Anchorage Daily News
(Published: January 9, 2004)
A running fight between local and state officials over how much federal transportation money can be spent on trails, sidewalks and landscaping in Anchorage reared up again Thursday.
At issue is whether and how a new law written by state Sen. Ben Stevens, which limits the amount of federal transportation money spent on trails, applies to Anchorage.
Stevens, the Republican majority leader who represents part of South Anchorage, insists it does.
But Anchorage has its own federally sanctioned road and trails decision-making body, AMATS.
AMATS is a policy committee composed of two state officials and three local ones, including Mayor Mark Begich and two Anchorage Assembly members.
The Legislature has made several attempts to exert control over AMATS, including the bill approved this session and later signed into law: SB 71. It limits spending on trails and other enhancements, such as landscaping, to 10 percent of the transportation money.
The law takes effect next October and so wouldn't affect projects planned for 2004.
But Stevens showed up at the Dec. 19 AMATS meeting and confronted the committee members, saying he was disappointed that AMATS had ignored the bill in its spending plans for 2004 to 2006
Existing AMATS policy calls for 15 percent of federal transportation dollars to be used for enhancements.
AMATS' three-year plan calls for spending about 17 percent of federal transportation money on enhancements, using money from a special enhancement fund. Additionally, more money for trails, shrubs, trees and sidewalks is included as part of some projects, using separate road-building funds.
The city is uncertain whether the Legislature has the authority to tell Anchorage and AMATS how to allocate the city's federal transportation money. Begich said the city has its attorneys researching that question.
But before it has gotten an answer, the state Department of Transportation has already made a decision.
The department collects and distributes federal highway money for Alaska. Regional director Mike Scott said that when the state sent a letter transmitting Anchorage's three-year road project program to the Federal Highway Administration in late December, it included an additional statement: that the 2005 and 2006 plans have too much trail money and will have to be changed to comply with Stevens' bill.
That provision was added without AMATS approval or discussion with the city's representatives. During Thursday's AMATS meeting, Begich and Scott exchanged heated words about it.
"What is the purpose of the policy committee?" Begich asked. "I'm not sure why I came to the meeting today."
Anchorage Assemblyman Doug Van Etten, also an AMATS member, joined in.
"You have just told us that, outside of this room, a decision was made that completely overrides the decision of this body," he told Scott.
But Scott said it is the governor and the state transportation commissioner's responsibility to ensure that the AMATS plan meets state law, in this case by following Stevens' bill.
Longtime AMATS coordinator Lance Wilber, who is now city transportation director, said in an interview that in the 10 years he's been involved with AMATS the state has never unilaterally changed an Anchorage transportation plan. It can either reject or accept but not revise Anchorage's AMATS plan, he said.
The trail funding discussion came up Thursday because Stevens had told AMATS last month that he wanted an accounting of how much money has been spent on trails and landscaping in existing Anchorage projects.
Stevens said Thursday that every road project should spend no more and no less than 10 percent on enhancements.
"There's a concern all across the city that road projects don't have pedestrian facilities," he said. In one case in his district, he said, a piece of Raspberry Road in front of a school did not have a trail, and he had to get a special appropriation for one.
But Stevens made a distinction between types of trails. He said he thinks AMATS should focus on enhancements that accompany roads and spend on recreational trails only after that because money is too tight.
Daily News reporter Rosemary Shinohara can be reached at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.
For more on AMATS: www.ci.anchorage.ak.us/transplan/amats.cfm
The Anchorage Daily News - Get the whole story every day - Sign up for home delivery!