If you’re looking for a printed copy of the Haines Borough’s budget for the coming year, one will be available at the public library and one will be at the borough office.
Chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart said she and manager David Sosa have decided to discontinue making print copies of the document that details how the local government spends about $12 million per year.
“By putting it online and sending it out online, it’s available for the world at any time. If someone wants a paper copy, they can print one. People have printers. They can print their own,” Sosa said.
Staff previously created electronic and paper copies per requests from assembly members. “Most assembly members wanted electronic copies. This year we’re just completing the transition,” Stuart said.
One reason for the switch is that the document is increasingly printed in color, which is expensive and time-consuming to create on paper, Stuart said.
“Lots of paper copies are expensive to produce and we want to make sure that we are doing our best to not waste resources,” Sosa said.
When asked whether not providing paper budgets wouldn’t reduce access to information, Sosa said it wouldn’t. “I think that makes it more widely available than people feeling they have to scramble for a limited number of paper copies,” he said.
Sosa said the administration will try to get feedback on how easy the document is to work with and make adjustments like digital bookmarking if necessary. “As we move forward, we want to make it easier to use,” he said