By April 3, Gov. Palin must inform the federal government whether she plans to refuse any of the economic stimulus money allocated to Alaska. So far it sounds as if she wants to position herself as a fiscally hawkish budget cutter, rather than maximize the aid Alaska might responsibly collect from the feds. Unlike Republican governors in more economically beleaguered states, she has talked about turning down money for things that might require future state expenditures.

That concern is fair enough, but there doesn't appear to be a huge list of items where it's an issue. According to a summary prepared for the Council on State Governments, very few stimulus items require a state to chip in extra money or make a long-term funding commitment. For several programs, the stimulus explicitly waives matching fund requirements and frees up money for administrative costs.

One area where the feds are asking some states to ante up is unemployment insurance. The feds will pay states the full cost of boosting every unemployment check by $25 a week, but some states with relatively stingy benefits are being offered financial incentives to do more for the unemployed. Alaska is one of the states that may be affected.

State labor department spokeswoman Beth Leschper says the Palin administration is still looking at what the state would have to do to qualify for the maximum share of federal unemployment money.

This concern has prompted resistance from two other Republican governors with national ambitions and big budget problems. South Carolina's Mark Sanford and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal have indicated they'll turn down the federal incentives to boost their unemployment aid. They say their states can't afford it.

While Gov. Palin is on the lookout for funds the state might turn down, she should also make sure the state is geared up to use Alaska's share of the stimulus money quickly. As she has noted, our construction season is very short, and it's coming up fast. If the federal infrastructure money (which Gov. Palin welcomes) is going to create jobs here this year, the state has a lot of homework to do.

In the stimulus package, roughly $100 billion is up for grabs in competitive grants, according to the Council on State Government's summary. Gov. Palin should have her staff look at those pots of money and see if any of it might help Alaska.

One prospect is a $2 billion set-aside for buying foreclosed properties and turning them into affordable housing. Alaska doesn't have a huge foreclosure problem yet -- but this money channel might be worth a look.

The feds have a $225 million pot for law enforcement grants and a separate smaller amount for policing in rural areas. This might help with Alaska's chronic problem of recruiting and retaining troopers and village safety officers.

The stimulus offers discretionary grants to help with immunizations, state energy conservation plans, alternative fuel vehicles, electronic medical records, ferries and ferry terminals and cutting diesel emission (which might be handy in villages with old, polluting generators).

Using Gov. Palin's standards, the state might reasonably decide not to pursue some competitive grants. The feds are offering money for fighting violence against women but it requires a 25 percent match, according to the Council on State Governments. A juicy $4.7 billion vein of money for broadband technology appears to require a 20 percent match (though there is a hardship waiver).

To hear Gov. Palin and a few other Republican governors talk, you'd think the stimulus was a gift horse, larded up with money that inflicts costly new requirements on the states. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the stimulus will enable states to do many valuable things and help re-start the national economy at the same time.

BOTTOM LINE: Alaska should gear up to use the stimulus money as quickly and effectively as possible.

Lord's work?

Western Alaska has been getting more than its usual share of attention from the powers that be -- which proves that in our representative democracy, even political gamesmanship can be a force for good.

Rep. Jay Ramras led the way in organizing churches and other groups for food lifts to 11 villages earlier this year, then got into a spat with Gov. Sarah Palin over state transport and who was really trying to help. Then the governor and light gov went to Marshall and Russian Mission on Friday -- with evangelist Franklin Graham, son of Billy. Whether they're doing the Lord's work, the work of the Republican Party or the work of personal political ambition -- or some devilish blend of all of the above -- Alaska villagers stand to gain.

It's reminiscent of both the 2004 and 2008 U.S. Senate campaigns, when rivals Lisa Murkowski and Tony Knowles ('04) and Mark Begich and Ted Stevens ('08) strove to show who cared more for Alaska's veterans. You had to figure that no matter who won, the vets were going to do better.

Same here. Strapped villagers could use a break, and if it takes politics, video ops and a marquee man of the cloth to keep them on Railbelt Alaska's mental map, so be it.

-- Frank Gerjevic

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