As legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens said, “I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night.”
Assume the “Eagle Exit” succession movement is successful.
Do the folks who created this new fiefdom assume they will simply be given every Municipality of Anchorage asset currently used to support Eagle River? Do they assume the taxpayers of Anchorage will forgo their tax-dollar investments in all those same assets? Consider public safety. Do the Eagle Exit proponents assume property values and property insurance rates will not be negatively impacted by reduced levels of fire and police protection if those services cannot be maintained at current levels? Do they assume that the former MOA fire trucks, ambulances and police cars will each be adorned with a big red bow, then presented free of charge with “best wishes” to this new fledgling government?
What if the MOA wants cash for its assets? Will we “Make Alaska Great Again” and return to the days of seemingly unlimited oil revenues, where a special state grant will easily reimburse the Municipality of Anchorage and also provide a generous additional appropriation of state cash — seed money for the “new and improved” Eagle River? Will the state then again grant generous bond debt reimbursement to minimize property taxes?
I share Mr. Pickens’ wise approach of caution when faced with a deal seemingly “too good to be true” and urge others to do the same.
— Lynn Willis
Eagle River
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