State department operating budgets before the House Finance Committee this week for the fiscal year that starts July 1 include funding to restore the commercial fisheries position in Wrangell and also the Office of Children's Services caseworker job.
The Legislature tried last year to fund both positions, but the money was vetoed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Wrangell lost its children's services worker several years ago to budget cuts. The Department of Fish and Game position was eliminated a year ago in the governor's budget.
Neither position was included in Dunleavy's proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
The House Finance subcommittee for the Fish and Game budget has proposed moving money from the Wildlife Conservation Division to the Commercial Fisheries Division to restore the Wrangell position for Fiscal Year 2022. Ketchikan Rep. Dan Ortiz, who represents Wrangell, is on the subcommittee, along with House majority caucus representatives from coastal communities of Sitka, Juneau, Kodiak and Dillingham.
The subcommittee for the Health and Social Services budget has proposed adding a mix of state and federal funding to the department budget to cover a full-time, front-line social worker for Wrangell.
The subcommittee rejected the governor's proposal to continue the reduction in children's services and juvenile justice staff in rural communities. "The subcommittee took the position that delivery of those services electronically or through workers based in urban Alaska will be detrimental to the department mission,"the subcommittee said in reporting its work to the full Finance Committee.
House budget subcommittees have completed their work on department budgets and the full House Finance Committee is scheduled to take public testimony Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week, with Wrangell and other Southeast communities slotted to testify 2 to 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
People who want to testify can call in toll-free at 844-586-9085. For more information, call the Wrangell Legislative Information Office at 874-3013.
From the Finance Committee, the state operating budget will move to the Senate, and then a House-Senate conference committee that would resolve any differences between the two chambers before sending the budget to the governor for his consideration and approval or veto.
When Dunleavy vetoed the Fish and Game funding last year, his spokesman issued a prepared statement: "The Alaska Department of Fish and Game determined that the fisheries managed out of the Wrangell office could also be managed out of its larger Petersburg office with no adverse impact on the fisheries."
Community members criticized the loss of the commercial fisheries worker in Wrangell, and have long complained about inadequate help for youth and families without a children's services caseworker in town.
The city offered to help cover the cost of reopening the children's service office in Wrangell in last year's state budget, but the Dunleavy administration turned down the offer.
Debbe Lancaster, Wrangell schools superintendent, testified last year before the House Finance Committee in support of restoring the office. She told lawmakers that a local caseworker would be more effective at helping families.
"Whereas we have great individual resources for supporting our students and our families, we need the full-time presence"of a children's services caseworker, she said a year ago.
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