This is a little piece that I wrote regarding Alaska. I wrote this in response to a letter to the editor. After submitting the letter, I was asked if I could change it into a column for possible publication. While I am waiting to hear back from the editor, I wanted to share this with you and get your thoughts upon it.

Like any other conservative, I am abhorred when our federal government spends far too much money. Normally I would applaud the efforts of Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to reduce governmental pork spending. Senator Coburn introduced Senate Amendment 2165 to House Resolution 3058 that would have redirected $452 million dollars from two bridges in Alaska to help reconstruct the Twin Spans Bridge in Louisiana.
I am sure that by this time we have all heard about the Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere” and I believe that many of you would agree that this attempt by Senator Coburn was a noble idea. Senator Coburn’s website calculated the Alaskan bridge to cost about $4.46 million per person and added that that was enough “to buy every island resident their own personal Lear jet.” As Senator Coburn said on the floor of the Senate,
“Is it important right now to spend $200 million on a bridge to 50 people in Alaska? Is that important? Should we be doing that when we could spend $200 million helping people in New Orleans or Mississippi?”

Well folks as much as we may want to applaud this effort on the part of Senator Coburn, and castigate his fellow Senators who ultimately rejected the amendment by an 82 – 15 vote, perhaps we should look a little more closely at this issue for I believe that Senator Coburn was playing a little fast and free with his facts.
In the discussion about this bridge, people have throw around so many different facts. Yes, the bridge will connect Gravina Island to the so-called mainland, which is another island itself, which contains the City of Ketchikan and Saxman. In truth, the bridge will connect Gravina and Pennick Island to Revillagigedo (Revilla) Island. Yes, approximately 50 people live on Pennick Island. Will that bridge serve only those 50 people? NO.
Gravina Island is also the location of the Ketchikan International Airport. While the city of Ketchikan and Saxman may have only 30,000 residents, some 200,000 people use the airport annually. The Ketchikan region is a high tourist area along the Alaskan Inside Passage, which during the summer will host some 800,000 tourists. Ketchikan International Airport will serve as a means for employees flying to Alaska to join Cruise Ships, for tourist coming to the region not on the ships, for temporary employees who travel to Ketchikan to work during the season, and for the residents of Ketchikan who wish to return to the lower 48 to visit family and friends. With all this information allow me to redo a little of Senator Coburn's math. If we consider the residents, the tourists and the people who will utilize the airport, some 1,000,000 people annually, this factors to about $217 per person. Or to be a little fairer, if we take into account only the people who will use the airport, some 200,000 annually, this factors to about $1000 per person. Unreasonable, I don't believe so and far from the amount necessary to purchase a Lear jet or for that matter a decent boat.

Since Ketchikan itself is on an island, the airport also serves as one of our primary means of receiving goods. The principal modes of transportation to Ketchikan are airplane, including floatplane, and ship there is no “hard link” surface transportation available to or between Revilla and Gravina islands, or to other communities in Alaska or Outside.
One crucial element that is often overlooked in this discussion is what the bridge will mean to healthcare and emergency services. Since the community is small, so too is the medical facility. Although Ketchikan General Hospital provides first-rate services, there are many services that it cannot provide especially in trauma situations. This bridge will provide direct access to the airport, and to medical evacuation facilities. Currently the Medevac crews must wait up to one-half hour for the crew of the ferry to be awakened and report to the ferry before being able to be transported to their equipment. Oftentimes in an emergency situation, a matter of minutes can be difference between life and death.
The fact remains that while the airport is located on one island, and the majority of the residents live on another island, there are great hardships that must be endured. Access to the airport is inconvenient and inefficient for airport users and businesses. The airport ferry operates 8 to 16 hours per day with departures every 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the season, a schedule that requires travelers to consider the ferry schedule when making plans to meet a flight at the airport.
This bridge will provide Ketchikan and its residents more reliable, efficient, convenient, and cost-effective access for vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians to borough lands and other developable or recreation lands on Gravina Island. It will improve the convenience and reliability of access to Ketchikan International Airport for passengers, airport tenants, emergency personnel and equipment, and shipment of freight.
Regardless of whether that Gravina Island Bridge is a good project or not, the misinformation that has been parroted by journalists and pundits alike must be held to scrutiny. Far too often, people are quick to jump on a band wagon when they see an injustice, however, often times when all the facts are known, a majority will just as quickly jump off. Whether Senator Coburn’s intentions were noble or not, one must decide whether he acted upon this intentions with good faith and little knowledge, or with bad faith knowing the true facts?
If the true goal of Senator Coburn and Representative Flake were to redirect monies to assist the regions most affected by the hurricane, why did they focus solely on the Alaskan portion of the Highway Trust Fund? Senator Coburn's Oklahoma will receive 2.8 billion dollars from the HTF while Representative Flake’s Arizona will receive 3.2 billion dollars. Here's a novel idea, since Senator Coburn and Representative Flake are so willing to give monies from the State of Alaska's HTF, why don't they start at home. Oklahoma could return the 700,000 million dollars and Arizona could return the 1.1 billion dollars more that their states will receive than Alaska and that would more than make up for the two amendments that Senator Coburn introduced and had defeated.
Senator Coburn and Representative Flake would have been much better martyrs, had they sought to take spending first from their own state, before attacking another state. Their move to attack only the funding from one state shows their true lack of wanting fiscal responsibility. Perhaps the question that they should have been asking is not what Alaska is doing what its portion of the HTF, but why is the federal government even involved in administering and authorizing the expenditures.
As a conservative, and a Republican, I feel obliged to hold the members of my party to a higher standard, as we all should. Fiscal responsibility is a daunting task, however, before making accusations of the misuse of monies, one should make sure that the allegations actually hold water.

dmk