Borough sues group to eliminate ballot measure
Published Thursday, August 7, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — The Fairbanks North Star Borough has asked a state judge to erase a tax-related measure from ballots in this fall’s local government election.
The proposed measure, initiated by the watchdog group Interior Taxpayers Association, aims to tighten the borough’s allowance — specifically, the income stream it collects in local taxes.
It is one of two competing “tax cap” propositions readied for the Oct. 7 election. But borough officials now think state law prevents them from legally enforcing the group’s proposal and have asked Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle for a speedy review to help them prepare ballots by the end of this month.
Lawyers at the borough wrote in court filings submitted Monday that a recent, but unrelated, state Supreme Court ruling shows the change in local tax laws proposed by the group would be “unenforceable.”
Voters routinely pass tax cap measures at the polls. Each time, the vote places the cap — a legal ceiling on the taxes local governments may collect each year — out of reach of public officials for two years, a time frame set by state law.
Borough officials wrote in court filings that the Supreme Court ruled in the June case that voters face the same restrictions when making laws as their respective legislative bodies — in the case of Fairbanks, the Borough Assembly. They said that means voters are prohibited, as is the assembly, from touching the tax cap’s most recent version for two years after election officials certified the 2006 election results on Oct. 26 of that year.
Assistant borough attorney Jill Dolan said the borough is probably stuck with a post-election schedule that would see election officials certify this fall’s election results Oct. 23 — three days before anyone can make changes to the tax cap’s 2006 version.
“The assembly is limited by state statute from amending the tax cap for a two-year period” after voters set the cap’s rules through an initiative, Dolan said. “Therefore, the same limitation applies to the voters’ ability to amend the tax cap through the initiative process.”
Dolan said the borough is bound to keep its scheduled Oct. 23 certification date if practical, even if it creates an issue public officials failed to foresee last summer when they approved the initiative application from Donna Gilbert and Ann Roberts, two organizers from the Interior Taxpayers Association.
Peter Aschenbrenner, an attorney for Gilbert and Roberts, said the Supreme Court prefers to deal with legal challenges to ballot initiatives after elections, not before them.
He said if borough attorneys are eager to get the issue ironed out, the proper thing is to do it after Oct. 7.
“I say three days over two years, that’s not a big deal,” Aschenbrenner added of the situation raised in the borough’s argument.
Public initiatives from the taxpayers’ group have traditionally aimed to protect the two-decade-old tax cap and have passed easily at the ballot. This year’s measure, however, aims to freeze one of three major moving parts in the cap and has drawn critics including borough Mayor Jim Whitaker. A handful of business leaders readied a second measure this spring in response to the proposal from Gilbert and Roberts. The second measure aims to protect existing tax laws, a role normally carried by the taxpayer’s group, which this year has argued the borough is spending too much.
Dolan said borough officials discussed the possibility of pushing the Oct. 23 certification date back a few days but decided to stick with a consistent interpretation of local laws governing the election and post-election processes.
Lyle has scheduled a Friday morning hearing in Fairbanks court to schedule the case.
Community Discussion
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This is the most pathetic thing the Borough has ever done to its citizens. This is a veiled attempt to subvert the will of the people.
This borough is so desperate to confiscate property taxes from its citizens that it would go to court to overturn a citizen's initiative that they- the borough- certified? Are you kidding me? All the ITA is trying to do is limit the growth of borough spending. ITA is not preventing increased borough spending, only limiting the rate of growth. But even this is too much for the borough!
Total insanity. Maybe our borough leaders have not noticed that with high property taxes and runaway fuel costs that homeowners are squeezed like they have never been before.
Maybe our borough leaders have not noticed how many homes are on the market right now? The borough's spending is out of control, and even the tiniest effort by its citizens to restrain that spending is met with contempt.
A truly dark day for this community. This will backfire. People are not going to put up with this kind of arrogance from the people who are supposed to be representing us.
Donna Gilbert will be on the Michael Dukes program today from 4 to 6 PM, I suspect she will have a lot to say about this.
one affect that the tax cap would have is to vastly limit the amount of firefighters on call. The building fire at the Northward building two nights ago probably would have killed more than one person if there were not emergency backup EMS/FF to help the city out. Depeartments such as Ester, North Star, Chena Goldstream, and Steese will pretty much loose their paid staff and will be strictly volunteer. Which means if it is a great fishing weekend you better hope your property doesn't need saving or someone you love doesn't need emergency medical assistance.
The borough might as well say it's for the children & little puppy dogs!
Now that they know that they will lose at the polls, they want to say the whole idea is illegal. Just another slezzy attempt of the Mayor and Assembly to over ride the will of the Voters: who they are to represent not rule.When will we march on the borough building with torches, pitch -forks, tar & feathers??Or can we just send them half a dozen Blue Tickets out of town?
If firefighterswife is correct then what in the heck are we paying the city firefighters for? Why are the city firefighters paid such a fancy wage and these other fine people are working for free or close to it? I assume that is what “volunteer” means. Something is wrong with the picture on my screen about this.
I agree with 11801N and each taxpayer should really look to see where this money is going and the quality of the education (oops – service) returned for the $$. It is pretty miserable.
Actually the borough, excluding you know who, does not seem to have an excessive budget for the overall population. There are certainly some totally worthless programs/departments in the borough that could be cut/trimmed; however, that savings will not correct the overall cost until the biggest problem is rectified. At a minimum it would be good to get what we are and have been paying for or a service that is beneficial to all of the borough. Free bus rides for UAF staff/faculty comes to mind as one of those worthless programs.
three days? Put the ballot count in the mail, it will get sent through Anchorage and back and then we can open it for our three days later deal and we are okay, isnt the stamp at the post office a federal seal? Good, that ought to show that no one tampered with it either.
James,
Bus rides are being paid for by the University, not local taxes (as I understood the agreement). I don't like the program either, but it comes from a different funding source, so doesn't impact firefighters.
Why does this borough assembly and Mayor just come out and say the economy in this community if federal money is lost will go down the tubes and the property tax payers will be left to pay for the government created by Federal grants and the outrageous spending of the Mayor and Borough assembly. They know that the many factors that make industry move to an area are non existent in this borough. Besides what business would want to pay high property taxes.
Without capping taxes, how many will be willing to pay thousands more for property taxes to cover the cost of government and retirees who have long left this community for areas where they do not have such high taxes and cost of living.
I just dont get it, I mean I know nobody wants to pay thier taxes but the city and FNSB already have a constrained budget, and you want to limit thier revenue again? Don't you think we need our firefighters and police? Frell we need more of em'
James,
Paid staff at volunteer stations = higher rated stations = a whole lot less for fire insurance.
The FNSB does not want to work within that constrained budget, they always want to spend more of other peoples money. The Borough does not pay for police, and we don't need more of them. We need the Borough to get the hint, STOP SPENDING. Just Stop Spending. And stop fighting those who want you to stop spending.
Wow, if this suit had been explained accurately I'm sure the comments would be a lot different. But we've got to give people something to talk about right?
I do not appreciate (understatement) the borough spending money on this.
The initiative the borough prefers--the one not being challenged--actually loosens the tax cap as is.
It was designed to confuse and mislead the voters as a Good Thing--hoping to fool the voters into believing it was along the lines of an ITA initiative.
I think it was also designed to force the ITA into having to try to raise funds (not easy) in order to combat the deception. The proponents of the "other" initiative are from the pro-spend-lots crowd.
In other words, well-funded.
It is not a Good Thing. I remember when the FDNM first reported on the two. I saw the deception right quick.
I heard Donna Gilbert is going to be on KFAR today at 4 PM. Not sure, but if folks want the real story about what's going on with the two initiatives, it's worth a check.
The FDNM will likely not provide us an equitable analysis of and between the two initiatives.
Hang on to your wallets. And if you care, the Interior Taxpayers Association is going to need money.
I am not an up-to-date member, but it's time I become current. I remember posting about this the only other time I read a blurb about it in the paper.
Not_From_North_Pole I understood that and I agree. The point was the city firefighters ... not the volunteer ones. Also, last time I checked my insurance was the same with or without the volunteer fire department. No hydrants = class 10.
pragmatist the pay for free rides (which is inadequate) is coming from state coffers .. you, me and everyone else. The benefit goes exclusively to one of the highest paid groups in the state. If the borough really wants to do something then they could give free rides to all the working people over at that mess on the Johansson ... Fred’s' Wall Mart, Lowe’s , etc .... but not the UAF staff and faculty! That was just an example of a worthless program.
However, that said, I still thing the only out of control portion of the FNSB budget is the school district and that won't change. The remainder of the budget is pretty reasonable for the size of the community.
pragmatist, you are correct, UAF will be paying for the bus service, just like UAA has been.
James - No hydrants doesn't always equal class 10. Ester doesn't have hydrants and they are a class 6. No protection at all = class 10, as in no hydrants, no fire department etc. It's possible to have a fire department and have a class 10 if they have very limited staffing and equipment.
The way I understand it the borough fire departments have 2 budgets. A fire budget that gets paid out of the fire mil rate each service area member pays and a EMS budget that is funded by the borough EMS tax (remember when you look on your property taxes those are separate). The way it was explained many of the costs of the paid fire fighters are split between the two budgets. Like they get paid for x hours a day out of one budget, and x hours a day out of the other.
I don't know if all the volunteer departments do this, that is just what was explained to me by my area fire department when I went in to speak to them and get some questions about insurance answered.
read the foreclosure list. Some of the "finest" citizens are years behind on their property taxes. Look at the list it is ridiculous what some on these people owe, $20,000 or more. Their names are constantly on the list because they just have to pay what they need to to stop a foreclosure.
How soon before they go after the senior exemption.
So who can put a damper on the school taxes - that's the one that bugs me. It makes up almost 60% of my property taxes.
Boy, Malcontent, I won't even go there. The Holy Grail--not.
I actually remembered to turn on the radio.
Donna is discussing the initiatives/lawsuit, but I missed the beginning.
It is a shame that "firefighterswife" muddies the waters by putting out misinformation. She needs to check her facts before she spreads such rumors.
The Borough Initiative in question has nothing to do with city or volunteer firefighters. It will simply lower taxes for everyone without touching any service.
It is unfortunate that the Borough Mayor has chosen to sue the Borough residents - do you suppose he needs the extra money to take care of his friends?
ITA followed every rule set by the Borough when they did their initiative, and yet the Mayor is forcing them to hire an attorney to defend themselves, when, in fact, ITA did what the Borough told them to do, and they (the borough) even certified the inititative as being correct. Now you tell me how citizens can win against such stupidity!
Donna Gilbert
The call of 'My Taxes are too high!' is as American as apple pie and baseball. At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I'd like to point out that you get what you pay for. Personally I like having streets plowed, food inspectors, parks to walk in, police and firefighters available in case of emergency and all the other provided services. I'm even willing to pay for schools even though I don't have children because the idea of being surrounded by people dumber than they already are is scary. When I bought my house I compared the tax rate to that of my Aunt who lives in Wisconsin (not a high tax area) and found I pay half the amount she does despite my house being valued at three times hers. If you find something in the budget you think is wasteful, write your representative and get something done about it; don't just scream in the news miner and work to choke off funding for everything.
DrKaren-
Are you for real? The borough does not maintain roads, inspect food, or provide police or firefighters.
Any firefighting and/or road service areas are taxed above and beyond the standard mil rate.
And I have some problems with the way the borough has handled those...
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