A bunkhouse at the Silvertip Maintenance Station and communication upgrades to the Seward Highway between Hope and Turnagain Arm are among the Kenai Peninsula projects funded in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year.
The proposal also funds security upgrades at the Kenai Courthouse and $6.5 million for engineering and permitting of a project to bolster output at the Bradley Lake Hydroelectric Plant near Homer.
Communications upgrades to the Sterling and Seward highways are the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s top priority heading into the upcoming legislative session. In all, the borough wants $5,850,000 to improve cell phone coverage across the central peninsula.
Dunleavy unveiled his $16.7 billion budget proposal during a press conference Thursday in Juneau. The proposal includes a $1.5 billion deficit that Dunleavy plans to cover by more than halving the state’s main savings account – the Constitutional Budget Reserve.
Nikiski Republican Sen. Jesse Bjorkman said Friday he’s “not interested” in spending down state savings as much as Dunleavy’s wants, calling the proposal a non-starter.
Dunleavy’s budget includes $50 million to cover a backstop the state’s development agency OK’d for the project last week. The money might not be needed, but would act as a sort-of insurance policy for a company that agrees to update the project’s existing engineering designs, also called a FEED.
At a press conference Thursday, Dunleavy says conditions are more favorable than 10 years ago for the project.
“If we can get this updated FEED done here in the next several months, I think we are as close as we've ever thought we could be to a line,” he said. “I think we'll end up consummating a line here over the next year or so.”
Bjorkman says he favors using state resources to backstop work on the project.
“We need to be able and willing to invest in ourselves to get Alaskan gas from the North Slope to burner tips of Alaskans and so, yeah, I support that concept,” he said.
Bjorkman says Dunleavy’s proposal is missing funding for K-12 education, which he and other lawmakers have said is a priority next session.
Dunleavy’s proposal currently reflects a decrease in education funding from last year’s budget, because it doesn’t include the $175 million in one-time money lawmakers passed last session. Dunleavy says he plans to introduce an education bill soon that will include roughly $200 million in new spending alongside some of his priorities.
“It's going to be roughly $200 million so if we are able to come to agreement on the bill and the changes in how we do education, we're probably looking at $200 million going forward on a permanent basis,” he said.
Dunleavy’s budget proposal is the start of a lengthy budget process that won’t conclude until mid-next year. It’s a starting point for state lawmakers preparing to return to Juneau next month for the start of the 34th Alaska Legislature.
