By Ken McCarty
There is a very old saying: “A person is foolish who gives pearls to swine.” The implications and application are to avoid giving time, energy, and wisdom to those who do not appreciate or value what is given. Anchorage has acted as one who has not appreciated the pearls of the people, values, and desires of Chugiak / Eagle River (CER). Today, this is more prevalent as Anchorage ignores the CER Comprehensive plan, community councils, Service Areas, and the general voice of the people.
Over the decades, the people of CER have had a strong relationship with the Mat-Su Borough in the support and development of CER. In the ‘50’s and ‘60’s when CER sought for electricity and phone services, it was Mat-Su who came through with MEA and MTA. When resources were sought, it was often Mat-Su who supplied them on the Palmer Hwy, which later became known as the Old Glenn. When CER reflects on its values of life, opportunity, and government, it is with kindred spirit of Mat-Su, not Anchorage.
Throughout the years there has been discussion of detaching from Anchorage. In 1974, a positive vote of the people of CER occurred to detach, but the outcome was overturned by the Alaska Supreme Court in 1975. For the past decade, there have been discussions to detach, but they have been unfulfilled. Despite Eaglexit’s best efforts, including its recent pursual of an informal technical review by LBC, the home rule borough solution faces formidable obstacles and may never come to fruition. Continued concern is that Anchorage is out of control and is taking down communities like CER, which means we need to act now to detach. Annex Now offers an alternative.
In 2024, a new concept called Annex Now to Mat-Su began to be developed. Despite Eaglexit’s best efforts, including its recent pursual of an informal technical review by LBC, the home rule borough solution faces formidable obstacles and may never come to fruition. Annex Now is an organized, unincorporated, grass roots entity of people in Chugiak Eagle River.
In the past year and a half several preliminary discussion meetings occurred, and general announcements were given at the Mat-Su assembly. In May 2025, a 540-page preliminary proposal was submitted to the State Local Boundary Commission, and feedback was returned to the Annex Now group in July. A key question was “What does Mat-Su say about the idea?” On Tuesday, December 16, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly will hear and vote on a resolution to pursue the Annex Now to Mat-Su. Once the Resolution is passed, the process to detach from Anchorage and be annexed to Mat-Su can happen very quickly.
There are many reasons to consider annexing to Mat-Su. First, the State Supreme Court overturned the decision to detach by forming a new, independent Borough as unconstitutional. Second, the concept of detaching from one Borough to be part of another is a viable option by the Local Boundary Commission. Third, annexation to Mat-Su is aligning with a borough proven to be fiscally functional and respectful of resident-respected governance. In addition, it has a well-established and State-recognized effective education system. Fourth, annexation would have economic benefits to all residents of Mat-Su and CER in the form of lower taxes, service fees, permits, and property taxes. In addition, annexation would provide economic stimulus that would be invested in logistic benefits of roads, rail, and jobs rather than tax money going to Anchorage’s failed homeless programs.
Annex Now provides the opportunity of a viable and realistic detachment from Anchorage. On December 16, the Mat-Su Assembly will consider the resolution to pursue interest in the annexation discussion and give notice to the LBC of such investment to the process. If this option is pursued, the final vote will be cast by the people of Mat-Su and CER. Anchorage will not get a vote. Mat-Su residents who approve of annexing CER can attend the Regular Assembly Meeting on December 16 and tell the Mat-Su Assembly that now is the time for the pearls of CER to be honored.
Annex only to Palmer in the Mat-Su and change the name of the borough but include the Chugach Mtns and Park with the opportunity for Girdwood to attach thru the mountains to the Knik Glacier.
Expect a tough fight either way.
The Chugiak Casino will support the city.
The city will also get Union backing. The exit people will need some clever people working on this. Expect the fight to be dirty and cruel.
“…….The Chugiak Casino will support the city. The city will also get Union backing……….”
True all that, but the author states that CER and Mat-Su voters decide, and Anchorage doesn’t. Eklutna can muster fewer than 100 votes. Chickalooon Natives might fight it.
I’d welcome CER into the Mat-Su Borough. Anchorage has always pretty much crapped on them.
“lower taxes, service fees, permits, and property taxes.”
Doubtful,very doubtful.
How bout NO.
You folks talk a big game,now comes the assessment revision or reduced services.
You can try to shoulder your own load ,that’ll be fun…
As a person who has lived in both Eagle River and the Mat-Su Borough, I feel qualified to opine on the idea of Eagle River and the surrounding communities becoming part of that Borough. Please don’t do it. There issomething very special about the communities between Ft. Richardson and the Hay Flats. There are many negatives that could be written about the Mat-Su Borough and few positives. The uniqueness of the Eagle River region will be lost if it becomes “baja Mat-Su”.
Really Charles. Give me a break.
Nice article, but that “old saying” you quoted is actually from the Book of Matthew in the Bible and is part of the words of Christ during his sermon on the mount where He said to his disciples “don’t cast your pearls before swine.” Matthew 7:6.
Not pearls, but servants is more like it.
Wouldn’t including Girdwood be counterproductive dk? Unless they want more of the same?
Just curious why ANC wouldn’t be included in the vote. This wasn’t explained.
Hello, Glenn, thank you for commenting! According to the Annex Now 2 Mat-Su FAQs: “The State of Alaska in the establishment of boundaries had the foresight in policy for only the residents of the effected and annexation area to vote on a boundary change proposal.” If you have more questions, you can reach out to Annex Now 2 Mat-Su via their website.
Do you have any idea how much bond debt the muni is floating for ER? How about the value of Muni property within ER and Chugiak?
The AK Courts didn’t rule that EagleExit was unconstitutional in the 1970s, they ruled that separation via special legislation was unconstitutional – while endorsing the exact process Eagle Exit is now going through as the proper constitutional alternative they should have taken.
Ken, I have a few observation here.
Having lived in the ER/CH area for decades, why is this the first time I hear about this Annex plan?
Why can I not find out, who is behind this initiative?
Why have I NEVER heard of any public informational meetings in CH/ER or public announcements from this group until just now?
Why did I never see a booth at the Bear Paw, or had an actual human to talk to?
Why is the Mat-Su borough voting on this without it appears much input from the ER/CH community?
Simply perusing the Annex website there is a certain callousness regarding the residents in the CH/ER area. While it promises us “lower taxes” it also makes clear that ER/CH residents will be paying on the Muni bonds, effectively double taxing those residents. It does not address any other real estate issues or what tax burden residents in those areas can expect or who will negotiate the settlement. I could find no mention of education other than “better” education. The FAQ page states that a survey was taken (on the street) of MAT-SU Residents regarding the annexation of CH/ER. No mention was made of any outreach/survey in the affected area. It conjures up a picture of Mat-Su politicians wanting to capitalize on ER/CH residents efforts to take a tax-rich morsel away from Anchorage and add it to their bottom line.
The entire website is geared towards Mat-Su residents, mentioning for instance an increased revenue stream after annexation for infrastructure programs like Point McKenzie.
This raises the question why would we here in CH/ER trade being the stepchild of the Muni for being the stepchild of the Mat-Su?
How would Eagle River support itself if it was to exit? If they wanna exit, by all means exit, I’m just curious..who is going to pay for snow removal, street maintenance, libraries, schools….
Will property taxes go up for all 47k residents? Girdwood has the resort to bring in money, what does ER have?
“…….Girdwood has the resort to bring in money, what does ER have?……..”
A brand new casino.
Yeah, just kidding. They aren’t paying anybody anything………………..
The casino ain’t bringing in much money. It’s not the Mohegan Sun.
Well for starters, JBER, which I am very sure brings in extremely much more money than Alyeska. The fact that both ANC and now Matsu seem to want our money, makes me highly suspicious of anyone who says we can’t afford to go it in our own.
It doesn’t seem like Anchorage or Matsu want ER money at all.
Liz, with a tin cup in each hand, the locals can go a double-beggin’ on top of taxing the hell out of the coffee houses and the few small restaurants to fund the schools and roads. Libraries, eh? Hell’s bells this is the Great Land: what gives you the notion that the electorate cares to read? As for the new ward bosses–they’ll have to get by on graft and gratuities!
Ooooh…ward bosses! I like it. Who will rise to the top??
Liz, the better question is how can the Muni afford to loose all that tax money collected in ER/CH…..(hint: that’s why Chris Constant tried to place an advisory vote on the ballot some years ago to nip the entire attempt in the butt and to this day still lobbies hard against it)
Since you do not care why worry how the new Chugach Regional Borough will afford anything. To alleviate your worries, we will collect property tax/ business tax just like we do now, except all that revenue stays in our community. Since as a small community we don’t need to “redo the Muni seal”, “fight the beige” and pay diversity officers or special assistants to the special assistants of the mayor, we will actually have funds for fire, police, roads and education.
Then there is the fee JBER will pay in lieu of property tax and let’s not forget that we proportionally own municipal real estate our tax contributions to the general fund paid for.
I would recommend looking into what the proposed property tax would be for each ER resident. My accounting guess makes that higher than what the current number is. And if there isn’t an estimated number yet, then the folks at EagleExit are not doing their job.
“…it has a well-established and State-recognized effective education system.” Seriously? We’re 46th in the nation in test scores. Hardly effective. And you want to ditch Anchorage but you advocate keeping property taxes, inspections, permits and licenses in order to to work on and improve your own property? And done with after tax money? Trading one bureaucracy for another seems silly. But one thing obvious is that the sheep citizen population is growing rapidly .
Question:
Has this popped up due to a problem with Eaglexit? Did I miss something?
Hello Reggie, thank you for commenting! Must Read Alaska received this op-ed submission from Ken McCarty. We decided to publish it and let readers decide what they think of this alternative to Eaglexit. We will continue to follow Eaglexit and publish updates on their efforts.
Eagle Exit has yet to address the 1976 LBC issues, the annexation process would get around those.
The Valley doesn’t want Eagle River.
The majority of their residents are LibTards and NeoCons.
Go on your own or stay with your brethren in Anchorage, please.
Anchorage doesn’t want Eagle River either.
I’m solidly behind the movement to secede from the Municipality of Anchorage. The Municipal Assembly makes no effort to support our community, rather they’ve continually tried to change the character and spirit pf Chugiak and Eagle River to conform with their ideals and circumvent our land use rules. I’ve met the author of this article as well and I believe annexing our communities to the Mat-Su borough is not in our best interests fiscally and politically when compared to the Eaglexit initiative.
Interesting idea. Would this work for the Hillside? Might be worth looking into for either the MatSu or Kenai borough. Cheers –
As a 55+ year resident of Anchorage, not ER/Chugiak, nothing to add other than if the residents of ER have a way to disconnect from the MOA, that’s something that should be seriously pursued. MOA taxation and finances are only going to get worse and while it would be foolish to think either separation or joining MSB would be financially rewarding, at least ERwould be free from to political agendas that Anchorage appears to be willing to put up with.
Marriage is easy, Divorce is always difficult , costly and messy
No. Thank you.
I’ll not willingly trade one distant, uninterested master for another and I wonder if this bid is meant to sabotage what we have accomplished thus far?