By DARRELL L. BREESE

Alaska Star

Members of the Anchorage Assembly ran out of time during a Nov. 17 meeting to pass the city budget and will take up the debate again Dec. 8 after holding a new round of public hearings Tuesday.

The meeting became bogged down as Assembly members addressed a variety of amendments to Mayor Dan Sullivan's proposed 2010 operating budget, in hopes of preserving targeted cuts to city services and personnel.

After dealing with several budget amendments, the Assembly voted to lump all other amendments into one for the body to consider. But before they could take action, the meeting reached its 11 p.m. deadline.

Because the budget was not approved, the City Charter requires another public hearing be held before the Assembly can resume debate.

"I had hopes that there would be some compromise reached before we had to adjourn, but that wasn't to be," said Assembly chairwoman Debbie Ossiander. "We're still far apart on achieving a compromise, but I believe we're making some progress."

Among the amendments considered were votes to restore library hours, reinstate a fire inspector, prevent the increase in People Mover Bus fares and determine how the city should repay some debt.

Most of the budget amendment votes came down to split decisions.

By a vote of 6-5, the Assembly approved raising $600,000 in extra property tax money to avoid reducing hours at Anchorage's branch libraries.

By a vote of 6-5, the Assembly voted not to restore funding for a vacant fire investigator position, but by a separate 6-5 vote, the Assembly voted to provide funds to keep a current fire investigator from being laid off in 2010.

In another 6-5 vote, the Assembly voted to turn down the mayor's proposal to refinance bond debt payments for this year. These are debts created from voter-approved bonds passed in previous elections. Sullivan vetoed the amendment Friday.

Preserving the low fare on People Mover buses was the lone vote to garner overwhelming support from the Assembly. By a vote of 9-2 the body approved eliminating the fare increases from the proposed budget.

Despite the Assembly's votes to amend his proposed budget, Sullivan defended his cost-cutting plans.

"It just amazes me that folks can be so disingenuous - to speak to putting a burden on future generations when you have a majority of this body that last year passed a budget that had insufficient revenues," Sullivan said. "These problems we're facing were caused by a majority of the Assembly voting to increase expenditures even in a period of decreasing revenues."

The increased expenditures Sullivan referred to include several labor contracts renewed last year after the Assembly approved the budget and losses in revenue caused by the current recession.

Assemblyman Matt Claman said the current Assembly, or majority of the current Assembly, was not to blame for the city's tight financial situation

"I've been amazed by how frequently Mayor Sullivan says our financial troubles are caused entirely by this body, when we're in the middle of a national recession," he said.

If the Assembly cannot vote for final approval of the budget during its Dec. 8 meeting, it must hold special meetings before the end of the fiscal year, Dec. 31, to come to agreement on the budget.

If agreement still has not been reached by then, it is unknown what the city will do next, as the issue is not specifically addressed in city code.

"My understanding is if we (the Assembly) don't come to an agreement by the end of the year we're in serious trouble," Ossiander said. "The worst case is that government would have to go on hold until we can settle on a budget."

Mayor Sullivan has asked municipal attorney Dennis Wheeler to look into this, should it occur.

Reach the reporter at darrell.breese.@alaskastar.com.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Wednesday, November 25, 2009.