Machinations, part II By Rodney Dial August 07, 2014
People who have been reading my letters know that I have been saying for the last ten years that the excess spending, massive buildings, government parties, waste, etc. would lead to massive debt, tax increases and a City too expensive for our children. If the last three years of tax increases is not enough for you… please sit down before you read any further. As I pointed out in my last letter, City Manager Karl Amylon claimed earlier this year that a sales tax increase was absolutely necessary or employees would lose their jobs, services would be cut and Ketchikan as we know it would end. The City Council relented and passed a sales tax increase on top of two years of property tax increases. They also raised water rates by three times the rate of inflation. The sales tax increase was passed in February and went into effect in April. Now, just four months after our third tax increase the following is what City Manager Karl Amylon and the City Council discussed at the City Council meeting on July 24th.
Source: Ketchikan Daily News report “City Council” on Saturday July 26th by Nick Bowman. Concerning water rates… another 8% increase was already planned for next year so an 11% increase, if the bonds are passed, would push water rates to around $60 per month. This does not include any increases that may be necessary as a result of a new water purification and/or filtration plant. Those costs could easily make the monthly water rate surpass $100 per month within the next few years. The next thing important about Amylon’s comments are that he intends to use the library and fire station projects as fodder/excuse to raise taxes for at least a fourth budgetary year and presumably until 2019. Would you have voted for these projects if you had been told that they would require at least four tax increases? We are only four months into our last tax increase and he is already saying it was not enough. However the most unbelievable element from the Council meeting is this: Amylon convinced the City Council to put a $10 million dollar bond request on the October ballot for water and sewer main replacement; you WILL vote on this. However, unless something changes you WILL NOT get to vote on spending $9.7 million to renovate/replace our SECOND museum! So in essence Amylon is saying he has millions for a new or renovated second museum (a nicety); but not millions for water mains (a necessity). Sorry but the king had decreed another raid at your purse is required. After all the tax and utility increases and the millions in debt we have added recently they know you would vote no on a new museum so they won’t ask and will do it anyway. Your last tax increase was planned by Amylon to fund it without your approval. Now that he has the extra proceeds from the last tax increase dedicated towards the future renovation/replacement of our 2nd museum, which will take 30 years to pay off, they need another tax increase to repair your water/sewer mains and to balance the budget. An interesting side note…. After my June 24th, letter the City started running ads on the local radio stations offering free entry into the museum. The obvious goal is to “pad their stats” and get as many people in the doors as possible to be able to say “see, look at all the people going to the museum”. Unfortunately this just adds to the City's budgetary problems. Expect to be spoon fed misleading museum usage stats by the City soon as justification to spend millions on a second museum. As much as I would like to think the problems with the City budget are due to Amylon’s incompetence, I am beginning to agree more with Mr. Hanger that Amylon is an intelligent man working with the City Council to play the voters like puppets. He could care less what the public wants or how people less fortunate than him make ends meet. Nearly 20% of Ketchikan’s population is on food stamps and nearly 50% of our children qualify for meal assistance in our schools. Just how is it that people on food stamps are able to afford the last sales tax increase on food or the rent increases due to the two property tax increases? The insane spending is all about power and special interests. Mr. Hanger’s description of self-interested individuals who disguise themselves as government wanting to make money at our expense is an accurate description. The more I look into the inner workings of local government the more I realize many of our elected officials are using their positions to benefit their businesses, friends, special interests and/or raise property values so they can eventually “cash out” and leave town. I’ve been collecting proof of this and will write a letter in the future putting it out there for the community to see. I’m also beginning to think that this may be, at least in part, a manufactured crisis. Elected officials in this town have never given up on government consolidation, but also have been forced to accept reality that after FIVE “no” votes, the voters will never approve it. I am concerned that this is a long term effort by Amylon and some officials to push the City budget to the brink and then claim that the only way to save the island is to consolidate. It’s almost comical how the Borough is suing the State over the costs we incurred from forming a borough yet they somehow believe the same thing would not happen if we consolidated. Elected officials… did you pay attention to what happened to the Anchorage hillside when they became part of the Anchorage municipality? How about Sitka, Juneau? In every case consolidation of an Alaskan community (forming one big municipality) caused “service shifting” from the State to the local level. Consolidation would cost us millions per year in additional local service costs for things the state currently provides and result in the loss of over $2 million yearly in Cruise Ship Taxes (CST funds). A municipality can only take one share of CST taxes and since we have two governments, the citizens of Ketchikan get two shares; a benefit from not being consolidated. Consolidation supporters know this; they don’t care. Consolidation has always been about power and enriching commercial property owners, investors and special interests. The signs are all around us. In the last few weeks members of the City Council suggested transferring ownership of the library, Convention Center and other City buildings to the Borough because they can no longer afford them. I spoke with a Borough Assembly member last week who said to me that the borough has no intention of taking over city properties especially since the library foundation has started to slide down the hill. I guess that train wreck concerning the library foundation will soon be common knowledge. The last three years of tax increases and utility rate increases have added over a $1000 a year to the average family’s expenses, both directly and indirectly. Continue to say nothing and your taxes will continue to rise and the average combined utility bill will be $400 or more a month. You are being manipulated by people in power who are using you for financial gain. Time to speak up Ketchikan. "I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” - Thomas Jefferson Rodney Dial
Received July 31, 2014 - Published August 07, 2014 Related Viewpoint:
Viewpoints - Opinion Letters:
Representations of fact and opinions in letters are solely those of the author. E-mail your letters
& opinions to editor@sitnews.us Published letters become the property of SitNews.
|
||
