Let's hope Anchorage Assembly Chairman Dick Traini is absolutely right when he says the Assembly will oppose state Sen. Ben Stevens' push to take over transportation planning in Anchorage.
Sen. Stevens has introduced a bill to add two legislative seats to AMATS, the obscure but influential agency that channels federal funds -- and a 10 percent state match -- to Anchorage transportation projects. The bill would only apply to Anchorage, and state officials already hold two of five seats on AMATS. Putting two legislators on the committee would give the state a majority on what is designed as -- and certainly should be -- a local process.
More directly, this is an arrogant grab for power that Sen. Stevens surely does not deserve.
Sen. Stevens is a powerful figure. He is majority leader of the Alaska Senate. He is also a consultant collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in fees from various clients between legislative sessions. Between the two jobs, you'd think he has more than enough to do.
But Sen. Stevens has decided he also needs to be legislative czar of Anchorage transportation planning. He has a bee in his bonnet about funding for trails and other transportation enhancements, so he's taken to trying to boss around AMATS -- which is to substitute his own judgment for that of the mayor, two Assembly members and two state commissioners. It's quite a reach.
Sen. Stevens pushed state legislation forcing AMATS to spend no more on trails than the minimum required by federal law. That measure doesn't take effect until next year's funding decisions, but he has been feuding with AMATS because it hasn't hacked trail money sooner.
If the senator is unhappy about Anchorage's enthusiasm for trails, he should switch jobs. He could run for mayor. The mayor gets a seat on AMATS. He could run for Assembly. Two members of the Assembly sit on AMATS. Or he could ask Gov. Frank Murkowski to appoint him to the Department of Transportation. DOT also gets a seat on AMATS.
How much Anchorage spends on trails should be a local decision. Local control is supposedly a core tenet of Republican government philosophy. Sen. Stevens seems to endorse local control of transportation decisions in a commentary on his Web site. Writing about the Coastal Trail extension, he says, "In the end, all of Anchorage's residents will need to make their own determination of what is the wisest use of federal and local dollars, and in the best interest of the community as a whole."
But for some reason, Sen. Stevens has decided that when it comes to Anchorage trails and transportation, he knows best. He may be used to getting his way, thanks to influential family connections. But in this case, he is too far afield from the job he should be doing, which is representing his constituents on state decisions made in Juneau.
BOTTOM LINE: Sen. Ben Stevens has been meddling too much in AMATS. He should do his job, not theirs.
Copyright © 2004 The Anchorage Daily News