Borough to Examine Budget for Increased Nonprofit Funding

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Nonprofit representatives filled the room at the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly work session last night, ready to defend their claim to funding.

During the budgeting process, the borough decreased nonprofit funding by 40% for fiscal year 2017, and the assembly looked towards nonprofits to re-express their interest in funding.

And the assembly got a lot of interest during roughly an hour and 15 minutes of testimony, most of which was from the nonprofits in the room. At the end of it, Assemblyman Larry LeDoux was ready for the borough manager and staff to sit back down and find the money for which nonprofits had so strongly expressed a need.

“My feeling, just bottom line, is that we make this right, that we made a mistake when cut 40 percent. We admit it, we find the money, and we go on. And, secondly, we don’t need to apologize for that. We need to take care of these folk.”

Assemblywoman Rebecca Skinner said she’d like the borough manager to dig through the budget and direct more funds to nonprofits, but expressed concern about the consequences, especially considering the state’s fiscal gap.

“If he finds it and we do this and we make up the 40 percent, next year we’re going to be in a worse position, we don’t know what’s going to happen with the state. They might not do the 70 percent reimbursement. We’re gonna have more bond debt that we have to have to pay. That’s kind of the bigger picture for me. And we’re gonna have to raise taxes. I mean, there’s not a way around it. And then you’re putting a bigger burden on an already burdened community.”

Assemblyman Dan Rohrer said he didn’t like directing the borough manager to re-examine a budget that staff had already balanced.

“We did it at the cost of nonprofit funding, we did it at the cost of fully funding the educational request of the Kodiak Island Borough School District. Those were not easy discussions. And so, I don’t like trying to ask our manager to come up with areas to cut.”

Borough Manager Michael Powers, who is new to the position and was not part of the most recent budgeting process, said that if they’re going to rethink the budget, nothing can be off limits.

“If we’re gonna look at this, we need to look at it from all funds. Whether the assembly supports that or not is up to you to decide. But I would be remiss and staff would be remiss in our jobs if we didn’t give you a variety of different options. So, I’m mindful of how you feel about that, but from a staff standpoint, we need to give you the options and then you make those policy decisions.”

Powers also said he wants to find a sustainable way to approach non-profit funding in the years to come.

Among some of the temporary solutions assembly members suggested was tapping into education and tourism funds as a source of revenue for nonprofits that cater to those areas.

Ultimately, the assembly asked staff to examine the budget and see what options it could present to the assembly to direct more money towards nonprofit funding. The assembly also decided it would release an application to nonprofits so that organizations could state their case and the amount of their funding need.

In the interest of full disclosure, Kodiak Public Broadcasting Corporation has received money from the borough in the past and spoke on its own behalf at the meeting Thursday.