The second time appears to be the charm for Soldotna residents wanting their government to have more authority. In a special election Tuesday, voters approved creating a commission that will draft a new charter to give Soldotna home rule powers, rather than its current, first-class city status.
Voters were asked the same question in February 2015 but elected to keep the city as it was. As a first-class city, like Homer, Soldotna largely has to follow the policies of the Kenai Peninsula Borough, including on taxation issues. That’s become a big issue locally, as city administration and council have wanted to remove a nine-month exemption of sales taxes on groceries enacted and upheld through a boroughwide voter initiative. A home-rule city, like Kenai and Seward, can set its own tax rules.
Soldotna resident Linda Hutchings submitted the voter initiative to put the home rule question to voters again, and said she’s pleased with the outcome Tuesday.
Hutchings: “But it’s something that we need to do. We have progressed since when we became a first-class city, to now, and we need to be able to diversify our tax base because, at this time, everything that we do in the city is on the backs of the property owners. And, yet, the property owners are not the only ones using our services."
James Price, of Nikiski, has been one of the backers of the grocery tax exemption initiatives. He thinks it’s unfair for the city to put such a big revenue target on nonresidents who shop in Soldotna.
Price: “As a rural resident, I pay much higher property taxes and have a much lower level of services than city residents do. And then they want to insist that we finance their city through sales tax. It’s one of the more unfair systems that we have in the state, and that’s just what it is.”
Election results are still unofficial, but the yes votes are expected to win out. Two hundred forty-three voters on Tuesday supported forming a charter commission, while 162 voters did not. There are still 117 absentee, question and special-needs ballots to be counted, but if they come in at roughly the same percentage as the in-person votes, the measure will carry.
Voters also chose seven members for the Charter Commission, out of nine candidates. Dale Bagley, Timothy Cashman, Scott Davis, Hutchings, Linda Murphy, RoseMary Reeder and Penny Vadla garnered the most votes, ahead of Jerry Farrington and Bobbie O’Neill.
The commission will start meeting in June and will review the charters of all other home-rule communities in the state, then start drafting one for Soldotna. The charter proposal will have to be approved by voters before it goes into effect.
Price sees that process as a continuation of the sales tax debate.
Price: “I expect that there’s going to be more battles in the future, unfortunately.”
Hutchings said she likes that the meetings and charter approval process will be open to the public, as a way to invite community participation and support.
Hutchings: “People are going to be able to observe what’s going on, there will be public comment times, and hopefully we will be able to educate the public as to why we need to do this for our city.”
Official election results will be certified at the May 25 council meeting.