PRESS RELEASE

Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers (A.C.T.)
Mar. 9, 2006

Soldotna, Alaska -- The Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers (A.C.T.) announced today they will be presenting a 120-day report to the Kenai Peninsula Borough at the March 14, 2006 assembly meeting. The ACT report will serve, as a rebuttal to Mayor Williams’ 60-day Transition Report. The group felt Williams’ report was biased in favor of higher taxes and did not address the public’s desire for greater efficiency in borough government. Williams offered a broad sweeping overview of the borough’s current self-inflicted fiscal predicament but failed to offer any substantive solutions except for raising taxes.

The ACT 120-day report also points out errors and omissions in the Mayor’s original report. Many of the subjects discussed by the transition team were never reported and other items presented in the mayor’s report were never actually discussed by the team.

“It appears that Mayor Williams has used the good name of a dozen or so citizens for his own political purpose. His Transition Team was largely ignored when the subjects raised were contrary to what the mayor wanted presented to the general public,” said Mike McBride, ACT President.

One interesting revelation the mayor omitted in his 60-day report was the Transition Team finding that both sides of employee contracts are negotiated by other borough employees or elected officials.

“You can not have people that receive pensions and medical benefits paid by borough taxpayers representing the public’s interest in labor union negotiations with borough employees and teachers. In that situation there is no incentive for either party to hold down the costs of these programs. The public is not being fairly represented, but they are being forced to pay the bills. This situation is not fair and no longer acceptable to taxpayers,” said Vicki Pate, ACT Vice President.

Using statistics obtained directly from the borough and other official sources; ACT has put together a series of graphs that show the real state of our borough. This presentation was not designed to solve the borough’s fiscal problems, but to clearly identify those problems to the assembly. ACT feels an important first step toward solving any problem is for those in denial to realize they have a problem. It will then be up to the assembly to solve the problems identified.

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