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Council praises infrastructure review; Hutchings suggests a 0.5% sales tax to fund needs
Summary
Council members praised a citywide infrastructure review as a basis for next steps; Council member Hutchings suggested considering a 0.5 percent sales tax that she said could raise about $1.7 million instead of a 4.6 mill property-tax increase.
Council members described the recently presented citywide infrastructure review as thorough and a useful foundation for developing recommendations. Council member Hutchings specifically recommended the council consider a 0.5 percent sales tax as a revenue option to fund infrastructure needs, saying that to raise roughly $1.7 million by property tax would require a 4.6 mill increase.
Hutchings said: "I think that that's something that we really, really should consider because to bring in $1,700,000 as property tax, we'd have to have a mill rate of 4.6." Several council members thanked staff for the work session and report and asked staff and the council to use the next six months to develop options and recommendations.
The mayor and city manager reported on recent meetings with HUD and members of the congressional delegation during the National League of Cities conference; the mayor said staff had already received a HUD follow-up e-mail and that officials appeared supportive of Soldotna's projects. The mayor also said he, the vice mayor, and the city manager plan to travel to Juneau in early April to meet the delegation and discuss capital projects.
Council members closed the discussion by praising the report and urging follow-up work to translate the review's findings into concrete recommendations and funding options.
