Most lawmakers offered a project or more they believe needs to be protected. Not so many were willing to point a finger at areas that could be trimmed in their back yard. Here’s how they answered, deflected or declined to answer:
Senate President Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage
Keep? “I have a lot of schools in my district, and I would hate to see us cut education. We have funded education for the next three years. Some groups thought we should do even more than we did, and I certainly don’t want to see any cuts. But now that we hear that the Anchorage School District has a surplus, that’s one area I don’t think we should increase.”
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage
Keep? “In East Anchorage we’ve got a lot of really bad roads, and so I think that’s something that’s important. Education is obviously hugely important in my district, getting funding for our teachers, and public safety. Those are areas we just can’t cut. … Another area that I think we absolutely need to push forward on is Medicaid expansion.”
Rep. Max Gruenberg, D-Anchorage
Keep? “If they try to de-fund any of the courts, the judiciary, we can’t let that happen. … They have regularly tried to defund the (Alaska) Judicial Council. That goes back to (Gov. Frank) Murkowski. The council back when Murkowski was governor refused to serve up someone who was conservative enough for him. They’ve also cut the number they’re allowed to spend to publicize the results of their retention research. They wanted to cut it out entirely and compromised and cut it to some extent. This is going to be a big deal now that they have someone new on the third floor. They’ve also tried to change the judicial to add more non-lawyer members rather than appointment by the Alaska Bar Association.”
House Majority Leader Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage
Cuts? “I don’t know if I can answer that question and sound articulate about the budget. It’s not going to be one thing, there’s not one item that will help us. There’s going to be a multitude of items across the spectrum of government that we’re going to have to cut. There’s no magic bullet. … Unfortunately, our budget doesn’t work that way. We’re intertwined with federal dollars, we’re mandated to pay for certain things. So it’s a much bigger discussion than just saying, ‘Give me one item.’ It’s going to be several items.”
Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer
Cuts? “I don’t know. I haven’t been looking specifically at things like that. I think that we’re looking at not appropriating new amounts of money, but I haven’t looked at it on the other aspect. … We need $28 million for a new public safety building, a police and fire department building in Homer, and we requested some funding for that last year. I don’t think that’s going to be in this budget. We’ve got some longer term projects like that people have requested, but it’s going to be tough.”
Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage
Cuts? “We have over $12 billion of non-priority projects, from Kodiak which loses money every year to the Juneau road that takes you to a ferry terminal. … Those are the things that need to be put off. Oil projections we know are wrong all the time. Every oil projection we’ve seen was wrong. So if you cut with a meat cleaver you’re going to damage people. Those are things that you cut before you start cutting education, before you start cutting help for foster kids taken away from their families, no fault of their own.”
See More Responses at KTUU AKPipeline
image credit APEonline
