The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly overhauled the borough’s tax codes last week. But after a lengthy and spirited debate, one assembly member is bringing it up for reconsideration next week – before five newly-seated members.
The changes break a large chapter of code into four smaller chapters that address real property, personal property, tax exemptions and tax appeals. The goal is to make the code easier to navigate for borough employees and residents.
Adeena Wilcox is the borough’s assessing director. She walked assembly members through the changes during a work session last month.
“Basically, there’s just too much information piecemealed into one chapter,” she said. “So that’s what our biggest challenge is.”
When the ordinance came up for a vote at last week’s meeting, debate over most of the 52-page code rewrite was minimal. But assembly members clashed over a proposed exemption cap for seniors.
As introduced, the ordinance caps exemptions for senior citizens at $350,000. That includes the $300,000 exemption for seniors and the $50,000 residential exemption available to all homeowners. But since the ordinance was introduced, borough voters passed a ballot proposition that increases the residential exemption by $25,000.
To factor in that increase, outgoing Soldotna representative Tyson Cox successfully amended the ordinance to bump the senior exemption cap by the same amount. Assembly members killed two other proposed changes.
One from Homer representative Kelly Cooper and Borough Mayor Peter Micciche would have eliminated the cap entirely. Another from Leslie Morton, who was the Sterling/Funny River representative at the time, would have prevented seniors from stacking that exemption with the residential exemption.
Micciche opposes including a cap because he says it detracts from the ordinance’s intent.
“This ordinance is not about changing tax rates,” he said.
After debate ended, the ordinance was adopted with Cox’ amendment. But just before the meeting ended, Cooper, the Homer representative, asked to reconsider the ordinance at the next assembly meeting – the first attended by five newly-elected members.
She later clarified she plans to rescind the vote, as borough code doesn’t allow reconsideration of an ordinance that was approved with at least a three-fourths majority.
In a memo, Cooper says she plans to try and rescind Cox’ amendment if assembly members agree to open the legislation back up. She says the public wasn’t given enough notice and that exemption stacking should be addressed on its own.
Because the lengthy ordinance addresses more than senior tax exemptions – a lot more.
Many of the new sections codify existing borough practices. For example, the borough doesn’t tax personal use kayaks and paddle boards though its personal property tax on watercraft. The changes make that a part of borough code.
The changes also give the borough’s assessing department more authority to collect fines and audit applications. Assessing staff can now collect fines from taxpayers who falsify tax documents. And they can audit applications for tax exemptions.
The ordinance also updates certain pieces of code with state law, cleans up language and removes obsolete references. And it aligns the different due dates for most exemption applications to Feb. 15. Wilcox says her department will be lenient next year in deference to the new date. The borough’s firefighter and Kenai River Center exemptions are not subject to the new deadline.
The assembly meets again Tuesday.
