To be expected, unfortunately--A just-released study by the Government Accountability Office concludes most workers, regardless of age, will receive lower retirement benefits when employers switch from traditional pension plans to cash-balance plans. After a huge debate, the governor and the legislative majority switched from traditional to cash-balance last session. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, this study is the most extensive independent study to compare the two retirement approaches based on IRS data.

Media cliché comes true--The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner recently proved the old news cliché that when a dog bites a man it's not news but if a man bites a dog it is news. They ran a story about a local fellow sentenced to 60 days in jail and a $250 fine for animal cruelty. The 39-year-old was arrested after putting his boxer mix in a headlock and biting off part of its ear at the Golden Heart Plaza.

Offered without comment--The Juneau Empire reported several weeks ago that 63 percent of the 13,754 metric tons of greenhouse gases emitted from within Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve annually come from cruise ships. Another 34 percent comes from other vessels.

We ain't the jet set--The governor's jet was delivered this week. It's probably unfair to call it the governor's jet. He says it also will fly prisoners. But the legislature has to take some 'ownership', too. While we didn't appropriate dollars for the jet, the legislative majority did vote down budget language that prohibited the use of any state dollars for a jet. On the Senate side, the Dems voted for the prohibition, joined only by Republican Senator Gene Therriault.

Phone: (907) 465-4947
Fax: (907) 465-2108
Mail: Sen. Elton, State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
Email:
Senator.Kim.Elton
Jesse.Kiehl
Paula.Cadiente
Web: http://elton.akdemocrats.org

     In his inimitable style, Congressman Don Young, powerful chair of the House Transportation Committee, said colleagues criticizing his earmark appropriations for two Alaska bridges could, in his words, "kiss my ear."
     I don't know if any did. But I'd suggest Alaskans get to know our state's federal transportation authorization a little bit better before we kiss his earmarks. Let's have coffee, maybe a dinner date, before we embrace and buss either his ear or his earmarks.
     We need to get to know all of what's going on before planting a wet one anywhere.
     The euphoria of our potential bridge romance is wearing off a little since Congress okayed the transportation bill. We've learned some things about the bridges that ought to prompt thought. And the thoughtful discussion here at home in Alaska must be more sophisticated than the rants and raves on network and cable television, in newspapers around the nation (most recently in Sunday's Parade Magazine and Tuesday's USAToday). This isn't just an issue, as they would have use believe, of Alaska bridges vs. New Orleans levees. Neither is it simply a pork vs. essential spending conundrum.
     There are other bridge consequences that need our local, regional and state attention. Even though money for Alaska transportation projects goes up 30 percent in next year's federal budget, scheduled transportation projects across the state are being delayed for years because of the earmarks. Because of the earmarked bridges there's less concrete and asphalt elsewhere around Alaska next year and in the following years.
     Anchorage road projects will lose more than half the anticipated transportation discretionary spending next year--dropping from an expected $42 million to $17 million. Fairbanks metro goes from $9.8 million to $4.5 million available for road projects next year. Here in Southeast, anticipated transportation spending next year was in the neighborhood of $60 million but that will probably be cut in half because of the earmarks.
     Juneau's $20.5 million Sunny Point intersection the legislative delegation fought so hard for last session is pushed back for at least a couple of years despite our success in getting the project in last session's capital budget. Riverside Drive improvements have fallen off the state's schedule despite the addition of a new high school adjacent to the road. Craig, Sitka, Ketchikan, Hyder and other SE projects also are delayed. In Anchorage, dollars for DeArmoun, Seward Highway and Huffman Road have either vaporized or been pushed into the future. Interior highway projects on the Steese, Parks, Dalton and Richardson have been pushed back.
     One state transportation official said Alaska's national highways (Egan Drive is the smallest of these highways) could get pavement rehab only once every 30 years and that's only if we don't add highway features like turn lanes. Again, that's largely because the earmarks are vacuuming up Alaska's discretionary transportation dollars. Congress prioritized the bridges by earmarking them and that not only ate up the 30 percent increase to Alaska's federal dollar allocation but cut deeply into existing discretionary transportation pots (it should be noted here the bridge earmarks don't even cover all the costs of building the bridges).
     I anticipated our region would lose some transportation dollars because of the earmarks. Rep. Kerttula and I spent an hour with DOTPF's SE Region director a couple weeks ago to ask him what would happen because of the earmarks and he semi-prepared us for the magnitude of the cuts. But it still was a shock last Tuesday when DOTPF released its new recipe for spending available federal dollars. The new DOTPF plan reflects the new reality for the flexible and inflexible (earmarked) federal dollars available to us. The new recipe is concrete evidence that there will be less concrete poured elsewhere because of the bridges and other congressional earmarks.
     I've been uncomfortable with the notion that the earmarked Gravina and Knik bridges are simply "bridges to nowhere." As a community, region and state we ought not let the national bumper-sticker rhetoric guide our internal Alaska debates about significant infrastructure development.
     But I'm also uncomfortable with efforts by some to limit debate within Alaska or our region because we don't want to be perceived as dissing our steadfast friends in Anchorage or Ketchikan or abandoning our congressman while he's being called much worse than profligate for his bridge earmarks.
     I simply hope, now that we know that the earmarks aren't free, we can talk about what to do in a rational way--a way that leads to appropriate choices for our transportation future.
     I think Alaskans can do that. And, if we become overly sensitive at times during the course of that discussion, we won't need to kiss an ear, or kiss an earmark. We can simply kiss and make up. Just like good family members kiss and make up after vigorous and difficult family debates.