House releases whittled budget

MAT-SU -- The state House recently released its proposed 2003 budget, and the more than $100 million in cuts have some state officials shaking their heads.

Alaska is falling behind other states, according to Annalee McConnell, the state's director of the office of management and budget. McConnell, in a telephone interview Friday, discussed the proposed budget and how it could affect Mat-Su.

Despite rally cries by legislators to return to the budgets of pre-oil days, McConnell said a recent study shows the state's budget is already below those figures.

"We're actually spending less per person, if inflation is factored in," McConnell said.

The state, she said, spends $1,100 less today per person than was spent in 1979, and even less than was spent in 1976, before any oil was tapped into.

"Some folks say we should be starting with budget cuts," McConnell said. "That's ignoring the fact that we did start with budget cuts."

According to a recent study by the National Conference on State Legislatures, between fiscal year 1991 and 2001, the average growth of state budgets was 70.4 percent.

"But Alaska's budget declined by 15.5 percent," McConnell said.

That's not to say Alaska has not added new services or tried to keep up with the changing face of Alaskan government. However, many new programs and services are funded through grant money -- money that eventually disappears.

"For example, Medicaid -- the financing mechanisms that used to be available no longer are," McConnell said. "Eighteen million [dollars] was needed to continue those services."

It's one thing if a grant runs out and the program or services can be ended, but when grant money is covering the cost of essential programs such as Medicaid or prison beds, the money must come from somewhere.

And that somewhere, McConnell said, is often the state's general fund. In next year's budget, in order to provide the same services as are provided today, $43 million must come from general funds.

McConnell said some of the changes set dangerous precedents. Previous efforts to boost the state's university system have finally begun to pay off -- students are returning to the university, enrollment and class offerings are up -- but the department was not granted its requests for $5.7 million in labor costs and $17 million in additional funding.

"If you take three steps forward and effectively cut their budgets by not even providing the cost of labor, it's a step backward," she said.

Also cut from the budget are nine Alaska State Trooper positions, as well as 19 Fish and Wildlife aide positions, six village public safety officers and numerous other public safety positions. In addition, an estimated 32 positions will be cut from the Department of Family and Youth Services, and McConnell said the state will be unable to continue its current Mat-Su partnership with nonprofit organizations to investigate reports of harm.

The state's food safety inspection program will be cut, halting the inspection of nearly 9,000 restaurants, grocery stores, school kitchens, day care centers and public restrooms. That cut, McConnell said, simply doesn't make sense -- and neither does the assertion by some legislators that this program may make more sense at the local government level.

"Most of that program is funded on fees anyway," McConnell said. "It's simply pushing off to local governments the things that were previously handled by the state."

But what may most stick in the craw of Valley outdoor enthusiasts is the closure of 28 parks across the state. Of that 28, 11 parks are proposed to be closed in the Mat-Su. Presently, Finger Lake, Kepler Bradley, King Mountain, Long Lake, Mat-Su Glacier, Big Lake North, Big Lake South, Rocky Lake, Hatcher Pass, Independence Mine and Summit Lake are all slated to be closed.

According to information from Division of State Parks Director Pat Pourchot, closures will mean barricades across entrance roads, removal of signs and boarding up outhouses. Simply closing the parks will cost $626,000, resulting in a total savings of just $400,000, Pourchot wrote in his impact statement in response to the budget proposal.

Based on use levels from 2001, Pourchot wrote that the park system will receive approximately 1.1 million fewer visits as a result of the closures.

McConnell said she felt many of the cuts didn't need to happen. Had the session started with fiscal planning, the budget could look significantly different.

"If we look at what makes sense in terms of this year's budget, most people's concern is that you might make different choices as a legislator if you put together a fiscal plan first," McConnell said. "We don't necessarily need to make all these cuts -- certainly, some of them aren't smart cuts."