As the State House passes their version of the operating budget on to the Senate, local government leaders fear deep cuts will result in “inter-municipal cannibalism.”
Soldotna City Manager Mark Dixson made the comments during this week’s City Council meeting…
Dixson: “It means that municipalities are feeding their services, supplying their services by making other municipalities pay for them.”
Dixson says he expects more unfunded mandates coming from the state level. As an example, he spoke of how the city has been assisting the Department of Transportation…
Dixson: “As they cut back on the DOT, we’re going to end up picking up more of the maintenance. Three years ago they used to do the sidewalks along the state highways. We’re now doing that. If they continue to cut Alaska State Troopers, on our fringes we’re going to see Soldotna Police Department responding to that. So we’re going to be picking up more and more of their services, paying for them. They’re their obligations, but it’s our cost.”
Dixson says he fears the financial burden will fall on property tax payers and urged residents to contact their legislators.