It’s the time of year for Haines’ nonprofits to be awarded municipal funding. That process might take longer this year, and look different, as at least one assembly member expressed concern about the municipal budget and a necessity for belt-tightening.

 

The Haines Borough received a dozen applications for nonprofit funding, asking for approximately $184,000. The budget allocates $100,000. 

At last week’s Government and Services Committee meeting, Assembly member Cheryl Stickler said she’s worried about the borough’s budget.

“I am really struggling with these nonprofit requests at this time, because we are entering into potential budget deficits in this coming year,” she said.

Stickler cited the borough employee union renegotiation, the possible power company rate increase, the school district needing more money and the new $300,000 property tax exemption that decreases property tax revenues. 

She proposed partially funding Becky’s Place, which supports survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and the Haines Avalanche Center, for safety reasons. She also proposed funding a third entity, the Southeast Alaska State Fair, for economic reasons.

“That doesn’t mean that other nonprofits will not be funded at all this year,” Stickler said. “It just means that we need some time to take a look at where our finances are. We have strategic planning … coming up at the beginning of February. And so we’ll be able to take a look at a preliminary budget and decide, as a body, where our strategic priorities lie.” 

Assembly member Kevin Forster agreed that the borough was in a tough position financially but spoke about the value of nonprofits. 

“The amount of money that you put into nonprofits versus what you get out of it, you simply couldn’t buy by a magnitude of 10 if you’re paying for it,” he said. “Because what these organizations run on is largely volunteerism. And so the amount of money that goes into these things, and what comes out, there’s no comparison.”

Interim Borough Manager Alekka Fullerton added another advantage of nonprofits. 

“I would also say that they use the funds to leverage the use of other funds,” she said.

Forster pointed out all the work that the nonprofits put into assembling their applications.

“…I feel like what we embarked upon was to use the rubric that we told these organizations we were going to use to come up with how we would disperse it,” he said. “And that this conversation would be totally appropriate with the assembly.”

The borough’s Government and Services Committee agreed to average their scores together based on the given rubric, and present them to the assembly. Based on the scoring, each nonprofit would be assigned a percentage of the $100,000.  

The assembly will be given a second option, with the top three candidates funded at 85%, and the remaining candidates dividing about $42,000.

Assembly member Stickler compared the borough’s budget process to her family’s at home.

“I know that when I run my personal household finances, and I know that there’s a big bill coming up, we don’t buy the extra stuff,” she said.” “…I think that that’s something to consider when we’re looking at this. Even though it’s already been appropriated, it doesn’t mean that money has to be spent on this. We have budget amendments almost every meeting.”

Haines residents can look for the nonprofit discussion at a future assembly meeting. KHNS is included in the pool of grant applicants.