Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- The Valley's borough and state political leaders met this week to try to make sure the Valley's top road, building and other projects get adequate funding in the state budget next year.

The wish list includes mega projects -- such as a rail spur to Port MacKenzie -- as well as everyday needs in the growing Valley, such as new roads aimed at reducing congestion.

Talk didn't just center on obtaining public money for Mat-Su projects, however. They also discussed the importance of getting support from other regions of Alaska for the big projects and of getting private companies to finance some work.

The Valley heads into next year's legislative session without two local politicians who were big players in Juneau: Gov. Sarah Palin resigned last July, and Sen. Lyda Green, who had been Senate president, retired last January.

State funding is vital to the Valley. Millions of dollars in capital funding have flowed into Mat-Su in past years, paying for new schools about every 18 months and underwriting construction of the Goose Creek Correctional Center at Point MacKenzie.

The current year state budget includes nearly $60 million in state and federal money. This included continued work on the Trunk Road reconstruction, getting rid of ruts on the Glenn Highway and rebuilding the Seward-Meridian Parkway.

In the upcoming session, legislators have their own projects to focus on: Rep. Carl Gatto and Sen. Linda Menard said they hope to secure the $2.8 million needed to rebuild the Palmer Senior Center, a '50s-era building that Gatto called a "fire trap," where employees are so hard up for filing space some files are kept in facility bathrooms.

Rep. Mark Neuman said his focus will be on pushing an in-state natural gas pipeline that would start at Arctic gas fields and terminate at Point MacKenzie. It would allow companies to export butane, propane and other natural gas byproducts from there, while also helping fill regional demand for gas to heat homes and make electricity.

Neuman said the in-state line is getting support from would-be users, although the project might be a hard sell because it would compete in part with a gas pipeline crossing Canada.

Meanwhile the Mat-Su Borough hopes to get $57 million for another project borough officials say will help the state economy. The money would pay for the next phase of a project to build a 30- to 45-mile rail spur from the Alaska Railroad line. The spur would jut south from the main tracks somewhere between Willow and Houston and end at the borough's port. Borough Manager John Duffy said the state money would pay for construction of the southern leg of the rail line and engineering on the rest of the route.

Project backers say the spur line, a $300 million project, would reduce transportation costs for mining companies hauling raw materials such as coal and bentonite from Interior Alaska to tidewater for export.

The borough, with $10 million in state money approved in 2007, is seeking federal permission to build the line. The state funding is paying for an environmental impact statement and other permitting and engineering costs. Duffy said the environmental statement should be finished early next year. Permission to build, if it is granted, is expected mid-year.

Duffy and Mat-Su Assemblymembers have been meeting with Denali and Fairbanks-North Star Borough representatives to discuss lobbying for state funding of the rail spur project.

Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine told legislators everyone fears that if the project is seen as a local project, or one that will solely benefit Fairbanks or Mat-Su, the spur might get funded -- but at the expense of getting money for other community projects.

The Mat-Su Assembly has not yet adopted its annual list of community funding priorities; that list is usually adopted in December.

Assembly members said a $49 million road bond package will be at the top of their local priority list.

Mat-Su voters in 2008 agreed to sell bonds to pay for 30 percent of the cost to upgrade seven roads around the borough, all roads that would create new connections, or improve existing ones, and decrease traffic on busy Valley thoroughfares.

The road bond package topped the borough's capital request for this year's state budget, but the road funding went instead to other projects, like resurfacing the Glenn Highway and rebuilding Trunk Road.

"There is not a penny for these voter-approved projects," Duffy said in an April press release in which he complained about the overall lack of funding for local projects.

Duffy said he was hopeful next year will be different.

"I walked away feeling pretty good about the discussion we had. We were focusing on the main issues, how do you turn around the state's economy? That and traffic safety -- if those two are the main standards we have to meet (to get funding) we're in great shape," he said.

Mat-Su Assembly members plan to meet with state lawmakers again in January, before the 2010 legislative session begins.

Duffy, Assemblymembers and the borough lobbyist Ray Gillespie will stay in contact with legislators about local projects as the session unfolds.

Find Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call her at 352-6709.

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