Ferry system studies pile up with leadership in short supply

When Mike Dunleavy campaigned in Ketchikan, he said, “I’ll be more than happy to answer the most important question, right? It’s 6-foot-7.”

As I wrote here two years ago, that was never the most important question in Southeast Alaska.

“There is no plan to hack, cut or destroy the marine highway system,” candidate Dunleavy said, coming closer to hitting the most important question.

But that answer made it impossible to explain the Dunleavy plan that followed to hack, cut and destroy the marine highway system.

Former temporary budget director Donna Arduin, who famously compared the cost of driving a vehicle on a road to that of moving a vehicle on the marine highway, revealed the plan to end the ferry system two years ago.

Dunleavy piped up at one of his Koch Network/Dunleavy road shows that some routes might be abandoned, while others might have reduced schedules and profitable routes might be turned over to private operators.

“I think most folks would agree that looking at the math, ridership going down, fare collections going down and subsidies going up, it’s an unsustainable proposition, so we’re trying to fix this, try and right the ship, no pun intended,” said Dunleavy two years ago.

But Dunleavy shifted into reverse, no pun intended, as the recall gained ground. He said the solution was to add to the pile of marine highway studies, a stack that for all I know could soon be inching toward 6-foot-7.

Ignoring the results of past studies, he hired a consultant for $250,000 to produce a new “reshaping” study showing how ferry service could be maintained at $24 million a year, a number that came from who knows where. The new study was to offer a plan that could be implemented by July 1, 2020.

That didn’t happen. Confirming the obvious, the study said the privatization plan would not work. And that $24 million a year was not enough to provide good service.

A year ago Dunleavy picked nine people to produce a study to implement the results of the $250,000 study.

The group finished its study in October. The “Alaska Marine Highway Reshaping Work Group” is part of a negative feedback loop, the Alaska Municipal League said, with a framework aimed at reducing service and sustainability to save the state money, which harms communities.

“What’s been surprising these last two years is the unfortunate perspective that the Alaska Marine Highway System is expendable, and that just maybe so are the communities reliant on the system. The targeted and sustained assault on an integral part of our transportation system is led from the top,” AML Executive Director Nils Andreassen wrote.

Dunleavy has now proposed that a ferry system advisory board be replaced with an all-new advisory board to study the budget, making short-term and long-term studies.

“All we’re talking about talking about is advisory, advisory, advisory,” Sitka Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins said in an interview with CoastAlaska. “I don’t think anything is going to change unless the management power and governance fundamentally is depoliticized . . . and this bill doesn’t do that.”

If there is a real budget strategy by the governor for the ferry system or anything else, it seems to be one in which he hopes to keep his head above water until after the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Your contributions help support independent analysis and political commentary by Alaska reporter and author Dermot Cole. Thank you for reading and for your support. Either click here to use PayPal or send checks to: Dermot Cole, Box 10673, Fairbanks, AK 99710-0673.