Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy vetoed a bill that would help provide lower interest loans to commercial fishers, claiming the state could not afford to pay for the investment amidst what he called a revenue crisis.
Alaska Senate Bill 156 would have provided USD 3.7 million (EUR 3.1 million) to the Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank (CFAB) to offer low interest rates on commercial fishing loans. The legislation was recommended by the Joint Legislative Taskforce Evaluating Alaska’s Seafood Industry, which claimed that the CFAB had lost loan volume due to low interest commercial fishing loans created by the state government in 2024. SB 156 would fix that by providing funding to help CFAB match those low interest rates and then pay back the investment at a later date.
The state legislature passed the bill with overwhelming support in May.
“This bill will help Alaska small fishing businesses during these tough financial times,” State Senator Jesse Kiehl (D-Juneau) said in a statement.
On 16 July, however, Dunleavy vetoed the legislation, claiming that the state did not have the revenue to make the investment at this time.
“SB 156 would invest USD 3.7 million in state funds to a private bank so it can offer lower-interest loans. In a year of limited revenues and competing needs, committing scarce public dollars to subsidize a private lender is not prudent. Until long-term fiscal policy is put into place, the state must preserve its limited resources,” Dunleavy said in his veto message.
The veto followed a 12 June video message on the state’s budget in which Dunleavy said that an unexpected drop in tax revenue would limit what the state could pay for during the current budget cycle.
“The oil situation has deteriorated. The price of oil has gone down; therefore, revenue is going down,” Dunleavy said. “Basically, we don’t have enough money to pay for all of our obligations. So, as a result of that, you’re going to see some reductions in this year’s budget.”
Among those impacted by budget vetoes was the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, which saw its funding halved to USD 5 million (EUR EUR 4.4 million)
Kiehl criticized Dunleavy for the surprise veto, claiming on social media that he had worked to include Dunleavy in the policy process.
“Yesterday the governor vetoed SB 156, my bill helping small Alaska fishing businesses. That’s a weird move. First because it built on work I helped him do last year. I was glad to help Alaskans, and even though my name was on that policy I took pains to share credit with the governor,” Kiehl said. “But the weirdest thing is, he wouldn’t even talk with me about it. When we sent him the bill (on a schedule his team set,) I asked to meet so we could talk about the good it did for Alaskans and the bad consequences it headed off. He said no.”
The legislature could overturn the veto during a special session set to begin 2 August.
