House Finance Restores $1.5 Million in Funding for Public Broadcasting

On Tuesday, the Alaska House Finance Committee voted to restore most of the funding for public broadcasting that had previously been stripped out by a budget subcommittee.  KTNA’s Phillip Manning has more:

In a ten-to-one vote, the House Finance Committee voted to restore $1.5 million to public broadcasting across the state.  The vast majority of those funds, more than $1.3 million, are directed toward public radio.

The sole objection in the committee was made by Representative Tammie Wilson of North Pole.  She says she believes public broadcasting is beneficial, but that tough budget times dictate heavy cuts in some areas.

“I understand.  I heard a lot of the testimony on this, but it is public radio, and I think at some point we just don’t have the money.  You know, we’re billions of dollars in deficit, and we just can’t make every program keep going.  Some of it has to go back to the community…”

Representative David Guttenberg of Fairbanks said during Tuesday’s hearing that communities throughout the state already do give a great deal to public broadcasting.

“The communities weigh in with their dollars.  The percentage of people who donate to public broadcasting make our little campaign donation coffers pale.  They support this;  this is something that they believe in, and for years, and years, and years, they empty their pockets to support public broadcasting.”

Representative Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham says that public testimony helped emphasize the importance of Alaska’s public broadcasting to the legislators.

“I can appreciate the need to cut the budget.  I think that’s what we’re largely doing here today, cutting a lot of items out of the operating budget, but I would counter with the importance of public broadcasting–public radio and public TV.  We heard that from virtually every corner of the state.”

The reinstating of public broadcasting funds was one of eighty-one amendments heard on Tuesday.  Next, the budget will go the the House floor, then to the Senate Finance Committee, which could make additional changes.  If the current funding levels hold, it represents a cut to public radio of more than 23% from last year.  The subcommittee’s recommended cut would have been 59%.