The Alaska Seafood Industry Task Force is made up of eight state lawmakers, and was formed this spring to address a downturn in the state’s commercial fishing industry. At the group’s fourth meeting on December 10, Petersburg’s longtime Harbormaster Glorianne Wollen told lawmakers that Alaska’s harbors need more money for maintenance.
Afterward, she told KFSK that a lot of the complications in funding come from a shift in harbor ownership over the years.
“From the beginning of statehood, the state owned our municipal harbors, but in 1996 the state decided to get out of the harbor business,” she said.
Municipalities had 10 years to transfer ownership and figure out how to fund harbor maintenance. They did get some help, through something called the Municipal Harbor Facility Grants Program. The state program matches up to $5 million for municipal harbor projects. But Wollen said that funding cap has been the same since 2006.
“Twenty years ago, when it was implemented, theoretically $5 million could grow to $10 million, and you could do a fairly decent project for that,” she said.
But with inflation and the rising costs of construction, she said that money doesn’t go nearly as far today.
Wollen said another problem is that the state doesn’t fully fund the grant program. That means each year a lot of harbors that apply for the matching grant don’t get it. Wollen said that without more funding, municipalities will have to choose between harbor disrepair and raising moorage rates. She told task force members that inflation-proofing the grant and approving every application would ensure that won’t happen.
Wollen’s other idea for harbor funding involves Alaska’s fish tax. Right now, fish landing taxes are split 50-50 between the state and local communities. Wollen said more of that money needs to go to fishing communities, since the state no longer owns and maintains municipal harbors.
“I think maybe we should look at splitting the pot a little differently,” she said. “Maybe the municipality should be receiving 75% and the state gets 25%, especially in light of not fully funding the harbor municipal match grant,” she said.
In Petersburg, some of that state fish tax money goes straight into the borough’s general fund. Whatever is leftover goes to the Harbor Department, which Wollen puts aside for harbor repair and replacement projects. Wollen said each town decides what to do with the money – in some places it all goes into the general fund. But, she said, that’s not the point.
“It’s still more money to your community. So how about if we all agree that that’s a good thing, and not get lost in the weeds,” she said. “Let’s just shoot for that, and then let those decisions on how it really trickles down to the back to the waterfront, happen at the local level.”
Wollen isn’t particularly optimistic that her presentation to the task force will result in any new legislation. She said it’s been more than a decade since a lawmaker expressed interest in these a particular ideas. They ended up in a bill that didn’t make it through the House or Senate.
This time around though, the seafood task force is required to report its findings to the Alaska State Legislature by January 21, 2025.
