the $200,000 cut proposed by the task force.

The meeting ended with items left on the agenda that the Assembly will take up at 6 p.m. Monday. Among the items yet to be considered is the budget for the city enterprise funds, and additional budget requests.

The city is dealing with a number of challenges this year, most notably covering the cost of the bond payments for the Blue Lake dam, and receiving less revenue sharing from the state.

City staff opened the meeting with a presentation on the budget, and the Assembly then took action on seven budget proposals from the ad hoc Citizens’ Task Force. 

The 2017 budget assumes an increase of three-fourths of one percent in sales tax revenues and 3 percent more in property tax revenue. A decrease of 35 percent in state funding is expected, and payroll costs will go up, though the figure is not final, since negotiations with unions are still going on.

City Finance Director Jay Sweeney warned the Assembly that the plan for the 2017 budget presented by the task force depends on revenue sources that will not be available in future years, when the city will face more severe financial problems.

“It is critical for the Assembly to understand that staff is concerned about the unsustainable revenues contained in the FY17 hard budget, used as the basis for the Citizens’ Task Force recommendations,” Sweeney wrote. “As previously noted the hard budget contains both a $1.3 million reappropriation of previous years’ capital appropriations and a transfer of $1.1 million from the public infrastructure sinking fund, neither of which is sustainable. Thus, additional revenue required in FY2018 and FY2019, or greater expenditure reductions will be required in these future fiscal years.”

Some of the task force recommendations were approved unanimously by the five Assembly members present: Tristan Guevin, Matthew Hunter, Ben Miyasato, Steven Eisenbeisz and Mayor Mim McConnell.

They were:

– to confirm the administrator’s decision to make a $1.6 million general fund transfer to the electric fund to reduce the size of the rate increase that users will pay.

– transfer $100,000 from the city’s share of the raw fish tax to the harbor fund. Most of the raw fish tax revenues already goes to the harbor fund, but for at least a decade some of that stayed in the general fund. Assembly members said they support this allocation to help harbor users, including fishermen, who will be paying higher moorage rates. “It’s the backbone of our economy, I’m very much in support of this,” Hunter said.

– increase capital projects spending by $130,000 to $1.5 million. The public works department said this is about $1.5 million short of what’s needed to maintain infrastructure in the city. “I don’t feel $1.5 million is enough, but I don’t know where to get more money for it this budget cycle,” Eisenbeisz said.

The Assembly voted unanimously to cut general fund spending by $804,651, but debated a number of the details. The list included cuts to travel and training, and to nonprofit organizations, including SEDA, Sitka Historical Society, senior center, and $50,000 in other nonprofits. A few from the public spoke against the $20,000 cut to the senior center, but the Assembly took no action to change it since the center will get about what it has gotten the past few years.

Gorman said there will be an effect on public services by combining jobs and not filling vacancies. The plan eliminates the parks and rec manager position, and a half-time job in the police department.

“We’re going to have fewer services next year,” he said.

The motion for a $100,000 cut in city funding to schools failed 3-2, with McConnell, Hunter and Miyasato voting in favor, and Eisenbeisz and Guevin against.

The Citizens’ Task Force recommended a $200,000 cut, but the Assembly changed the figure to a $100,000 cut in the motion they voted on.

School Board members told the Assembly they appreciated attempts to reduce the amount of the cut.

Cass Pook said she understands that the city is facing budget challenges.

“I speak for our youth,” she said. “We’re mandated to advocate for them, they are our future.”

 Guevin said he didn’t want to cut funding to schools.

“I’ll be voting no,” he said. “I’ve said it before, an investment in education is the best investment.”

School board member Tom Conley shared a piece of good news that the potential increased contribution to the state Teachers Retirement System will not be passed on to school districts. That would have meant an additional $568,710 burden to the Sitka School District, and higher increases in following years, Superintendent Mary Wegner said today.

The Assembly also directed the City Administrator Mark Gorman to bring forward a recommendation with anticipated revenues from rock sales on city land to be leased out for quarries next year. The city is already working on this, but the Assembly voted in favor, in order to provide the administrator with more direction.

The Assembly voted 4-1, with Guevin voting no, to direct the administrator to report on how much the city can anticipate receiving from sales of city land in the next several years. Guevin said he was against putting public lands in private ownership.

The original motion was just for the next fiscal year, but the Assembly passed an amendment to keep making land available for sale for the next five years. The vote was also 4-1 on that.