Peggy's Corner of the House

Welcome to this week of Peggy’s Corner of the House. We have entered our last week of the 90 day session so as you can imagine the pace has quickened in order to try to complete the states’ business in our allotted time. We will often work late into the night from now until the end.

For the past four years I have been advocating for an Alaska Transportation Infrastructure Fund (ATIF). In FY14 79% of our transportation budget will come from the federal government – this is down from 84% in FY10. We currently have a 20 billion dollar backlog of transportation projects. We also have over 700 million dollars in deferred maintenance. Even with federal help we, as a state, cannot keep up with our transportation needs. For these reasons, I believe that we need to create this fund. ATIF requires three separate pieces of legislation in order to be created and function. All three bills have passed Transportation and Judiciary Committees and are currently awaiting a hearing in Finance.

House Joint Resolution 10 will ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment to reinstate the dedicated fund for transportation infrastructure that was discontinued in 1963. It will also direct the revenue from all transportation-related fees into the fund. All of these fees/taxes were originally implemented to fund transportation infrastructure. Having a dedicated fund will allow the state more opportunity to take advantage of both cost and time savings on state funded projects.

The second piece of legislation, House Bill 122, will seed the fund with a 2 billion dollar endowment. The Alaska Transportation Infrastructure Fund is expected to generate approximately 103 Million dollars the first full year and will increase by 4 million dollars each year based on returns similar to our Alaska Permanent Fund.

The third piece of legislation House Bill 123 contains the enabling statutes that define how the fund will be administered. Each year an appropriation of the earnings will be available for transportation projects and deferred maintenance - both State and Municipal. The projects will be prioritized by a 2-step public process - the Alaska Transportation Panel & the Alaska Infrastructure Commission. It is my intent, in drafting this bill and establishing these panels, that this process will remove the politics from project selection.

This process will provide the state with the flexibility to plan and complete work on roads & ground transportation, state owned airports (of which there are over 250), the Alaska Marine Highway System, harbors & state owned marine facilities, community transportation & transit, and trails & bike paths. Alaska needs new transportation infrastructure development - to provide access to resources, reduce barriers for many communities to participate in a larger economy, and allow for safe and efficient transportation of our goods and people.

With today’s political climate, the loss of earmarks, and a new federal highway re-authorization bill, we have declining funds from the Federal government. Alaska has also come under scrutiny for the ratio of federal to state dollars that have been provided to the state. We need the security of our own transportation fund, which will allow us to get projects designed, permitted and constructed more quickly and cost effectively than we could with dwindling federal transportation dollars.

The Alaska Transportation Infrastructure Fund is about meeting the ever-growing transportation needs for Alaskans and is not intended to diminish our partnership with the federal government. The intention is to provide a dedicated revenue stream that will allow more projects to be completed faster and less expensively, in addition to the current capital and operational investments by the state.

Again, please don’t forget to make your voice known by using your local LIO offices for public testimony!