The Alaska House of Representatives, following in the path of the Senate, has approved a small construction and renovation budget for the state fiscal year that starts July 1.
The House vote on Senate Bill 57, the annual infrastructure bill — formally known as the capital budget — was 21-19, along caucus lines, with the Democratic-led majority in charge.
When oil prices and production are high, the Legislature pours hundreds of millions of dollars into new construction and maintenance projects across Alaska, much of it going to communities. But this spring, with the Legislature anticipating low oil prices and reduced federal funding, the House version of the capital budget proposes to spend just $167.9 million in general-purpose dollars.
In comparison, the capital budget two years ago totaled more than $750 million.
No Wrangell projects made it into the budget bill, nor did community projects anywhere else in the state. Most of the money went to state roads, airports and bridges.
The Senate on May 16 concurred with the House changes to the bill, sending the legislation to the governor — who has line-item veto power and may eliminate individual budget items but cannot add new ones.
“This was not a fun or easy year to be the capital budget co-chair,” said Anchorage Rep. Calvin Schrage, who oversaw the budget on the House Finance Committee. “Due to our state’s dire fiscal picture. We had to say no — or at least not now — to a lot of good projects that would have benefited Alaskans.”
A significant amount of the capital budget provides matching funds needed to unlock federal grants. For example, it allocates $57.2 million in general-purpose money to the Alaska Department of Transportation, which gives the state access to over $2 billion in transportation funding once federal money is added in.
It isn’t yet clear how federal budget cuts will affect that figure. The budget is based on what is known as of today.
With general-purpose revenue limited, the House and Senate finance committees were mostly limited to assigning money to deferred maintenance projects at state facilities spread across Alaska.
For example, the Senate added $19 million to the major maintenance list at public schools across Alaska. The House added an additional $19 million on top of that, enough to cover the top nine projects on the list.
When it came to discretionary funding, requests from individual legislators for things like playgrounds or streetlights, the House and Senate were again treated equally.
“Everybody got nothing,” said Sitka Sen. Bert Stedman, a co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee.
Of the budget overall, Schrage said lawmakers tried to deny projects equally, without regard to party or district.
“I know that this won’t make everyone happy, but we’ve done the best that we can,” he said.
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