Transportation

For the second time this legislative session, Alaska Marine Highway workers were shut out from testifying against a bill that would cut their salaries.

Senate Bill 182 from Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, would get rid of a geographic bonus for Alaska residents who work on state ferries. With a major port in Bellingham, Wash., the ferry system employs a large number of nonresidents. It’s the only state agency where salaries are based on the cost of living in Seattle as opposed to Anchorage. Dyson’s bill would eliminate that provision, which has been in state statute for more than 30 years. The state would save millions of dollars in wages paid to workers, according to the Department of Administration.

When SB182 was in the Senate State Affairs Committee, Dyson closed public testimony after hearing from only four people, despite the dozens who signed up. On Friday, 20 people wanted to testify on the bill in the Senate Finance Committee. But before they could, committee co-chair Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, said there wouldn’t be enough time.

“I apologize, we are not going to be able to get to the public testimony on this bill today,” Meyer said.

Meyer said he would reschedule public testimony for Monday. But the move frustrated members of the three labor unions representing marine highway employees.

“It’s disappointing for people to take time out of their lives to testify on something they feel passionately about, and not get an opportunity to voice their opinion,” said Ben Goldrich, Alaska representative for the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association.

The bill is being debated as the unions are negotiating new contracts with the Parnell administration. A new version of the legislation introduced Friday would only affect workers hired after June 2014; current employees would keep their higher pay.

Goldrich says that doesn’t make the bill any easier to swallow.

“Our major sticking point is that we’re up at the hill discussing it at all,” Goldrich said. “Normally the issue that’s before the Senate is something that we would resolve at the negotiating table.”

State Director of Personnel and Labor Relations Nicki Neal told the committee that state negotiators have made similar offers to the unions to grandfather the in-state geographic bonuses of current employees.

Sen. Click Bishop, R-Fairbanks, a former state labor commissioner and union administrator, said he was concerned the bill could influence negotiations.

“It could maybe slow down or have some angst on either side when something like this comes out,” Bishop said. “Not saying that the bill’s bad, but it could just shed a different light on the good faith effort on negotiations.”

Dyson said the bill is simply an attempt to bring more fairness and consistency to the contracts of ferry workers.

“The current statute is obsolete and it is different than any of the other bargaining units,” Dyson said.

Finance committee co-chair Meyer said those who want to have their opinions heard on the bill are welcome to send emails. Lawmakers have already received dozens of written comments in opposition to the measure.

Goldrich says state ferry workers will be back on Monday to testify on the bill.

“I have no doubt that we’ll be able to get some of the same people and some new people as well,” he said.

Besides MEBA, ferry workers are represented by the Inland Boatman’s Union, and the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots.

Juneau International Airport is getting a second X-ray machine to handle the piles of luggage that build up during the morning air traffic rush hour.

The Transportation Security Administration approved the new scanner after hearing from the Juneau Assembly, airport officials, Alaska Airlines and the state’s Congressional delegation.

Airport Manager Patty deLaBruere says in the past year Alaska Airlines and TSA employees have had trouble moving luggage through the scanner, even when it’s a normal amount.

“What was happening, especially if anyone had come in during those morning bank of flights, in the summer you’d see several hundred bags stacked out in the lobby and it was kind of a mess,” deLaBruere says.

Five early morning flights depart the Juneau airport every day during the summer months, with one leaving roughly every half hour between 7 and 8:30 a.m.

DeLaBruere says the baggage problem has caused delays and was still an issue over the winter, when there are fewer departures. With Delta Air Lines offering flights to and from Juneau this summer, she says it was only going to get worse.

In addition to a second X-ray machine, deLaBruere says TSA agreed to increase staffing at the airport.

“We’ve seen a decrease in the staffing over the last year,” she says. “We don’t have the numbers yet for the staffing, but we did get approval for the scanner and the staffing to go with it.”

TSA officials could not be reached for comment.

DeLaBruere’s not sure when the new scanner will arrive in Juneau. She says the machine will be located in the lobby, near the Alaska Airlines check-in counter.

A bill authorizing the state to build a billion-dollar bridge across the Knik Arm is back for consideration.

The legislation was shelved for a year, after an audit found traffic estimates for the project were “unreasonably optimistic.” During a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, the bill sponsor dismissed skepticism that the project would pencil out. Rep. Mark Neuman, a Republican from Big Lake, said he “absolutely” believed there would be enough traffic to serve a two-mile long bridge connecting Port Mackenzie to Anchorage, so long as a Mat-Su population boom continues.

“If the Knik Area were a city, it would be one of the fastest – one of the top 50 fastest growing cities – in America,” said Neuman.

The current iteration of the bill scraps the idea of using a public-private partnership to build the toll bridge. Instead, the project would be funded through a mix of federal grants, federal loans, and state revenue bonds. Those loans and bonds would then be paid off using toll revenue from the bridge.

But rural legislators who heard the bill expressed doubt that the tolls would be enough to cover those costs. Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a Bethel Democrat, noted that the state would be responsible for making up the difference if there isn’t enough bridge traffic. He said if it were clear the bridge would pay for itself, there would be “broad support” for the project across the state.

“I think that was the crux of the concern: that the State of Alaska would be on the hook,” said Hoffman. “It was always portrayed that this was going to be a toll bridge, and that would adequately address the construction.”

Sen. Donny Olson, a Democrat from Golovin, worries that the cost of the project — and the risk that comes with it — is too high, given that the state is looking at a period of serious budget shortfalls.

“It’s a public policy issue I’ve got a problem with where we’re dealing with state revenues going down. And certainly we’ve got an excellent bond rating, but in five years when all our savings are spent and we’ve maxed up to the hilt with bonding and indebtedness that’s out there, that’s where I’ve got problems.”

To keep the project moving, the Legislature would have to appropriate $10 million for the bridge in the next fiscal year.

The Senate Finance Committee will continue discussion of the bill Wednesday morning. The House passed the bill last session.

The ferry Aurora is sailing again after being tied up for about a week.

Part of the small ship’s steering system broke down March 8. It made it into Whittier, where it remained until Sunday.

Alaska Marine Highway System spokesman Jeremy Woodrow says a steering pump had to be removed and sent to Seattle to be rebuilt.

He says the Aurora sailed part of its Prince William Sound route Sunday and began full service today, March 17.

The 235-foot ferry links Whittier, Valdez and Cordova. It carries up to 250 passengers and 35 vehicles.

The 37-year-old Aurora sometimes fills in for its twin, the LeConte, which serves small Southeast Alaska communities.

Alaska Marine Highway System officials plan to close gift shops on board state ferries.

Transportation Department Deputy Commissioner Rueben Yost says the shutdown will save about $1 million a year.

“The gift shops are nice, but it’s not part of our core mission of moving people and vehicles from one point to another. And over time, it’s become increasingly expensive,” he says.

Yost discussed the change at this week’s meeting of the state’s Marine Transportation Advisory Board.

Five larger mainline ferries have full shops. The two small fast ferries have limited gift items in their food-service areas.

Yost says a few necessities will remain on sale.

“We will address the need for toiletries and other commodities people may have forgotten to bring on the vessel by selling them in the cafeteria,” he says.

Those items will eventually be sold from vending machines. Ferry hats, T-shirts and similar “branded” products will be available online.

Yost says the shops will be phased out over the summer as the inventory is sold.

“It does involve 10 positions on the marine highway system. But the cashiers working in the gift shop have seniority. So ultimately, … rather than 10 people losing their jobs, there will be 10 less new people hired this summer,” he says.

There’s no immediate plan for how the shop rooms will be used.

Yost says labor contracts prohibit leasing the space to private businesses.

A small southern Southeast Alaska ferry line is of large value to the region’s economy. That’s according to a new report studying the Inter-Island Ferry Authority.

The authority, known as the IFA, carries about 52,000 passengers a year.

A single ferry leaves the eastern Prince of Wales Island port of Hollis each morning. It arrives in Ketchikan about three hours later, and then waits ‘til the evening to sail back.

A new study shows it’s an important part of the region’s economy. (Read the report.)

“No one is no more dependent on IFA’s daily timetable than those trying to get fresh or live seafood to market,” says Meilani Schijvens of Juneau-based Sheinberg Associates. She authored the report, funded by a state grant to the authority.

Schijvens says the ferry carries 3 million pounds of seafood a year, with a value of $15 million.

Researchers talked to Prince of Wales Island fishermen, divers and logistics workers for the report.

“And the businesses told us that without the IFA, they wouldn’t be in business,” Schijvens says. She says the ferry also supports seafood processors in Ketchikan.

The report says tourists and others traveling to the island spend close to $6 million a year. And islanders headed to Ketchikan purchase about $10 million in goods.

“We talked to the floor manager in Wal-Mart there and he let us know that approximately 10 percent of all of his customers are coming off the ferry. And those numbers add up,” Schijvens says.

The Inter-Island Ferry Authority study also shows close to 4,000 students sailing the route in a year. About the same number traveled for medical care in Ketchikan or elsewhere.

Other details of economic and human impacts are included in the full report. (Read the report.)

“I think what it means to us is being able to explain to other people what we mean to them,” says Dennis Watson, the IFA’s general manager. He’s also mayor of Craig, the largest city on Prince of Wales.

He says it’s important to note that the ferry authority covers three-quarters of its costs through ticket sales. That‘s far more than the state ferry system, and better than its cousins in Washington state and British Columbia.

Watson says that still leaves about a $750,000 hole in the IFA’s $4 million-a-year budget.

The Parnell administration has put $500,000 in a funding bill, though there’s no guarantee it will make it through the Legislature.

Watson says some of what’s left will be raised internally.

“The board has entertained a fare increase just for adult walk-ons. The seniors and children or vehicles won’t be affected by it,” he says.

That’ll be a few dollars on top of the $46.25 one-way fare.

The Inter-Island Ferry Authority has provided Prince-of-Wales-to-Ketchikan service for about a dozen years. It also ran a northern route for a few seasons, but it didn’t attract enough passengers.

Before that, the Alaska Marine Highway System made port calls, but they were less frequent.

Report author Schijvens says that didn’t do a lot for island residents.

“They absolutely made it work for them at the time. But this is so much better, in terms of being able to have student groups travel, and to go from Prince of Wales to Ketchikan and back again during the day, and not have to get up in the middle of the night, and being able to go one way by ferry and to also come back by ferry,” she says.

Before it began, IFA critics predicted it would have to rely heavily on state funding to survive. The report says conditions have changed and the authority is doing well, given the situation.

That includes fuel costs that have risen five-fold since then and the island’s population shrinking by about a fifth.