Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Tuesday that he will include funding for the replacement of an outdated public ferry system in the budget proposal for the coming year.
The remarks were made after the senator. Lisa Murkowski urged her coworkers as a Republican to put aside $33 million of budget funds to fund a larger federal grant to fund an alternative vessel for the ferry that is 59 years old Tustumena.
In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, Murkowski said that in recent interview in an anchorage newspaper, in a recent interview Anchorage Daily News, Murkowski stated that the ferry service of Alaska has been allowed to enter an “death spiral” due to the lack of funds for maintenance and service. In recent times ferry service has faced failures, cut back ports visits and had to find crew members. Murkowski demanded that the governor to allocate the state’s funds to replace the vessel in the December. five letter addressed to Dunleavy.
At a news conference prior to his annual open house for the holidays on Juneau Dunleavy was pushed to the side.
“We don’t believe it’s going into a death spiral. Actually over the past few years, we’ve poured an enormous amount of funds into it. We’ve restructured the system. We believe that it’s on a path to becoming a great infrastructure for transportation in Alaska,” Dunleavy told reporters. “So I don’t believe in”the death spiral. We’re in the process of determining matching funding. … It’s a good idea we’ll add it to our spending plan.”
The money will unlock $92 million of federal funds in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also known as the infrastructure bill that is bipartisan. This successor to Tustumena Tustumena is scheduled to operate in Southcentral as well as Western Alaska as the state ferry system’s first hybrid diesel-electric vessel..
Murkowski wrote she wrote to Dunleavy that federal officials had previously announced $416million of federal infrastructure funds to the Alaska Marine Highway System this year only. Murkowski added that she is expecting the legislation to add another $600 million to the ferry system of the state in the near future. Her spokesperson issued an official statement that praised the match money on Wednesday.
“Senator Murkowski looks forward to Governor Dunleavy matching the AMHS federal funding she secured in her budget proposal for tomorrow,” Murkowski spokesperson Joe Plesha wrote in an SMS message.
According to law, the governor’s budget must be submitted for approval by the legislature on Friday. Dunleavy stated that he plans to present it on Thursday.
The budget serves as the state with a base for lawmakers to alter the spending plan during the session of the legislature. The session starts Jan. 16.
