2010-11 Assembly Begins

This post is a bit longer and more detailed. While complex, I encourage you to wade through this to understand some of the things going on.

Two new members of the Assembly- Karen Crane and Mary Becker are now active, and I feel they will make a positive difference.

Saturday the Assembly had its annual Retreat to establish Goals and set our year’s agenda. With all nine members voting we came up with the top ten objectives noted in the Empire article. Several that I wanted addressed did not make the “top ten” including reviewing the Assembly relationship with Enterprise boards and doing a thorough review of the Assembly’s debt position. But others were – such as addressing childcare, homelessness and supporting commercial fishing. Now having these goals doesn’t necessarily mean anything will be done — but they are a declaration of what Assemblymembers think should be addressed. What actually happens will be an evolving political process.

Monday 11/8 is our Regular Assembly Meeting and several items of interest are up for hearing. Dogs are always a contentious subject. Combined with the Dike Trail it arouses major interest. The new ordinance will modify the Airport rules to confirm that dogs can be off leash at the dike trail as long as they are under “competent voice control.” The language is similar to the regular Borough ordinance. I expect we will hear from a number of folks at our meeting.

A second item is one I previously commented on – to remove the sales tax cap on jewelry purchases. Currently only the first $7,500 of any purchase in Juneau is subject to sales tax. While I understand the intent of this ordinance is to nail out of state jewelry stores, I fail to see the public purpose of it. It would affect local jewelry stores as well, and it discriminates against one kind of product over others—also not something I support without a real public purpose (like increased taxes on alcohol and cigarettes). I opposed this in committee and will at the regular meeting. But I will be in the minority.

Probably the most controversial item in the agenda is a revision of the Senior Citizen’s Hardship Exemption, which is a complex issue. All Senior citizens receive $150,000 reduction of their assessed home values for taxes. On top of that, there is something called the Hardship Exemption that provides additional tax relief to seniors who are in a “Hardship” situation. The problem is that under the current law, hardship is so loosely defined that people with million dollar homes and incomes of hundreds of thousands of dollars can qualify as being under “hardship.” The revision puts an income test on the exemption saying one would have to make less than 400% of the US poverty rate. The Empire article on this was pretty accurate. I made a point in the meeting that – while I support the change – any exemption for one group of people has the effect of shifting the burden to others. There is no free lunch. People under 65 making real poverty wages and in true hardship are subject to full taxation and home foreclosure if they don’t pay. I said I was uncomfortable with that differential treatment.

The new downtown parking garage will open for parking December 1, and for the month of December there will be no charges for parking at either downtown garage. After that rates will be a bit higher at the new garage than the Marine Park garage (75 vs. 50 cents p/hr). Also in January the new on-street parking meters will be set up. They will be the kind where you register your license plate and pay at a machine. The first two hours will be free (rather than one as it is now), and because you register your license plate, you cannot just move to another on-street location to avoid a ticket. Also the legislature will get 60 slots in the garage and NOT get permits to park on the street. We will see how all this shakes out and adjust policy as we learn more about how people react to the new situation.

In another “wonky” Jonathan issue, I expressed concern about our increasing levels of city debt. Outstanding CBJ debt has risen steeply over the past decade due to the new High School, the Pool and numerous school renovations. In 2000 outstanding General Obligation debt was 16 million (or $703 per person). In 2009 it was 142 million ($4,641 per person) and growing, with the approval by voters of the Auke Bay School bond issue. The school district has more bond issues they want on next year's ballot. The debt situation is laid out on pages 222-225 of our Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. While the state pays 70% of the school debt (as long as they keep appropriating it), the debt service burden for the city continues to rise. We are not in any crisis, but it is something we need to keep an eye on.

A potentially very expensive issue that has not hit the media is the fact that our Thane sewage incinerator has gone down, and there is a question whether it is worth repairing. To deal with this we have established a 6 month contract with Waste Management to put the treated sludge into the landfill. This is really not a bad thing other than the “ewwww” factor. It is treated and mostly consists of dead microbes that have eaten the waste. However, it is a new cost and a new waste stream into the landfill. Another problem for us.

Finally, in more happy news, we are looking ahead to the issues of redistricting. With the defeat of the constitutional amendment to increase the size of the legislature, Southeast Alaska will lose representation once the census numbers are in and the Redistricting Board meets. Here is the rub – Juneau will not get two representatives of its own any more, but one or both of the districts will have to expand to include other communities. Juneau’s Senate district will also probably have to cover a wider geographic area. With this change, our representatives will no longer serve just Juneau, but other communities as well, and their priorities will change. We have no idea how the Redistricting Board will carve up Juneau, but it will have an impact.

FYI Thursday 11/11 is Veterans Day and all CBJ offices will be closed.