The Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly is set for a budget-centric meeting on Monday. Its only non-routine items are two motions to introduce for a future meeting the borough s budget and the Ketchikan School District s spending authority for the upcoming fiscal year.
Borough budget
The Assembly will get its first chance on Monday to discuss the proposed $55.8 million borough budget for the 2022 fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
The budget, which includes appropriations from all borough funds except for the Local Education Fund, rests on several assumptions about how the next fiscal year will play out, as a 17-page borough memo explains.
Borough Mayor Rodney Dial wrote the resolution, which was co-sponsored by Assembly Member Jeremy Bynum.
Dial said in a phone interview Friday that the resolution was motivated by actions that President Joe Biden announced on April 8 aimed at reducing gun violence.
More than a dozen members of the public submitted written comment ahead of Monday s meeting, most supportive of the resolution. Among those who wrote in support were former Ketchikan City Council Member Dick Coose, Ketchikan Mayor Bob Sivertsen and former Ketchikan School Board member and 2020 Alaska House District 36 candidate Leslie Becker.
Eight citizens spoke at the meeting in person, most of whom voiced their support for the resolution, including City Council Member Riley Gass. City Council Member Janalee Gage delivered a lengthy set of remarks to the Assembly, urging it not to take up the resolution.
The Ketchikan School Board will meet on Wednesday for the first reading of its draft budget for the 2022 fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
The draft budget reduces discretionary funding from the Ketchikan Gateway Borough by $253,490 â the exact amount that the borough s state-required local contribution to the district will increase in the upcoming fiscal year compared to the current one.
During a committee meeting on Monday, Borough Finance Director Cynna Gubatayao said that change would likely allow the Assembly to avoid dipping into a $2 million protected reserve in its Local Education Fund, at least temporarily.
All told, the final budget for the district totals $41.3 million, an increase of $327,006 from last year s budget. Most of that budget increase comes from state funding â the borough s contribution to the borough decreased by $223,419 this year.
The Ketchikan Gate way Borough Assembly likely will be able to avoid overdrawing from its Local Education Fund in the upcoming fiscal year under the Ketchikan School District s draft operating budget, the borough finance director said on Monday.
The Assembly-Ketchikan School Board Liaison Committee met on Monday in the Assembly chambers to discuss solutions to the ongoing deficit in the LEF.
District Business Manager Katie Parrott told members of the committee, which includes members of the School Board and the Assembly, about the changes she conveyed to the board s Finance Committee on Friday. We adjusted down the discretionary contribution ask (from the borough) by the exact amount that the required local contribution went up, Parrott explained on Friday. So, essentially what we did, is, we re asking for the exact same amount as last year â so, we didn t increase our ask.
The Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly on Monday will meet in person for the first time in more than two months to hold a second work session to discuss ways to close an operating deficit in the boroughâs Local Education Fund.
Mondayâs regular meeting also will include an ordinance that would indefinitely extend a 5% marijuana tax in the borough and two public hearings.
Local education fund
As its first of two items of new business, the Assembly will enter a work session to discuss the ongoing Local Education Fund deficit.
Borough staff are currently projecting that the fund deficit in the 2022 fiscal year will be just over $1 million, which if implemented would draw the fund balance down to about $1.89 million.