{"id":4681,"date":"2018-06-13T21:32:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T04:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/walker-keeps-funding-for-juneau-access-but-nixes-money-for-anchorage-bridge\/"},"modified":"2018-06-13T21:32:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T04:32:00","slug":"walker-keeps-funding-for-juneau-access-but-nixes-money-for-anchorage-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/walker-keeps-funding-for-juneau-access-but-nixes-money-for-anchorage-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker keeps funding for Juneau Access but nixes money for Anchorage bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Walker declined to veto additional money for the Juneau Access <\/a>Project<\/a>, but he did nix funding for another Alaska road-building project before signing the state&rsquo;s new operating budget Wednesday in Anchorage. <\/p>\n

Walker vetoed $2.5 million for the Knik Arm Crossing, a proposed bridge between Anchorage and points northward. Opponents of the project have estimated its cost at $2.5 billion; proponents have estimated it at under $1 billion. In either case, the bulk of the cost would be paid by the federal government.<\/p>\n

[Analysis: Alaska Gov. Bill Walker signs deficit-slashing budget, but ‘shadow deficit&rsquo; remains<\/a><\/em>]<\/p>\n

The project was considered dead when Walker redirected funding for it (and several other major Alaska construction efforts) after oil prices fell. Sen. David Wilson, R-Wasilla, proposed an amendment that would restore some state money to the project to keep it alive. That idea was scaled back to the $2.5 million amount that passed the Legislature, but Walker decided against approving it.<\/p>\n

Walker did allow a transfer of about $21 million to the Juneau Access Project, which aims to build a road north from Juneau. While a Walker spokesperson said earlier this year that the governor is still opposed to construction of the road<\/a>, he declined to stop the Legislature from funding it with more money.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers last year sent money away from the project after Walker decided against construction. Money was sent from the road to other transportation projects in Lynn Canal and a school in the Arctic. The transfer to other Lynn Canal projects was reversed in this year&rsquo;s budget.<\/p>\n

Alaska&rsquo;s constitution allows the governor to use a line-item veto in budget bills.<\/p>\n

Walker also vetoed $500,000 for a study on the effects of Vitamin D on the health of children and mothers. That proposal was pushed through the Legislature by Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer. Seaton is running for re-election as an independent after the Alaska Republican Party withdrew all support for him.<\/p>\n

The governor removed a section of the budget that would have redirected money from a street-lighting project in Anchorage to other projects. The street-lighting project is not complete, and the money is still needed.<\/p>\n

The governor&rsquo;s final veto was against contingency language that would have allowed the state to spend more money from the Alaska Permanent Fund than permitted under a separate bill passed by the Legislature.<\/p>\n

Pat Pitney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, suggested Wednesday that allowing additional spending would have endangered the sustainability of the fund.<\/p>\n

\n

• Contact reporter James Brooks at jbrooks@juneauempire.com or 523-2258.<\/b><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Walker declined to veto additional money for the Juneau Access Project, but he did nix funding for another Alaska road-building project before signing the state&rsquo;s new operating budget Wednesday in Anchorage. Walker vetoed $2.5 million for the Knik Arm Crossing, a proposed bridge between Anchorage and points northward. Opponents of the project have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"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":[34,95,137],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-alaska-state-budget","tag-gov-bill-walker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4681","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\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4681\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4681"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}