Editorial

Grants and Municipal Assistance

Bill and Samon Arnold; Sterling; January 21, 2003

To manage this contrived ongoing fiscal crisis in Juneau will require the Legislature to make some 

fundamental changes in the way it spends our money.  The biggest change will require elimination 

of Municipal and Non Profit Entity welfare. The main areas of concern include, but are not limited 

to the following:

1. Revenue sharing
2. Grants, including pass through type
3. Bonding
4. Financing
5. Capital projects
6. Funding local government in any other fashion

When it comes to municipalities, the easiest way to handle any request for funding is to examine 

the latest audited balance sheet of the requestor. Municipalities with high equity should be 

eliminated immediately for any consideration.  

For municipalities without decent balance sheet equity, consider a study to determine whether 

their taxation powers are being fully utilized. If not, eliminate those requests immediately. 

In the case of Non Profit Entities, make sure they have exhausted all private funding options 

first. If not, deny their request immediately.

For Legislators without a financial background, the state has numerous agencies available to 

examine audited balance sheets for all requestors of funding.  These agency reports should 

determine the true status of each requestor prior to introduction of legislation with fiscal notes 

attached.  Anyone concerned with how legislators ultimately vote to spend public money can 

go to the Alaska Voters Organization web site: www.akvoters.org/watchdog.htm where a 

permanent record is kept.  

The basic concept for legislators to consider is that we the voters should deal directly with 

our local government for any and all services we really NEED, knowing we will have to pay 

for them ourselves. Whether we choose more or less government services the decision and 

cost is strictly ours.  

Local governments can be given the powers required to offer services the State is providing.  

If left alone municipalities will take over where the state leaves off.  If Federal grants are 

available to help fund programs, municipalities themselves can deal directly with the Federal 

Government, and pay any required match to them.

The above ideas should make our new Governor's task of balancing the budget much easier.  

Maybe the legislature could even start paying back money borrowed from the Constitutional 

Budget Reserve account utilized to balance previous state budgets?

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