State officials hit the road to discuss proposes budget cuts

This is the second in a series of stories geared at finding out how the proposed budget cuts will be felt by those in the Mat-Su. Find out more about budget issues in the next edition of the Frontiersman.

MAT-SU -- Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Shirley Holloway and Department of Corrections Commissioner Margaret Pugh, both of whom co-chair Gov. Tony Knowles' Children's Cabinet, were in Wasilla Tuesday to discuss the state budget and how cuts could affect communities across the state.

"The good news is, in fact, we've made a huge difference," Pugh said. "Alaska's children are, in fact, better off today than they were five years ago."

Pugh said the cabinet has worked with three goals in mind -- improving child health, protecting children living in fear and breaking the cycle of child abuse and violence. The cabinet has succeeded, she said, but the budget adopted by the House could reverse that trend.

"We are concerned that the House budget takes us backward," Pugh said. "It won't just halt … us, but it will actually take us backward."

Pugh explained that the House-adopted budget cuts the five new Alaska State Trooper positions that were proposed in Knowles' budget, and cuts 23 additional trooper positions, four of which would be Mat-Su positions. The budget being considered by the Senate currently includes cuts to the five proposed positions, as well as 17 existing trooper positions, five in the Mat-Su, including one from Talkeetna.

Both the House and Senate, Pugh said, reject Knowles' suggestion to increase payments for foster parents and subsidized adoption programs, and go a step further to cut the funding for those payments by $600,000 -- much less than the $4-million cut proposed by the House.

Jerry Burnett, legislative aide to state Sen. Lyda Green, R-Mat-Su, who chairs the Senate Health and Social Services committee, said the $600,000 cut comes down to a difference in numbers.

"There is always an assumption of how many people are going to be in the program," Burnett said. "This is something that, if there's not enough money, they will come back to the Legislature next year for a supplemental appropriation."

Pugh also discussed a $4.3-million cut in general funds that, through the Senate version of the budget, would be made to the base funding for all alcohol programs, a reduction of nearly 20 percent. According to information from fliers handed out at the noon meeting, "services will have to be curtailed in all areas of alcohol treatment and prevention and programs will have to stop treatment for some clients."

That, Pugh said, could have widespread effects.

"Alcohol is the number-one public health problem in Alaska," Pugh said. "Eighty percent of offenders, if not higher, have alcohol involved in their crimes -- certainly in their families. To cut alcohol treatment is wrong-headed thinking."

Pugh discussed how the numerous facets of the state budget are linked, and said cutting funding in some areas has rippling effects. Overall, however, the Senate's present budget looks more favorable than the budget passed by the House.

Alaska State Trooper Margie Escobar and Wasilla Police Department officer Ruth Johnson discussed their work as child abuse investigators, a unit created recently after the city of Wasilla obtained grant funding for Johnson's position.

In 2001, in the Wasilla area, there were more than 1,800 reports of harm -- 990 of which involved children, Johnson said. That's a report of harm for every student in Cottonwood Creek Elementary, Goose Bay Elementary and Finger Lake Elementary, she explained.

"Child abuse and neglect, when it's not dealt with, is the greatest cause of all our other social ills," Escobar said. "We know the answer is to have experienced and trained officers."

Holloway discussed the growth of programs such as Denali KidCare, which provides medical coverage for needy Alaskan children and pregnant women at a cost of approximately $500 per child, per year, to the state. Approximately 70 percent of that money comes from federal dollars, she said.

"Quality, affordable child care is essential to keeping single and low-income parents and families off welfare," Holloway said.

She also discussed the suicide rate in Alaska -- a rate twice that of the national average -- and mentioned the recent creation of the Suicide Prevention Council, which is fully funded under the Senate's present budget. On the up side, teen smoking, according to preliminary reports, has declined since additional taxes were placed on cigarettes.

Under the Senate budget, Alaska child-care protection workers are funded -- 32 positions were slated to be cut in the House budget -- and the Balloon Project, a project geared toward finding permanent homes for children in foster care, is funded to allow key projects to continue. Funding is restored for the full operation of juvenile facilities across the state -- including the Mat-Su Youth Facility. And that, Burnett said, is likely to stay.

"I don't see that that is going to change in the Senate budget," Burnett said. "In those areas where the concerns are, for the most part, Senator Green's budget proposals are far more [workable]. But we don't know what the full Finance Committee -- or the full Senate -- will do when it passes [out of the subcommittee]."