Alaska moving into new era as federal earmarking fades

[RamboLiberal]

WASHINGTON -- Long the reigning champion of earmarks and never a state to turn down federal money, Alaska may have to change its ways as Congress reconsiders a practice that's come to symbolize runaway government spending.

Yet in the state that's home to the aforementioned bridges to nowhere, earmarks have been sliding, in part because Stevens is no longer around to influence the process, but also because it's going out of fashion. Alaska's congressional delegation landed $227 million in earmarks in 2009, compared to $87 million in 2010, according to a report released in February from the nonpartisan budget watchdogs at Taxpayers for Common Sense. Alaska went from No. 1 per capita to No. 6.

The state of Alaska has already backed away from requesting as many earmarks, and is more deliberative about the ones it asks the congressional delegation to pursue, said John Katz, who represents Gov. Sean Parnell's office in Washington.

The governor also encourages state agencies to seek out grants and other sources of funding before asking for an earmark. This year, they asked for just eight valued at $23.4 million, Katz said.



Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/11/21/1566328/alaska-moving-to-new-era-as-earmarks.html#ixzz163bK0uYc

[gratuitous]

1. Coinciding precisely with Ted Stevens' departure

If Stevens was still in the Senate, this would never have happened to Alaska. I wonder if Alaskans are going to feel the pinch when the mean ol' fedrul gubmint isn't subsidizing their state anymore? Will they cast a critical eye at their leading Republican politicians, or will they be told and happily believe that it's all the fault of that horrible, arrogant black man in the White House?

[Blue_In_AK]

2. We won't feel the pinch that much.

Most of the federal money spent here is on salaries of federal employees and the military, social security and medicaid/medicare which I don't think qualify as earmarks.

Here is a breakdown of how the federal money was spent in Alaska in 2002. http://iser.uaa.alaska.edu/Publications/FedSpendSum.pdf I imagine the percentages are pretty much the same now. I imagine there will be some big fights over the 8(a) contracts for the Native corporations. Lisa took a lot of campaign money from those groups and they will be expecting those federal contracts to continue their way. Claire McCaskill is proposing some curtailing. http://alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/alaska-beat/88-alaska-beat/7551-sen-mccaskill-set-to-file-8a-reform-bill I expect this to be a real catfight.