JUNEAU -- The Legislature's first rule about the secretive capital budget process: Deny there is any secrecy.
Alaska's capital budget is where the often large amounts of money for one-time projects such as new roads, sewer plants and even schools are distributed. This year that budget will likely amount to more than $1 billion, but in better years it's been much more.
Legislators won't say where they intend to spend those dollars, but they maintain the appropriation process is transparent.
"There is no secrecy," said Sen. Anna MacKinnon, R-Anchorage, co-chair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and a key player in the capital budget process this year.
But deciding how that money is spent is done largely behind closed doors and out of sight of the public.
With this year's regular legislative session nearly 90 percent done, a legislative capital budget proposal has not yet been made public.
On Monday, the Senate Finance Committee spent hours taking public testimony on the capital budget but wouldn't tell the public what it was proposing should be in that budget.
Instead of showing the public what it has spent more than two months crafting, it asked the public to comment on the capital budget proposal made by Gov. Bill Walker. Senators have already said they'll alter Walker's proposal, likely with further cuts.
MacKinnon said the public can and does comment on the capital budget process and specific projects, even without knowing what legislators are proposing.
"The public is weighing in all the time," she said. "We get hundreds of emails every day on projects across Alaska."
MacKinnon said final actions by the Senate Finance Committee on the capital budget will be done in public at a meeting of the committee.
MacKinnon said there are "no closed doors, as far as I know," and that she's told everyone that "everything would happen at the finance table."
Asked to defend the secrecy or explain how it benefited the public, MacKinnon instead disputed its existence.
"I think its unfair to say there's any secrecy," she said.
But the capital budgeting process being used, she said, is the same as always. It is her first year in charge of a capital budget.
Walker's capital budget proposal came to $1.4 billion, mostly federal funds leveraged by $230 million in state funds.
But $150 million of those state funds are in unrestricted general funds, the easiest to spend and considered most valuable by legislators. Senators said that amount is still too high and expect it to be cut when the budget is released.
MacKinnon offered one hint about where cuts might come: The Department of Transportation will be asked to keep its vehicles and equipment longer before replacing them.
Senate President Kevin Meyer agreed with MacKinnon's claim of a public capital budget process and the projects it will fund.
"There is no secret," he said. "They're all in CAPSIS."
So what is CAPSIS? It's the Legislature's password-protected website through which capital projects are requested. Legislators can see what competing projects are being sought, but the public cannot. Walker has made public on his website his capital budget requests.
Some legislators are objecting to a process in which they say those making cuts try to avoid public hearings on their actions, and to maneuvers to vote on measures such as school cuts without public hearings.
"We still don't know what is happening with the capital budget," said Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, who said he fears the same controversial process will be used for the capital budget as was used for the operating budget in the Senate.
There, education cuts were not included in subcommittee budgets, but then the Senate Finance Committee made surprise cuts, which were then sent to the floor for a final Senate vote, all without public hearings but in compliance with legislative rules.
Tuck called that "last-minute, back-door cuts to public education where people don't get a chance to weigh in."
MacKinnon's House counterpart, Rep. Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks, did not respond to interview requests. The House has done its capital budget work in secret as well, but this year the capital budget originates in the Senate.
Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, an advocate for further budget cuts, denied there was secrecy in the capital budget.
But Dunleavy then described a process in which senators decided in closed-door majority caucus meetings about budget cuts.
"We agreed as a caucus back in December that we had to reduce this budget," Dunleavy said.
The majority caucuses are meetings where a majority of legislators get together in private and decide what they'll later do in public.