By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly voted at a special meeting Thursday to show the impacts to the community if the already conservative city FY2020 budget were reduced by another $2 million.
The vote was 4-1 in favor of the motion, but members did not commit to approving the reductions.
Assembly member Richard Wein made the motion, saying he would like to see city staff “think outside the box” and consider “reconfiguring major departments,” including “police, education, engineering and legal.”
“The budget as it stands is a no-go,” he said. Wein said the $2 million could be cut from anywhere in the budget including enterprise funds.
“I want to see what comes back,” said deputy mayor Steven Eisenbeisz, who presided at the meeting. “I want to see what it would do to the municipality.”
Voting in favor were Wein, Eisenbeisz, Kevin Mosher and Aaron Bean, who participated by teleconference. Kevin Knox voted against. Mayor Gary Paxton is out of state on vacation, and Valorie Nelson was absent.
City staff presented a budget with a $455 surplus that maintains all current levels of services. In the proposed budget, funding is less than city staff says is needed for capital projects, and the school district will receive $550,000 less than the figure the school district included in its preliminary budget. This assumes funding for schools at 92 percent of the cap allowed by the state, if school funding remains flat at the state level.
Knox said he didn’t agree with Wein’s motion to go beyond the cuts presented by city staff to make ends meet.
“I don’t believe we should be cutting our budget any further,” he said.
The budget presented by city staff was for a “worst case scenario” if the budget proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy goes into effect. That budget eliminates the state’s school bond reimbursement program, which would increase costs to the city by $1.9 million, and eliminate the city’s share of the raw fish tax, $1 million. The governor’s budget would cut $2.9 million from state support for Sitka schools.
“We wanted to show you what we have done just in case a budget like (Dunleavy’s) was possible,” City Administrator Keith Brady said. “We do have solutions but it does take away from capital projects.”
In the budget, staff was told to keep services at their current level, and set school support at 92 percent of the maximum level.
“The current budget maintains the same level of funding as was presented in January,” the staff report said. “What was 92 percent of the original maximum allowable local contribution is now 100 percent of the maximum plus $143,000 of non-instructional support.”
Staff made a list of possible scenarios, since no one knows what the final version of the state budget will be but also added “options are nearly endless.”
The budget estimates available resources at nearly $30 million for the general fund. The city revenue sources include sales tax (45 percent), property tax (23 percent), fees for services to other funds from enterprise funds (11 percent), the Sitka Permanent Fund (5 percent), state and federal support (4 percent each), interest and leases (3 percent), services and miscellaneous (3 percent) and transfers (1 percent).
Bean proposed cutting all capital projects funding except for the new wastewater treatment plant, the Marine Street substation and the secondary water source project. The motion failed 2-3, with Bean and Mosher voting in favor. Bean said he didn’t think the budget as proposed was facing the actual budget problems in the state and city.
“This is a pie in the sky thing,” he said. “The reality is we don’t have the money, we don’t have the money ... Let’s talk about reality. Let’s look at the truth and facts of the matter.”
Wein also stated his preference for a budget that is “more austere” and then readjust it if the city has more than expected.
Mosher expressed the need to balance “cutting and preserving,” and added that setting the sales tax at 6 percent year round should also be discussed if more revenues are needed. Others agreed.
Knox said the budget reflected the work staff had done to “pare it down,” to make ends meet under the “worst case scenario” at the state level.
“It’s a black number, not a red number at this point,” he said, pointing to the $455 left over at the end. “(Some) budgets I’ve worked on started with a red number.”
The finance department listed a number of variables in the budget, including those related to the state budget, Secure Rural Schools and Payment in Lieu of Taxes. The city also does not know how much to expect from sales tax remitted to the city by some online retailers.
The Assembly spent some time talking about maintaining city infrastructure. The administrator’s budget sets $1.9 million for infrastructure, far less than the $3 million to $4 million that’s needed.
“Infrastructure is less than what it needs to be,” Finance Director Jay Sweeney said. “It’s a balancing factor to arrive at almost break even.”
Property values are up by 1 percent but City Assessor Wendy Lawrence said that was offset by an increase in residents claiming the senior exemption. She said there is “pent-up demand” in the housing market, and properties are generally selling over list price.
Finance staff shared their solutions to the shortfalls that would be created if school bond reimbursement and raw fish tax were cut as proposed by Dunleavy.
The Assembly and city staff also briefly discussed the increasing problems that would be created by under-funding infrastructure, with a few agreeing that the budget was not truly balanced if infrastructure was underfunded, adding to the cost of deferred maintenance.
