Public radio station KHNS is rallying support in the wake of a 27 percent proposed cut to the Alaska Public Broadcasting Commission.

The cut was included in Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s proposed budget for the coming year.

Station manager Kay Clements said this week that the cut would mean a commensurate reduction to the grant the local station receives from APBC, shrinking it from $104,000 last year to $73,000. The station’s grant from APBC also was cut $31,000 last year.

Clements said the cut would shrink the station’s total budget from $400,000 to about $375,000, an amount that includes an expectation of receiving other grants for equipment, she said.

Clements said if the cut occurs, she’d seek to reduce travel and conference costs, but might have to trim personnel. “I don’t want to lose staff but that would be ultimately where we’d have to start trimming, although that would be a last resort. I think that, overall, everybody here does an amazing job.”

Clements wrote in a newsletter to members and supporters this week, asking them to contact legislators and write letters. “We need your help to protect community radio in the Upper Lynn Canal,” she wrote.

  Clements wrote the cut is “distinctly disproportionate” to Walker’s proposed cuts to other programs of 7-10 percent. “Further cuts will deeply affect our ability to provide local programming to the Upper Lynn Canal,” she wrote.

Public broadcasting cuts statewide would diminish the station’s statewide news broadcasts and may affect discounts the station receives in tandem with other Alaska public stations, she said.