Today Governor Bill Walker signed the legislation that allocates the funding for the state to buy TransCanada’s share of the Alaska LNG Project.
Gov. Walker: “I also want to thank, in addition to the entire legislature, and certainly the co-chairs of House and Senate Finance, TransCanada. Throughout the process they have remained very professional.”
He responded to the questions from legislators during the session about transparency from his administration on the project.
Gov. Walker: “I’m looking forward to an opportunity to sit down with the president of BP Alaska, the president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, and the same counterpart with Exxon to have that discussion, to convey to them about what we heard from legislators who were concerned about that and have that discussion. That’s the step I would take.”
The governor says his administration is working on a final fiscal plan for the upcoming year which will include this buyout.
Gov. Walker: “As we say, it’s written in pencil, not in ink. With the changes as we go we want to get a fair amount of input on it beforehand. The statutory time frame to present the budget is December 15 and our commitment is to do it as early as possible and we assume that’s going to be prior to December 15 and the reason for that is to give the legislature more time to look at it, to work with it.”
Governor Walker was vague on details but says it will definitely include more state cuts and, based on the statewide input from Alaskans, most likely include some kind of tax to create revenue.