The Kenai Peninsula Borough proposed increasing funding to the Economic Development District by $25,000 and the Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council by $80,000.
Assembly member Blaine Gilman began the discussion to cut that funding by stating non-profits should not be funded by government.
Asm. Gilman(Kenai): “This is not really a question of the budget for me. What this is is the question of government. What gives us the right up here as Assembly Members to decide which non-profit groups we should fund? We don’t have any criteria or anything.”
Although Gilman proposed to zero out the proposed allocations to the EDD, KPTMC, and Small Business Development Center, only the Economic Development District budget was reduced by 10% to $67,500.
The KPTMC funding of $380,000 barely escaped changes, with a five to four(Kelly Cooper, Gilman, Kelly Wolf, Stan Welles) vote against zeroing out that allocation.
An amendment to that motion which proposed cutting KPTMC funding to $270,000 was voted down, seven to two(Wayne Ogle and Wolf).
After a legal question on a separate part of the budget, the assembly postponed further discussion until the June 2 meeting.