By Delcenia Cosman

Homer Independent Press

“Fiscal plan” has been the buzzword this campaign season among candidates running for state and federal office. This holds true for Heath Smith, running for the Alaska Senate’s District C seat, which represents the southern Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak and Cordova.

Two other Republicans also seek current Rep. Gary Stevens’ seat: Louise Stutes of Kodiak and Carrie Harris of Anchor Point. Under Alaska’s open primary elections, the top four candidates advance to the general election, so all three will be running in November. This week’s Homer Independent Press includes an interview with Stutes, but Harris did not respond to an interview request by press time.

Born and raised in Alaska, Smith has lived in Homer since 1974. He currently serves on the Homer Planning Commission and previously served six years on the Homer City Council. This is his second run for Senate, having previously campaigned in 2022 against Stevens. 

In a recent interview with the Homer Independent Press, Smith said he seeks political office to secure Alaska’s future for the younger generations.

“I’m 60, so I’m not as concerned about my path as much as my kids and grandkids, and what the state of Alaska is going to look like for them long-term, and their ability to call this home,” he said. 

He also said he was frustrated with what he saw as a lack of progress in the Legislature on issues that the state has been grappling with for several years, including a sustainable fiscal plan, education funding and the Permanent Fund Dividend. 

“Here we are four years later,” he said, referring to his last bid for Senate. “They’re still talking about these long-standing issues in the state … . There has to be some resolution at some point in time.” 

Alaska needs more income, Smith said, and one solution he sees for that problem is the proposed Alaska Liquid Natural Gas pipeline.

“If you’re talking about maximum benefit from Alaska’s resources, that cannot only be defined as taxes,” he said. “There’s all kinds of economic benefits that come through that project and what it would mean to the communities along the way, and securing some form of lower energy costs.”

On energy development, Smith supports hydroelectric projects and Railbelt transmission upgrades in addition to the pipeline. In line with bringing in additional revenue, Smith said the state should evaluate “how effective those dollars are being spent in different departments that translate to delivering real results.”

“I’ve seen it from the inside — government is not inherently efficient, so there’s some level of inefficiency that you’ve just got to swallow. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be open to a process to doing things better,” he said. 

One idea Smith proposed involves consolidating school districts to improve statewide education funding.

Alaska has 53 public school districts that range in size from serving tens of thousands of students to a few hundred.

“If you have an entire school district built on less than the enrollment of Homer High School, I think there might be some ways that we could reallocate, through consolidation of school districts, some of that funding to help in different ways,” he said. 

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District has battled with budget deficits in recent years because of inadequate state funding due to declining public school enrollment in addition to the base student allocation (per-student funding received by districts from the state) not keeping up with inflation. In light of this, Smith further proposed exploring a different funding allocation structure to allow districts to address what he called “structural overhead” that isn’t impacted by enrollment rates and then separately address per-student funding. 

“There’s a certain amount of overhead to have a brick and mortar school that does not change when enrollment changes. If that’s baked into the total funding mechanism, I think that’s a disservice to the ability to deliver education,” he said. “What that ultimately looks like, I don’t know. But it’s a conversation to be had.”

He also said he supports discussion on making state funding for schools available earlier and called inflation-proofing the BSA “a no-brainer.” 

As a Homer resident and candidate for District C, which represents several of Alaska’s coastal communities, Smith wants to stabilize the Alaska Marine Highway System to provide more consistent year-round service to those communities. 

Interrupted service during winter is one of the biggest challenges for communities that rely on the marine highway system for transportation, delivery of goods and supplies, and connection to the road system, Smith said. 

“I would love for us, on a federal level, to get the same level of treatment for the marine highway system as we do for our road system. I think that’ll go a long way,” he said. 

He pointed to AMHS understaffing, the age of Alaska’s ferry fleet and the timeline to replace aged-out vessels as additional issues, and circled back to Alaska’s need for a fiscal plan.

“All this comes down to funding … and if we’ve got a structural deficit, how do you come up with the money?” he said.

On the PFD, part of Smith’s platform is to protect the Permanent Fund and preserve a reliable dividend. He said any fiscal plan would need to “dial down on some protection there” but that the state was likely beyond the point of restoring the current statutory formula.

“There’s some restructuring that’s going to have to go on. I want to fight for as much of that for the people as possible, but it’s about managing expectations. I don’t know if there’s an answer that’s going to make people feel good, but I really think that we need to put (it) to bed,” he said. 

Learn more about Smith’s legislative priorities on his campaign website.