The authority has put back millions of dollars back in the state budget for a fish hatchery for Fairbanks to go along with one planned for Anchorage. It is a sort of compromise that leaves both projects without enough money to meet projected construction costs. The current two-hatchery plan, one in Fairbanks and other in Anchorage, costs $85 million.
But now the compromise put an ends to one of the plan as the lawmakers decided to withhold funding for the Fairbanks projects and build only the Anchorage hatchery. There is pressure on the Palin administration to develop a plan to find additional money for the two projects simultaneously.
The authority informed that it’s not a permanent fix but it’s a good attempt at evening things up a little bit and making an opportunity available for a long-term fix. Sen. Bert Stedman, a Republican from Sitka and co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, explained that using fishing license surcharges to cover the construction cost increases is certainly not acceptable. The government levied $9 surcharge on sport fishing licenses to cover the initial bond package issued by the state for the two projects.
