Alaska Legislature moves to final days, two Mat-Su budget priorities hold firm

The state Legislature is two weeks away from its required adjournment, and so far things are looking good for two major Mat-Su priorities in the state budget.

One is a $6.9 million state grant to complete work on Palmer’s city wastewater treatment plant. The other is $8 million to build an emergency responder training facility in Wasilla.

Both are included in the latest version of the state capital budget, which has now been rolled into a larger bill in the state Senate that includes the state operating, reappropriations and supplemental spending bills.

Mat-Su budget items are closely watched by Sen. David Wilson, R-Mat-Su, one of the region’s three state senators, who is on the Senate Finance Committee.

The other Mat-Su senators include Sens. Shelley Hughes and Mike Shower, both Republicans.

Last Monday Wilson also secured a $1 million appropriation to the Mat-Su Borough to help support the Arctic Winter Games, which Mat-Su will host in 2024. This is a major world sports event that will draw a substantial number of visitors.

Wilson was unsuccessful with two other amendments, however, which would have appropriated state funds to complete the rail spur from the Alaska Railroad mainline track to Port MacKenzie. The spur is half complete but needs $190 million to complete the job.

A second, related amendment was to build the spur from the existing rail track to the Titan liquefied natural gas, or LNG, plant that is near the port so that LNG can be shipped by rail to Fairbanks Natural Gas Co. in the Interior city, which would take LNG trucks off Goose Bay Road and the Parks Highway.

However, there wasn’t enough support on the committee for the amendments and Wilson wound up withdrawing them. Sen. Click Bishop, D-Fairbanks, co-chair of Senate Finance, said he felt there still might be federal funds for the rail projects though the federal infrastructure bill, although that may be a long shot because the rail programs in that legislation is oriented to passenger, not freight, rail operations.

The budget process is not done, however, and it is always possible that money and projects can be added.

Wilson also expressed displeasure in the Monday meeting over an action by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to reappropriate $15 million in state funds designated for improvements to the Fairview Loop Road to a road planned for the Nenana- Tokchaket agricultural project near Nenana, in Interior Alaska.

This was a highly unusual move because by tradition state funds reappropriated from a project go to another project In the same legislative district, in this case Mat-Su. The action may be unprecedented, in fact.

Fairview Loop Road provides an alternate connection to parts of the heavily-traveled Knik Goose Bay road, but has seen a rapid buildup of traffic recently and is in need of improvements.

Officials at the State Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, or DOTPF, tried to sooth Wilson by saying they would shift the project to the federally-funded State Transportation Improvement, or STIP, list, which is a kind of master plan for Alaska road projects, so that it could be built with federal money.

Wilson said this will likely just delay the work because projects on the STIP tend to just stay there once they go on the list. State-funded projects, when money is available, as it is now, results in things being done sooner.

Wilson also complained that the state’s improvements to the road amounted to simple repaving, where more substantial work is really needed.

Andy Mills, the state transportation agency’s legislative liaison officer, told the Finance Committee that DOTPF’s Commissioner, Ryan Anderson, who was regional director in Interior Alaska for years, has experience in moving projects quickly off the STIP list and into construction.

Wilson was still skeptical, however. “Normally, projects on the STIP list just stay there. There’s no assurance this will get done,” he said.