KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Mitch Borden/KMXT
The Kodiak Island Borough is in the middle of figuring out what its budget should look like in the upcoming year and it has a lot to take into consideration. The main topic of discussion for weeks has been whether to raise property taxes to support the borough’s school district.
Many assembly members do not want to raise taxes, and some suggest only partially funding the district’s request of around $1 million. The assembly is also struggling to find ways to cut down on expenditures as the borough faces less funding from the state, depressed fisheries, and Kodiak’s rising cost of living.
Assembly members have varying opinions on what direction the budget should go in. So, to save some time, at the assembly’s recent regular meeting, borough mayor Dan Rohrer had assembly members voice what they’d like to see in a revised proposed budget for the fiscal year of 2019.
Suggestions included decreasing borough staff, allocating funds for Kodiak College, and cutting the amount designated for a study on consolidating the borough with the City of Kodiak. Borough manager Michael Powers says staff will do their best to distill the recommendations into another budget proposal, but it won’t be easy.
“We would bring back a recommendation and probably no one would be 100 percent happy with it, but that is the art of politics, of course, to try and synthesize joys and discomforts into something that is tolerable.”
The assembly scheduled its final vote and another public hearing on the budget for a special regular meeting on May 15 at 6:30 pm in assembly chambers at the Kodiak Island Borough building.
