Walker vetoes prompt mixed reaction

WASILLA — Officials at the Mat-Su Borough School District were waiting to see what the effect Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s vetoes would be to local teachers and students.

Walker announced vetoes totaling $1.29 billion June 29. If Walker’s changes to the Permanent Fund Dividend program, oil tax credits, executive branch department spending and education spending were sustained, school system officials could potentially face cuts of about $1.36 million to the pupil transportation fund and $822,000 in reductions to the foundation formula program reduction, said assistant superintendent for business services Luke Fulp.

Officials are waiting to see whether another legislative session will add clarity to the bottom line for teachers, Fulp said.

“We’re hesitant to say in practical terms because we know the governor has called the legislature back for another special session in July 11,” he said.

Officials also were looking at a possible mitigating factor in the state education funding reserve, a past attempt to forward-fund education in the state, Fulp said.

Major revisions to the budget would likely have to be made anyway, because the methodology of school funding in Alaska, Fulp said. School funding is based in part on attendance, but officials can’t know the attendance until students meet, even though budgets are due to the state much earlier.

While the reductions — at least $2.1 million just for borough schools — could be painful in the short term, they could prove to be determinative in the long term, Fulp said.

The announced vetoes could also mean a reduction to a previously shuttered bond-debt reimbursement program, borough officials said. The 70-30 bond debt reimbursement, which had allowed borough officials to leverage local property tax funds with state funds to build new schools, was officially closed last year. However, the vetoes would also reduce the state’s contribution. The estimated impacts to the Mat-Su Borough budget work out to a $5.7 million reduction, according to finance director Tammy Clayton.

A special borough assembly meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. to address the issue.

Others were more effusive in their praise for gubernatorial actions. Walker also announced he was ordering a full stop to both the Knik Arm Bridge and Susitna-Watana dam projects. Melissa Heuer, executive director of the Susitna River coalition, an environmental and economic group that opposes the dam, said their joy over the closure wasn’t tempered by the fact that the reasons for its closure was the dire condition of state finances.

“This is a great first step,” she said. “The Susitna River is a really important economic engine for the region.”

The group would work to make sure that if the economic conditions improve, the project would not return.

“We are going to work very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen,” she said.

On the bridge, Department of Transportation spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy said the move was expected.

The bridge “is a substantial project,” she said. “For any project that large, it’s difficult to continue moving forward under these conditions.”

Because of the way the project worked, officials could re-start it within the next 15 years, McCarthy said.

“This idea has been brought up again and again,” she said. “This time they had advanced the project to where much of the science was completed.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.