Borough shrinks property tax rates to lowest in two decades
Published Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly has approved a $128 million budget that will shrink the borough’s base property tax this year to its lowest rate in two decades.
Assemblymember Nadine Winters said the budget, originally proposed by Mayor Jim Whitaker, will collect about $5 million less in local taxes than allowed under public tax-collection rules. She thanked Mayor Jim Whitaker for making “tough decisions” in the face of skyrocketing energy costs and uncertainty over Fairbanks’ short-term economic future.
“I think it was a good budget, and I think it was a good process,” Winters said.
A Thursday night public hearing on the spending plan drew less talk of taxes, however, than of services — specifically the Van Tran bus line, offered to disabled and elderly residents, and the public animal shelter.
The borough plans to eliminate unlimited-use monthly passes for Van Tran service. The single-ride fare of $2 would remain unchanged.
A number of disabled residents have asked borough officials to keep the monthly pass. Mary Perkins said the Van Tran system offers a “lifeline” for disabled residents looking to live independently and hold jobs.
“If it’s priced out of our reach and out of other patrons’ reach, it’s a distinct disadvantage,” Perkins said.
Janet Pearson said she works five days a week and relies on monthly passes to keep transportation costs low.
“It would be really hard if you guys took away the passes, because it would make it harder” to pay for fuel and groceries, Pearson said.
James Burton was among the Van Tran riders encouraging the assembly Thursday to boost the program’s support staff and make the system’s schedule more user-friendly.
Glenn Miller, who directs the borough’s Transportation Department, suggested monthly Van Tran passes had created “unrealistic expectations” that the service should be available, with unlimited access, to cardholders. Meanwhile, he said, demand for Van Tran service is rising fast.
“Because of the resources that we have, we simply cannot meet that demand,” Miller said.
A handful of residents also asked the assembly to boost staffing at the animal shelter. Ronnie Rosenberg, chairwoman of the borough’s Animal Control Commission, noted the shelter is subsidized heavily by volunteer help.
The assembly added about $23,000 to the budget for “casual” hours to fund temporary workers at the shelter and increased adoption fees to help pay for the increase. But the increase was one of few changes made to a budget borough officials said they’d hoped to keep trim during a time of rising energy costs. A trio of residents asked the assembly Thursday to shrink government spending.
Brent Ritchie noted residents are seeing their discretionary spending vanish as money goes to cover rising gasoline prices and home-heating costs.
“If we’re tightening our belts as far a dealing with rising prices, inflation and accepting a lower standard of living, the government that serves us or represents us should make good efforts to do the same,” Ritchie said.
The base property tax rate in the budget is just under 11.25 mills, or $2,024 for a home assessed at $200,000 and eligible for a homeowner tax exemption. The base rate does not include taxes levied by cities or fire or road service areas.
Comments
A lower tax rate is laudable; massive annual assessment increases are not.
The Assembly did not increase adoption fees at the animal shelter. The Assembly said the increase for casual hours would be made up by increases in the fee schedule. This leaves it to animal control and the administration to adjust the fee schedule accordingly. Possibilities include increasing the impound fees for animals running at large which is where it should come from-why put the burden on people who are helping the situation by adopting? Put it on those who are causing the problem in the first place.
When you put your house on the market to be sold, check out the offers you get aginst your borough tax valuation. Sure wish the borough was the buyer.. Lowering the mill rate is NOT lowering my tax bill,, just the same "bait and switch" to get re elected,, Are you getting your $128,000000.00 worth ?? I know im not,,,
Eight years ago, I bought an acre of land for $8,900.00. Last year, the assessed value increased by $4,000.00. This year, it increased by another $4,000.00. Now they want credit for lowering the tax rate???Taking more of my money while trying to make me feel thankfull. When your job is wasting other peoples money, you can never seem to get enough
Years ago there were no taxes on borough property. Then some venturing citizens decided there was a fortune to be made in the potential tax base. They built a large office structure and filled
it with people that don't seem to do much that results in anything.
The fire protection I suppose is valubable especially if one has a fire. The garbage stations prevent the big rush on the dump. But
beyond that I need help.
Lower rates & my property tax bill is still the highest ever. Thanks again! Not...
Yeap, it all just talk, with continued property values mine alone jumped 28%. It's all awash. lol to the borough. No sense of reality, with borough. Especially when economy only grows 2 - 3 percent a year, I guess that justified raising my home value 28% is justifiable math.
Once again, the Borough shoots itself in the foot and then is busy congratulating itself on a job well done. Not only are they going to be out of compliance with Federal Law. They are setting themselves up for a major class action lawsuit. By choosing to only penalize the Van Tran users and not equally and fairly penalizing the non-handicapped users with passes, the Borough is kicking the crutches out from under the handicapped that are trying to be independent and self reliant.
By all means, let’s weed out the shirkers using Van Tran. Put them away out of sight somewhere so they don’t have to be out in public, using the same type of monthly pass as all the other folks. Why should they get to pay the same price as everyone else for a monthly pass? Make them pay every time they get on a van, and by all means, don’t let them transfer without charging them again. Make it impossible for them to earn a living and be independent. But why stop here, it is only the first step in a concerted effort to disenfranchise the handicapped.
These folks have already complied with the requirements for a lifetime disability pass, yet the Borough is going to require each person to be re-examined to make sure no one is shirking? I really don’t know how a person fakes a disability. Will the driver yank an oxygen container away from a person using oxygen, to see whether they turn blue and pass out. Or will the driver knock the crutches out from under someone using them, to see if that person can manage to catch themselves before getting hurt? Oh, maybe the driver can tip over the person using a wheelchair and see if they can get up by themselves? That should be good for a few more brownie points.
For your information, there is not less taxes, just a raise in assesssments and a corresponding lowering of mil rate to make it look good.
Thanks, Rosalyn
I think it would have been prudent to raise all rates for public transport. The monthly passes are for those that use it a lot more than the average person and why eliminate it, when we all are paying more for transportation?
Bait and switch is right on the mil-rate decreases offset by property value increases. By the way what was the borough budget last year? Right now, according to the article we are being taxed at over 96% of the borough's capacity under the public tax-collection rules. So our taxes can only go up another four percent which would raise their example by about eighty dollars, but our property assessments can go up infinately.
Looks like we are in for a buyer's market on property.
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