A political battle is just beginning to brew over the fate of one of Alaska Rep. Don Young's favorite pet projects, a hard-won pot of millions of dollars a year in mass-transit funding for the mostly rural Alaska Railroad.
Democrats on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee want to see at least some of the money redirected to where it was intended: heavily traveled mass-transit lines in high-density cities. But as they try to build momentum for a highway bill that the White House and Senate hope to put off for at least 12 to 18 months, they aren't yet picking a fight with Young, a Republican with considerable clout.
Last year alone, the carve-out -- part of a Young-written "technical amendment" to the 2005 highway law -- was worth nearly $19 million, placing the Alaska Railroad well ahead of major cities such as Houston, Orlando, Kansas City and Cincinnati, Indianapolis and New Orleans.
Rep. James L. Oberstar, the Minnesota Democrat who now chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, suggested in a brief interview that he plans to alter the formula to prevent Alaska from shoring up freight routes with money intended to keep passenger lines updated in cities.
But Oberstar's draft surface transportation bill is silent on the issue.
If no change is made to the current formula fund for urbanized areas, the Alaska Railroad could get well more than $100 million over the next five years in urbanized-area funds because overall funding for those grants is expected to go up significantly.
A small portion of the vast Anchorage-to-Fairbanks Alaska Railroad is in such urbanized areas, but most of its tracks are laid in, well, the middle of nowhere. While some Alaskans surely use the railroad to get to work, it's not exactly like the New York City subway system. It's a 12-hour ride from end to end -- not including a spur to Seward -- making the route a laughable commute for many Alaskans.
Under the original formula, the Alaksa Railroad wouldn't get much money.
So Young drew up a "technical amendment" that based the Alaska Railroad's share of the money on its "directional route miles," meaning it gets credit for hundreds of miles of track that are nowhere near cities. House and Senate negotiators pared the provision to 60 percent of the route miles before the law was enacted, but it still has been a tremendous boon for the Alaska Railroad.
Historically, it is difficult to take transportation money away from a state that is getting it, and it remains to be seen how, if at all, Oberstar and his aides will rework the law to redirect money back to cities. One possible approach would be adjusting Alaska's share of the funding downward to give it the same level of money while other transit systems get more. Or, it could be written out of the formula for urbanized areas and given another pot of money so that it is not taking dollars directly away from big cities with more typical mass-transit systems.
Democratic committee aides did not return calls and e-mail seeking comment, and Oberstar did not expound on his plan to change the formula.
If the provision stays in law, it could end up eclipsing the cost of the notorious "bridge to nowhere," a project that would have connected the tiny island of Gravina to mainland Alaska for $223 million. Ultimately, federal dollars for the bridge were redirected to other projects after a maelstrom of negative publicity.
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Comments
This is the perfect item for a poster of pork program spending!! I'm sure the voters in Alaska love the idea of all this money being spent in their state but they must admit it is a total waste of the American tax payers money!! Don Young should be horse whipped for pushing this spending through!! To continue to spend money on a rail road that benefits no one is unbelievable plus the fact it takes money away from mass transit projects that need the money and will benefit millions of tax payers!! SHAME ON YOU!!
Posted by: KLIMAX
| July 1, 2009 5:05 PM
Currently, no one uses the Alaska Railroad for commuting to work. It is a railroad that only serves tourists and freight. Some of the recent Alaska Railroad upgrades will make a portion of the track near Anchorage usable for commuter rail, but the region is still working to make that happen.
Anchorage's bus system could sure use the money, however, and I think a good portion of the money that would go to transit in Alaska goes to the railroad. Alaska has no state funding for operating transit systems, so local systems are hurting.
Posted by: Lois Epstein
| July 1, 2009 7:36 PM
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