By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation announced today that they were successful in including a two-year extension for a program that has provided funding for roads and schools, in the 2020 Appropriations bill.
The announcement about the two-year extension of Secure Rural Schools funding came as welcome news to both city and school district, which have customarily split the funds.
“Yay – that’s exciting,” said Sitka schools Superintendent Mary Wegner in hearing the news. “It’s good for the city and good for the school district. And it’s fair, because we can’t expand the city’s boundaries into the national forest, and this is compensation that helps support city infrastructure and the school district.”
Interim City Administrator Hugh Bevan was advised this morning from the city’s lobbyist.
“Great news,” he said this afternoon. “It will be a topic at tomorrow’s budget meeting.”
The Assembly has a special meeting on the budget 6 p.m. Thursday, and the Assembly makes the final call on how to spend the funds.
Bevan said he didn’t know the amount that will be coming to Sitka. The amounts have fluctuated from over a million to about half that in recent years, and the Assembly makes the decision on how much to keep for road improvements and how much to pass on to the school district.
The finance department said today the city received $496,000 from this source for its FY19 budget; and about $567,000 for FY18, and each year split the funds with the school district. The Assembly makes the final call.
Many Alaska communities rely on the funding because of declining timber receipts from nearby federal lands.
“From the Kenai Peninsula to Yakutat to Wrangell, this is a win for rural communities throughout our state which can now budget for two more years of school funding, emergency response, and road maintenance,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski in a press release today. “We worked methodically to ensure this extension would be included in a year-end package. And while we welcome it as a needed dose of short-term certainty, we will continue our push for a lasting solution – reasonable access for responsible resource production on federal lands.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan had similar comments.
“Secure Rural Schools funding has been a lifeline for many Southeast Alaskan communities, enabling them to meet the most basic needs of their residents in the midst of a declining timber harvest,” he said. “I’m glad to see a renewal of SRS included in the end-of-year spending agreement, providing greater fiscal certainty for many local governments across our state, and honoring the federal government’s commitment for another two years.”
“The SRS program has been critical to funding schools, infrastructure, and first-responders. Therefore, it is crucially important that this program is protected,” said Congressman Don Young. “I am very pleased to see a two-year extension of the SRS program included in these final government funding bills, but there is more work ahead to ensure that our communities and their schools are adequately funded. As Alaskans, we can be trusted to both responsibly develop our resources and protect the environment. I will keep working with the Alaska Delegation to ensure that our communities can access the resources they need while supporting the long-term success of the SRS program.”
The news release said Murkowski and Sullivan joined 29 of their Senate colleagues in early October on a bipartisan letter urging Senate leadership to renew SRS and fund the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program in any year-end appropriations measure. The PILT program, which is also critical for many Alaska communities, is fully funded in the Interior Appropriations bill.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week reported S. 430, a bill to extend Secure Rural Schools for two years, would bewas poised for inclusion in the year-end appropriations package. Murkowski is chairman of the committee and a cosponsor of the bipartisan measure.
