Alaskan Voters to Weigh $1B of Bonding in November

SAN FRANCISCO — Alaskans will vote on about $1 billion in bonding authority during the November election in an effort by lawmakers to fund school construction and home loans for military veterans.

Proposition A would authorize the Alaska Housing Finance Corp. to issue $600 million that would provide mortgages to qualifying veterans. Proposition B asks residents to approve $397 million of general obligation bonds to pay for the design and construction of library, education and research facilities, according to the text of the bill authorizing the proposition.

Gerald McBeath, a professor of political science at University of Alaska in Fairbanks, said Alaska voters pass bond propositions more often than those in other states. However, this topsy-turvy election season has undermined political norms of behavior.

“While the normal assumption would be it would pass, this is working out to be a curious election season,” McBeath said.

Tea-Party backed Joe Miller upset U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski in a tight Republican primary to illustrate the headwinds facing incumbents at a time of economic distress. The conservative Alaskan Tea Party has yet to issue a statement on the bonding propositions.

Republicans have a working majority in the state House of Representatives, while Democrats have greater control of the Senate through a majority of a bipartisan working group.

McBeath said Proposition B resulted partly from objections by Anchorage-area legislators to a bioscience building in Fairbanks, and the resolution was the bond-funding package.

If passed, it would finance a $60 million sports arena at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and the $88 million bioscience building in Fairbanks, as well as several other campus and school projects around the state, according to the bill.

“It appeals to urban voters and rural voters — it is designed that way,” ­McBeath said. “It is a wonderful demonstration of the strength of regional politics in ­Alaska.”

He said the veterans’ bond proposal is less controversial despite its larger size because the state has a history of strong support for the military.

The state Department of Revenue projected in April that Alaska’s unrestricted revenues would rise 3% to $5.6 billion in fiscal 2010 from a February interim revenue forecast, due mainly to higher oil prices.

The department based the projection on the assumption that the economies of U.S. and other developed nations will ­improve.

Alaska has about 698,000 residents and the largest state budget on a per-capita basis, and is highly reliant on federal ­funding.

The state had an unemployment rate of 7.7% in August, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, significantly lower than the national jobless rate of 9.6%.

The median household income in Alaska is $66,293, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s 27% more than the national median of $52,175.

Moody’s Investors Service rates the state’s senior tax-backed bonds Aa1, and Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s rate them an equivalent AA-plus.

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