At this week’s Anchorage Assembly meeting a proposed municipal charter change designed to clarify city’s tax cap process failed to muster the necessary votes to appear on the April 5th ballot.
Representative Chris Birch proposed the charter change. Mayor Dan Sullivan strongly endorsed it including last Friday when his Office of Management and Budget Director Cheryl Frasca gave a power point presentation at an assembly work session.
Proclaimed by backers as the “Taxpayer Protection Act, Charter Amendment,” its actual title ran along the lines of “a municipal charter redefinition of “‘base amount’ in the calculation forthe tax increase limitation, the tax cap.”
Because the proposition would change the municipal charter, it needed eight assembly votes to make the spring ballot. Tuesday evening it failed to attract a majority, with five in favor but six against .
The six included Mike Guiterrez, Paul Honeman, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Harriet Drummond, Pat Flynn and Chair Dick Traini. Besides Birch, Debbie Ossiander, Ernie Hall, Bill Starr and Jennifer Johnston voted in favor.
Before the vote, Birch tried to allay the concerns that the proposed proposition needed more work. Birch spoke via teleconference.
Len Anderson, KSKA – Anchorage
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