Mayor Mark Begich remarks
2007 State of City Address
Noon; Aug. 20, 2007; Egan Center
Slide Presentation (5mb pdf)
(Slide 1 – Title)
Thanks, Bill. And thank you to the Chamber for your leadership and cooperation on important issues affecting our community. I appreciate this annual forum, which has become a tradition for mayors to provide an update on our city’s progress.
(Slide 2 - scenic)
I know you’ll be surprised to hear me pronounce the state of our city as excellent. With the most aggressive building boom in a generation, lower property taxes for most, and improvements underway from Eagle River to Girdwood, the vast majority of Anchorage residents believe our city is on the right track.
(Slide 3 – economic growth)
Anchorage’s economy is strong and growing. We’re enjoying our 19th straight year of economic growth, with about 2,000 new jobs already this year.
(Slide 4 - construction)
2006 set a record for the second highest value in building permits ever – topping $801 million. That includes 70 projects valued at more than a million dollars and a dozen exceeding 10 million dollars – quite significant for our community.
(Slide 5 – SOC publication)
Today I want to review the issues we’ve focused on over the past year and provide several updates on important projects and services, especially about the strength of our economy and our continuing efforts to improve public safety.
I hope you had a chance to review the State of the City publication in your Daily News this morning. There are also copies on your tables. This annual report provides useful information about developments over the past year.
After four years as mayor, I continue to be grateful and impressed by how our community generously works together to make Anchorage such a great place to live and visit.
(Slide 6 – downtown construction)
With two years remaining as mayor, I’m focused on completing many of the major developments initiated over the past few years, especially affecting the heart of any great city – our downtown. That doesn’t prevent us from new initiatives, which makes my staff nervous. I’ll touch of some of those today.
We also continue working hard to meet the basic obligation of government - efficiently delivering essential services.
(Slide 7 – budget charts)
We’re succeeding in our efforts to limit the growth in property taxes used to fund city services. Property taxes now comprise about 46 percent of the revenues used to provide city services, compared to 59 percent when I took office. And the property taxes collected for city services this year are 37 million-dollars below the tax cap.
Despite these positive trends, we continue to hear that property taxes are too high and make up too much of the city’s overall revenues. That’s why we worked with the Legislature, governor and Assembly to apply state assistance for property tax relief.
Thanks to $37 million from the state, the average single family homeowner is seeing a property tax savings this year of about $363. For 2007, the majority of Anchorage property owners paid less property tax than in 2006.
(Slide 8 - homes)
Even with these successes, the total property tax revenues to fund both city services and the school district is about 68 percent.
That’s why Assembly Chair Dan Coffey and I recently appointed a task force of business leaders to give us recommendations on ways to diversify Anchorage’s tax structure and reduce the city’s reliance on property taxes.
We’re not sure where this will end up, but I believe an open community discussion about our dependence on property taxes and the need for more diversity in our revenues is long overdue. Thanks to the Chamber for being an active participant in this important effort. We look forward to the recommendations of your work and this tax relief task force.
(Slide 9 – city workers)
We keep looking for other ways to reduce property taxes. That includes asking the Legislature to raise the 20,000-dollar personal property tax exemption, and doing the city’s business smarter. For example, an upgrade by two national bond-rating agencies is saving more than 10 million-dollars over the life of general obligation bonds sold in April.
Since launching an initiative to crack down on delinquent fines and fees, we’ve collected more than 13 million-dollars.
(Slide 10 – convention center)
Of course, the best way to strengthen our economy is through economic development. The city’s role is promoting a positive business climate and providing basic infrastructure.
The cornerstone in Anchorage’s revitalization is the new Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center. It’s now 60 percent complete, with the grand opening set for next September.
The Dena’ina Center will be a great venue for local events and position Anchorage for many lucrative conventions we couldn’t even consider before because we lacked the space. And it couldn’t come at a better time.
(Slide 11 – tourism)
I’m pleased to report just-compiled hotel room tax revenue is up a whopping 10 percent for the first half of this year. The nearly 9 million-dollars in room taxes collected between January and June is the highest ever. And that doesn’t include what’s typically the strongest quarter – July to September.
This is a sure sign of a strong visitor industry, which the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau has been aggressively growing.
This year’s early strong numbers are thanks in part to big conferences like the International Whaling Commission and Ducks Unlimited. They helped put Anchorage on the world’s convention destination map.
Remember we based financing of the Dena’ina Center on a very conservative 1 percent growth rate. Yet we’ve enjoyed 6 to 8 percent growth over the past two years. Thanks to higher than expected revenues, we collected enough in a single quarter at the end of 2006 to cover all of this year’s bond payments.
(Slide 12 – Atwood parking garage)
The new convention center is leading the way for a major revival in downtown, not seen since the Project 80s a generation ago.
The 840-space Linny Pacillo parking garage, which will be available for convention center parking after-hours, is scheduled for completion next September. It will feature a new street-level Alaskan seafood restaurant and ice-free sidewalks.
(Slide 13 – E Street rendering)
Since the Dena’ina and Egan Centers are designed to work together for conventions, we’ve started what will eventually be 3 million-dollars in renovations at the Egan.
Connecting the two is vital, so redevelopment of E and F streets begins next summer, with ice-free sidewalks and state-of-the-art canopies especially designed for our winter city.
(Slide 14 – Museum expansion)
Numerous other downtown improvements also are underway:
• A more inviting Town Square, with better drop-offs for the Performing Arts Center;
• Distinct downtown districts, such as SONO, Historic 4th Avenue and G Street;
• The $100 million expansion of the museum.
All this development has stimulated the creative juices of private developers who are anxious to build new housing, retail and office space in the downtown.
(Slide 15 - port)
One of our most critical developments is the 400 million-dollar expansion of the Port of Anchorage, which serves 80 percent of Alaskans and handles 90 percent of all consumer goods sold north of Cordova, including the Railbelt, western and Arctic Alaska and the Aleutians.
We achieved an important milestone last week when the Army Corps of Engineers issued the Phase II expansion permit. This gives pile-drivers the green light to start building 135 new waterfront acres to accommodate huge new cargo ships which will be arriving here in just three years.
The port expansion is also vital for our military, which has been designated one of just 16 Regional Strategic Ports essential to rapidly moving military equipment to hot-spots around the world.
The Port of Anchorage is a vital transportation link for our entire state, which is why three-quarters of the expansion project is paid by state and federal dollars.
(Slide 16 – Girdwood)
The downtown area isn’t the only part of Anchorage enjoying a revival. From Mountain View to Girdwood, we’re working with private developers to renovate or build new housing, office and retail space:
• Glenn Square in Mountain View;
• Tikahtnu (Tea-KAHT-new) Commons development off Mouldoon;
• A new Girdwood library and community center;
• The list goes on.
(Slide 17 – Eagle River Center)
In Eagle River, we’re working to consolidate the new home of the Chugiak-Eagle River Library, a police substation, one-stop offices for Parks and Rec, Health and Human Services and WIC, and a Community Meeting Room. Our hope is to locate all this in the Valley River Center.
(Slide 18 - roads)
All this economic development continues to put pressure on city services, especially our roads.
To relieve congestion, we’ve stepped up our investment in road, drainage and trails improvements from 30 million-dollars four years ago to 73 million this year.
Thanks to voter support for transportation bonds, we’ve got 150 city projects in the works, creating about 700 jobs. This includes work on high traffic roads like Lake Otis, Strawberry, Raspberry, Northwood, Bayshore, Arctic, the list goes on.
(Slide 19 – Bragaw ground-breaking)
I was especially excited to join Governor Palin and others last month to break ground on the first section of Anchorage’s largest ever road project, connecting the Seward and Glenn highways.
Work is underway now to relieve congestion at the Bragaw-Glenn interchange, which serves 60,000 vehicles a day.
(Slide 20 – cops)
Our other major focus is on public safety – doing all we can to make sure our citizens are safe in their homes and on our streets.
With support from the Assembly, we’re more than half-way through an ambitious effort to transform our law enforcement and public safety operations. The 50 new police officers and 35 new firefighters we have added are preventing crime, arresting more criminals and improving responses to crime and fires.
(Slide 21 – gang summit)
The Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Initiative U.S. Attorney Nelson Cohen and I launched last November has stimulated an unprecedented level of multi-agency cooperation. The focus is on three fronts: prevention, intervention and law enforcement.
While we know the long-term solution to youth violence is a safe and constructive environment, we’ve got zero tolerance for violence and gangs.
Working together, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have brought more than 100 felony and misdemeanor charges related to gangs, guns and drugs.
We clearly have more work to do preventing and fighting crime.
(Slide 22 – Parks)
One place to invest in our youth is Anchorage’s extensive park and recreation system.
Thanks to an 8.3 million-dollar grant from the Rasmuson Foundation and voter approval of this year’s parks bond, we’re improving our parks in a significant way. We’ve built a new skate park in Spenard, and are putting dozens of youth to work through our Youth Employment in Parks program.
(Slide 23 – SART)
Another new initiative I want to highlight focuses on Alaska’s shamefully high incidence of child abuse and sexual assault.
To improve treatment for victims and increase successful prosecution of these terrible crimes, we’re combining forces between Anchorage police, State Troopers, victims’ advocates and medical professionals all under one roof.
This new facility, to open within about 60 days, will be housed near the Alaska Native Medical Center. In partnership with Providence, it will provide comprehensive and timely services in a safe and respectful environment.
(Slide 24 - military)
With thousands of Alaska servicemen and women serving our nation here and abroad, we’re doing everything possible to help ease the stress on soldiers and their families.
At my request, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has created a new Community and Military Relations Task Force to help mayors better serve their military communities across this nation.
Let me also thank my wife, Deborah, for her First Lady Military and Family Support Initiative, which has brought much needed respite to thousands of military families through free family boat cruises and holiday receptions.
And thanks to the Chamber and our entire community for being such good neighbors to our military and veterans who so enrich our city. Please join me in thanking our military servicemen and women who sacrifice so much for us.
(Slide 25 – Big Wild Life)
Residents of Anchorage - Alaska’s headquarters city - are proud of our big wild life – where we live large, dream big and accomplish goals nothing short of extraordinary.
(Slide 26 – city skyline)
Over the past four years, we’ve worked to balance our city’s budget, grow our economy and improve key services, especially public safety and transportation.
Thanks to the enthusiastic participation of residents, we are building a thriving city for today and for tomorrow’s generations.
Thank you for the opportunity to work together to make our city safe and prosperous.
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