By CATHY BROWN
The Associated Press
(Published: March 18, 2003)
JUNEAU -- A bill requiring state transportation officials to spend more on roads and less on trails, waysides and other "enhancements" passed in the Alaska Senate on Monday.
Sen. Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage, said over the past several years, the state spent far more than the federal government requires for such projects.
"This makes more funds available for the roads that we need to develop economic opportunities," Stevens said. The bill continues to provide adequate funding for trails, he said.
Senate Bill 71 lowers the share of federal highway dollars spent on the program, called Trails and Recreational Access for Alaska, or TRAAK, from the current 8 percent level to no more than 4 percent.
Sen. Georgianna Lincoln,
D-Rampart, said she fears the bill takes decisions away from communities and could hurt a program that has built trails, pedestrian bridges, waysides and other projects. Those projects help the economy by making communities attractive places to live and visit, she said.
"We have a tremendous amount of good that has been done by TRAAK under the present formula," Lincoln said.
In the current fiscal year, 8 percent amounted to about $27 million, while 4 percent would have been about $13.7 million, said Jeff Ottesen, state planning chief for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Even under the bill, the state would still spend more on TRAAK enhancements than federal rules require, Ottesen said. In 2003, federal rules required Alaska to spend just $7.2 million a year on such projects.
The state has a $3.1 billion backlog of road projects in that category, compared with a $330 million backlog of TRAAK-funded projects, Stevens said. "It's a 10-to-1 ratio," he said.
The bill would also limit municipalities to spending no more than 10 percent of their federal transportation funds on enhancement projects. It's not clear whether that would affect Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Ottesen said those communities are large enough to qualify under federal law as metropolitan planning organizations that receive their own chunk of transportation dollars. Federal law lets them spend the money without state oversight, Ottesen said.
Stevens said he believes it would be up to a court to decide whether the state could tell those communities how to spend the money.
But Stevens added that because Anchorage's overall level of funding is increasing, his bill would not lower the amount available there for trails anyway. It would remain about $5.7 million, Stevens said.
Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, said he believes the measure would prevent a proposed extension of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in Anchorage, but Stevens said the bill is not targeted at that trail.
Stevens contends the TRAAK program has been misused to pay for road, not trail, projects that would not have been funded if they had to compete with other road projects.
The bill passed in the Senate 11-7. The vote fell along party lines, with Democrats voting against it. Sens. Bettye Davis, D-Anchorage, and Scott Ogan, R-Palmer, were absent.
Lincoln invoked a Senate rule that would allow her to reconsider her vote, stalling final passage of the bill. If the outcome doesn't change when the Senate meets today, the bill will move to the House.
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