{"id":594,"date":"2010-04-13T14:30:59","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T22:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/?p=594"},"modified":"2010-11-17T16:38:32","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T01:38:32","slug":"senate-passes-capital-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/?p=594","title":{"rendered":"Senate Passes Capital Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Senate passed its version of the FY2011 Capital Budget<\/a><\/span> today.\u00a0 The budget funds important infrastructure projects to keep Alaska\u2019s economy moving.\u00a0 As Co-Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, I was responsible for drafting the budget and presenting it to the Senate.\u00a0 The Capital Budget appropriates money for one-time expenditures such as road and school construction; and public works infrastructure.\u00a0 It is one of the most important policy documents the legislature considers, and along with the Operating Budget<\/a><\/span>, is the only bill the legislature is required to pass during session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This session I\u2019ve worked actively with colleagues to balance savings and ensure our state\u2019s infrastructure needs are addressed.\u00a0 Our challenge was to use surplus revenue to advance important statewide projects, while stocking-away funds in the Constitutional Budget Reserve as savings for future years.\u00a0 The budget totals $2.77 billion including $1 billion in federal funds and $400 million in general obligation bonds for education and research facility construction.\u00a0 The budget amount is within the recent average of state Capital spending, and addresses remaining needs from last year\u2019s lean budget.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Budget includes several items that will benefits Southeast Alaska.\u00a0 From deferred maintenance to new facilities, this funding will put Alaskans to work and improve the quality of life in our region.\u00a0 Highlights include\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2022$83 million for statewide docks & harbors improvements
\n\u2022$60 million towards constructing the Alaska Class Ferry
\n\u2022$39 million for Southeast Alaska Hydro-Electric Construction
\n\u2022$23 million in port and tourism infrastructure
\n\u2022$19 million to begin the Public Library Construction Grant Program
\n\u2022$5 million for upgrades to state-owned hatchery facilities<\/p>\n

On top of these projects, this budget will still provide for an estimated $325 million surplus during the next fiscal year.\u00a0 I\u2019m confident that we\u2019ve addressed the most critical priorities around the state, and look forward to working with my counterparts in the house to move the budget through the legislature this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate passed its version of the FY2011 Capital Budget today.<\/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":[11,7,22,16,14,28,27],"class_list":["post-594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska-marine-highway","tag-bert-stedman","tag-budget","tag-finance-committee","tag-fisheries","tag-harbors","tag-infrastructure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594","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=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":599,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bertstedman.com\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}