By SHANNON HAUGLAND
and KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writers
Sitka’s state House member and local officials say Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s proposed budget cuts would hit Sitka hard, but they caution it’s still early in the process.
“The full impacts will be assessed in a few days,” Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins said today. “We’re still getting the gory details of the implications – I don’t know what the full implications are. This is just the beginning.”
The governor’s budget, released Wednesday, calls for a 23 percent cut in state funding for public schools and a 41 percent cut to the University of Alaska, and reductions to state reimbursements to cities on school capital projects, among other proposals.
If enacted, these cuts – as well as Dunleavy ’s funding reduction for the ferry system – would have an impact on Sitka, but Kreiss-Tomkins said the details are still being sorted out.
He said Dunleavy’s budget represents a “deeply ideological vision for Alaska” calling for “minimal public services, privatization and a dividend check.”
“The governor did what he said he was going to do,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. “It’s not surprising. On the campaign trail it sounds good to cut all the fat and waste. It’s been rhetoric for years, but it’s the first time an actual budget document has been presented that walks the walk in terms of cutting services like education, the Pioneers Home, the ferry system, Medicaid. ... Selling the Mt. Edgecumbe Aquatic Center. We could add 20 items to the list.”
The Legislature will now create its own operating budget, but it’s also possible the governor will use his line-item veto to get his way, Kreiss-Tomkins said.
Kreiss-Tomkins is a member of the House majority coalition that was announced just today.
“It’s good for Alaska, and good for Sitka,” he said, of the coalition. Committee assignments were not announced by press time today.
In Sitka, local government and school officials said they are still learning the details of the governor’s budget, but agreed that it will be a rough year if it passes.
“Huge cuts to the ferry system, huge cuts to schools, and the school bond reimbursement,” City Administrator Keith Brady said, listing a few examples. “(Revenue sharing) is not in the budget. How it’s going to affect the city we don’t know. We’ll be talking to the public and Assembly: where do we go from here?”
But he added it’s still early in the legislative session.
“There’s no need to freak out right now; it could go through a lot of iterations,” Brady said. “Obviously we’ll be watching it carefully.”
Mayor Gary Paxton said he hopes the end result will be something more “realistic.”
“It’s going to be a major problem for all communities,” he said. “Hopefully the Legislature will figure out a more realistic approach.”
“Initially it looks troubling,” Deputy Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said. “However, it still has to go through the House and Senate and we’ll see what they ultimately want to do with it. The governor’s line item veto power is troubling, and I’m concerned it’s going to put incredible strain on municipalities at this point that we have no more revenue to make up for the lost state revenue. I’m increasingly concerned about cuts in the school district and how we’re going to pay for that.”
Sitka School Superintendent Mary Wegner called the governor’s budget “unconscionable.”
“If implemented it will decimate public education in Alaska,” Wegner said. “We are still trying to find the actual numbers to see what exactly the impact is.”
Wegner said she and district business manager Cassee Olin are working with the Alaska Association of School Business Officials. Olin is the most recent past president of ALASBO.
“In rough estimates, we are looking at a 25 percent cut to the Sitka School District,” she said.
The local school budget is just under $20 million, and the state provides the greatest share of the funding. The proposed 25-percent cut in state funding would be on top of the $1.3 million deficit is already facing, even with the loss of three teaching positions due to low enrollment.
“We need a whole lot more information before I start talking about what I would propose,” Wegner said. “We are way too early to make any kind of statement. But how do you cut 25 percent from anything and expect it to be whole. It doesn’t work when you are cutting a pie, and it doesn’t work when you are educating our students. Our real hope is that we have legislators who are going to stand up for our students. And just a real call for advocacy. I really want to thank all the community members who have reached out but I encourage anybody who is concerned for our students to reach out to any and all Alaska state legislators and let them know that this level of cut is unacceptable.”
