Juneau Representative Cathy Munoz says she initially voted against Governor Sean Parnell’s oil tax cut legislation, because she wanted more analysis of its impact on state finances.
Munoz was one of three Republicans in the state House to vote no on Senate Bill 21, before later switching her vote to yes on reconsideration, more of a procedural move after the bill’s fate had been sealed.
SB21 is expected to cost the state treasury around a billion dollars per year based on current estimates for oil prices and production. Munoz says she hopes to see an eventual increase in production, but there wasn’t enough information presented to lawmakers about how the state would weather the initial drop in revenue.
“In the committee process we weren’t seeing what the changes would be relative to the revenues coming in and what would be needed from our savings to stem the reduction in revenue over the long period,” she says.
Munoz says the information should have been provided by the Parnell Administration’s Office of Management and Budget or the Legislative Finance Division.
Like the governor, she’s now hopeful that increased oil production will occur in the next two to three years.
“I hope that this is the right approach,” she says. “But it’s a wait and see game at this point.”
Munoz has served the Mendenhall Valley and north end of Juneau’s road system in the state House since 2008, but this was her first term on the Finance Committee. Munoz was the only Southeast lawmaker on the panel, which plays an important role in crafting the operating and capital budgets. It’s also typically one of the last stops for legislation before a vote on the House floor.
“Being able to track all these issues and make sure that our interests are protected was very important, and quite an education this first year,” Munoz says.
She says it was necessary for Southeast to have a member on the committee after the region lost representation through the state’s redistricting process, and longtime House Finance co-chair Bill Thomas of Haines lost his reelection bid last fall.
Among the items Munoz says she’s proud to see included in the final budget are a number of small energy projects in Southeast.
“The Gartina Falls Hydro Project in Hoonah received $6.7 million; and we put $4 million to the Blue Lake Hydro Project in Sitka; Tenakee Spings received $3 million for a hydro project,” she says. “So, overall there was general support for smaller community projects in the region.”
The capital budget also includes $20 million for the new State Library Archives and Museum facility currently under construction in Juneau, as well as nearly $10 million for continued work on the Juneau Access project.
After several court challenges, the state has decided to do a new Environmental Impact Statement for the controversial road north of the Capital City. The document should be released this summer, according the Alaska Department of Transportation’s project website. The department hopes for a new federal Record of Decision allowing the project to proceed by the end of the year.
