JUNEAU -- The Senate Finance Committee advanced a new version of the $2.1 billion capital budget Wednesday, adding a package of $245 million in grants, revenue bonds and loans to replace a 50-year-old power plant at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The budget includes $37.5 million to complete the state library and museum in Juneau, as well as $45.6 million to complete the engineering building at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Fairbanks Sen. Pete Kelly, co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was the chief proponent of the UAF power plant, which came at the expense of most other Fairbanks projects, including finishing the engineering building at UAF, deferred maintenance work on the campus and other community projects.
The UA Board of Regents, the school administration and Fairbanks community leaders have long identified the power plant as the most critical need for the university. The plant provides both heat and light to the campus, and the risk of a winter shutdown looms larger as the plant ages.
"Fairbanks has made a pretty big sacrifice to get this past my wishes, but it's obviously a priority of the university," Anchorage Sen. Kevin Meyer, co-chairman of the committee, said of the power plant plan.
The committee attached language showing that it would like the university to implement a utility surcharge or raise tuition to generate up to $2 million to help pay for bonds on the power plant.
A few hundred yards uphill from the power plant, a new $109 million engineering building is taking shape on the campus. UAF is seeking $33.3 million to finish that project, but the proposed budget only includes $5 million of state general funds, along with the authorization to raise $5 million more.
Construction began on the Fairbanks and Anchorage engineering buildings at the same time, but unless the House adds funds for the Fairbanks building, it will be pushed back.
UAF officials said that without an additional $15 million this year to continue construction, completion could be delayed until August 2016, if full funding is provided next year. The delay would add $3 million to the overall cost, UAF estimated, and force a temporary halt to construction in 2015.
Meyer said he had hoped to include all of the $33.3 million needed to finish the UAF engineering building, but the money went to the power plant.
"After a lot of discussion with my co-chairman and with the representatives from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, they felt like the power plant was a much bigger priority at this point in time," Meyer said.
The committee amended the bill to include $18.9 million in federal funds and $2.1 million in state funds to build a single-lane road from King Cove to Cold Bay, a show of support for the state effort to win federal approval for that project.
In other areas the bill includes:
• $10 million for the Susitna-Watana hydro project, more than $32 million less than the amount proposed by Gov. Sean Parnell;
• $15 million for the computerized train control system for the Alaska Railroad;
• $10 million to renovate Anchorage's Loussac Library;
• $7 million for the Blood Bank of Alaska, which is moving into a new building in Anchorage;
• $1 million for preservation of the papers of the late Sen. Ted Stevens;
• $31.5 million to replace the school in Kwethluk;
• $11.7 million for the Andreafski High School gym; and
• $40 million for AHFC energy programs.