News from Patrick Flynn

Dedicated followers of municipal governance most assuredly did not watch this evening’s football game, instead employing those valuable hours cogitating on Anchorage’s 2011 budget, right?  Okay, perhaps not, but if you have been following the process I have a brief update.  First, however, two quick administrative matters:

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Last week I received a few e-mails from folks surprised (and disappointed) that I voted against a recent tobacco tax increase.  Here’s a redacted copy of my response:

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Over the past month I’ve received a steady drumbeat of e-mails from folks supportive of the Fire Island wind farm, asking that I support it.  I do but, for two reasons, there’s not a darn thing I can do to actually bring it to fruition:

• First the project owner, CIRI, needs to sign power purchase agreements with railbelt electric utilities.
• Second, because my wife has performed work for CIRI (though, to the best of my knowledge, not on this project) I will have to recuse myself from voting on any PPA between CIRI and ML&P, the only utility over which the Assembly has jursidiction.

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Friday, November 5, marked the Assembly’s final (we think) work session on the administration’s proposed 2011 budget.  We likely would’ve had at least one more if we hadn’t conducted the enterprise activity-specific budget meeting earlier in the week (and, of course, we may later decide to conduct another work session should circumstances so dictate).  Here’s the list of departments discussed:

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As mentioned previously, on November 1 the Assembly spent some quality time with representatives from Anchorage’s five utility enterprises to discuss their 2011 budgets, as well as future projections.  We had some interesting discussions and below are some of the highlights.

Solid Waste Services:

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