Republican Caucus: Senate’s Pared-Down Capital Budget Missing Important Projects
JUNEAU – Even though the Senate today passed a $1.8 billion capital budget that more realistically reflects the uncertain future revenue stream the state now faces, it leaves out some important projects that are key to securing and increasing state revenues.

“While it is good to see a reduction in spending, I think the priorities of the Senate majority are misplaced,” said Sen. Gene Therriault, R-North Pole. “It reminds me of the fateful end of Bad, Bad LeRoy Brown in the old Jim Croce song, who ‘looked like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone’. Now, we haven’t exactly been in a knife fight over this capital budget, but the missing pieces are crucial ones.

“For example, it is distressing that the Senate majority chose not to fund some of the Governor’s requests for much-needed upgrades to the Dalton Highway. The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has been asking to have these projects funded for several years now, in anticipation of construction of the gas pipeline. Federal stimulus dollars that should have gone into priority transportation projects on Alaska’s major arterial highways were instead diverted to “B” list projects in individual Senators’ districts.”

Sen. Tom Wagoner, R-Kenai, said, “I was appalled, not just at the disparity in the distribution of projects, but that the majority absolutely and inexplicably refused to vote for Sen. Dyson’s green amendment to encourage the use of propane and compressed natural gas in the buses funded by the bill.”

Therriault said two other very important missing pieces are funding for the Governor’s effort on the bullet or spur line and the second phase of a major oil and gas reservoir study currently being undertaken by the Department of Natural Resources.

“These are critically important projects for getting natural gas to the people of Alaska,” Therriault said. “To deliberately leave them out of the budget is simply unconscionable. We are hopeful that the House will include the funds in their version of the bill.”