Haines Borough Manager David Sosa released details of his forthcoming budget this week, including a recommendation to cut $74,000 of school district funding.
The manager is also asking department heads to cut their budgets by 6 percent in anticipation of revenue decreases from reduced raw fish tax, less state revenue sharing and an increase in senior property tax exemptions.
The predicted revenue shortfalls, paired with increasing expenses for utilities and mandated wage increases, necessitate the cuts, Sosa said.
The borough’s annual allocation to the school district is discretionary, though the amount must fall between state-mandated maximum and minimum limits. Last year, the borough funded the school district at 84 percent of the maximum, or about $1.55 million. This year, Sosa is recommending the borough fund the district at 80 percent of the maximum, or about $1.48 million.
Mandated funding levels aren’t available yet, so totals at this point are based on last year’s numbers, Sosa said. For the upcoming budget, Sosa said he will recommend funding at the 80 percent level or $1.48 million, whichever is less.
Sosa pointed out funding the district at 80 percent of the maximum is still 200 percent more than the minimum the borough is required to contribute.
Chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart said the borough’s contribution makes up about 30 percent of the school district’s annual revenue.
Josh Moore, whose third-grader Alex attends the Haines School, said cutting school funding sends the wrong message to young families looking to relocate to Haines. Moore, a commercial fisherman, said the school district is “exactly the reason I live here.”
Moore pointed to the district’s multiple awards, including its repeated recognition as a Blue Ribbon School, as reasons to maintain existing funding levels.
“We should fund the school at least at its present level. To win national and state awards, it means we are doing a good job at that school,” Moore said. “This is one thing we can sell. We have a good school. Move to Haines. We’ve got the awards to prove it,” Moore said.
What’s particularly galling, Moore said, is watching the borough spend money on things like helicopter noise studies while simultaneously claiming it needs to cut school funding. “All the money we spend studying different scenarios, it’s just absolutely asinine to me,” he said.
In addition to the $1.55 million allocated to the district last year, the borough also provided $230,000 for activities and work orders. Sosa said the borough won’t fund activities and work orders at any more than last year’s level.
The borough has currently budgeted to take in about $1.6 million in areawide property taxes, or $179,300 less than the $1.78 million total allocated to the district last year. Sosa is recommending that in future years, the borough fund the school district at no higher than the amount the borough collects in areawide property taxes.
Sosa hasn’t decided whether to recommend increasing property taxes, but will do so after reviewing budgets submitted by department heads. An across-the-board increase of one mill would bring in about $290,000 in additional revenue.
school board president Anne Marie Palmieri said she couldn’t comment on Sosa’s recommendation at this point, as the board hasn’t yet received a draft budget from superintendent Ginger Jewell.
Palmieri said the board will discuss the cuts at its budget meeting on March 5.
In his five-page budget guidance memo to staff, Sosa also pointed out several other trends he has observed in the borough’s financial history: an “addiction” to grants and underinvestment in maintenance and infrastructure.
Sosa also observed historically strong investment in the school district, library and tourism department, which “provides an opportunity to accept risk in these areas,” he said.
The manager’s budget is due to the assembly no later than April 1. The manager’s budget is a recommendation, with final spending authority held by the borough assembly.