OPINION: Prop. 6 will match who uses and pays for Chugach State Park access

The problem that municipal Proposition 6 is trying to fix is that many of the roads that go to Chugach State Park, or CSP, are in bad shape. There are two primary reasons for this.

First, on the Anchorage Hillside, the roads are locally managed by a system of road service areas, aka RSAs. They are responsible for the localized upkeep, including snow clearing in the winter, and road maintenance in the summer, with some capital improvements. The RSAs are self-funded from property taxes from residents who live within them. This system was set up because of the distinct meteorological and topographic circumstances on the Hillside. There can be a blizzard at 2,000 feet while it is sunny downtown.

Right now, the Municipality of Anchorage cannot bond to fund road improvements in the RSAs. They can bond for roads in neighborhoods down from the hillside, but not in the RSAs.

These RSAs are sparsely populated, giving them a low revenue base, and despite having some of the highest mill rates in the city, cannot afford significant capital improvements.

The second reason the roads are in bad shape is that most of the use on the roads in the RSAs, up to 90% in some cases, is park traffic going to trailheads such as Prospect Heights, Glen Alps/Flattop, Stuckagain Heights or Rabbit Lake.

CSP gets 1.5 million visitors annually, so you know that most of this traffic does not originate in the service areas. Half of all Alaskans live within 30 minutes of the park.

Many of these roads are in poor shape. Upper DeArmoun Road, for instance, the corridor that goes to Rabbit Lake, was first paved in 1987, and hasn’t been paved since. The last half-mile of Canyon Road, which also goes to Rabbit Lake and the new Sunny Side trailhead to Flattop, has severe potholes, ruts, exposed boulders in the roadbed, and is very narrow. A prime reason that the roads are in bad shape is because high park traffic leads to further deterioration. The roads were not built for that level of use.

If Ballot Measure 6 passes in April, it would create a new service area consisting of the Anchorage Bowl itself, north of McHugh Creek and south of Eagle River, called the Chugach State Park Access Service Area, or CASA. The measure would allow the muni, in the future, to submit to voters bond propositions for projects that support access to the park. This would include road and parking improvements.

The vote in April would only approve creation of this service area. It would not result in any tax increase. And down the road, future ballots could contain specific bond propositions for future projects. Taxes would only be levied if voters approve those projects in the future. Only voters in the Anchorage Bowl would pay any additional tax; voters outside the bowl, such as in Eagle River, Chugiak or Girdwood, would not.

And the stretches of roads we are talking about are rather modest. Divided among all the properties in Anchorage, and stretched over a 20-25 year repayment period, any additional tax would be very small.

Without Prop. 6, necessary capital requirements cannot happen, and Anchorage drivers will suffer bad roads and insufficient parking on their way to the park. With it, there will be good roads and parking for everyone.

It will match who uses the roads and who pays for the roads.

Roger Marks is an economist in private practice in Anchorage. From 1983-2008, he was an economist with the State of Alaska Department of Revenue Tax Division.

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