Congressman John Campbell's Blog - Green Eyeshade Blog

Friday, November 16, 2007

Posted by: John Campbell at 11:04 AM

I am sure many of you have heard of the “Bridge to Nowhere”, but I bet you haven’t heard of the “Ferry to Nowhere”.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) managed to slip an earmark into the 2008 Defense spending bill for what he cleverly called an “expeditionary craft”. Despite the fact that the U.S. Navy has repeatedly said there is no reason to build this craft, the earmark would direct your tax dollars to the U.S. Navy for the purpose of building this boat. Guess where this “expeditionary craft” will be used? Its sole destination is a remote area of Alaska and its only duty will be that of a ferry service.

Not surprisingly, several family members, and current/former staff own land at the ferry’s destination.

The worst part is that this isn’t the first time tax dollars have paid for this ferry service. Even after the Navy rejected his boat as “impractical”, the undaunted Sen. Stevens continued to solicit funding to build it; earmarking nearly $50 million from 2002-2006.

After his infamous bridge idea, I guess we should at least be grateful this ferry service has a destination.

Editors Note: The "Ferry to Nowhere" runs between Anchorage and the Knik Arm.

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aurorawatcher writes:	Friday, November, 16, 2007 2:47 PM
Details would be nice
Where is this ferry service? As an Alaskan, I'd like to be able to verify that your statement is true so I can attempt to do something about it, but it's a big state, we rely on a lot of ferry service, and the statement is unsupportable without details. Ferry to nowhere? From the perspective of my mother-in-law in New Hampshire, the ferry to Juneau goes nowhere, but as Juneau is our state capital and it is geographically impossible to build a highway to it and weather makes air travel dicey, the ferry is going somewhere sort of important to our state. So, details ....
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Ron writes:	Friday, November, 16, 2007 5:54 PM
Ferry to nowhere
It makes me disgusted that so many Republicans have abandoned the Reagan principles, and are feeding at the public trough (our taxes) to make their relatives and friends wealthy with these unnecessary "earmarks". It is expected that the Democrats as a group have no scruples, but to think that many Republican members of Congress have sunk to the same level is unforgiveable. Such politicians have no regard for the taxpayers and have made themselves into a privileged "ruling class". Do they know with what contempt most voters and taxpayers see them? Obviously they feel whatever they do won't matter, because they figure they'll be re-elected anyway. They're supposed to be working for us, not the other way around!!
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R.A.D. Dad writes:	Sunday, November, 18, 2007 7:49 PM
Conflict of interest
It seems to me this so called republican is voting HIMSELF largess from the pockets of others. This island is sparsely populated with HIS family members being some of the very few who will benefit from this ferry. Having this service saves them money and adds value to their property. People want to buy remote land, they need to pony up the money to get to it.
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aurorawatcher writes:	Monday, November, 19, 2007 4:56 AM
Geographically challenged
Knik Arm is not a land mass, but a tidal estuary at the head of Cook Inlet. Anchorage is hemmed in by mountains and water. Bad building by the Federal Government in the 1920s pushed a lot of fill out into Cook Inlet, making the harbor area unstable. This was a primary cause of the damage during the 1964 earthquake. Because of the earthquake risk, Anchorage doesn't have the option to build upward (tall buildings fall down more easily) and they can't really expand the port further out into Cook Inlet which has tidal forces second only to the Bay of Fundy. Yet, demand for Anchorage's dock facilities is only going to rise as more and more coal and other resources are shipped from there. So, land was selected on the other side of Knik Arm for Port MacKenzie. There are people living there and have been for a long time. There's a correctional facility there, several Native villages and a growing "white" community. Currently, the people living there commute quite a few miles north to connect with the Glenn Highway coming down from Wasilla and wind around to the Knik River bridge, which crosses as a shallow point that it way out of the way. There has been discussion for about 50 years of building a bridge over to the Port McKenzie area, shortening the drive from Wasilla from 100 to 60 miles, but the population was so low in the immediate area as to not make it worthwhile. Now, with the need to expand the Anchorage port and no way to do it on the Anchorage side of the Arm, a bridge was considered and rejected. The ferry would cost a fraction of the cost of the bridge. It would cut down on commute times and it would allow Port MacKenzie to be utilized as it was designed.
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aurorawatcher writes:	Monday, November, 19, 2007 5:15 AM
Bridge to Nowhere?
Thank you for forcing me to investigate this. I always assumed the Knik Arm Bridge Crossing was similar to the Douglas Island "bridge to nowhere." Ketchikan isn't a very big town and the population of Douglas Island is about 12, so the bridge there was a stupid idea. The Knik Arm Bridge was not. There is a growing community in the Port MacKenzie area and the new bridge would have provided an opportunity to reduce commuting time from Wasilla (about the 5th largest down in Alaska) by almost 40 miles. The Knik Bridge would have paid for itself eventually. The ferry will pay much sooner, but it will also be an ongoing cost that the bridge would not have been. This ferry is similar to, for ex., the Puget Sound ferries that 40 years ago ran half-empty from Bremerton to Seattle. People needed the transportation or else it would have required a long trip around the Sound, but the ferries didn't pay for themselves back then. Now, they run full and I bet they pay. Seattle is a better city for having the Olympic peninsula communities within easy commuting distance. Imagine how horrible Seattle would be if every who worked there also lived there! This is similar, except that Anchorage needs Port MacKenzie to supply your factories with coal and natural gas and to bring your grandmother to see the beautiful Alaskan wilderness. And, in reality, Anchorage might not need to Federal government's help if the feds had used their heads when they built the town in the first place. Anchorage is a federally created railroad town. The Army Corps of Engineers really muffed that one!
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aurorawatcher writes:	Monday, November, 19, 2007 5:21 AM
Stevens family
They are not the sole inhabitants of the Mat Su Borough, which is where the ferry (or bridge) would end up. They own some land there. So do a lot of other people. My brother's brother-in-law owns land near there. His parents left it to him; it's been in the family for 60 years. He lives in Fairbanks, so doesn't get down there much. He notes, however, that you can see his property (which is water-front) from Anchorage when the weather is clear. So this isn't all that remote. Gary couldn't personally care less if there's a bridge or a ferry because when he does go down there it's to be alone and isolation works for that. However, if you're going to have a big port, efficient transportation to and from is a requirement. The Anchorage port is very busy,all the time. Port MacKenzie is just a much needed expansion of that. Of course, that all depends on efficient transportation.
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Rich L. writes:	Monday, November, 19, 2007 7:42 AM
Aurorawatcher, thanks for investigating
I guess that sometimes the earmarks are for worthwhile projects, it is just that the hidden nature of earmarks is simply wrong. If this ferry is really neeeded and can be justified, it should be voted on its own merit.
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Seema writes:	Monday, August, 11, 2008 11:30 PM
Ferry to Nowhere
Twice in the past two years, Alaska lawmakers were forced to abandon plans to build two "bridges to nowhere" costing hundreds of millions of dollars after Congress was embarrassed by public complaints over earmarks hidden in annual spending bills.This year, Alaska Republicans Rep. Don Young and Sen. Ted Stevens found another way to move cash to their state: Stevens secured more than $20 million for an "expeditionary craft" that will connect Anchorage with the windblown rural peninsula of Matanuska-Susitna Borough. --------------- Seema ferry to france
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About John Campbell

John Campbell is a member of the House Financial Services Committee, and has taken a leadership role in addressing the country's top economic issues. Campbell serves as a member of the Joint Economic Committee, and House Committee on the Budget. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from UCLA and a Master's Degree in Taxation from USC.