• Several new massive public works projects have been completed.  A new pool, fire station, library, visitors center, borough office building, city hall renovation, etc.   We have added tens of millions to our local debt.   Many of these projects came with significant cost overruns and change fees.
• Taxes have been raised twice (City) and local assessments have increased faster than inflation.  The average home owner is paying significantly more than just a few years ago.
• City property taxes are the highest of any community in SE Alaska, and now more than double that of other SE communities such as Sitka.  Our downtown becomes a boarded up ghost town in the winter due in large part to our high tax rates.
• Only one other community in the entire state has a higher sales tax and the City Manager has previously gone on record advocating for an even higher sales tax.  Note:  The city can raise the sales tax at any time without a vote of the public.
• Both the City and Borough are running on reserves and claim they will each need a property tax increase, which if implemented would be four tax increases over the last few years in addition to assessment increases.

We are now at a crossroads where the public needs to carefully consider what is likely to happen in our local governments in the coming years.   Vote for the wrong persons and we will become a far more expensive community in the near future.  Tax increases will make everything from homes to groceries, gas to goods far more expensive.  Your standard of living and the ability of our young people are at risk.

Vote for the wrong people and we will be led to even more… massive new building projects like a new multi-million dollar museum, additional funding for non-profits competing against our fellow citizens owning businesses, e.g. Oceans Alaska, etc.

Why should you care?

• An increasingly expensive community threatens our ability to compete for the tourist dollar with other SE Alaska communities.
• As expenses increase, rent and home ownership become more expensive.  Many of our young people can barely afford rent now.
• As taxes increase those costs are passed onto the consumer by our grocery and merchandise stores.
• As more money is pulled from your wallet your ability to help your children through college or save for retirement becomes diminished.
• As costs increase our economic gems in this community, such as the ship yard, find it harder to justify remaining in Ketchikan, when the cost to do business is so much less in other locations.
• As the city budgets grow, talk always resurfaces about eliminating the senior citizen sales and property tax exemptions.
• And on…and on.

The bottom line is that if we have built new and bigger …just about everything…for everyone….lately and must slow down and hold the line on local government spending.   We are simply taxing our young people off this island and quite frankly need them to stay and help pay the bonds for these recent projects that will take as much as 30 years to pay down.

If you care about your wallet… your local government spending… the future of our young people… please consider voting for the following people:

Borough Assembly:  Bailey and Rotecki.   Think “B” orough  “R” esponsibility.   B & R

City Assembly:   Coose  and Zenge.   Think “C” ubic “Z”irconia, because we can no longer afford the Diamond plan.   C & R

It’s a critical vote and it's time we hold our local government accountable.

Received September 25, 2013 - Published September 25, 2013

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