The Assembly meeting on Tuesday, February 3, will include the first major fiscal discussion of the calendar year when we take up eight bond proposals which, if approved by the Assembly, will appear on the ballot for our April 7 election. Here’s a quick summary of the bond proposals: (more…)
One of the good things that happen when things go wrong is the opportunity to see where room for improvement lies. Wednesday morning’s awful weather and road conditions provided a good example when an accident on the north end of the A/C couplet closed vehicular access to Government Hill. I’m still not clear what caused the accident, but I did notice traffic backed up across the bridge around 9 am when I was driving underneath on my way to a meeting. Whatever the cause, for a little more than two hours no vehicle could get on or off Government Hill without driving through Elmendorf Air Force Base.
A recent discussion by the Anchorage School Board as to whether they should seek to place school bond proposals on the ballot in April’s election, coupled with economic uncertainty and dysfunctional financial markets, got me thinking about whether the Assembly should put any bonds on the ballot this spring. Instead, perhaps, we should take a “bond holiday” with no bonds proposed this year.
One interesting aspect of serving on the Assembly is how people communicate with me. When there is a city issue that strokes folks’ interest, a large snowman in Airport Heights, for example, they typically go to the Assembly home page and click on the link that allows them to e-mail all members. Because of this, those of us who monitor our e-mail have the opportunity to learn about issues throughout Anchorage, not just those in our respective districts. (We also hear about how to drive more traffic to our site, nifty music opportunities in Germany and other unrelated topics.)
I don’t know who said it first but I’m fond of the phrase, “Politics is Alaska’s second favorite indoor sport.” I’ll let readers decide for themselves what the first one is, but my point is that even when there’s not much to talk about people still talk about it (long-winded political office-holder bloggers included). So here goes…
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