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Here's how the governor's proposed budget could impact the Y-K Delta

Napakiak and the eroding Kuskokwim shoreline on September 16, 2021.
Gabby Hiestand Salgado
/
KYUK
Among the governor's proposed allocations is $54.9 million in funding for a new school in Napakiak.

Last week ,Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced his proposed budget for the 2023 fiscal year. In addition to his proposal of an approximately $2,560 permanent fund dividend, in the budget are some allocations for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

The school in Napakiak could soon fall into the Kuskokwim if the shoreline continues to erode. KYUK’s coverage of the issue has received national attention. Now, the governor has proposed $54.9 million in funding for a new school for the village.

The governor has also proposed $72.3 million to fund rural water infrastructure projects. That falls far short of the $1.2 billion that the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium projects that rural villages need to fund their water projects. ANTHC says that half of the Y-K Delta villages are either unserved or underserved when it comes to water infrastructure.

Dunleavy said that his administration is working with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) to identify which villages will be allotted funding. During a press conference, he said that more funding could become available.

“We're working through ADEC. And we're also anticipating, as we get clarification on the infrastructure bill, that there should be some resources as well for sewer and water in Western Alaska,” said Dunleavy.

The governor has also proposed full funding for the Power Cost Equalization (PCE) program from its endowment. The future of the endowment, and the PCE program, faced uncertainty last year when the governor tried to sweep the funds out of the interest-bearing account. Dunleavy had wanted to fund the PCE out of the operating budget, where it could be up for debate each legislative session. A superior court judge ultimately ruled that was unconstitutional, and this year Dunleavy has conceded and budgeted it from the endowment fund. The PCE program seeks to subsidize power costs for rural Alaskans so that the costs of their power bill are on par with their urban counterparts. Without the program, rural Alaskans could be paying up to five times more than urban dwellers.

The governor’s press conference also focused heavily on detailing new resources for Alaska State Troopers in Western Alaska. The troopers came under fire last week for a lack of transparency in rural Alaska after reporter Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News took to Twitter to write about the discrepancies he found between crimes posted on Courtview and a lack of accompanying public trooper dispatches. He found that troopers often never posted online dispatches for crimes, even serious ones.

A spokesperson for the governor’s office said that the governor had addressed the lack of trooper dispatches in the budget by adding “support positions” in rural areas. However, the overall budget for personnel in the trooper department is less than last year. The spokesperson said that’s because the budget doesn’t account for unfilled positions. He said that if people get hired for those positions, there’s room in the budget to fund them later.

The commissioner of the Alaska State Troopers, James Cockrell, detailed a couple of the new local positions.

“To increase our investigative capabilities, this budget has a crime scene technician for Bethel, where we have staggering rates of interpersonal violence. For the first time ever, we will add a Deputy Fire Marshal in Bethel to hopefully reduce the number of fatal fires in that region,” said Cockrell.

And despite requests by the Native Village of Napaimute to do so, there’s no specific funding in the proposal for maintenance of the Kuskokwim Ice Road.

This budget proposal will now go to the legislature, whose session begins in about a month. Both chambers are likely to propose changes to the budget. All parties must agree on a version of this budget before the state can adopt it.

Olivia was a News Reporter for KYUK from 2020-2022.
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