Are Murkowski's solutions leading to challenges for the future?

Frontiersman editorial board

It's getting so you can't identify the unkindest cut of all in Alaska -- there are so many unkind cuts to choose from.

In his latest list of items for the chopping block, Gov. Frank Murkowski has targeted state funding for court-mandated substance abuse programs. Funding for the Alcohol Safety Action Program (ASAP) has caught the governor's eye, and that's a death knell in this era of government slicing and dicing.

The program received about $1.5 million last year, and that funding is designed to help offset the costs of treating the thousands of people statewide who are ordered into treatment by judges. Last year, about 700 new cases were opened in the Valley alone. Staffing for the adult programs has already been slashed, and the situation could become more drastic if the Legislature chooses to adopt the governor's recommendation to discontinue funding altogether. A dozen positions hang in the balance in Anchorage, and the Mat-Su office is already down to two people administering the adult program.

When money is tight, it always sounds good when you can save $1 million, or more. Sometimes you just have to ask what the ramifications will be, though. That's the part of the equation we seem to have missed over the past couple of years. When the Longevity Bonus was cut, it didn't seem like such a big deal to many people who weren't collecting it. To those who counted on the funds to augment their budget, it was a big deal, indeed. The loss of those funds made it difficult for some Alaskans to buy things like medicine, or pay for things like rent. Eventually, when people can't pay for medicine and rent, it costs us all.

If the governor is allowed to cut funding to ASAP, what will we get for our $1.5 million? Many of the people ordered into treatment programs can't afford them. The programs have proven to be successful in reducing repeat offenses -- which means successful in helping people become more productive and successful. We also know that when funds were cut in other places, offenders simply stopped showing up, which means they were back out offending. After enough offenses, will those people be sentenced to prison time? We wonder how much it will cost to house them -- or where they'll be housed for that matter. We wonder what the long-term costs will be of punishing the problem rather than treating it. We wonder if this administration simply seeks short-term solutions, leaving the next administration, and the people of Alaska, to deal with the consequences.