News and Events
From the Director:
Sept-Oct 2011
Fall is here and, along with the changing of the seasons, Congress starts to
deal with the annual appropriations process back in Washington. This process has
a major impact on all of the communities in the region since the majority of the
facilities and services are funded, to a large extent, by federal
appropriations. The coming year will be a very challenging year for funding of
many of the programs and services that our communities rely on as Congressional
negotiators begin the process of implementing the debt reduction law that was
enacted earlier this month. This law requires cuts to spending over the next 10
years to help deal with the budget deficit and national debt. While it is too
early in the process to know the impacts to any specific programs, we are
planning and evaluating them to minimize any impacts to the services that we
provide in the communities in the region.
It does not appear the Congress will complete the process prior to the start of
the next fiscal year in October, and all federally funded programs will be
operated under what they call a “continuing resolution.” This process basically
allows agencies to operate programs as they did in the prior fiscal year until
the real appropriations process is completed, but significantly restricts
starting new projects since the amount of funding that will actually be
available is unknown.
There is good news at the State level, at least. State revenue is still high,
and Alaska has committed another $100 million to the Lyman Rebate and
Weatherization Program, plus a significant amount of funding for renewable
energy projects in rural Alaska. It appears, with the new appropriations from
the State, that the weatherization program can continue until at least 2013.
With as much support as the legislature has for the program, I would expect that
it will receive additional funding in future years. It can become a long term
program, helping to reduce energy use in our state, and especially rural Alaska,
where the cost of energy is many times the largest monthly expense for families.
You can read the entire
Sept-Oct Newsletter
here.
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