Dunleavy administration refuses to admit its failings on giant road plan

Predictably, the Dunleavy administration is trying to direct blame everywhere except where it belongs for the state highway funding fiasco. It’s all damage control.

And the potential damage if the state cannot get the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan approved by the Federal Highway Administration by the end of March could be enormous.

The Dunleavy administration created this failure by not following specific guidelines or instructions provided by the federal agencies. There are numerous errors that should have been fixed months ago.

Transportation spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy told the Daily News-Miner that the feds are “interpreting federal rules differently.” Nonsense. That’s not what happened here.

I’ve asked her to provide a specific list to justify her claim that this came about because of the feds. McCarthy has not responded to that email or to many others from me.

The plan was not rejected because the feds are interpreting the rules differently. It happened because of numerous state errors.

The Anchorage Daily News has the best coverage of this situation and Sen. Lisa Murkowski has the best advice for the transportation department and Dunleavy.

She told the newspaper that the federal agencies had warned of problems in advance and she said she would advise Dunleavy to consider this an urgent problem.

“I’m going to urge him that this is not a time to say, ‘Well, it’s the Biden administration and they’re just out to get us,’” she said.

During a legislative hearing, DOTPF Commisioner Ryan Anderson admitted that the plan was not the work of an experienced team of state employees.

“We have a lot of new people,” he said.

Part of the problem is the stubborn refusal of the Dunleavy administration to acknowledge that local highway projects require local approval.

“Anderson said to state legislators Thursday that federal agencies told the state it needed to defer to municipal planning organizations for projects within their boundaries,” the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The Dunleavy administration was told last summer this was required by federal law, but it refused to listen.

Now the entire program of federal funding for state roads is at risk.

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