Legislators looking at new office building in Anchorage

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: October 26, 2009 - 3:56 pm

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From Sean Cockerham in Anchorage--

Alaska lawmakers are again talking about building a new legislative office building in Anchorage, after ditching a plan to do so last year because of the price tag and worries of Juneau legislators that it could be a backhanded Capitol move.

The Legislative Council, a panel of state senators and representatives that handles day-to day business of the Legislature, is scheduled to meet in Anchorage Tuesday and discuss whether to move forward on the idea. Another option they will talk about is to just renew the lease at the current legislative office building on West 4th Avenue.

“I think we need to have a larger building with more offices and adequate parking, said Senate President Gary Stevens, a Republican from Kodiak.

The Legislature last year was planning to raze the downtown Anchorage block across from the state courthouse. The idea was to construct a new building with more office space for legislators as well as court officials. But the project cost doubled to $86 million from the original estimate and the proposal was abandoned.

Now legislators are eyeing other potential locations. The most seriously discussed is a piece of state-owned property near the Atwood building, at what is now a parking lot near 9th and E. The cost of building it there hasn’t been determined.

The chairman of the Legislative Council, Rep. John Harris, said the state has four years left on its current lease. If the Legislature did want to construct a new office building, it would need to get the process started to have it ready in time, he said.

Harris, who is leaving the Legislature because he’s running for governor, said he’s not pushing for a new building and is looking for direction Tuesday from the other council members on whether to pursue it. If they do want a new building, a vote of the full Legislature would still be needed to appropriate money for the construction.

The Anchorage legislative office building is a center of activity when lawmakers aren’t in Juneau during the 90-days of the annual regular session. Anchorage and Mat-Su Valley legislators have offices there, as do several others from around the state, and hearings are common.

Harris said there have been complaints about the elevator speed, the heating system and other issues. He said he thinks what happens next depends on whether legislators want to be more conservative and not spend money on a new building.

“I tend to be more conservative but I’m not going to try to put the chairman of leg council’s position out there to try and influence other members,” said Harris, a Republican from Valdez who has an office in the Anchorage building.

He said he’s trying to make it clear to Juneau legislators that this isn’t meant as a Capitol move.

Senate President Stevens, who also has an office in the Anchorage building, said heavy pressure for space there is going to grow as the legislative districts are redrawn after the 2010 census.

“Pretty clear to me that there are going to be more legislators from Anchorage and the valley who will probably want offices in the (building) as well,” he said.

Stevens won’t be at Tuesday's meeting and said he hopes a final decision won’t be made until the following legislative council meeting, likely in November.

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