Parnell announces cuts to capital, operating budgets

June 03, 2010

Gov. Sean Parnell says he vetoed funding for Denali Kid Care after discovering that the program funded abortions. (Rich Jordan/KTUU-DT)

by Ted Land
Thursday, June 3, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sean Parnell says he does not support expanding a state health insurance program for children and pregnant women. Parnell made the announcement Thursday morning, when he told reporters about the $336 million in spending he's deleting from state budgets.

Parnell has said all along that the capital budget put together by lawmakers is just too big -- so he's making cuts.

"It represented a serious spike in spending," Parnell said. "We need a healthy capital budget to put jobs on the street now. So that's the message I've carried here, that's the message I'll continue to carry."

Among the items Parnell vetoed is all of the money requested to upgrade the Sullivan Arena. Several road projects throughout Anchorage will not be funded. More than half the money requested to construct a new Blood Bank of Alaska building has been cut, as has all $7 million requested to build a wind generation project in Nikiski.

Projects which will be funded include ongoing work at the Port of Anchorage and a new state crime lab. There are several million dollars to improve airports statewide, and money to fix up university buildings.

"While we have a surplus in this case, we are going to make targeted smart investments both to take care of what we have, as well as to build new infrastructure," Parnell said.

The operating budget is money that pays for state services and payrolls.

The most notable cut to that spending plan is a planned expansion of Denali Kid Care, the state's health-insurance plan for children and pregnant women.

The governor initially supported expanding the program -- until his office did some further research.

"Unknown to me until recently, this program also funds abortions," Parnell said.

"Any lawyer in Alaska knows that it's medically necessary abortions, only as determined by a doctor in consultation with his patient," said Sen. Hollis French.

"We need to help our kids, but helping our kids is not aborting the kids -- and, of course, any time we can lower the budget, I think that's good," said Rep. Bob Lynn.

The governor's office has put together an interactive map of which projects will be cut in which communities.

Contact Ted Land at tland@ktuu.com

|

|

|