Mayor’s Report

Week of February 4, 2000

Lobbying for City Governments

I was in Juneau last week to attend my first meeting as a member of the Alaska Municipal League Board and to participate in a meeting of the Alaska Conference of Mayors.  The AML meeting served as a retreat to review the vision and policy statements of the organization and establish legislative priorities for this year.

The AML board agreed on three items dealing with State Revenue Sharing and a long-range fiscal plan. The position on revenue sharing is this: As a temporary measure, communities should share the state budget cuts until a long-range fiscal plan is adopted. However, the State must not eliminate its historic and constitutionally supported assistance to local governments. AML supports revenue sharing equal to the FY04 amount (a 50% cut from FY03) and no additional unfounded transfers of state responsibilities to local taxpayers until a long-range fiscal plan is adopted. To allow the continued existence of small rural municipalities, it is imperative that they receive a minimum revenue sharing payment of $40,000 annually, which is equal to the FY04 payment.

The Alaska Municipal League’s position on a long-range fiscal plan is this: AML and the Alaska Conference of Mayors will work in each of their communities and as part of a statewide coalition to support adoption of a long-range fiscal plan, including management of the Permanent Fund.  We support consideration of a Percent of Market Value concept of fund management.  This approach can protect and inflation-proof the Fund, maintain a growing PFD, and help balance the state budget at the same time.  The proposal for a long-range fiscal plan must include adequate funding/annual inflation proofing for schools and a community dividend or a traditional revenue sharing program. Revenue sharing is not only necessary to allow many small rural communities to exist, but is necessary to allow larger communities to avoid devastating property tax increases or damaging cuts to key local services.

Lastly AML supports the use of Municipal Fiscal Notes in all legislation. This process is used by 42 other states to include municipal fiscal notes as part of the state fiscal note process to protect communities and local taxpayers.  A fiscal note is a cost estimate of the financial effect that particular legislation will have on city revenues or costs.

The Alaska Conference of Mayors after much discussion, voted unanimously to pass a resolution of “no confidence” in the legislature to work toward adopting a sound fiscal plan. In other words, the mayors of Alaska feel that they had presented this issue to the legislature for the last five years without any results or positive progress. With an election year coming up, the mayors decided enough was enough: we had to make a strong statement to the legislature and about the legislature.

On an unrelated subject, the judge in the Kivalina Relocation Planning Committee (KRPC) vs Teck Cominco lawsuit dismissed this case on the very issue I had identified at the very beginning: that this organization had no legal standing in filing a lawsuit. I hope this will give all parties the opportunity to solve their differences locally. The Kivalina people have legitimate concerns and issues about their area environment, and I hope that we can address those things effectively at a regional level.  I would encourage everyone involved to work together to develop a plan of action that satisfies the industry as well as the citizens of Kivalina. The Northwest Arctic Borough stands ready to work together with all those involved.

Northwest Arctic Borough Staff Directory

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