Anchorage Assembly adds to city wish list

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — On Wednesday afternoon, city lawmakers got to look over a long list of projects that Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan hopes the legislature will help fund.

The Anchorage Assembly added a few items to that list.

Among the Assembly's suggestions was money for an eastside district plan and money to continue a program that helps fund senior citizens.

The Assembly's legislative committee voted to add a request to continue the Alaska Senior Benefits Program, which provides cash assistance to eligible senior citizens who don't bring in a lot of money. Those payments are currently anywhere from $125 to $250 a month.

“The program is slated to end in the middle of 2011, so the request is that the legislature extends that sunset date and fund it for another couple of years, at least,” said Assembly Member Patrick Flynn.

Another item the Assembly wants to see on that city wish list is $85,000 that would be used to hire staff to help with the Eastside Anchorage District Plan that would guide the development of east Anchorage, including things like what could be built where.

Sullivan vetoed a similar proposal in the city budget for this year. We asked if he approve of the request for the money at the state level.

“Probably not, you know the planning department has a full slate of things to get done in area plans, and regardless of where the funding comes from, you'd still be usurping plans that are already on the schedule ahead of it that have already been funded,” said Sullivan.

The Assembly must approve a final version of this project wish list before state legislators decide what to fund.