The Haines Borough Assembly is in the early stages of revamping its nonprofit funding program.
Under a proposal assembly member Caitie Kirby presented at Tuesday’s Government Affairs and Services (GAS) Committee meeting, nonprofits would apply to be included as perennial line items in the borough budget.
“If you would like to be a line item in the budget, here’s what you have to do—fill out the application, (which is scored according to a rubric), and then every year after that, it’s something we can revisit and say, ‘Have they met the needs of the community the same as they have in the past? Do they still need funding?’ A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to them being a line item, instead of having to go through this application process every single year,” Kirby said.
She said it makes sense to put the system in place for nonprofits the borough funds every year, listing the Southeast Alaska State Fair as an example.
Until two years ago, the assembly would solicit applications from local nonprofits, due in the fall, and would distribute excess funds from various borough savings accounts based on the applications, according to interim manager Alekka Fullerton.
“The assembly would identify during budget times that there was going to be an estimated $11,000 from medical services that would be available for nonprofits, $20,000 from Fund 23 (the tourism and economic development fund), and $32,000 from Fund 01 (the areawide general fund) that the assembly had identified as appropriations for nonprofits,” Fullerton said, making up figures as an example.
The past two years, the borough hasn’t run this program. Instead, nonprofits have submitted funding requests to the assembly during the spring budget cycle, Fullerton said.
Other assembly members on the GAS Committee expressed interest in Kirby’s proposal.
“I think that it will ease tension and heartburn on the assembly’s part,” assembly member Cheryl Stickler said, raising the possibility of having nonprofits fill out applications for the current budget cycle.
The GAS Committee ultimately rejected the proposal since borough accounts that normally have excess funds, like the tourism and economic development fund and the medical services fund, likely won’t in the coming fiscal year due to the pandemic. The two accounts are funded entirely by sales tax revenue. The current budget draft estimates sales tax revenue in the coming fiscal year will be 65% of what it was in the last pre-pandemic year.
The committee recommended the assembly continue working on the new program and aim to have the application ready in time for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022. The recommendation will be discussed at an assembly meeting on June 8.
At the same GAS Committee meeting, assembly members set a tentative date for a Haines Sheldon Museum stakeholder roundtable including representatives from the Chilkoot Indian Association and the museum nonprofit board of trustees. The meeting is scheduled for June 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the library.