{"id":25141,"date":"2016-01-10T09:03:06","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T17:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/mayor-berkowitz-turns-focus-to-port-of-anchorage-project\/"},"modified":"2016-01-10T09:03:06","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T17:03:06","slug":"mayor-berkowitz-turns-focus-to-port-of-anchorage-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/mayor-berkowitz-turns-focus-to-port-of-anchorage-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Berkowitz turns focus to Port of Anchorage project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ANCHORAGE \u2014 <\/strong>Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz is calling on the state Legislature to add $290 million for the city\u2019s unfinished Port of Anchorage modernization project to the statewide bond package.<\/p>\n<p>Berkowitz told a group of Anchorage legislators Thursday that he\u2019s making the port a top priority for the city, The Alaska Dispatch News reported. Total costs have been estimated at more than $500 million.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts to improve the aging port have been underway since 2003, but issues with funding and two lawsuits over the project\u2019s design, construction and management have stalled progress.<\/p>\n<p>Berkowitz and other city officials say the port is a major contributor to the state \u2014 about 85 percent of Alaskans are served by products that come through it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(The port) is inadequate given the needs the state has, and inadequate given that we\u2019re a resource development state,\u201d Berkowitz said.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, former Mayor Dan Sullivan\u2019s administration and the Anchorage Assembly made a $330 million request to the state for the port project, but those funds never materialized.<\/p>\n<p>Berkowitz is looking to align with the administration of Gov. Bill Walker on plans for a $500 million, two-year general obligation bond package to replace most of the state\u2019s capital budget paid from cash.<\/p>\n<p>With the state\u2019s current budget troubles, Walker\u2019s administration is seeking to borrow money from the bond market. Berkowitz said he is asking for the port project to be added to the bond package, which would be on the November ballot.<\/p>\n<p>Berkowitz said he has not talked to the governor about whether the port funding would be in addition the governor\u2019s bond package or included in it. But he said the state should not be \u201chamstrung\u201d by its money problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that as Alaska makes the case to the rest of the country that we\u2019re willing to invest in ourselves, it makes others want to invest in us,\u201d Berkowitz said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANCHORAGE \u2014 Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz is calling on the state Legislature to add $290 million for the city\u2019s unfinished Port of Anchorage modernization project to the statewide bond package. Berkowitz told a group of Anchorage legislators Thursday that he\u2019s making the port a top priority for the city, The Alaska Dispatch <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/\">News<\/a> reported. Total [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25141"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}