JUNEAU — Businesses and communities around Alaska are one step closer to getting economic incentives to develop areas around the state’s military bases and facilities after the House State Affairs Committee cleared the bill on Tuesday.
Its sponsor, Rep. Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks, said HB316 is modeled after laws in Texas and Virginia that allow communities to label an area a “military facility zone.”
The designation would make state and federal funding available for projects that save the base money and create the opportunity for more on-base operations. They could include a contractor setting up an unmanned aerial drone training center or a construction company building a school or housing if there’s an influx of troops.
Thompson began working on the bill last year, before the U.S. Air Force announced plans to move F-16 fighter planes based at Eielson Air Force Base, near Fairbanks, to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage. The plans led to fears the base could be targeted for further reductions.
“We need to hurry up and get to this one because it’s especially important with everything going on,” Thompson said.
But it’s not only Eielson that would benefit. Officials from Alaska Aerospace Corp., a state-owned group tasked with boosting aerospace industry, told the State Affairs Committee the bill could help them expand the Kodiak Launch Complex and find revenue sources around other bases.
“This is broad enough for communities to do what they want,” said Dale Nash, the group’s chief executive officer. “Businesses would like to do whatever work they can, and this just makes more opportunities for that to happen.”
Thompson’s bill is expected to make it the House floor for a vote by next week. It will move to the Senate if it clears the House.
Comments (2)
Add commentGood deal!
We have a Coast Guard station and an Air National Guard hangar, therefore we're a "military facility zone" and should get a bunch of free money. Let's use it to build a bridge, or maybe a whale tail.
Seriously, these communities already have benefited greatly from having military bases located near them. Now they should get bonus money to give to the private sector? What evidence is there that this would have kept the F-16's in Eielson or have protected it from a BRAC closure?
This smells as much like a giveaway of public money to special interests as Parnell's oil tax giveaway.
Total foolishness
Why is any business in these zones any more important than one outside the zone? And why is this an issue that Alaska should be spending money on?
I believe this is more of another good-old-boy attempt to save the launch complex on Kodiak that is faltering after almost 20 years of unprofitable operation.
Why is it those who want all government out of private business dream up these programs where their private business can get special incentives from government?