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Some
residents of Service District One, the sprawling taxation region to the east of
city limits responsible for road maintenance, do not pay the same taxes as
their neighbors. That’s because the borough has exempted them because they
access their property from a state road, not a borough-maintained one. Rezanof
and Otmeloi are two of the main roads affected.
Service
area board member Ed Mahoney says the exemptions amount to a sizable portion of
the tax base in the district:
-- (Service 1 27 sec “… don’t have
enough funds to maintain the roads.”)
The
issue boils down to representation without taxation:
-- (Service 2 32 sec “… it is now, it
seems a little bit unfair.”)
Mahoney
said he didn’t really have a preference whether those residents should start
paying taxes or if their property should be removed from the district, but he
did say it would be “a nightmare” to redraw the boundaries to exclude them.
Mahoney
brought up the topic with the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly on Thursday night.
Assemblywoman Pat Branson suggested the service area board hold a public
hearing and bring a plan back to the assembly for them to consider:
-- (Service 3 19 sec “… come to us and
say, ‘what’s this all about?’”)
Assemblyman
Tom Abell, who was chairing the work session in the mayor’s absence, said such
a meeting would likely draw a lot of attention and discussion:
-- (Service 4 27 sec “… a lot of
important things to vote on, I feel.”)
Mahoney
also brought up the specter of current paved roads eventually needing
replacement, and said the service area does not have the money to do that. He
suggested the assembly consider looking at borough-wide road service powers,
rather than having several different assessment districts.
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