Module 9-Alaska Governance and Contemporary Issues

Essential: Pick one contemporary issue from your region and discuss - explain the issue, identify the major players and their positions.

A few days ago there was a vote in Dillingham on a proposed "fish tax" as well as the annexation of the fishing waters around Dillingham.  Lots of emotions and opinions were in the air.  My first response was against additional taxation.  However on closer examination the issue did not seem so black and white.

Proposed Dillingham Annexation

The City of Dillingham proposed an annexation of the commercial fishing waters around Dillingham, about 396 square miles of water and 3 square miles of land as well as a 2.5% fish tax.  This tax would help the City of Dillingham pay for the costs of supporting the fisheries in the Nushagak Bay.  It will help the city to recover some of the lost revenue "from non-Alaskan fishermen in Nushagak Bay, and, from Nushagak Bay fish that are processed outside the Bay."(July 2010 Frequently Asked Questions about Dillingham’s Proposed Annexation)

Only 20% of fisherman in 2008 in the Nushagak Bay were  Dillingham residents while 42% were other Alaskans and 38% were non-Alaskans.

Sunrise by Jayne Bennet, City of Dillingham web site

The fish tax would include taxation on where the fish is sold and where it is taken out of the water.  Many fish from the Dillingham area are processed elsewhere so Dillingham has not benefited from state fish-processing taxes.

Dillingham doubles in size during the summer and needs the extra revenue to help maintain and make improvements in the services and facilities of the harbor and boat dock, including bathrooms and trash services. 

Dock photo by Cindra Barrett City of Dillingham web site

The Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation was against the fish tax and annexation because of the high cost to fisherman.  They would like to encourage more people to get into fishing, but the cost is prohibitive.  Just the fishing permits alone cost around $125,000, while a boat costs at least that much.  A fish tax would be one more added expense.

Dave Piazzi, Superintendent of Southwest Region Schools, is against the fish tax because of the detrimental effect it would have on student enrollment.  New families would not be motivated to get into the fishing industries and villages would lose population and perhaps even close down.

Kim Williams , executive director of Nunamata Aulueskal is against the tax because it is beneficial only to Dillingham, whereas the fisheries in the area are regional and so all of the outlying villages should also benefit.(Nielsen, M.)

The Dillingham City Council could have annexed the land on their own without putting it up for a vote, but they wanted the communities' input.  They also plan to look into helping lower-income fishermen with the additional costs.

The 2.5% fish tax and the annexation of the Nushagak Fishing District and the Wood River fishing area into the City of Dillingham were approved by a narrow margin on April 13, 2012. This is supposed to bring an additional $700,000 for the city.  In addition to boat harbor and dock maintenance, the extra revenue will be used for roads, library and the schools.

Examine:

1. Identify the Alaska Senate and House Districts in which you live (Use current, not pending, letter and number.) Identify the name  and political party of your state senator and representative.  Identify the type of local government you have (city? borough? what class?)  Identify the tribal government, if any, in your area, and if possible find out if it is an IRA or traditional council. 

City of Dillingham

Alaska Senate-S
House Districts-37
State senator-Lyman K. Hoffart, Democrat
Representative-Bob Herron, Democrat
Dillingham is a first class city with a city council 
Tribal government-Curyung Tribal Council(an IRA) 
 

2. The state has a Model Borough Boundary Study to eventually divide the unorganized borough into several distinct boroughs so that everyone in AK will be in a borough. ( Map available for download - go to publications list at Borough Incorporation.) Review the powers of boroughs. What is your opinion about this? Can rural Alaska support another layer of local government?  What are potential tax bases for these boroughs? If you had to create one borough from the unorganized borough, where would it be? Explain your choice of boundaries.

One option that was proposed during the fish tax /annexation debates in Dillingham was to create the Dillingham-Nushagak-Togiak Borough. This would create, according to some, a fairer distribution of taxes collected among the outlying villages and Dillingham. 

Boroughs have many of the same powers as cities in regulating education, land use and tax collection.  The difference is that the power would be regional power rather than city.  To become a borough the region must have common interests and a common geographical location. 

The types of boroughs are unified home rule,non-unified home rule, first class, second class and third class boroughs.  The difference between a first class and second class borough is that the first class can adopt an ordinance to exercise power while a second class must have a vote.  A third class borough has only two powers, regional education and taxation.  In Alaska there are no first class boroughs, 7 second class, 1 third class, 3 unified home rule and 5 non-unified home rule.(Bockhurst, Don)

Boroughs can exercise greater control over education and taxation in an area., which I believe is a good thing.  The residents of any area know more about what their community and schools need than anyone outside of the area.  A borough could also contribute to the preservation of the culture and way of life of Native peoples in outlying villages.

I support the proposition that Dillingham and near-by villages  become a borough so that those villages could benefit from extra taxation to improve their qualitiy of life.  Perhaps there will be more disagreement about how to use funds because the interests of the villages might be different than those of Dillingham.

A colleague of mine whose family has fished in the area for many years told me that there are quality issues with the fishing industry in the Dillingham area.  These could be helped with extra monies. The revenue could be used to refurbish fishing boats so they could get cleaner,less damaged fish to the canneries in a shorter amount of time, all of which would improve the quality of the fish and help fishermen to realize a greater return.

I don't believe that the creation of a borough in this area is off the table.  But it will take some time since it seems to be a fairly complicated and involved process.

References:

Nielsen, Misty Annexation opponents unveil Bristol Bay borough study (2012) retrieved from http://www.thebristolbaytimes.com/article/1214annexation_opponents_unveil_bristol_bay

Alaska News Nightly: April 13, 2012 retrieved from http://www.alaskapublic.org

 City of Dillingham, Why is Dillingham proposing this? (2012)  retrieved from http://ci.dillingham.ak.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={3104A52B-8880-41E1-AB32-19C0F13720F8}

Bockhurst, Don, Borough Government in Alaska (2012)retrieved from: http://commerce.alaska.gov/dca/LOGON/muni/muni-boroinc.htm 

Evaluation:

This was a very large module, but I really appreciated looking into issues in my area and understanding a bit about the government, wow its complicated! I have a lot to learn but this entire course has peaked my interest in many areas and I do feel more knowledgeable than when I began.

Blogs I have visited:

  Shannon writes about the Alaska Native Claims Act and how it wasn't all good for the Natives.  She also is starting to introduce government to her kindergartners, its never too early!

Robin has finished her time line !  I was interested in what she brought up about the inter-relationship between culture and language.  

I enjoyed reading about the natural resources on Prince of Wales Island in Christy's blog.  What a beautiful place