Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce spoke before a joint session of the Soldotna and Kenai Chamber of Commerce. He addressed his desire to drive the borough through tough economic times due to the stance of the Biden administration on oil, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Work smarter, don’t try harder.” That was an early message of Mayor Pierce as he discussed the state of his administration before heading into his confidence in the smart decisions made by folks on the Kenai with regards to the pandemic. He strongly endorsed a speaker from the previous night’s borough assembly meeting, Paul Seaton, who advocated the use of Vitamin D to help combat the COVID-19 virus.
The meat of the mayor’s presentation was a discussion on the borough’s budget. He prefaced it by saying that he’s simply “the messenger,” and that this is not necessarily “his budget.” He noted that the budget reduction from Fiscal Year 2019 to Fiscal Year 2022 is around $8 million, a loss of around 10%.
Pierce said that he has never agreed to a mill rate increase, as he wants it to remain at 4.7. Even though some budgets have been proposed that would make it higher, he reaffirmed that he plans to keep it at 4.7.
The projected revenue forecast for Fiscal Year 2022 is $76,407,614 compared to a projected expenditure of $80,049,938.