July 17, 2019 — Just under $1 million was cut from the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game under Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget vetoes, leaving it with an $85 million budget, half from state general funds.
“To give the governor credit, he recognized the return on investment,” said Doug Vincent-Lang, Fish and Game commissioner. “It’s a theme I had all the way through the Legislature that we take a $200 million budget of which about $50 million is unrestricted general funds and we turn that into an $11 billion return to our state. And I think he got that.”
Vincent-Lang added that Dunleavy also did not veto the travel budget for the Board of Fisheries and its advisory committees.
It’s indefinite still how the budget cuts will play out, and Vincent-Lang said he is trying to avoid staff cuts to the 700 commercial fisheries positions.
“I suspect we may have some but we will try to do that through vacancies and a variety of other things as we have retirements,” he said.