Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

The Haines Borough manager’s draft budget for the next fiscal year includes a sizable transfer from the areawide general fund to the townsite service area fund to cover police responses to emergencies outside the townsite.

The transfer in the draft budget — $177,223 — is up by about $10,000 from the current fiscal year and $120,000 from the year before that. Prior to 2020, the borough didn’t transfer general funds to compensate for police activity in the areas beyond the townsite that have emergency but not regular police service.

Borough police chief Heath Scott said the idea is to shift some of the costs of police activity in those zones so the burden isn’t entirely on taxpayers within the townsite.

The question of whether – and to what extent – the police department should serve residents beyond the townsite has been debated since the state troopers left Haines in 2017.

In 2018 residents outside the townsite overwhelmingly voted to reject a property tax increase to pay for police services. In 2020 the borough assembly interpreted Haines charter to allow an areawide emergency police and fire response.

The areawide general fund is used to cover a wide range of services from the borough administration to the library, parks, pool and Chilkat Center.

The transfer from the general fund to the police department would cover about 16% of the department’s proposed budget of $1,107,646 (including the police share of the dispatch department: $294,542). The rest of the budget would be drawn from the townsite service area fund, state revenue and local fees.

Scott said the dynamic is unique between the townsite, which has full police service, and the areas that have only emergency service — Mud Bay, Lutak and the Haines Highway.

The transfer amount was determined by a population-based formula that Scott proposed to the finance department. The formula splits the cost across each area evenly based on percentage of total population. To account for reduced service outside of the townsite, it divides by two the amount contributed, by way of the general fund, from residents outside the townsite.

For example, the formula assumes 7% of the borough’s population lives in Mud Bay (150 residents out of 2,500 total). Seven percent of the total police budget is $77,535. Half of that is $38,768. Apply the formula to the other two areas outside the townsite, combine all three and the sum is $177,223.

“In our formula we recognize that (residents beyond the townsite) have to pay for some readiness. We have to have cars. We have to maintain those cars. We have to have a building,” Scott said. There are also direct costs of responding to calls outside the townsite, like extra standby and overtime hours.

At a budget Committee of the Whole meeting last week Scott said the draft budget maintains the “status quo” for standby and overtime hours. It projects 1,375 standby hours and 150 overtime hours per officer.

In the draft budget, police salaries and wages and payroll burden are similar to the current budget, up respectively by about $8,000 and $2,000. (Neither of those increases make up for inflation, which was at 8.3% in April.)

Scott said he doesn’t know if the transfer formula is “perfect” but that it’s “getting closer.”

Two years ago, the borough assembly plugged a deficit in the police budget with $54,000 from the general fund. Last year’s budget cycle was the first time the borough used the population-based formula — pulling $167,511 from the general fund for the police department.

When asked how to check that the transfer is necessary and that the formula is working, Scott said revenue from the areawide fund has helped the department balance its budget this year. But the math would be hard, if at all possible, to check.

The direct expense of each call varies, and there are indirect expenses, like maintenance of vehicles, that complicate calculating an average cost per call.

Police responded to 27 out of 358 calls that came in from outside the townsite last year, Scott said. There were 3,537 calls within the townsite last year.

“This is the second year that we’ve (used the formula), and it looks OK,” Scott said. “I don’t know if this is the best way to allocate funds (but) we haven’t really got anybody to say there’s a better way to do this. The public safety commission has agreed with us. The assembly has agreed with us. And we’re putting our best foot forward.”

At the budget Committee of the Whole meeting and at Tuesday’s assembly meeting, assembly members showed no opposition to the use of the general fund to cover police calls outside the townsite. One member of the public testified against it on Tuesday.

A second public hearing on the manager’s budget will be held at the May 24 assembly meeting.