Governor Bill Walker made a visit to the Anchorage Assembly during it’s Tuesday meeting. He said he’d stopped by en route to his evening flight back to Juneau, and used the opportunity to update the local body the status of the state’s budget battle in the Legislature.
“The message is: we need a compromise. I need to compromise,” Walker said during about ten minutes of remarks. “Not everyone’s going to get everything they want when they want it.”
Walker said that spite of the current gridlock over competing proposals from the state House and Senate, he’s optimistic a economic plan will come through this session. The governor made the rounds in Anchorage for two days this week, recapping cuts to state programs and facilities, and stressing the need for a fiscal solution that balances cuts with a Permanent Fund restructure and broad-based taxes. Part of that messaging has been trying to convince community groups and local governments they have a stake in the Legislature’s fight.
“Because all deficits roll down hill, as you painfully know,” Walker said, adding that he sees state budget cuts as placing new financial burdens on municipalities and boroughs. “That doesn’t solve the fiscal situation, it just shifts it onto a smaller group of people.”
The Assembly’s reception to Walker was generally supportive, though somewhat cool. Assembly member Tim Steele stressed the damage to long-term state infrastructure and education from the last two budget cycles, adding that he thinks a fiscal plan cannot wait until the next session.
Assembly Chairman Dick Traini told the governor the body wants to see a statewide general obligation bond brought to voters to pay for improvements to Port of Anchorage, which serves residents far beyond the municipality.
A dissenting perspective came from conservative assembly member Amy Demboski, who criticized the governor’s figures on budget and service cuts. Demboski told Walker she rejects his premise that new revenues are necessary.
“I don’t agree with you, and many of our constituents that we both represent don’t agree that there has to be a broad-based tax,” Demobski said during a questioning period. “Some will tell you that in fact we have a revenue problem… I hear others say we have a spending problem. Governor Walker, I think we have a leadership problem.”
The governor offered brief responses to questions and comments posed, then departed before the start of the regular meeting.
Elsewhere in the evening, the body addressed minor zoning issues and the approval of four new commercial cannabis licenses.
Zachariah Hughes reports on city & state politics, arts & culture, drugs, and military affairs in Anchorage and South Central Alaska.
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