MEMORANDUM

TO: Members, Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly

FROM: Pete Sprague, Assembly Member

William Popp, Assembly President

DATE: May 25, 2000

SUBJECT: Habitat protection tax credit

In 1995, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly passed Ordinance 95-32, which established the Kenai River System Habitat Protection Tax Credit program. This program partially reimburses property owners along the Kenai River and its tributaries for habitat protection or restoration project expenses. On May 11, 2000, Governor Knowles signed HB 25 which allows municipalities to extend this property tax credit for rivers other than the Kenai. On May 16, 2000, the Assembly passed Ordinance 2000-08, which amended the Kenai River Habitat Protection Ordinance (Ordinance 96-06) to include other anadromous streams with the borough. I believe that the time is right to offer property owners along these newly added rivers and streams the same opportunity that those along the Kenai River and its tributaries have to receive a property tax credit when they wish to protect and restore the habitat that is protected under 2000-08.