{"id":8690,"date":"2016-06-30T02:44:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T09:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/with-vetoes-walker-slashes-into-city-budget\/"},"modified":"2016-06-30T02:44:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T09:44:20","slug":"with-vetoes-walker-slashes-into-city-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/with-vetoes-walker-slashes-into-city-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"With vetoes, Walker slashes into city budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wielding his veto pen like a set of spurs, Gov. Bill Walker cut into the state\u2019s budget Wednesday to the tune of about $1.3 billion \u2014 an effort, he said, to force the Alaska Legislature to fill the state\u2019s $4 billion budget hole during its upcoming special session.<\/p>\n

If allowed to stand, Walker\u2019s vetoes will impact Juneau\u2019s economy to a tremendous extent, said city officials.<\/p>\n

In addition to halving the Permanent Fund Dividend checks, now expected to be around $1,000 this year, Walker cut more than $30 million from school debt reimbursement, a move that City manager Rorie Watt said would effectively leave Juneau on the hook for about $3 million more in it\u2019s Fiscal Year 2017 budget.<\/p>\n

[Gov. Walker limits oil checks to $1,000<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would basically be going back to our budget that we just passed \u2014 that becomes effective Friday \u2014 to determine whether we have to cut expenditures or try to raise revenue,\u201d Watt said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Though the vetoes don\u2019t spell \u201cfiscal Armageddon\u201d for the city like they might for the state, Watt said that they could force some \u201cpretty stern budget cutting exercises\u201d on the Juneau Assembly if the Legislature doesn\u2019t appease Walker by the end of the coming special session.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be a difficult time because that\u2019s a lot of money,\u201d Watt said. \u201cIt\u2019ll probably have a significant impact on at least a couple programs and on employment in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the $3 million in school debt reimbursement that the city will have to account for, Watt is worried that the reduction in PFD money might mean less revenue for the city in the form of sales tax. If Juneau has about 33,000 residents, and each resident is getting about $1,000 less than they did last fall, then the city\u2019s economy will be missing about $33 million come October.<\/p>\n

Chief among Assembly member Jesse Kiehl\u2019s worries, however, are the state job losses that impact the state capital more than any other city in Alaska, he said Wednesday. Kiehl also works as a legislative aide to Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau.<\/p>\n

The budget that the Legislature passed was down more than $600 million in unrestricted general fund money than the previous year, and that\u2019s where state employee salaries come from.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a huge number of state employees who got pink slips,\u201d Kiehl said. \u201cThe impact on Juneau will be disproportionate, and that\u2019s what\u2019s keeping me awake at night\u201d<\/p>\n

This, he worries, will lead to diminishing property tax returns for Juneau in the years to come, which, unlike sales tax revenue, cannot be bolstered by tourism.<\/p>\n

Kiehl and Watt both said they hope Walker\u2019s vetoes will prompt the Legislature to act come July 11, when the special session starts. Kiehl said he thinks it will, if for no reason other than the reduction of the PFD \u2014 a first in state history.<\/p>\n

[Legislature quits, Gov. Walker calls them back<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one veto in particular changes the political math,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s never been done before. We have a governor who has shown more political guts than I\u2019ve ever seen, so I think it changes the landscape and things may break loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wielding his veto pen like a set of spurs, Gov. Bill Walker cut into the state\u2019s budget Wednesday to the tune of about $1.3 billion \u2014 an effort, he said, to force the Alaska Legislature to fill the state\u2019s $4 billion budget hole during its upcoming special session. If allowed to stand, Walker\u2019s vetoes will […]<\/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":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-8690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8690","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=8690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8690"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}