Gov. Bill Walker is asking the state legislature to take $10 million he originally wanted to spend exploring for signs of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — and put it toward other things.
Walker sent a letter to the co-chairs of the House and Senate Finance committees on April 2, asking them to redirect more than $8.3 million toward a statewide 911 system. Walker originally allocated the funds for seismic exploratory work, in the budget he released in December.
He also wants to split $1.5 million between the Department of Revenue and the Department of Natural Resources to do legal and financial work on the Alaska LNG project.
Congress opened the Refuge to development in December, but there is not a lot of data about how much oil is actually in it.
In the letter, Walker says the funds are not needed for seismic exploration in the Refuge right now.
Both the House and the Senate will have to approve the budget before the money can be spent.
