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City's roads a take hit Earmarks: $42 million for 2005 shrinks to $17 million next year. By Rosemary Shinoharra Anchorage Daily News (Published: October 14, 2005) Federal transportation money for Anchorage road projects has been cut by more than half, because much of the money was set aside for bridges and other congressionally favored projects, the state Department of Transportation said Thursday. Anchorage got nearly $42 million in 2005, and about that much in prior years, money it has used for road jobs all over town. It will get $17 million this year. Those amounts include 10 percent in state or local matching funds. The trend of lower federal funding is expected to continue at least through 2009 because the transportation bill approved by Congress in July was a multi-year law. The bill included about $1 billion over five years in special projects identified by Alaska's congressional delegation. These are known as "earmarks." The biggest are $229 million for a proposed bridge across Knik Arm and nearly as much for a bridge to link Ketchikan to Gravina Island in Southeast. Sixty percent of the earmarked projects came off the top of what would have been Alaska's total allotment for road-building, the state says. The other earmarks were added to Alaska's usual transportation money. The state announced the fiscal 2006 funding level for Anchorage in time for a meeting Thursday of AMATS, a committee of state and local officials that makes many of the transportation spending decisions for the city. Mayor Mark Begich, a committee member, termed the announcement "unacceptable" and said he wants to meet with the state transportation commissioner. Begich said he's always understood that Anchorage's other road funding would not be affected by the Knik Arm bridge. "Now we find the largest project is sucking right out of the internal projects of the city," he said. Regional state transportation director Gordon Keith, also an AMATS member, said not all of the Knik Arm money was deducted from Anchorage's road money, but he agreed with Begich that the proposed bridge did contribute to the reduced funding for local projects. "This reflects my position on the Knik Arm crossing -- that it's good for the state and good for Anchorage," Keith said. The state is anticipating surplus revenues because of high oil prices and could make up for some of the federal money that was lost, Keith suggested. That would be up to the Legislature. U.S. Rep. Don Young of Alaska shaped the bill as House Transportation Committee chairman. His spokesman, Steve Hansen, said the reduction from $40-some million to $17 million in local project funds for Anchorage seems like an unnecessarily large drop. "That sounds like a very extreme case that does not have to be the end result by any means," Hansen said. A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Thursday night that the senator's office hadn't heard about the drop in AMATS funding. U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' spokeswoman could not be reached. Federal money for the National Highway System, which covers roads such as the Parks and Seward highways, have also been drastically cut, Keith said. Those funds go directly to the state and are not part of AMATS spending. In a letter, state Transportation Commissioner Mike Barton also told AMATS leaders that beginning a year from now, the state expects to zero out federal money specifically set aside for congestion relief and air-quality improvements in Anchorage. That has amounted to about $3.5 million a year and goes for public transit, block heaters, traffic congestion relief, and other projects. Anchorage now meets federal air-quality standards, and the money that had been spent here is expected to be needed in Western Alaska villages, Barton said. AMATS could divvy up its general transportation money so that some goes to the air quality and congestion relief projects, though. In addition to earmarks, a decision by Congress to allocate more transportation money to repair the nation's bridges cut into the money available for local allocation, state officials said. And because federal gasoline tax receipts are down, only about 85 percent of the money Congress authorized for transportation spending in fiscal 2006 will actually be available, Barton said. AMATS is expected to cull its project lists in coming weeks and also ask legislators what roads the state would be willing to pay for. Daily News reporter Rosemary Shinohara can be reached at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.

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