Elections are about choosing representatives who have the best judgment. On Tuesday, Oct. 1, most boroughs and municipalities around the state hold local elections for city councils, borough assemblies, school boards, and a few ballot measures. Some of these elections have few contested seats. But the Fairbanks North Star Borough is among the more interesting races because the candidates provide a clear choice to voters. And some of the candidates are running on a pro-tax-hike record.
Several candidates running for office in the Fairbanks borough supported the special election held to raise taxes, which was overwhelmingly defeated by voters.
A few of of them also have a history of sticking with Democrat policies and partisan attacks, such as supporting the failed 2019 recall of Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Past policy positions taken by candidates are often a good indicator of the sort of policies they will support in the future.
The FNSB Assembly majority voted to spend $33 million on an animal shelter (puppy palace), before turning around and asking voters to increase taxes and blow through the tax cap, all in the name of education.
Which candidates voted to fund the palatial animal shelter? Incumbents Kristan Kelly, David Guttenberg, and Garrett Armstrong supported the $33 million animal shelter, as did Savannah Fletcher, who is now running for state Senate.
The cost of living in Fairbanks is already 24% higher than the national average.
To compare the cost of building animal shelters around the Northwest, 10 years ago an animal shelter was built in Bellingham, Washington for the cost of $2.6 million.
In 2017, Boise, Idaho built a 42,000-square-foot animal shelter for $15 million. And in 2022, Kootenai Humane Society in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho built a new $8 million, 20,000-square-foot animal shelter.
The animal shelter authorized by the Assembly majority in Fairbanks is 17,737 square feet for $33 million, something the liberal Assembly members signed off on, with only two members voting against — Barbara Haney and Brett Rotermund.
As for the increased $10 million in taxes sought by the liberals on the Assembly, incumbent Assembly candidates David Guttenberg and Kristan Kelly, and Savannah Fletcher (now running for Senate) fully supported the special tax election and actively campaigned for borough residents to raise their taxes this year.
The ordinance to hold that special election, 2024-07, was sponsored by Fletcher, Nick LaJiness, and Scott Crass. Only Fletcher is a candidate this year among those three sponsors.
The measure passed the Assembly, despite nearly six hours of testimony over two Assembly hearings in opposition to the special election ordinance.
Morgan Dulian, who led the tax-raising push, testified before the Assembly in March her desire to raise taxes on tourism and marijuana, and property.
The election, held at a cost to taxpayers of at least $130,000 on May 7, would have allowed the borough to take another $10 million from property owners in the borough, where property owners already pay an average of $3,531 each to the borough every year. Voters delivered a landslide against the Assembly majority’s desire for more money.
Now Dulian is running against April Smith for Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board. Dulian’s lead role in enacting higher taxes suggests she will do all in her power to do so, if elected.
To understand where Morgan Dulian is on the political spectrum, she is a registered nonpartisan but in 2019, she signed the petition to recall Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who Democrats were trying to get rid of within weeks of his election in 2018. The Democrats found fault in how he approached a judicial appointment, when he was given the names on only liberal lawyers by the Alaska Judicial Council.
The list of candidate on the Fairbanks North Star Borough ballot signed the Recall Dunleavy petition in 2019:
- State Senate candidate Savannah Fletcher, registered nonpartisan but financially supported by Democratic Party
- Assembly candidate Scott Crass, nonpartisan
- Assembly David Guttenberg, Democrat
- Assembly candidate Garrett Armstrong, Democrat
- Mayoral candidate Grier Hopkins, Democrat
- School board candidate Morgan Dulian, nonpartisan
My suggestion:
Print this M-rak article, stuff it in your pocket, and read it one more time in the voting booth.
In the words of Margaret Thatcher…
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money”.