Juneau Daily News Online

Friday,  May 10, 2002

Fast ferry funding deleted from budget
Twenty million dollars earmarked for construction of a fast ferry has been stripped out of the Senate's version of the state's one-point-two billion dollar capital budget.

Wrangle Senator Robin Taylor sponsored the amendment deleting funding for the vessel for Prince William Sound. He said the money is for "an experimental ferry" that will not work, in an area that is already serviced. Taylor's amendment was approved on a 11 to 9 vote.

State transportation officials say Taylor's amendment will end up costing the state more than ten million dollars in federal funds that have already been spent on the project.

Taylor alleged that the bidding process for the ferry was flawed and called the plan a boondoggle. He says the state could buy ferries from British Columbia for a cheaper price.

SB 247 was scheduled for final action in the Senate today. The bill about 890 million dollars in federal money pooled with another 109 million dollars from the state's general fund. Another 200 million would come from other sources such as receipts.

Income tax bill moved from Senate committee
They didn't like it, but members of a Senate panel moved an income tax plan along to the next committee.

The State Affairs Committee held a hearing yesterday on House Bill 303, the income tax measure approved by the House last week.

Members were concerned that the tax plan is designed to put the highest rate on middle income earners. Eagle River Senator Randy Phillips said the income tax was the plan he despised the most. He suggested that the revenue should be taken from Permanent Fund Dividends, which he says would effect everyone equally.

Committee Chair Gene Therriault added that if the tax passed some how, he was sure it would be quickly repealed by voter referendum.

The tax bill goes to Senate Finance next where there is strong opposition to any broad based tax.

National group opposes proposals to increase taxes in Alaska
The national organization, Americans for Tax Reform, is weighing in on the proposal in the Alaska Legislature to increase the alcohol tax.

It says it strongly opposes that effort and claims tax increases will not solve current budget problems. It endorses spending cuts instead.

A-T-R President Grover Norquist is strongly urging Alaska lawmakers to oppose all tax increases. He says raising taxes is an impulsive, thoughtless way of hiking revenue to cover for wild increases in spending. He added that tax increases on specified products act as a band aid short term solution.

Fate of regulatory agency is spurring legislative show down
A fight is brewing in the Legislature over extending the life of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. The dispute centers on decisions the commission has made regarding the state's largest phone company, Alaska Communications Systems. The commission oversees telephone companies and public utilities.

Governor Knowles is threatening a special session if the Senate does not vote on the matter.

Decision on rural law enforcement lawsuit said to be near
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason says she hopes to rule ``in the near term'' on a lawsuit claiming that state-funded law enforcement is unconstitutionally inferior in rural areas. Gleason began deliberations yesterday after two hours of closing arguments.

The suit says law enforcement in mainly Native off-road Alaska villages is inferior to services available to similar-sized non-Native towns on the road system.

Native American Rights Fund attorney Lawrence Aschenbrenner says crime victims in off-road villages must wait hours, days and sometimes weeks for Alaska State Troopers to respond to calls. And he says village public safety officers or village police officers are unarmed and ill-prepared to deal with life-and-death threats.

Assistant attorney general Jim Baldwin says law enforcement protection offered to rural villages by state troopers posted in regional hubs and augmented by V-P-S-Os is an efficient service run on a limited budget.

He says distance, population density, lack of roads and lack of lighted runways in some villages make policing in rural Alaska different than in urban Alaska or in other parts of America.

Midget makes stop in Juneau before beginning patrol
The Seattle based Coast Guard Cutter Midget with a crew of 155 arrived in Juneau late this morning. An open house is planned from 1 to 4 Saturday afternoon.

A Coast Guard official says the Seattle based, 378 foot, high endurance cutter leaves Monday for a patrol in the Bering Sea.

Purse snatching puts woman in hospital
A vicious purse snatching sent a 42-year-old Anchorage woman to the hospital early Thursday afternoon. Two adults and six juveniles who police say needed gas money as they drove around have been charged in the attack outside a department store.

Kids picking up trash around Juneau today
The annual Community Clean Up Day sponsored by Litter Free is tomorrow, but school kids started today.

About 21 hundred kids are picking up trash, according to Litter Free President John Logan.

Bag sites will be open tomorrow from nine until Noon. There are seven sites this year. They're at the Foodland Center parking lot, Superbear, the UAS Student Center, Duck Creek Market, Fred Meyer, Western Auto and at the Douglas Fire Station.

MS Walk staged in Juneau tomorrow
The ACS Multiple Sclerosis Spring Walk is tomorrow. Registration is at nine with the walk beginning at ten. One of the organizers, Peggy Ann McConnochie, says the route starts and ends at the Brotherhood Bridge parking lot and is between three and a half and four miles.

Donations are encouraged and she says every little bit helps. She those who donate $75 will receive a custom designed T-shirt.

                                                          ©  Alaska Juneau Communications - KINY Radio News)