Legislature balks, vetoes stay; Governor to attend Mat-Su Borough special meeting Tuesday

WASILLA — The Alaska House of Representatives adjourned the special session “sine die” Friday without taking action on a series of budget line-item vetoes by Alaska Gov. Bill Walker.

The move effectively ends the legislature’s fifth special session. The Alaska Senate remains in technical session with an end date of Monday, but some Mat-Su borough legislators say that’s likely only a formality at this point.

The end of the special session means the Mat-Su borough will face an about-$5.7-million deficit in its operating budget, which officials say will most likely be made up by reductions in locally provided services. The borough provides land use and management services, as well as emergency services, planning and permitting, parks and recreation services.

The borough school system also faces about $3 million in reductions as a result of cuts to transportation and formula funding for students. Officials have said the way the governor structured a reduction in the Base Student Allocation will disproportionately affect the borough school system because of its transportation needs.

Borough Mayor Vern Halter spent part of the day speaking with Walker, whom Halter said plans to attend a special meeting of the borough assembly in person. Halter said community councils and groups fired up about the vetoes’ impacts should show up to ask questions.

Halter said assembly members didn’t intend to let Walker off the hook.

“We’re gonna put some heat on him about some of the things he’s vetoed,” he said.

At the same time, Halter reserved the sternest part of his criticism for the Legislature.

“Failure?” he said. “It’s more like a total failure on the part of the legislature.”

Legislators concerned about re-election were essentially passing the political buck on to assembly members, Halter said.

“They (legislators) are running for the woods and hiding,” he said. “They’re trying to hide behind the permanent fund.” Arguing for cuts was simple and politically popular, Halter said. However, finding specific things to cut — the position borough assembly members find themselves in — was difficult and politically unpopular.

Halter cited cuts to the state university system that would “cripple” it as one example.

“That’s is not the direction to go, in my opinion,” he said.

Rep. Mark Neuman (R-Big Lake) said he was reflecting the will of the people in his district. Asked how taxpayers (and voters) should view the cuts, and whether legislators should be held responsible for locally decreased services, Neuman said the divisions among legislators reflected divisions among Alaskans over the way ahead.

“The people are scattered,” he said.

Other legislators, like Reps. Shelley Hughes (R-Palmer) and Wes Keller (R-Willow) were a little more circumspect.

“To be totally honest with you, there’s some blame that goes to everybody in general,” Keller said.

For example, past governors and legislatures, flush with oil money, had represented the will of the people in building spending to unsustainable levels, Keller said. Now the oil tanked, changes were in line, Keller said.

“This is a pattern that we’ve gotten into over the years,” he said.

At the same time, the state’s position wasn’t yet dire enough to warrant measures like redirecting money in the Permanent Fund earnings reserve into the state’s general fund, Keller said.

“We have enough money left in the constitutional budget reserve to do the very same thing over gain next year, which would be awful,” he said.

The bottom line was that hope remained, Keller said.

“We have reasons to be hopeful for the future, and I think that this temporary crisis will help us get creative about fixing some of these problems,” he said.

Ultimately, expenditures would have to decrease to match revenues, Keller said.

“The reality is that we have a spending problem in the state of Alaska, and this is really part of the earthquake this is going to continue to haunt us as we go,” he said.

Keller said he had also wanted to revisit the issue of school debt service funding and the BSA, and praised borough school system officials for doing more with less.

“My choice would have been to get their money restored,” he said.

While some legislators may deserve part of the blame for what Mat-Su taxpayers appear destined to face, Hughes said she, personally, did not.

“The wheels of government move slowly,” she said. “That prevents bad things from happening, but it also keeps good things from happening.”