By SEN. ROBERT MYERS
Four years ago, John Coghill and I were adversaries on the ballot. Today, I am proud to endorse him as the next Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor. He is a man of faith and principle who can lead our borough for the next three years.
After growing up in Nenana, John served our country for four years in the United State Air Force. His service sent him halfway around the world to England. Many young people who grow up here move away on reaching adulthood. John had the opportunity to do so through the Air Force and chose to return to make Fairbanks his home. He has been committed to our community ever since.
After our Senate race was decided four years ago, he didn’t shrink away from public life. He remained active in the community and offered himself for advice to me and others. That humility is the heart of a leader.
Most notably from his subsequent activities, John has been working at the Fairbanks Rescue Mission. He wants to provide hope, dignity, and a path forward for the less advantaged in our community. He is putting the people of Fairbanks first.
Along the way, John’s experience has reinforced his views on what our borough needs. The Rescue Mission is one of many non-profits serving our community. Like its neighbor the Food Bank across the street, the Rescue Mission is aware of being put in the crosshairs of the borough assessor trying to tax the property of our non-profits. This is in contradiction of the explicit wording of our state’s constitution in article IX, section 4 and multiple state Supreme Court decisions.
As mayor, John will have the ability and fortitude to rein in the excesses of the borough assessor targeting these non-profits. He recognizes that we are stronger as a community with these non-profits reaching out to help our fellow community members instead of leaving all the work for government. He knows that, when you write a check to the Rescue Mission or the Food Bank, you want your money going to help people, not pay lawyer bills to fight with the borough.
John’s work at the Mission has also given him perspective on how tough the cost of living has gotten in the last few years in Fairbanks. With food, fuel, and other prices rising quickly, he recognizes that raising our property taxes right now could be the difference between a family being able to stay in their home or not.
As we have discovered over the last couple of years, the mayor has a huge role to play in maintaining the tax cap through responsible budgets that leave some headroom instead of having budgets that always bump fully up against the cap. John recognizes this role and will support keeping our taxes low and not challenging the cap.
Fairbanks needs a mayor who understands our values, stands by his convictions, and is committed to our community’s future. John has planted his roots deep here and will continue to contribute to the best of his ability. Please join me in voting for John Coghill for our borough mayor on Oct. 1.
Sen. Robert Myers serves in the Alaska Legislature for Senate Seat Q. Myers was born in Fairbanks, Alaska. He spent much of his young childhood at the Salchaket Roadhouse, which his parents owned.
No not him. I’d he from North Pole?
I remember a coghill that introduced increasing the gas tax throughout the state by .10 then introduced another but COVID hit and Dunleavy asked the legislatures to please put it on hold it was going to increase another .14 cents cause his thought process is we’re way below the national average of what the state gas tax is. He is a moron that’s like us saying why is the price of food here x2 more so we need to get it dropped so it’s like the lower 48 national prices. I don’t see him championing that fight. Good luck Fairbanks if you vote him in.
Sorry Rob, a ham sandwich would be better than him! I knew his daddy John Sr. he was TEN times the true Alaskan then Johnny Jr. . Now if you have no other & consider him the lesser of Evil itself then your only going along to get alone …. Stop right there, for it’s not worth your own reputation! You need not endorse anyone. Beware of the evil that lurks within. Liberty Ed
Ed Martin,
You would change your mind if you knew Grier Hopkins ….Coghill’s opponent. He happens to be Scott Kendall’s brother in law.
Coghill for Mayor.
Glad I don’t live there anymore. Republican party wants you to put a gun to your head and vote for Coghill. He knew the people had enough of him in Juneau but here he comes again now on the local scene! What do you do? The left is horrible too. Will be interesting to see what Republicans do. I just don’t think if I were there I could swallow hard enough to make the choice. Sad..
“He is a man of faith and principle”.
If this were true you would not be in the Senate. It’s not true, and I am glad you are where you are. There are logical arguments you can make here you don’t have to lie.
John’s got my vote. Without hesitation!
I still have grief with him over SB-91. I can’t say he’d be any better than what they have now.
Two points: 1. John Coghill has learned a lot about politics and representing the people during and since his time in the State Senate. He is a good and decent, honest, man – who has my confidence that he will serve us well. 2. The alternatives are unthinkably disastrous for the FNSB.
I remember a conversation I had with Rodney Gaskins, Pete Kelly’s predecessor as executive director of the Rescue Mission. He gave me a really funny look when I brought up the possibility of the Mission being taxed. Once again, I wasn’t blowing smoke, even if it may have been viewed in that regard at the time.
After the Keith Fons incident, FNSB voters should be asking every candidate about their stance on giving the borough police powers, even if the (s)nooz and social media influencers aren’t prompting them to do so. There have been many instances over the years of borough employees doing their best impersonation of Eric Cartman bellowing “You will respect my authori-tah”, with local PDs stepping in to obediently act as their bully enforcer. One incident I witnessed was plainly disturbing. Is the community really ready to escalate that out of their blind loyalty to some particular concept of law and order?
Two candidates for mayor. One is hard left and does not support the property tax cap. The other gave us a crime wave with SB-91, and left all of us poorer with SB-21. The average family of four has now lost $40,000 to lower dividends because of Coghill’s vote to give away our oil.
Decisions, decisions.
Grier Hopkins, David Guttenberg, Luke Hopkins, Scott Kendall. Vote for Grier Hopkins and you get all four. Communism, Marxism, regulations up the gazoo, Green New Deal, high property taxes.
No thanks.
John Coghill for Mayor.