The Mat-Su Borough says it’s going to raise taxes this year. Rindi White wrote this piece in the Anchorage Daily News alerting us to this new hole in our pocket. Surprisingly, the borough claims that the budget will decrease, but they need more money. I’m not sure how that works.
What they don’t say is that they have been raising taxes almost every year since 1990. When your assessment value on your house increases, your taxes increase. So without having to increase the mill rate, the borough has been raking in more and more property taxes every year.
In addition to that, the growth in the valley has increased the amount of houses from which they can gather taxes. Raising the value of an empty lot that is valued at $30,000 to $230,000 with a house on it increases the change into the boroughs till by 6 times. Of course, new homes equals a higher population, which does increase the work load for the borough…they need to hire more people to collect the money. 
Seriously, I do recognise that a higher population means that the borough needs more money. But they should be receiving that money already with the increased property valuation of those new homes. I am having a hard time understanding why taxes will need to go up this year unless they are in fact going to spend more money.
I have a call in to the borough finance office and also to the employment office. I hope they can help me understand why they want to raise taxes. I’ll update this post when they help me clear the tax fog in my brain.
