Dunleavy, who waged war on the ferry system, now pretends he has always been its champion

Sen. Lisa Murkowski and the Biden administration deserve credit for rescuing the Alaska Marine Highway System and giving it a real chance to survive.

The approval of nearly $300 million in federal grants will go a long way toward repairing some of the damage done over many years by legislators and governors who refused to face the financial facts, culminating in the disastrous plan by Gov. Mike Dunleavy to try to shut down the system in 2019.

The grants include $46 million to build an electric ferry; $68 million to pay about one-quarter of the cost to replace the Tustumena; $8 million to plan for new ferries; $45 million in ferry operations funds; $72 million to modernize the Columbia, Kennicott, Matanuska and Tazlina ferries; $45 million to upgrade docks in five communities.

There should be no question about whether the state will come up with the $100 million in matching funds needed to qualify for the $285 million in federal grants.

But Dunleavy refused to give a straight answer on public radio’s “Talk of Alaska” Tuesday when asked if he would support getting the $100 million from the Legislature.

Dunleavy made his go-to move, saying there will be a “discussion” on the topic. “We have to have that discussion right now with the Legislature,” he said.

One of his PR people told Alaska Public Media that the Dunleavy administration would rather cut an unidentified $100 million from elsewhere in the budget. All to preserve the Dunleavy fantasy that we need no new state revenues and can afford bigger dividends.

Dunleavy’s inability to say, “Yes, I support raising $100 million to save the ferry system” is indicative of his rudderless approach to the governor’s office.

He also did a tired song-and-dance for the radio audience about how he had no option in 2019 but budget cuts because of the alleged $1.6 billion deficit.

In Dunleavy’s so-called “Honest Budget” four years ago, there was no room for the ferry system.

In 2019, he promised to cut state and federal spending in the health department by $848 million, while taking $332 million from schools, gutting the University of Alaska, shutting down the Alaska Marine Highway System and confiscating hundreds of millions in oil and gas property taxes and fish taxes from local governments. He said the situation was dire and this was his “permanent fiscal plan.”

Dunleavy did not listen to the public or the Legislature on any aspect of his flawed 2019 plan, but repeatedly aired his grievances about schools, ferries, Medicaid, the university and his desire to avoid taxes and pay more in dividends.

“I inherited a $1.6 billion deficit. You have to have a balanced budget under the Constitution. You can’t just ignore that. So there had to be reductions across the board to get us where we needed to be,” he now says.

“So this idea that the governor in 2019, myself, just went wild and went cutting is not a fair and accurate narrative of what happened,” he said.

Don’t believe it. He had many options in 2019 to preserve all state services, including the ferry system.

The options included closing oil tax loopholes, instituting new taxes, cutting dividends and drawing from savings. He chose to cut with no regard to consequences and refused to listen to the public until the recall movement finally got his attention.

After discarding the alleged “Honest Budget” four years ago, he has done little but call for “discussions” and big dividends, playing the part of an innocent bystander.

He’s also shown himself to be eager to take credit for the work of others, pretending he came up with solutions, such as securing the federal subsidies to replace the Tustumena and retrofit the other ships. In 2019, he proposed taking $25 million away from replacing the Tustumena and wanted to spend millions to work on “divesting the Alaska Marine Highway System ferries and terminals.”

As the Ketchikan Daily News put it at the time, “The Dunleavy plan is clear: Scuttle the Alaska Marine Highway System, and fast.”

Now he pretends that none of that ever happened.

“When it comes to the ferry, we’ve done a number of things the last couple years,” Dunleavy said this week. “We’re gonna replace the Tustumena, we’ve got the Columbia going back on line, we’re retrofitting two other ferries. We have put together an endowment that cannot be swept. There’s $30 million, at least $30 million in that endowment now. We’ve changed the schedule to help with the ferry system, and collecting, collecting fees and making sure they’ve got riders. So we’re doing everything we can to make the ferry sustainable for the long term. And the federal money that was just mentioned, we’re having that discussion now on how we’re going to be able to go through a process of matching that. Because again we want to make this ferry healthy, sustainable for generations to come.”

As Juneau columnist Rich Moniak put it, Dunleavy went to war against the ferry system and now wants acts as if he has always been its best friend.

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