A little fudging here, a little of the ol' soft-shoe there and the Anchorage Assembly's left wing - kowtowing to Hizzoner Ethan Berkowitz - gave away the budgetary farm, sending the bill to property taxpayers.
While pretending Berkowitz's $481 million operating budget is $2.6 million less than last year's - and that assertion is laughable - the Assembly's liberal majority rejected dozens of money-saving amendments and voted 7-4 to let the mayor spend as he pleases.
The majority last week voted down 48 cost-cutting amendments offered by more conservative Assembly members - Bill Starr, Amy Demboski and Bill Evans - trying to scrub the budget for even the tiniest savings.
The seven approved only two amendments; both - surprise! - added spending. They refused to trim even library and fire department travel budget increases or consider $1 million in possible savings in the city's School Resources Officer program. They voted down Assemblyman Bill Evans' attempt to cut funding for the mayor's community grant program, which, for reasons that defy good sense, funnels property taxes to charities.
Despite the left's smokescreen, the city is not spending less. It is spending more. About $2 million in pay for 16 workers in the failed Software Accounting Program, a bottomless pit already costing the city millions, were shifted to the capital budget, shrinking the operating budget Repayments to the Police and Fire Medical Trust pre-funding account were decreased and the payments extended seven years. All of it - and more - makes it appear spending is down. It is a shell game.
All that largesse means property taxpayers face a larger tax bite, about $11.4 million larger, or $50 for every $300,000 of taxable property valuation, about the valuation of an average Anchorage home.
Fifty bucks may not sound like much, but $11.4 million does -- especially when you consider the $11.4 million will be added to the equation again when the Assembly figures the next round of property taxes -- and will be included forever, inflating the tax cap ad infinitum.
The same seven Assembly members who handed taxpayers a hefty tax increase at Berkowitz's behest were able to pull it off because earlier they rejiggered how property taxes are calculated. The change ensured the city, facing reduced state revenue-sharing, can collect more from you to make up the loss. It keeps liberal Assembly members from the messy task of cutting government and ticking off their union masters.
The change flies in the face of a tax cap adopted by voters in 1983. The switcheroo strips this language -- added unanimously by the Assembly in 2011 -- from the calculation: "The base amount for calculating the next year's tax increase limit shall be the total amount of the municipal taxes to be collected for the current fiscal year. …"
The Assembly now can use the amount of taxes that could have been collected -- rather than what actually was collected - in its tax calculations when the city does not tax to the cap. Not taxing to the cap drives tax-and-spenders nuts because, before the change, it reduced the base for the next year's cap. It sees it as a taxing opportunity missed. Those days are behind us. The Assembly last week irresponsibly taxed nearly to the cap, leaving little room for adjustment if something unexpectedly goes amiss -- huge snowfalls or increased fire department calls for Spice users, for instance -- and it needs more money.
If the calculation scam had been in place during Mayor Dan Sullivan's 2010-2015 budgets, we could all be forking over about $51 million more in taxes annually. (This year alone, it means about $1.6 million more.)
As you watch the Assembly majority, you have to wonder what color the sky is on their planets. In a state facing another $3.5 billion budget deficit, state revenue-sharing cuts are certain. It is time to bring spending into line with reality. What is being done now is reckless and unsustainable.
If ever there were an example to show the nature of those whose idea of public service is spending the public's money, it must be Assemblyman Tim Steele's observation after the vote to fleece Anchorage taxpayers.
While Steele lined up with other liberals behind Berkowitz's budget, the Alaska Dispatch News says he found the budget reasonable, "but he was concerned about property taxpayers and looming state fiscal problems."
It is nice he and the others are "concerned" but discouraging that they are not concerned enough to do anything about the problem. Their real concern, I suppose, is that government come first, well ahead of taxpayers.
For property taxpayers handed the bill, there is only this: it will get worse with this bunch.
Paul Jenkins is editor of the AnchorageDailyPlanet.com, a division of Porcaro Communications.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary@alaskadispatch.com