State Senator Jesse Kiehl talks ferries, state spending and more at Haines town hall

State Senator Jesse Kiehl visited Haines this week to meet with constituents about issues facing the region. At a town hall on Wednesday, the Juneau Democrat’s conversation focused on addressing gaps in winter ferry service, the Governor’s anticipated budget, state spending and more. KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports.

Senator Jesse Kiehl says the Alaska Marine Highway system and gaps in winter ferry service were top of mind for Haines residents during his recent visit. 

“Well, folks have come out to talk to me about ferry service, road plow service, ferry service… some broadband issues, ferry service, education and ferries.”

He echoed the community’s frustration with the lack of travel options, and called it a predictable crisis, given the last three year’s failures in reliable service. He said he supports activating the $60 million Alaska Class ferry tied up in Juneau as a backup. 

“The Tazlina is sitting tight up to the dock. There are in fact enough folks to run it, if they just call the Inlandboatmen’s Union, and the Masters, Mates and Pilots (union) and ask them,” Kiehl said. “But instead they’re telling me well, we just don’t have the crew. That’s unacceptable.”

On a brighter note, Kiehl says the ferry system’s long term outlook is positive as  there will be federal funding through the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress.

“The good news is we have opportunities for next year, thanks to the infrastructure bill, to get more of our ferries in working order and to increase our wintertime service. So that we have the chance to actually have more vessels running, and there’s a possibility of a backup. And beyond a backup, just have something closer to adequate service for communities to connect to one another in the wintertime,” he said. 

Kiehl said he expects the next legislative session, which begins January 18, will be focused on how Alaska will spend its windfall of infrastructure funding.

“We’ll be working on how to dole out the money for broadband, transportation infrastructure, and several other categories, we’re all scrambling to read that bill and understand it as fast as we can.”

Upper Lynn Canal communities will have a new state representative as a result of the Alaska redistricting process according to 2020 Census data, but the senate district Jesse Kiehl serves remains unchanged.

At the town hall on Wednesday, Haines residents asked about state education spending, as Klukwan fights possible school closure due to low enrollment, and the Haines district grapples with budgeting year to year among the state’s financial uncertainty. Kiehl said he’s consistently fought budget cuts, and this year opposed the Governor’s proposal to continue to cut $50 to 200 million in spending each year.

“Over the last six years, we have cut the operating budget. And I’m just trying to be you know, fair here and talk about our recurrent annual expenses, the operating budget. From about five and a half billion to about four and a half billion,” he said. “I could make that look bigger. If you know, I looked at six years ago, the capital budget, I could tell you we cut $3 billion dollars. Well, capital budgets for specific projects, right? It’s not really apples to apples. But if you actually look apples to apples, we’ve cut about a billion dollars out of our annual recurring expenses,” he said.

“And I’m here to tell you, you see it in the marine highway system, you see it in our schools. We can go on through the list of services the state provides. We’re having a hard time serving Alaskans needs at this point. I don’t think there’s a lot left to cut,” Kiehl said.

The Governor’s budget is due out on December 15. Kiehl says Dunleavy’s oil price projections are too high, and thus  unrealistic for predicting incoming revenue. He wants to see the state develop new sources of income , including an income tax. 

“One of the problems we have is that economic growth doesn’t pay any of the state’s bills and people in my line of work have a tendency not to pay attention to it because it doesn’t pay the state’s bills,” he said. “I got to tell you, most states you will see the legislature pay all kinds of attention, have hearings on job growth on small business formation and creation, small business growth, household creation. Demographics, right, how many working age people do we have, are we gaining, are we losing. I’ve never seen the Alaska State Legislature do that. That’s upside down and backwards… We’ve got to you know pay attention to building a broader economy. But he who has the gold makes the rules.” 

Kiehl was elected in 2018. He’s filed an intent to run for re-election in 2022 for a two year term. So far no challengers have emerged for the Senate District that encompasses much of the upper panhandle.

Kiehl urged residents to reach out to his office for questions or any assistance at (907) 465 – 4947, or by email at sen.jesse.kiehl@akleg.gov.