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When Gov. Sarah Palin signed the FY 2009 state capital budget, among the $269 million in projects she axed with her veto pen were more than $30 million appropriated to Kenai Peninsula legislative districts.

"Naturally, I'm disappointed," House District 34 Rep. Mike Chenault, who chairs the House Finance Committee, said Tuesday.

Many of the projects were items that had been vetted through the public process and high priorities to those communities, he said.

What happens in response is still to be determined. Chenault said he had not had a chance to discuss the vetoes in detail with other members of the Legislature over the holiday weekend, but would on Wednesday.

"There's always some talk about a veto override," he said. "I will hear more tomorrow about what their line of thoughts are."

While not the largest cut by a long shot, Palin did excise $300,000 meant for Central Peninsula Hospital's Serenity House expansion project in House District 33, which includes purchase of 40 acres off Kristina Way and renovation of an existing building.

Funding for that project has been cobbled together from several granting agencies. Matt Dammeyer, assistant administrator of CPH, said the loss of the state money is not the end of the project. That's because the hospital had originally applied to the Rasmuson Foundation for a grant of $295,000.

"We will continue forward as planned if this happened," and seek the Rasmuson grant, Dammeyer said, adding that representatives of the foundation had called after the governor's veto was announced to say they were assuming the hospital would move forward with their original request.

Palin said the $300,000 could be considered in a future budget.

The Office of Management and Budget's Web site has the budget and vetoes in various spreadsheets available for download.

In all, House District 33, which includes Kenai and Soldotna, saw $574,500 chopped from the budget. Other amounts seeing the edge of the knife included $150,000 for safety and survival training at the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, $40,000 for a therapy program at Heritage Place, as well as smaller amounts earmarked for a Kenai soccer park maintenance building, a log cabin historical site, bear-resistant trash containers and Montessori Model United Nations participation expenses.

"All in all it was not too bad. About 6 percent (was cut) in my district," Rep. Kurt Olson said Tuesday.

Olson said he hadn't had time to discuss the cuts with his colleagues and couldn't speak to any veto override possibility. He did say he was very disappointed with the loss of the Serenity House funding.

He said he thought the cuts made by the governor were fairly consistent and didn't single out any district unfairly.

House District 34, Chenault's district, which includes much of the rural peninsula, saw its share of cuts as well, the largest a $7.3 million cut in funding designated for the state's Holt-Lamplight road project. Palin left $1 million in the budget for that project, but said the rest should be considered for a future budget.

"Holt-Lamplight will eventually get done," Chenault said. "She (the governor) did leave about $10.4 million for borough roads alone."

In House District 34, another $1.125 million was sliced from the Nikiski Fire Service Station No. 2. Some $3.375 million for that project remains in the budget, however.

In all, House District 34 lost just over $9.3 million. Other projects cut in House District 34 included the Funny River Chamber's covered multi-use facility ($135,000), the Kasilof-Cohoe Cemetery columbarium ($70,000), and the Kasilof Regional Historical Association's McLane Center renovation ($20,000).

Also cut were $55,000 for Nikiski Fire Station signs, $300,000 for beach access at Nikiski Inlet, and another $300,000 for the Sterling Community Club multi-use facility.

House District 35 saw $6.1 million disappear to Palin's veto pen.

A Seward project to dredge cruise ship berthing basins and approaches lost $4.5 million that was to come from commercial passenger vessel taxes. Palin said the project would be considered in a future budget. Another $500,000 was cut that had been aimed at a Jesse Lee Home stabilization project. Some $400,000 more was cut from the Seward long-term care construction project. A Camp Fire USA project to rebuild Camp Kushtaka lost $435,000 in 2008 funding and another $75,000 in 2009 funding.

Other items cut included $15,000 for a Zamboni blade sharpener for Homer Hockey Association, $50,000 for a Homer Senior Housing land purchase, $10,000 meant for road improvements to Caribou Hills Access Trail, $44,500 meant for Kachemak Ski Club's Ohlson Mountain ski hill improvements, $50,000 that would have paid for personal protection equipment for Kachemak Emergency Services personnel, and $10,225 for a South Peninsula Hospital cell phone repeater antenna.

The peninsula areawide also lost funds. By far the largest loss -- at $12.5 million -- was felt by Homer Electric Association, which planned to use that money to upgrade the utility's electrical distribution system.

Also cut were $72,000 for an ice condition analysis and forecast equipment needed by the Cook Inlet Citizens Advisory Committee, $250,000 for HEA's hazardous tree removal program, $1.1 million for HEA's South Kachemak Bay cable replacement project, and $40,000 for the Kenai Peninsula Borough's junk vehicle removal program.

Areawide, the cuts amounted to more than $14.3 million.

Chenault lamented the governor's decision to cut the utility money for HEA. That didn't square, he said, with the idea of offering utilities subsidies for reducing the cost of power.

"That's what that money would have done," he said of the cut HEA funding.

Chenault said it appeared the Kenai Peninsula districts saw a relatively high percentage of projects cuts, but perhaps not to an unreasonable degree. He said Palin did leave intact a lot of funding for fire departments and schools.

"It's kind of a pick-and-choose thing," he said. "I'm not going to get petty with it."

Hal Spence can be reached at hspence@ptialaska.net