By The Associated Press and Sentinel Staff
The Legislature tried and failed Friday to override one of Gov. Dunleavy’s budget vetoes from last year.
The proposed override related to funding for the Alaska Marine Highway System and school bond debt reimbursement. The final vote was 37 in favor of the override, and 20 opposed. The measure failed because it could not reach the needed super-majority of 45. Approval by three-fourths of the 60-member Legislature is required to overturn a governor’s veto.
The votes were attempts to override a $5 million veto of funds for the ferry system and vetoes of funds for school debt reimbursement to municipalities and a construction fund for rural schools. Both issues were considered in one vote. The total dollar figure of the proposed override was about $70 million.
Rep. Sara Hannan (D-Juneau) argued that the override was critical to restore ferry service to isolated communities.
“When service needs are truncated in the middle of winter, it means that you go onto Facebook to ask neighbors if there are diapers that fit their child. It means that the free school lunch program at your school doesn’t have what it needs to feed the children of Angoon,” Hannan told the Legislature.
“One of the jobs that the state of Alaska is compelled to do for its citizens is support infrastructure that allows communities to have local businesses that meet the private sector needs of the state. Our infrastructure is not supposed to be profitable,” she added.
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D-Sitka) also hoped to override the budget veto. Prior to the override vote he said:
“The administration yesterday evening (Thursday) ... promised that there will be money forthcoming for the ferry system coming in the supplemental. That’s terrific. I think that information should be taken in context of past actions in the last 13 months. As a lot of people remember, the same administration proposed to wholesale shut down the ferry system for the winter, for all of Alaska,” Kreiss-Tomkins said. He said that the override was the fastest possible way to restore funding and service to the Alaska Marine Highway System.
Sen. Bert Stedman (R-Sitka) agreed, and stressed the need for immediate action.
“What we’re concerned about is the empty grocery stores today, the young mothers with no diapers for their kids today, not in June, or July. So I urge support for the Marine Highway,” Stedman said.
Speaking on the issue of school debt reimbursement, he said that the governor’s veto “just transfers the burden to municipalities that have cash economies.” Stedman, among others, said that property taxes will rise if the state fails to reimburse school bonds.
Support for the override was not limited to Southeast Alaskans.
Rep. Ivy Spohnholz (D-Anchorage) argued in favor of the override on the basis that the budget cuts hurt rural communities.
The override is “about preserving Alaska’s rural communities by supporting the Marine Highway System, and about preventing a huge cost shift to communities across the state of Alaska through school bond debt reimbursement,” she said.
Another Anchorage representative, Chris Tuck, compared cutting communities from the Marine Highway to neglecting the roads of the Interior.
Fairbanks Rep. Adam Wool also argued for restoring funding to AMHS. He compared the ferry system to the subways of his old hometown, Boston.
“Boston hosts the oldest and first subway system in the country, and I used to ride it a lot... and the subway system, although quite popular, loses money chronically. And it’s an issue, but no one would ever stop running the subway, it’s a public service, it’s public transportation, and it’s needed. And I hear a lot of talk of ‘Well, the ferry doesn’t make any money. We have to outsource it to a private corporation of something.’ But ferries don’t make money, they provide transportation, and they require public funding,” Wool said.
Among the dissenters was Soldotna Sen. Peter Miccichi, who said he supports AMHS, but problems run deeper than immediate funding.
“I find the current lack of Marine Highway service to be completely unacceptable, but the 5 mil today doesn’t solve that... we have mismanagement in that system for years, and that mismanagement in the past has brought us to this perfect storm of operational and structural integrity issues,” he said.
Eagle River Rep. Lora Reinbolt cited the high costs of the AMHS as her reason for opposing the override.
“A lot of people choose to live in rural communities, they choose that. They know the expenses, they know the hardships. My community says the ferry system doesn’t impact them, so I’m here to represent the district right now,” she said. Reinbolt compared living in remote communities to living in a remote cabin as well.
Sen. Shelley Hughes, of Palmer, agreed with Reinbolt’s sentiment.
“When you choose to live on an island, there are things associated with that. When you choose to live where there are no roads, there are transportation issues you have to deal with... That is a lifestyle choice,” Hughes told the Legislature. She voted against the override.
