Alaska State Legislature

For Immediate Release: November 10, 1998
Contact: James Armstrong at (907) 269-0234 or 258-8181.

Anchorage Caucus Wants Fairer Share of Road Money

Anchorage - Senator Dave Donley (R-Anchorage), Co-Chair of the Anchorage Caucus, said the Caucus passed a resolution today requesting Governor Knowles to increase the amount of federal highway funding allocated to the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS) Program. The Caucus is requesting 30% of the annual statewide Community Roads and TRAKK program funding for Anchorage transportation projects. Currently Anchorage receives only 20% of this funding.

"Anchorage’s transportation system has fallen further and further behind the rest of the state. This lack of funding has created unsafe driving conditions for drivers and pedestrians in our city, and unless we act now, gridlock is in the new future," Donley said.

This year Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act (TEA 21) which re-authorized the federal program for distributing federal highway funding nation-wide. Each state receives a portion of these funds which are distributed statewide for various transportation projects. In Anchorage the AMATS Policy committee identifies and ranks Anchorage transportation projects funded under this program. No legislators are on the AMATS committee.

"Our Congressional Delegation has done a superb job in making sure Alaska has received a substantial portion of this funding," said Senator Donley. "However, due to an unfair and biased policy at the state Department of Transportation, the Municipality of Anchorage has not received its fair share of this funding," explained Donley.

"Since we began receiving these funds in 1991, Anchorage has only received about 20% of the total funding. Given the fact that Anchorage has roughly 42% of both the state’s population and registered motor vehicles, Anchorage is getting shortchanged in this deal. Since many Anchorage workers commute from the Mat-Su area the inequity of only 20% is even worse," added Donley.

There is no basis in either state or federal law for this allocation decision, it is simple an arbitrary decision that was made in 1991.

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