JUNEAU — A last-minute appropriation in the capital budget giving Gov. Sarah Palin $9 million to develop an in-state gas line caused an uproar about what some lawmakers call a major shift in state policy only three nights before the session ends.

Two House Finance Committee co-chairmen dropped the surprise appropriation during a committee meeting Thursday night. The funds, if approved by the Legislature, would go straight to Palin’s office for what she pegged her top priority for this legislative session. Some lawmakers, though, said they worry the money is really a state investment in a bullet line as proposed by Southcentral utility Enstar. The money seemed to come out of nowhere, catching nearly all the Finance members and some legislative leaders by surprise. Their astonishment in turn was unexpected by the two Finance co-chairmen.

Language included in the House committee’s version of the budget spells out exactly what kind of pipeline Palin can pursue with the money. The pipeline must be a bullet line from the North Slope to Fairbanks, through the Railbelt and to tidewater on the Kenai Peninsula. The state also would turn any work, such as rights-of-way, over to a private company to build a line.“The governor requested it; we’re sending it to her,” said House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski.Only House Finance co-chairmen Reps. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, and Bill Stoltze, R-Eagle River, seemed to have had full knowledge of the request, but Hawker appeared outraged when he learned the administration hadn’t clued in the rest of the Finance Committee.

“Frankly, it seems she’s more concerned about her national political ambitions than what’s going on throughout the state,” he said, adding that it’s news to him that Palin really didn’t contact other Finance members. “That’s an insult, both to me and the people of Alaska.”Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, asked where the $9 million came from, and said he doesn’t recall hearing any discussion about the request. He said the language sounded an awful lot like an endorsement of Enstar’s proposed project.

“This is a huge policy call,” he said, charging that “it’s not open; it’s not transparent. ... It seems like it’s worthy of more discussion than 9 o’clock in the evening three nights before the Legislature (adjourns).”“This has been in the administration’s bailiwick,” Hawker said. “If they have not been out and spoken with legislators, I’d be very much surprised.”Most of the Finance Committee members said they were hearing about the$9 million request for the first time and that they had not been approached by anyone in Palin’s administration concerning in-state gas development plans.

Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage, said the surprise request seems like a major shift in priorities for Palin, from emphasis on a large-diameter gas pipeline under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act to an in-state bullet line.To date, only Enstar, a Southcentral utility, has proposed building a bullet line between the North Slope and Railbelt customers.Stoltze said Chenault provided the intent language specifying the pipeline route.