Why NAACP Anchorage opposes Gov. Dunleavy’s vetoes

If the Legislature doesn’t override Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s drastic budget cuts, Alaska will likely be sent back into recession. Dunleavy’s cuts will put seniors out on the streets, eliminate jobs in public safety, health care, construction, education, child care and many other industries. These cuts are not just cruel, they would be economically devastating.

The governor’s indefensible cut of $20.9 million to zero out the Senior Benefits Program is unconscionable, especially considering he spends more on his own office ($29 million). Does the governor realize he is eliminating funds seniors rely on for food, shelter and life-saving prescription medication?

Gov. Dunleavy would eliminate more than a third of the University of Alaska’s state funding, potentially shutting down at least one of its main campuses. This would mean sending our young people, new industry and Arctic research out of the state. Ninety-one percent of the university’s students are in-state and UA provides them with a high-quality education, especially those who cannot afford expensive out-of-state institutions. We must invest in UA in an effort to retain the brightest Alaskans, support our health care and natural resource industries, and foster partnerships of research and analysis in the state.

Because of Medicaid expansion, tens of thousands of Alaskans have received health care. Since 2015, state spending on Medicaid has decreased from $724 million to $677 million. The governor wants to decrease spending by another 8.6% ($58 million), but at what cost? The federal government covers 90% of the cost of Medicaid expansion in Alaska. With cuts like $8 million to preventative dental care, we’re literally costing the state of Alaska money -- $18.7 million in federal dollars, to be exact. A veto to this extent threatens the health and safety of all Alaskans. Cutting adult preventative dental services guarantees larger costs down the line.

There are more than 120,000 children in our public schools, from more than 80,000 families.

For every billion dollars we drain from the Permanent Fund, we earn about $70 million (inflation adjusted) less next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. This will directly reduce the Permanent Fund’s earnings for our children, and put Alaska in a fiscal death spiral.

Catholic Social Services estimates that budget vetoes to homeless shelters and social services will force an immediate rise of 48% in homelessness in one year. This is entirely preventable and is based purely on shelters’ inability to keep beds open-and then being forced to choose who to take in, and whom to turn away. The Brother Francis Shelter has said their capacity will be halved, going from 240 beds to 100, overnight. Over the past two years, more than 5,000 Alaskans received homeless prevention services, resulting in only 3.18% returning to homelessness. That’s a success rate of almost 97%. These cuts will singlehandedly revoke any progress the City of Anchorage has been making in camp abatement and keeping our parks safe and clean.

House Speaker Bryce Edgmon declared the governor’s vetoes an “imminent threat” to the state of Alaska. Indeed, these cuts needlessly inflict pain and suffering on seniors, kids, and the 200,000 Alaskans who rely on Medicaid health insurance. All of this is because of an impossible-to-fulfill campaign promise Gov. Dunleavy made about PFDs.

The Legislature must act to override these cuts and pass a capital budget. Alaskans’ jobs, and even many of our neighbors’ lives, hang in the balance.

Kevin McGee is president of the Anchorage NAACP and is a Vietnam veteran.

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