Dunleavy administration backs 20,000-acre giveaway to AIDEA
With the clock running down on the Dunleavy administration, the state is rushing through a plan to give away 20,000 acres of state land near Houston to the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority.
Giving the land to AIDEA at no charge—a massive state subsidy—would make a proposed “multi-use industrial and energy development district” more likely to succeed, according to the Dunleavy analysis.
There would be space for data centers, a logistics hub, advanced manufacturing pads, gravel pits and energy and utility hubs across the 20,000 acres. The site is east of the Parks Highway about two miles north of Houston and is accessible by Zero Lake Road.
It would no longer be state land after the giveaway and the AIDEA board would be free to manage it as it sees fit, according to the Dunleavy administration.
The public notice for this giveaway refers to AIDEA as a “public and charitable use applicant.” Giving away the land would reduce “AIDEA’s upfront land and capital costs” and accelerate “public-purpose development.”
The department will accept public comment until August 19.
There are 23.9 miles of active, inactive and planned forestry roads in the area, along with 41.8 miles of trails.
Crowther’s department is required to determine if a giveaway to AIDEA is in the public interest, a vague term that means anything the proponents want it to mean.
“AIDEA is not simply a political subdivision of the State, but a political subdivision expressly tasked with undertaking development projects that serve the public interest and are for a public purpose,” the department concludes.
The law allows land to be sold as less than fair market value to a government entity, but why make it free? And why not refer to this as an AIDEA subsidy instead of acting as if the land has no value.
The department claims it is not in the public interest and it would not serve a public purpose to keep the land in public hands.
There is no analysis from Crowther’s department about why the state isn’t collecting a penny for 20,000 acres. There is no analysis about how much the land is worth and how much it could be sold for.
But there is a claim that free land “improves the rate of return on the project and de-risks private investment because the project thereby carries less cash risk for the same asset base and can be structured for repayment of the state’s contribution (free land) through lease revenues, profit distributions to AIDEA’s stake, and through the AIDEA dividend.”
None of that should be believed because there is no requirement “for repayment of the state’s contribution” of free land.
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