Gatto, Benson lay out priorities for House

WASILLA — Carl Gatto and the lone candidate challenging him for his seat in the state House of Representatives, Don Benson, found mostly common ground at a forum Thursday night.

There is no Democrat in the race, so Gatto and Benson are battling only until the August Republican primary. The seat they’re vying for represents Palmer and the surrounding area. They met at a forum sponsored by the Greater Palmer and Greater Wasilla chambers of commerce at the Alaska Club in Wasilla.

As to their common ground, for one thing, both seemed to think running a natural gas pipeline into Canada was a good idea.

“Some people might not think that’s the best idea but I do,” Gatto said.

Benson said that he supported the project TransCanada proposed through the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act process, saying he felt it was cheapest to put the gas into Canada so users there would defray a lot of the costs of shipping gas through the line, and Alaska would have less of the tariff to pay on its gas.

“I support the AGIA process,” he said. “We need to get the big pipe going.”

Asked what he felt was the biggest roadblock standing in the gasline’s way right now, Gatto seemed to agree with Benson on the tariff issue.

“The key is to get other people to pay the tariff,” he said.

Asked the same question, Benson answered that the biggest problem is getting everyone working on the same project. He noted that there are five competing ideas out there for how to get this thing done. He views the other four as back-up plans.

Both men were also in favor of the Knik Arm Bridge. Benson pointed out that truck drivers paying $150 in gas to get between Knik and Anchorage would gladly pay a $75 toll to cross the bridge. Gatto pointed out that the Point MacKenzie area where the bridge would land is the Valley’s future for development and a link to Anchorage would spur that development immensely.

On the topic of career and technical education, the candidates were asked, if faced theoretically with a choice between the two, whether the Mat-Su school district should export the model of its career and tech high school to other communities or expand its school into something like a statewide program, bringing students in from other communities.

Benson said he thought expanding the school was a better idea.

Gatto didn’t give a clear answer one way or the other but shared a story about substitute teaching at SAVE High School in Anchorage and how he found students with a strong desire to learn. And then things got down to hard dollars and cents with a question about what the candidates would have as priorities for the state’s capital budget, if elected.

Gatto, having already outlined the projects he’d pushed to fund in the Valley in his previous terms, said he’d focus on finishing two of those projects — the Trunk Road expansion and the rail line to Port MacKenzie.

He would also add a few more to deal with incoming pipeline materials. The gas pipeline, he said, will be built with thicker pipe than the oil pipeline was.

“This pipe will destroy bridges; it will destroy roads and we know it,” he said.

Benson agreed there’s a need to get infrastructure ready for a gasline. He also said that roads to open up new areas of the state don’t have to be built all at once.

“Let’s start with 10 miles at a time,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.