Governor, lawmakers agree to use federal aid to boost ferry system

Nearly $77 million in federal pandemic relief funds would be used to cover the state contribution to the Alaska Marine Highway System operating budget through Dec. 31, 2022, bringing more certainty to scheduling the vessels, under a deal worked out between the governor and legislators.

The money would come from the transportation section of a $900 billion relief bill passed by Congress in December. The governor announced the funding plan while in Ketchikan last Thursday.

The federal money, when added to anticipated revenues from passenger and vehicle fares, would bring the ferry system budget closer to what legislators approved last year before the governor vetoed millions from the spending plan for the current fiscal year.

That would likely allow the system to add some port calls next winter.

State funding is usually appropriated one year at a time, with the fiscal year starting July 1. Extending the appropriation to 18 months would help with ferry operations, "so that it's not up and down one year to the next," Gov. Mike Dunleavy told reporters in Ketchikan.

In particular, the advance funding would allow the Alaska Marine Highway to know further in advance the level of service it can afford, making it easier to release schedules sooner, said Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz, who also represents Wrangell.

Earlier release of the schedule, with the certainty of 18 months of funding, should help boost ridership, Ortiz said.

"It does solve the problem of how the system has been hurt by not being able to put out a schedule with any sort of long-term range to it," he said.

"What we've been told from the Alaska Marine Highway is that when they have an early schedule, they get about a 5% boost in sales, so that's good," said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, who accompanied Dunleavy to Ketchikan. The senator's district includes Wrangell.

After this year's 18-month appropriation, Dunleavy proposes syncing the ferry system budget with the calendar year rather than the July 1 fiscal year used by state government. Moving to a calendar year would help with scheduling further in advance, he said.

"The next big issues," Ortiz said, are adding crew quarters to the 300-passenger sister ships Tazlina and Hubbard, so that the unused ships, each less than 2 years old, can get to work and make longer runs, and then replacing the 57-year-old Tustemena. After that, "the next step is a new mainline ferry," to replace the 58-year-old Matanuska or 48-year-old Columbia, he said.

The governor for the first time expressed his support for steering $15 million in federal highway dollars toward crew quarters for one of the unused ferries, according to public radio station KRBD in Ketchikan, which covered the governor's visit.

The infusion of federal pandemic relief dollars seems to have at least temporarily eased the tension between lawmakers who support the marine highway and the governor, who has cut the system's budget and vetoed legislative attempts to restore funding since taking office almost 30 months ago.

Legislators are working on the budget in the final weeks of the session, as they face a constitutional adjournment deadline of May 19.

 

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