Mayor Mark Begich remarks
State of City Address – Anchorage Chamber
Noon; 8/7/06; Egan Center

(Slide 1)
Thanks, Mary Ann. And thank you to the Chamber for your leadership and cooperation during my time as mayor.

I appreciate this forum, which has become a tradition of sorts for mayors to provide an update on our city’s progress.

(Slide 2)
It’s also a tradition for the mayor to pronounce the state of the city as never been better. With an upgraded credit rating, the new convention center on-schedule and road improvements interrupting traffic flow across the city, I wouldn’t assess it any other way.

At the same time, we remain focused on several challenges, especially in the public safety area - stopping gangs and managing traffic. More on that in a few minutes.

(Slide 3)
First, the good stuff. By any measure, Anchorage’s economy is healthy. We’re enjoying our 18th straight year of economic growth. Over 2,500 new jobs added during the last year, about 600 more than predicted a year ago.

(Slide 4)
And for the first time in more than five years, an upgrade in the city’s bond rating, to double-A from double-A minus.

In giving us that upgrade last week, Standard and Poors cited Anchorage’s diversified economy and balanced city budget. This will save taxpayers millions because we’ll pay lower rates for city bonds for road, facility and school improvements.
 
(Slide 5)
Today I want to discuss where the city’s been over the past three years and with re-election now comfortably behind me, where we’re headed.

You might have noticed the State of the City insert in the Daily News when you were looking for Garfield this morning. There are also copies on your tables. This provides useful information about developments over the past year.

As I reflect on my time as mayor, I’m always amazed at how this community steps forward to work together on Anchorage’s challenges to make our city such a great place to live.

(Slide 6)
Now a full month into my second term, we’re keeping our focus on two fronts. First, continuing to do the basic business of the city smarter and more cost-effectively.

And second, partnering with the private sector to complete new economic development initiatives we launched in the first three years.

We know that by putting aside partisan differences and engaging the public, Anchorage is a great city where there is opportunity for every citizen to prosper.

(Slide 7)
When it comes to doing the city’s business smarter, we’ve focused on delivering basic services efficiently while providing tax relief. After inheriting the worst financial challenge since the oil price crash of the 1980s, Anchorage’s budget today is balanced and sustainable.

S&P recognized this when they said: “The municipality has made important financial adjustments, including a commitment to a structurally balanced budget aided by a newly implemented biennial process.”

Property taxpayers, who have too long shouldered a growing burden, are getting some relief. This year, taxpayers will save nearly 14 million-dollars as a result of the residential tax exemption program we proposed, and which the Assembly and voters approved last year.

This year’s average property tax rate is the lowest in a decade, and the budget is 6.4 million-dollars below the city’s tax cap.

(Slide 8)
We’re also finally getting some relief from the State. Three years ago, you’ll remember the state administration eliminated revenue sharing to communities, which cost Anchorage property taxpayers more than 5 million-dollars in the last year of the program.

The Legislature responded to the pleas of communities this year, allocating a portion of the huge State surplus to local governments to help with higher energy costs and public employee pensions.

Of Anchorage’s share, 22 million-dollars will go for additional property tax relief next year. For the average residential property taxpayer, this will mean a savings of about 228-dollars.

We’re looking at other steps to reduce property taxes, including asking the Legislature to raise the 20,000-dollar personal property tax exemption and continuing efficiencies in city services.

(Slide 9)
We’ll continue doing the city’s business smarter in many other areas:

Collecting 9 million-dollars in old fines and closing 10,000 long overdue accounts;

Refinancing city debt to take advantage of lower interest rates, saving millions of dollars for the taxpayers;

(Slide 10)
And we’re privatizing services, like the Anchorage Museum, which is saving taxpayer dollars as a nonprofit takes over operation of this important asset.

Our second approach in City Hall is partnering with the private sector to complete new economic development initiatives.

(Slide 11)
The cornerstone in downtown’s revitalization is the new civic and convention center. If you’ve been by lately, you’ll notice the walls are starting to go up.

Over the next couple of years, they’ll pour enough concrete to lay a sidewalk between here and Wasilla. Erect as much steel as is in 1,900 Ford F-150 pick-ups. String 165 miles of wire and phone cables.

(Slide 12)
I’m so pleased a citizen group has recommended naming this signature building in honor of the Native people who first populated this area. The Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center will help visitors and locals alike appreciate the rich cultural diversity of our area. I’m confident the Assembly will approve the new center’s name this month.

(Slide 13)
A few blocks away, the final design for the 100 million-dollar expansion of the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center is nearing completion. We expect to break ground on that project next year, with completion scheduled three years later.

(Slide 14)
There are numerous other exciting projects under way which are changing the face of what we’re calling “Destination Downtown:”
• A pedestrian-friendly E Street corridor,
• A more inviting Town Square,
• A more useable Park Strip.

(Slide 15)
And perhaps most welcome of all – a total revamp of the old McKay Building. Just last week, we joined with developer Marc Marlow to formally reopen this longtime eyesore on our city’s landscape.
I can tell you, the views from McKinley Tower are spectacular and its reopening will help rejuvenate the eastern part of downtown.

(Slide 16)
Downtown isn’t the only part of Anchorage enjoying a revival. From Ship Creek and Mountain View to Girdwood and Chugiak-Eagle River, we’re working with private sector developers to renovate or build new housing, office and retail space.

(Slide 17)
Down at the port, the 350 million-dollar expansion will increase its construction tempo this year with the creation of 27 acres of new land on existing tidelands.

This will provide much-needed staging areas for military deployments and expansion opportunities for the port’s existing commercial carriers.

(Slide 18)
All this economic development activity continues to put pressure on city services, especially our roads.

This summer, you’re getting to “experience” an investment of about 70 million-dollars on more than 50 different road and street improvement projects as we work to relieve congestion. This is thanks to the support of Anchorage taxpayers for annual road bonds, and state and federal grants.

With the state budget surplus, we’ve done amazingly well on road funding. This year, the Legislature provided funding on more than 80 percent of the 16 top priority road projects we asked for.

(Slide 19) 
In future years, as we use road money already in the pipeline, we’re going to shift our focus to fixing our public facilities, including public buildings and parks and recreation facilities.

(Slide 20)
Our other major focus is on public safety - making sure our citizens are safe in their homes and on our streets. With the support of the Assembly, we are half-way through an ambitious effort to transform our law enforcement and public safety operations.

The 40 new police officers and 19 new fire fighters we have added are successfully preventing and fighting crime, and improving response times. We’re running multiple police academies each year to train even more officers.

(Slide 21)
Since the time I grew up in Anchorage, our community has changed. I remember resolving disagreements with some yelling and maybe a little pushing, if things got rough.

But we didn’t pull semi-automatic weapons from our gym bags and start spraying the football field. Fortunately, police did great work and arrested three suspects in that case.

Police are doing their part fighting crime in Anchorage, and they’ll do more. In less than a year, a special APD anti-gang unit has arrested 98 people on 89 felony charges and 46 misdemeanor charges. They’ve confiscated 60 guns and seized 18 batches of drugs.

We’re now working with the feds to hire two new prosecutors to prosecute crimes involving guns, gangs and drugs under tougher federal laws.

I also was pleased a material witness bill was added to the special session. Long a priority of ours, this bill would allow police to get names and contact information for witnesses at crime scenes.

Hopefully, it would prevent what happened at the shooting at the Dimond Center last year – when witnesses flipped off the cops and drove away.

(Slide 22)
But making our community safe is not just a police responsibility. It’s a community responsibility. We need to engage civic groups, religious leaders, families, even business organizations like this one, to intervene and step forward to help.

Please look for opportunities to redouble your efforts to help guide our young people toward productive lives.

(Slide 23)
On the traffic front, our community was rocked by three separate fatal accidents involving red light runners in recent weeks. This is inexcusable.

You may remember that when I became mayor three years ago, the traffic unit had been disbanded. We re-assembled it and it has produced results: fatalities down 50 percent and accidents down 20 percent since 2004.

We’ve obviously got more to do. We’ve got to work with police and prosecutors to get drunk drivers off our streets – and keep them off. We’re looking at some new ideas to do exactly that.

(Slide 24)
With increased military activity abroad and heightened security at home, we owe our servicemen and women and public safety professionals a debt of gratitude. Thanks to the Chamber and our entire community for being such good neighbors to our military and the veterans who enrich our city.

(Slide 25)
The coming three years promise to be ones of challenge and enormous opportunity for our community. We’ll wrap up long-awaited new development standards with the Title 21 land use rewrite, and work to provide our region a reliable source of energy.

(Slide 26)
We’ll care for one of the fastest growing segments of our population – seniors – and strive to keep our schools healthy. We’ll struggle to keep up with growing parks and recreation needs, and live within our means.

(Slide 27)
The last three years have been about getting the city’s financial house in order, and moving our city forward. Thanks to public-private partnerships and the enthusiastic participation of residents, Anchorage is thriving.
In my inaugural speech a month ago, I invoked the words of Sir Winston Churchill, who said: “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

In the coming three years, let’s recommit ourselves to this mission – to build a safe, diverse city in which every citizen prospers. Thank you.