JUNEAU -- Alaska senators on Friday added $76 million in additional projects to a budget Gov. Sean Parnell called overstuffed, as the main senator behind the plan fired back at Parnell's claim that so much spending is going to "overheat" the economy.
This year's proposed capital budget for construction and maintenance is among the biggest Alaska has ever seen. It is liable to get even bigger once it passes the Senate and reaches the state House. The budget currently plans spending $1.16 billion in state general funds and more than $2.3 billion when federal money is included.
House members, meanwhile, are crafting a bond package behind closed doors expected to include hundreds of millions of dollars worth of additional projects left out of the budget. That could be released today and will have to go for a public vote.
Parnell is calling on legislators to stop the spending. He said they're headed toward a bloated budget and one that would overheat the economy with too much spending. "That will result in Alaska jobs being taken by outsiders who are coming here for those jobs," he said.
Sen. Bert Stedman, the main architect of the plan, said Friday that argument is always thrown out when lawmakers are preparing a sizable capital budget. It doesn't wash, he said. "We're more at risk of an economic slowdown than a speedup. Now is the time to put the capital budget forward to push the economy," said the Sitka Republican.
Projects senators added to the budget Friday include $13.4 million for a new blood bank building in Anchorage and an additional $10 million for Port of Anchorage expansion, doubling the amount in the spending plan for that project. Nearly $1 million was added for a public safety building in White Mountain and $2 million for a pipeline construction training center in Fairbanks.
The Southeast cities Stedman represents are doing well in the budget. Ketchikan would receive $51.8 million in earmarks. That's nearly as much as Juneau, with almost two-and-a-half times the population of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. Kodiak has even more in the capital budget, as does Bristol Bay. Anchorage currently has just over $400 million earmarked in the spending plan.
Much of the money in the budget is for statewide work and totals will change when the bond package comes out and House members put in projects.
One Juneau project that's in the budget is $7 million in spending for deferred maintenance at the Governor's Mansion, seven times as much as the governor asked for.
"The whole place needs new insulation. That entire building needs a whole lot of work," Stedman said.
Some House members say they're choking on the size of the budget being prepared in the Senate. But that doesn't mean they'll try to cut it. Chugiak Republican Rep. Bill Stoltze said he wishes it included money for bigger projects such as a railroad connection to Port Mackenzie, rather than vast smorgasbord of smaller projects.
"Usually you put the staples on the table and then the dessert," Stoltze said. "Seems like we put out the whole dessert buffet."
Stedman said Stoltze will soon have his chance, since he is charge of the budget once it gets to the House. Anchorage Democratic Rep. Mike Doogan said it's too soon to say if House members might fight the Senate on the size of the budget.
"(Or) the House will knuckle under and basically every dime in your kids' piggy bank will end up in the capital budget," he said.
Stedman's position is that the Senate cut $488 million in projects last year when passing a bare bones capital budget. Senators haven't added much more state money than that to what the governor proposed they spend this year, Stedman said.
The Legislature put money into savings before spending, he said.
"I disagree wholeheartedly that we're on a spending spree. We're on a saving spree; we're going to be quickly approaching $12 billion in savings," Stedman said.
More Alaska Legislature coverage
By SEAN COCKERHAM
scockerham@adn.com