Legislators to tackle operating budget

JUNEAU — With just a couple of weeks left in this year’s legislative session, legislators seem mostly focused on where, exactly, to swing the budget-cutting axe.

Rep. Jim Colver, R-Sutton, said he is watching the Senate closely as it goes through the operating budget.

People can testify on the operating budget at the Mat-Su Legislative Information Office from 11 to noon, Monday at 600 E. Railroad Ave., Suite No. 1, Wasilla.

“I’m hopeful they won’t go after committed education dollars,” said Colver, who is wrapping up his first 90-day session in Juneau. He said the per-pupil allocation is scheduled for $50 bumps over three years. This funding is paid based on the number of students in a district, and represents both the bulk of what the state pays for schooling and the lion’s share of most local school district budgets.

“If they mess around with it in the Senate I’d be pretty concerned about that,” Colver said.

After he spoke Thursday afternoon, Sen. Pete Kelly R-Fairbanks, cut 4 percent from the education budget, bringing that cut to 7 percent when added to cuts Gov. Bill Walker had already proposed. The education budget Friday was $1.15 billion.

“There’s a lot of moving pieces in these budgets, but it’s going to be a multi-year process stepping down the state operating budget,” Colver said.

Another freshman Valley legislator, Cathy Tilton, R-Fairview, said she’s trying to set an example in her own office. During the session, she’s traveled back to Mat-Su just once, and she said she made that trip on her own dime.

“We have two staff instead of three right now, and I don’t plan on bringing on another staffer,” she added.

And while the operating budget took up the bulk of a Senate floor session Friday, the other budget was likely to be much less time-consuming. Colver said he didn’t think there would be much movement on the capital budget.

Usually, this is the budget where you find new bridges and rail spurs, airport repairs and sewer upgrades. It’s a focus of a lot of local attention most years, but not this session. Colver said the spending plan hasn’t been much changed since Gov. Bill Walker proposed the smallest capital budget many had ever seen — just $150 million, and mostly to match federal dollars for existing transportation projects.

“The whole idea right now is to rein in spending on all fronts as much as possible, because expenditures are far exceeding revenues with low oil prices,” Colver said.

Tilton said she and a couple of other Valley delegates Rep. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, and Sen. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak also have not requested any capital projects.

“We’re just being very diligent in making sure that we are as conservative as we can,” Tilton said of state spending.

She also pointed out positive fiscal impacts from her legislation. A bill that would allow probationers greater ability to travel for work, she said, would make those folks more productive and less prone to recidivism, thus saving the state prison costs. Her legislation to reinstitute fishing guide licenses after they expire at the end of last year would also double the fees for those licenses. The licensing program had cost the state money in the past, but Tilton said her bill fixes that.

“It is revenue-neutral and actually ends up being just a little bit revenue-positive,” she said.

Also on the agenda between now and the end of the 90-day session April 19: natural gas pipelines.

The governor wants the so-called bullet line to expand into a higher volume pipeline. The Legislature passed a bill delaying that project until 2017, but Gov. Walker says he won’t sign it.

For his part, Colver said he’s trying to push the route for the other pipeline, the AKLNG line, closer to Point MacKenzie. He said getting it close to borough port facilities could help with a project a Japanese company is working on to send liquified natural gas out of Port MacKenzie to Japan. It would also be a good spot to take gas for commercial use.

The Legislature is also wrangling over how to regulate marijuana. A half dozen bills that would accomplish varied things relating to marijuana are bouncing around both chambers of the Legislature.

Tilton chairs the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee, which penned one of those pieces of legislation. The bill would set a road map for municipalities as they come up with their own rules, she said.

“This is something that the municipalities came to me and asked for,” Tilton said.

She said that even if the Legislature runs out of time before it can write comprehensive statewide regulations for the newly legalized substance, at least municipalities will be able to act.

Colver said he’d also be keeping a close eye on board appointments. He said he wants to see a state Board of Fisheries that keeps sport fishing in mind.

“That could have a big impact on what we’re trying to do with Mat-Su salmon runs,” Colver said.