Imagine if the wealthy lady down the street showed up at your doorstep with her child and said, “Here. You raise my kid. I don’t want to any longer.”
You would say, “Tough, lady. Live up to your commitments. Raise your own kid.”
But you’re not the Haines Borough.
In the past 20 years, the borough has taken over ownership of huge liabilities from the State of Alaska. Now the U.S. Forest Service is pulling the same trick on us, and the Alaska State Troopers are trying to.
The town was suckered most recently on July 11 when the borough assembly agreed to take ownership of a $700,000 bridge Forest Service bridge at Excursion Inlet. The bridge connects the cannery there to its water source and needs replacing. The Forest Service says it doesn’t want to maintain the bridge any longer. The cannery needs it.
This is the deal we agreed to: If the borough gives back to the Forest Service $270,000 in forest funds it had already received from the agency for things like trails and after-school programs, the agency will build a new, $700,000 bridge there – on the condition that the borough government take ownership of it.
The assembly went right along. Somewhere in the world is a Forest Service bureaucrat with a fat salary and a great retirement whose job we saved. That guy is pouring himself a drink, chuckling to himself, saying, “Oh, those poor rubes. They fell for it.”
It’s an old trick, but for some reason we can’t help ourselves. We keep falling for it.
We fell for it in 2005 when we took over ownership of state-owned harbors downtown and at Letnikof Cove. We fell for it in 2000 when we took over ownership of the Klehini River bridge from the State of Alaska – that is, the brand-new, $9 million bridge that opened this week. It belongs to the Haines Borough. (How much will that cost to fix, or to replace?) We fell for it also in 2000 when we took over ownership of the Chilkat Lake Road from the state – in exchange for some chip-coating.
We’re falling for it by considering taking over police jurisdiction out the highway from the state troopers, who say they can’t afford it, despite the fact that public safety is an essential service of state government and the state spends $5 billion per year.
For some reason, we just can’t bring ourselves to say no. God forgive our naivete and God help us when the bills come due. It will be like Lutak Dock, several times over.
You remember Lutak Dock. We got it from the U.S. Army about 40 years ago – for free! What a deal! For years, city and borough government officials reported that the dock “made” money. Oops. Now that we have to replace the dock that lands our fuel and groceries, we’re short about $35 million. All the revenues the dock ever “made” didn’t come close to $35 million.
This is as simple as I can make this: Bridges, roads and harbors are very expensive things to own. They require millions of dollars to maintain and many more millions to replace. (In other places, steep tolls are commonly used to pay for them.) Haines, a town of only 2,400 people that’s running a $500,000 deficit, should not be taking on new, major obligations from state and federal governments.
Can we say no? Sure we can. We can insist that the federal and state governments live up to their responsibilities and commitments. Petersburg recently said “no” to a harbor facility the state wanted to “give” it.
If we don’t start saying “no,” it’s scary to think where this ends. I guess we could end up owning the Haines Highway and the airport. Maybe a ferry or two.
Then we won’t have a cent for our schools, our public library, or anything else. And there will be bureaucrats down in Juneau chuckling.
Posted 8/24/17