{"id":4822,"date":"2020-01-16T13:04:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T22:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/?p=4822"},"modified":"2020-01-16T13:04:06","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T22:04:06","slug":"legislature-not-to-blame-for-marine-highway-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/?p=4822","title":{"rendered":"Legislature Not to Blame for Marine Highway Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>JUNEAU \u2013 Senator Bert Stedman, R-Southeast Islands,\ntoday expressed disappointment with comments made by Department of\nTransportation (DOT) officials casting blame on the Legislature for the Alaska\nMarine Highway System\u2019s (AMHS) current fiscal challenges during this week\u2019s\nMarine Transportation Advisory Board (MTAB)\nmeeting.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was disappointing to hear Department of Transportation officials try to pass the blame for the Alaska Marine Highway System\u2019s current woes onto the Legislature,\u201d said Sen. Stedman. \u201cThe administration\u2019s proposed budget for the current fiscal year would have stopped all service on September 30, 2019. This was an elimination budget that would have led to the system\u2019s demise.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Stedman asked DOT to provide scenarios to keep\nthe marine highway in operation. Those scenarios varied on the amount of state\nfunding and provided different levels of service. As the legislative session\nprogressed, those scenarios were refined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His office held many meetings with DOT leadership and\nOffice of Management and Budget (OMB) officials, in addition to several public\nhearings held at the subcommittee level and in the full finance committee. Sen.\nStedman also met with fellow legislators, marine highway employees, and\nconcerned Alaskans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Stedman negotiated directly with administration\nofficials with three things in mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The importance of the AMHS to Coastal Alaskans \u2013 their livelihoods, their businesses, their economies, their way-of-life;<\/li><li>The administration\u2019s proposed budget and the veto power; and that<\/li><li>Some service is better than no service \u2013 that is, keep the system operating at some level for the full fiscal year.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Stedman was told on-the-record that the\nadditional $45 million in unrestricted general funds he negotiated would\nprovide 289 weeks of service compared to the 85 weeks of service in the\nadministration\u2019s proposal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The administration\u2019s proposed capital budget used:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>$47.3 million of vessel replacement funds for non AMHS use;<\/li><li>$15.1 million of AMHS System Fund to repay the federal government if ferries or terminals were sold off; and<\/li><li>$14.5 million of AHMS System Fund for other state uses and non-AMHS purposes.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Stedman made sure these were reversed and\nremained in the Vessel Replacement Fund and the marine highway System Fund. The\nLegislature added an extra $17.9 million in state funds to the budget for\nannual overhauls and vessel repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the capital budget, the Legislature reversed the\nuse of $77 million of marine highway funds for other state purposes and added\n$17.9 million to the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information, contact Senate Majority Communications Director <a href=\"mailto:daniel.mcdonald@akleg.gov\">Daniel McDonald<\/a> at (907) 465-4066.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><em>###<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JUNEAU \u2013 Senator Bert Stedman, R-Southeast Islands, today expressed disappointment with comments made by Department of Transportation (DOT) officials casting blame on the Legislature for the Alaska Marine Highway System\u2019s (AMHS) current fiscal challenges during this week\u2019s Marine Transportation Advisory Board (MTAB) meeting.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; \u201cIt was disappointing to hear Department of Transportation officials try to pass [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4822"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4826,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4822\/revisions\/4826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}