Assembly to Discuss Legislative Priorities

Several programs in this year’s federal and state legislative priorities for the Mat-Su Borough Assembly could benefit Upper Susitna Valley communities.

Borough Manager Mike Brown says the Assembly will likely request $20 million in funding for the Talkeetna dike and revetment project. The Army Corps of Engineers completed an erosion study several years ago that provided one viable option to correct the issue, but it did not provide a concept plan or budget.

Without a firm plan or estimate, he says it’s difficult to know how much to request. Twenty million is the maximum allowed. And it’s unknown if the federal or state governments would fund it.

“Even if we were successful on the federal front, there would likely be a non-federal match.”

Also included in the priorities are additional Alaska State Trooper resources for the Mat-Su Borough. An additional Trooper post for the Upper Valley made it through several rounds of state budget discussions in the last legislative session, but ultimately failed to make it into the final budget. Brown says it may now be even more difficult to get additional Troopers because of a new provision in the budget.

“The legislature put intent language in the operating budget for the Department of Public Safety that really targeted Mat-Su, and I believe Kenai, and Fairbanks, around those second-class Boroughs taking on more of an active role with policing.” 

Brown says the State is communicating their intent to reduce Trooper presence and he assumes an intent to shift those resources to more rural areas of Alaska. Despite this, the Assembly will discuss a continued push for increased Trooper presence.

And beetle-killed spruce harvesting is another priority for the Assembly. Most of the land in the Mat-Su Borough, especially in the Upper Valley, is owned by the state and federal governments. Brown says wildfire is a big concern and adding this as a legislative priority makes it clear the Assembly wants to see continued resources for those lands.

“We want to continue to reinforce proactive measures, fire breaks, timber harvesting, so that it’s not something that we wait for the next large fire to make it a priority again.”

The Borough Assembly will introduce their state and federal legislative priorities on October 7 and will discuss them at their October 21 public meeting.