Governor Mike Dunleavy’s budget vetoes affect the way the Haines Economic Development Corporation is plans for the future.

The Haines Economic Development Corporation is a non-profit tasked with planning to develop local economic resilience and grow the economy. At a recent meeting Executive Director Maragaret Friendenhauer said the Governor’s cuts made her think twice about their 5-year plan. That’s the blueprint for how HEDC operates.

“I was sitting in my office one day, looking at my five year plan, saying ‘If these vetoes stand, I don’t know what to do with the five year plan,'” she said.

She said she would have to re-prioritize her time.

“Because some of this stuff just doesn’t seem important in the face of some of the things that may happen, in response to the budget situation.”

HEDC wrote a plan that has room for changes and fluctuations in the economy, but they weren’t expecting such dramatic cuts across so many services. Friendenhauer isn’t scrapping the plan, but she says she’s going to spend a lot more time just to track and mitigate the local effects of the budget cuts.

Vice President of the HEDC Board Sean Gaffney was in support of taking another look at their priorities if the legislature does not overturn the vetoes.

“Whether we change anything or not, given the magnitude of the changes in the state budget I think to go through the process of ask and answer the questions and make sure the priorities that we’re chasing are the right ones,” he said.

Gaffney said HEDC should pin down the effects of the proposed budget cuts on people in Haines. Many programs may change or cease entirely, from Senior Benefits to Head Start. So he wants to know the dollar amount per year that the cost of living in Haines would go up.

“It is challenging to go pinpoint that number, but there is one and my concern is that it’s much larger than people understand,” he said.

The greatest impact to the borough is the potential cut to school bond debt reimbursement, the state program that pays for school construction projects. The governor’s vetoes mean Haines will be on the hook for about $450,000 additional dollars per year to pay off the debt from building the school. They assembly chose to cover the shortfall using money from the 2.8 million dollar reserves rather than raising taxes significantly. But how the cuts to a variety of services shake out for individuals is less clear. That’s what Gaffney proposes the HEDC determine.