This week’s city election was confirmed by the Nome City Council Thursday, leaving city officials to find other ways to make ends meet after a proposed sales tax increase for alcohol and tobacco was defeated at the polls.
With fewer dollars coming from Juneau, the council had hoped the boosted sales tax on tobacco and alcohol—from 5 to 8 percent—would help pay for some city services like police and ambulance.
“Our whole intent was to try to use the tax for the police for, because 75 percent I believe is the number of our calls are alcohol related,” council member Randy Pomeranz said. But the city could only suggest the tax, and not guarantee how the revenue it generated would be spent. That, Pomeranz said, may be why it failed.
“We were making to create a little revenue for offsetting some of the costs to the police department, but we’ll move forward with what we’ve got.”
Beyond resolving to “move forward,” confirming Tuesday’s election held few surprises for the council; incumbents for the utility board, the city council, and school board ran unopposed and handily won re-election. The only race that held any surprises was for School Board Seat B, which saw newcomer Brandy Arrington winning the seat over write-in candidate Charles Pullock.
Before the council wrapped up its brief work session yesterday, however, they met with a visitor: Joe Balash, commissioner of the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
The council was quick to ask pointed questions of Balash as to DNR’s presence in Nome—or lack thereof—during the city’s increasingly busy summer gold mining season. Council member Tom Sparks invited him to see the impacts for himself.
“We’ve been asking for some help, particularly west beach, I’d encourage you to go there particularly in the summer, in July. We’ve seen a significant uptick in the amount of people over there, some of the trash, some real practical human health and safety issues that are happening on West Beach.”
“Sure, sure,” Balash replied, but Sparks pressed: “Maybe [you can] find some ways to assist our community?”
Many link Nome’s past few “gold rush” summers to DNR’s 2011 lease sale, which brought in $9.3 million for the state. Council member Stan Anderson asked Balash to share the wealth.
“Bottom line, you get over nine million dollars in lease sale money,” Anderson said pointedly. “Couldn’t you at least share some of that? To me it’s an unfunded mandate, we get out of the feds. You sell the land and then we don’t see you again.”
Balash replied that the sales were in fact leases, and added that the department’s toolbox is limited, but a careful look at who leases and uses state land could be a start.
“It’s just a matter of going back through and reviewing our stipulations and seeing what it is we have the ability to control in a reasonable matter,” Balash said.
“What sort of qualifications somebody might have in order to receive a permit. That might go some way to helping address some of the challenges here in terms of housing, and making sure people don’t just show up with nowhere to stay, nowhere to go, and camping out on the beach.”
Balash went on to tour of the city’s port facilities and meeting with city officials and regional landowners like Sitnasuak. No meetings with miners, however, were on his agenda.
