Anchorage Daily News

Gov. Sarah Palin on Friday axed about 10 percent of the spending that state legislators approved for hometown projects.

This is the second year in a row Palin vetoed projects dear to legislators. She said lawmakers stuffed the $2.7 billion state capital budget too full.

"There were things like dealing with killer shrubs and Zamboni blades that are not the state's highest priority at the time," Palin said on Friday.

She cut $43,000 from the budget for landscaping at Klatt Elementary in South Anchorage. A legislative document justified the money, saying "the risk of a child impaling themselves is substantial." Palin also vetoed a Homer Zamboni blade sharpener.

But some leading legislators said Palin went too far and also slashed money for fire stations, emergency services and needed road improvement projects.

Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman said the state has a surplus that could expand by $9 billion over the coming year if oil prices stay at these heights.

"There's no fiscal reason for these heavy vetoes," said Stedman, who was the main architect of the capital budget in the Senate.

Stedman said there's also a good argument that projects are needed to stimulate the slowing economy and expand the labor pool to get ready for a natural gas pipeline.

"This is just politics," he said.

Anchorage Republican Rep. Kevin Meyer, Stedman's counterpart in the House, said Palin vetoed things she told legislators were safe.

"Those are obviously going to cause the most heartburn with legislators," Meyer said.

ARTIFICIAL TURF AND POLAR BEARS

But Anchorage Democratic Rep. Mike Doogan said legislators were in "sort of your classic feeding frenzy" in putting the capital budget together.

"It's smaller now that she's done some vetoing, but I still think it's too big," Doogan said.

Palin's $268 million in vetoes hit dozens of projects across the state. She reduced funding for things like artificial turf at Service and Palmer high schools, expansion of Covenant House for homeless and runaway youths in Anchorage and support of the group Arctic Power's lobbying in Washington, D.C., to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development.

Palin eliminated other projects entirely. That includes study of a second bridge between Juneau and Douglas Island, a Cook Inlet Housing Authority community center for seniors, Ketchikan Little League batting cages and big utility projects through the Railbelt Energy Funds.

Hundreds of other projects remain in the budget, including $25 million for the Fire Island Wind Farm that she vetoed last year. Palin also left in $15 million each for a UAA sports arena and port of Anchorage expansion.

She also didn't veto a controversial $2 million for an "academic based" conference meant to highlight arguments that global warming isn't threatening the survival of polar bears.

Palin didn't think she could legally veto that money because it's a "reappropriation" of money left over from another project. But she doesn't support the conference and wants to get legislative leaders to use the money for the state's lawsuit against the listing of polar bears as threatened.

GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT?

The vetoes are heightening the tension between Palin and legislators. Legislators particularly complained she vetoed projects she said she wouldn't. They also said she axed things that met her own criteria, such as improving safety, and didn't consult legislators enough about the vetoes.

"If you have a gentleman's agreement and one party doesn't carry forward with it, the agreement isn't that good," Meyer said.

Palin insisted she was always clear with legislators that nothing was veto-proof. She said she expected pushback from legislators.

"It's never big enough for some lawmakers, it's never big enough for some local officials," Palin said.

Legislators will also look closely at which parts of the state Palin hit more than others. Some top legislators who have criticized Palin, particularly Sitka Sen. Stedman, saw heavy vetoes. But those leaders also scored heavily in the budget they wrote and had more to cut than others.

Alaska's rural districts, where impoverished villages depend heavily on state capital spending, were an exception to the rule Friday. They received relatively heavy funding in the original budget and escaped the vetoes virtually unscathed.

Palin made few vetoes in the state government operating budget, preferring to make her mark on the capital budget, which is generally for infrastructure projects.

ANCHORAGE AND THE MAT-SU

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich said the state's largest city generally fared well. The Legislature's spending plan called for about $200 million in Anchorage city and school projects. Roughly $140 million survived Palin's vetoes.

Of the roughly $50 million Palin cut, he said, nearly $30 million was for just two projects: a police headquarters expansion, and upgrades and reconstruction of Johns Road.

While Begich talked to Palin on Thursday -- called her on his cell, he said -- Anchorage Schools Superintendent Carol Comeau said she never got a chance to defend her projects to the governor's budget team.

Comeau said she was happy to see the governor keep $2 million in the budget for swimming pool repairs but was disappointed that security cameras meant to nab school vandals got the ax. The governor cut computers and library books too, saying there are other ways for the district to pay for them.

In Palin's home area, the Mat-Su, Borough Manager John Duffy said money for major road projects stayed intact and the cuts ran less deeply than last year.

Among the Mat-Su cuts: a $1 million hit to Valley Community for Recycling Solution's new recycling center. The group got $1 million.

Daily News reporters Tom Kizzia, Kyle Hopkins and Rindi White contributed to this story. Find Sean Cockerham online at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call him at 257-4344.

Sampling of projects in and out of budget

On Friday, Gov. Palin signed an $11 billion operating budget and a $2.7 billion capital budget for fiscal year 2009, which starts July 1. She vetoed $2.6 million from the operating budget but rejected $265 million in projects from the capital budget -- about 10 percent.

OUT

AMONG THE 360 PROJECTS VETOED OR REDUCED:

• Many small grants to schools and nonprofits. Reason given: "Other funding options available."

• Anchorage Service high artificial football turf -- $1.5 million.

• Homer Electric Association transmission system upgrades -- $12.5 million

• Matanuska Electric Association transmission line to Point MacKenzie prison -- $25 million

• Ship Creek Salmon Learning Center -- $3.5 million

• Kenai Peninsula junk vehicle removal -- $400,000

• Ketchikan Little League batting cages -- $160,000

• Anchorage Covenant House expansion -- $1.1 million

• Anchorage Dolly Parton Imagination Library -- $90,000

• Hilltop Ski Area chairlift replacement -- $400,000

• Mat-Su shooting range -- $340,000

• KTOO FM & TV "Government Transparency Project" -- $100,000

IN

AMONG THE HUNDREDS OF PROJECTS REMAINING IN THE BUDGET:

• UAA sports arena planning and design -- $15 million

• Fire Island windmill farm -- $25 million

• Point MacKenzie railroad extension -- $17.5 million

• Mat-Su recycling center -- $1 million (cut from $2 million)

• UAA health sciences building -- $46 million

• Akutan airport -- $31 million

• South Denali visitor road project -- $8.9 million

• Fairbanks University Avenue widening -- $30 million

• Anchorage: connect Dowling-Old Seward-Minnesota -- $22.1 million

• Chefornak school renovation and addition -- $44 million

• Marshall school replacement -- $35 million

• Anchorage and Fairbanks sportfish hatcheries $62 million

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