"JUNEAU UPDATE"

Kodiak Daily Mirror Publication Date of April 30, 1998

Less than two weeks remain until adjournment of the Twentieth Alaska Legislative Session. Ginny and I are looking forward to returning home.

Budget in Conference Committee

HB 325 cuts about $40 million from the Governor’s spending proposal for next year. Balancing the budget will take an estimated $700 million draw from the state’s Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR). The operating budget passed out of the Senate on Tuesday, having passed the House last week. The Senate version moves $1.9 million from General Relief Medical to Catastrophic Illness. The differences will be worked out in a conference committee in these final two weeks.

PFD Changes

The Senate overwhelmingly passed out a committee substitute for HB 2. This will permit the payment of a PFD, to a spouse accompanying an individual for military service, medical treatment or educational pursuits. This will affect quite a few folks in the Coast Guard. If this bill becomes law, spouses would get an extension to apply for this year’s dividend, even though the deadline for this year’s PFD was last month. Please call if I can answer any questions regarding this matter.

Survey Results

In a nutshell, this is a quick synopsis of the way respondents felt concerning questions in my constituent issues survey. There was a return of 6.6%, not counting that some households may have been answering for two or more adults. Sixty-six percent responding thought that the state should have capital punishment, while only 40% thought that gambling on the state ferry system should be allowed.

An overwhelming 83% of you felt that the state constitution should be amended to prevent a federal takeover of our fisheries on federal land. Should the legislature continue to balance the budget by cutting $50 million this year, 70% said; yes. Those that voted no, were mostly in favor of balancing the budget by taking money from the undistributed interest of the Permanent Fund.

A convincing 65% said that sport fishermen should not be allowed to receive more fish and the commercial fishermen less fish. And 77% indicated that state residents should be allowed to take more fish than non-residents do. Fifty percent responding voted no, to any buy-back program that would reduce commercial fishing efforts. And last, 75% were in favor of creating a dedicated highway fund, with revenues collected from fuel used in all motor vehicles designed for roads being deposited into this fund. That money could then only be used for maintenance of our roads and highways. A detailed report will be mailed out to everyone who responded. Please call or write if I can amplify on any of the survey results. Thanks again for mailing in your responses.

Fisheries

HB 392, legislation that I sponsored, which modifies wholesale price reporting to the state, passed the Senate April 24^th. The Senate made changes in the Senate Resources Committee dealing with confidentiality, the House then concurred with these changes and this bill is on the way to the Governor for his signature.

HB 310, my bill on utilization of groundfish, passed unanimously on the Senate Floor April 22nd. The bill was sent to the Governor, who has 15 days, excluding Sundays, to sign the legislation after he receives it. This bill has an immediate effective date.

Rep. Ivan’s HB 285 is still moving forward and is now in Senate Rules awaiting scheduling for a Floor vote. Passage of this bill is likely in the next week. HB 285 will attach points to limited entry permit holders when citations and violations occur. Amendments adopted in Senate Resources have intensified this legislation to the point where many commercial fishers have expressed concerns. The committee rewrote the language on how the fisherman could remove the points from his permit. I have talked to Senator Mackie about trying to get the bill back to its original form. Hopefully, further amendments are forthcoming.

On Wednesday, April 29^th at 5:00 p.m., the Fisheries Committee is scheduled to hear HB 483 again. Since we have heard opposition from the Department of Public Safety and ADFG’s Division of Sportfish, the committee may redraft this bill to address some of their concerns regarding nonresident aliens. The Division of Sport Fish testified it would be preferable to have HB 19 pass first, which establishes minimum guidelines for becoming a guide. As you might recall HB 19 is a bill that I introduced last year. HB 19 passed the House last year and has been sitting in the Senate Resource Committee ever since. The remaining section of HB 483 requires processors of sport caught fish maintain some records of the fish they process, but is crafted not to apply to sport fish guides who just clean and fillet the fish for their clients. The chairman of House Resources, where HB 483 goes next, has requested that we not move this bill out of our committee, as the resource committee will not have time to address these issues.

The committee will also hear HB 489. This bill would require all commercial fishing vessels over 25 feet to have a working transponder on board. I look forward to some enlightening discussion with the sponsor, Rep. Pete Kott of Eagle River. The overall cost of enacting this bill is prohibitive. The transponders will cost each fisherman between $3,500 to $5,000 and the cost of monitoring the signals. I do not plan on moving this bill out of committee. This will be the last meeting for the session, as all committees will be shut down effective May 2^nd.

Subsistence

HB 406, the subsistence bill that does not include a constitutional amendment, is presently in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Taylor has held one hearing in Fairbanks and may bring this bill up at anytime under "bills previously heard". The bill also has referrals to Senate Resources and Finance Committee. I anticipate that the Senate will not pass anything during this session. If we are going to solve this issue this year, we will have to go into a special session. There is already talk of calling this special session right away.

Bible Chapel Choir Performs

The members of the Kodiak Bible Chapel choir were in Juneau this past week singing at various locations around town. With Sue Rohrer conducting, 26 teens sang the invocation on both the floors of the Alaska House and Senate chambers. Those choir members attending were: Soma Alverez, Ryan Boudreau, Chris Bryant, Kaara Busbell, Leilani Deardurff, Megan Everitt, Roland Goossen, Ben Green, Lisa Green, Byron Haggren, Sarah Haggren, John Heinrichs, Holly Hunt, Alaina Kelley, James McCarty, Mike McCarty, Curtis Mortenson, Andrea Roberts, Cimena Rogers, Sam Rohrer, Sherise Sorth, LeeAnn Schmelzenbach, Emilee Wallace, Daisy West, Roy West and Peter Wright. Former member of the group, Dan Rohrer was also attending, as was chaperones Bobbie Haggren, Sonya Mortenson, Bonnie Troth and Sheila Wallace.

Visitors

Former State Senator from Kodiak, Fred Zharoff and his wife Barbara stopped by the office for a visit. Fred received a thunderous applause in both the Senate and House chambers when he was introduced on the Floor. Also stopping by the office this week was Betty Walters, Pat Jacobson and Norm Wooten. Last week I met with Karen and Rob Fitch of Kodiak.