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HOUSE PASSES OPERATING BUDGET
I drafted an amendment to fund space for the Seward Recorder's Office. The amendment passed without any objection and I
am optimistic that the funding will stay in the budget. A number of you contacted my office to share your opinions on the
importance of Title X funding. The HESS Finance Subcommittee removed the Title X money, which is federal funding that
pays for women’s and adolescent services like abstinence counseling and annual exams for low-income women. These
proposed cuts would have drastically affected the Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic’s ability to provide health care
services. I discussed the impact of these cuts with the chair of the HESS Finance Subcommittee and other Finance Committee
members who put the Title X money back in the budget. Funding for State Parks in the Department of Natural Resources
was amended back in to the budget on the House Floor April 6th. The current plan for Sate Parks is to move towards
privatizing a number of sites. Meanwhile, the Senate is still working on final reports from the Finance Subcommittees. The
Operating Budget passed the House on April 6th after having only 3 bipartisan amendments offered on April 5th. The
bipartisan cooperation is still holding on the House side after our unanimous appropriation vote for education and funding the
entire budget several weeks ago. It appears we will be going to Conference Committee since the Senate has not concurred
with our actions. We all hope this will happen soon so we can get a firm funding number from the legislature to the school
districts. I do hope the legislature will be able to address an early funding bill for the education in the future.
ALASKA COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT PLAN
The passage of last year’s EO 106 and HB 191 mandated changes to Alaska’s Coastal Zone Management Plans. I mentioned
in a past newsletter that I was working to have these changes be considered significant rather than minor revisions. The
federal government recently declined to approve the administration's changes to the state's Coastal Zone Management Plan as
a “minor revision”(passed last year in HB 191 and EO 106). However, the administration is
proceeding with it's planned course of action, and will resubmit the changes as a “significant amendment” instead of going
back to the public to redesign the Alaska Coastal Zone Management Plan from the ground up. I am working to make sure
these program changes go through the appropriate public process and comment period.
WAYS AND MEANS
The Ways and Means Committee will not be meeting this week. Much of its work is done since they have passed the
education employment tax, POMV, and the tobacco tax. Still under consideration in the Ways and Means Committee are the
tourism tax, income tax, and the revision of oil and gas Economic Limiting Factor bill, which still awaits a hearing. It does not
appear any of these three pieces of legislation are in serious contention to move forward.
SEWARD DELEGATION VISITS JUNEAU
I was pleased to be able to introduce former State Representative Margaret Branson, Seward City Council member Willard
Dunham, Acting Seward Mayor Vanta Shafer, and Seward City Manager Phil Shealy to the House of Representatives on April
5th. Senator Gary Stevens, my wife Tina and myself were able to visit with them over dinner and discuss various Seward
projects.
HOUSE BILL 547
This bill was introduced as a means to address the often-lamented “brain drain” by providing people with an incentive to return
to Alaska from college, military service, or other extended allowable absences. Legislators are often asked to solve reported
abuses of the allowable absence system, which would be taken care of by this bill. Just about every year new absences are
added to the list of allowable departures or durations. Last year the legislature added an allowance that lets entire families
leave for up to 3 years if one member of the family is caring for a terminally ill non-Alaskan relative (up to a first cousin
relationship); this year there is a bill to extend that allowance to care for a non-terminally ill relative. No one can deny that
those are difficult situations, however, the legislature is attempting to limit the growing percentage of checks sent to Outside
addresses. A 10-year limit on continuous allowable absences will go into effect in 2008. Although HB 547 has been
introduced as a State Affairs Committee bill, a military family from Alaska actually requested that I initiate this proposal based
on their experiences. Myself and other members of the State Affairs Committee really appreciate all of the comments we have
received on elements of the bill because they help shape the structure of the legislation. As I have often suggested in my
newsletter, early on in the Committee process is the best place to modify legislation. I look forward to your additional
suggestions on this and any other legislation.
SHALLOW NATURAL GAS UPDATES
SSHB 364- Homer Shallow Natural Gas Leases- I was finally able to get SSHB364 moved out of the House Oil and Gas
Committee. It passed with the amendment, which I supported, that limits the conditions under which the Homer leases could
be extended. We hope to have a hearing in the House Resources Committee the week of April 12. We also hope to get the
Finance Committee referral removed since this bill now has a zero fiscal note. As I have indicated in past newsletters, this
Sponsor Substitute, as amended, preempts the re-issuance and extension of the recently issued shallow natural gas leases in the
Homer area if the leases are not proven economically viable by the end of their three-year term. The bill also establishes a
moratorium on future shallow natural gas leases in the Homer area. This is a much less expensive and more politically feasible
way of safeguarding the interests of local residents. HB 531 (House Resources) HB 531 is the companion bill to SB 312 (see
below). This bill was moved out of the Oil and Gas Committee on April 2nd, however, the version promoted by the
committee is vastly different from the original draft. The primary difference is that this version now bifurcates Alaska into two
basic leasing areas: rural and urban. Rural areas (lands not in an incorporated borough) would still be available for the current
shallow natural gas program and the incentives it provides. Urban areas (those lands within incorporated boroughs) would
have to be leased under the new “gas-only” program envisioned by the original bill. This bill still only applies to those areas
outside of current Area Wide Lease Sales; the new version of the bill should be available on BASIS. SB 312 (Senate
Resources) SB 312 was not heard this past week and still sits in the Senate Resources Committee. This bill ends the shallow
natural gas lease program of much controversy and replaces it with a “gas-only” leasing program that requires a
best-interest-finding, public notice and public comment review process. This new program corrects the problems of the
shallow natural gas program but fails to address the concerns surrounding the leases that have already been issued. SB 312’s
last hearing was in the Senate Resources on February 23rd. HB 395- I am optimistic that the new draft of HB 395 will be
heard in the House Resources Committee sometime the week of April 5th. HB 395 was last heard when it was moved from
the House Oil and Gas Committee on March 9th. The most recent version of the bill addresses water quality, notification,
bonding, and public complaint resolution issues, and repeals the Commissioner of DNR’s override authority of local
ordinances.
HOUSE FISHERIES
The House Special Committee on Fisheries heard two bills the week of March 29th. The Committee quickly moved SB 315,
which is the Senate companion bill to HB 410, the act that allows CFEC to “front fund” a limited entry permit buy-back if an
appropriation was made available. SB 347, an act establishing a moratorium on new vessel participation in the Gulf of Alaska
groundfish fishery, was heard and held in Committee. This bill represents a very large policy call as it might set the
precedence for permanently limiting this and other fisheries on the basis of vessel ownership rather than participation. The
corporate ownership of many of the vessels and therefore corporate ownership of state moratorium fishing privileges is very
problematic. The sudden need to limit new entry into this fishery comes from the impending federal Gulf of Alaska groundfish
rationalization, but the Committee is apprehensive in making the policy decision to limit new vessels in the short time that we
have. New numbers from CFEC and the Department of Fish and Game show that the number of vessels participating in the
fishery is 1,017 and the number of interim-use permits in the fishery is 1,329, therefore the increased fishing effort from
enacting a moratorium on participants, rather than vessels, may be negligible.
LAST WEEK IN THE HESS COMMITTEE
The House Health, Education and Social Services Committee met twice last week. On March 30th we heard and passed SB
288, which changes language in Alaska statute to match federal law and gives our state the opportunity to receive additional
funding for children in need of aid who need to be placed outside their homes if staying in their current home is “contrary to
the welfare” of the child. We also passed SCR 19, the resolution to support fisheries education. HB 338 also moved from
Committee; this bill will change the cut-off date from entry into school from August 15th to September 1st to better coincide
with other states entry dates. The bill also allows the chief administrator of the school to allow children early entry. After
listening to a lot of public testimony for and against SB 269 we moved it from Committee. This bill allows parents to access
their children’s library records and while it appears simple at first glance, I have concerns regarding people’s rights to privacy
and possible constitutional infringements. I do not feel that librarians should have to decide if a person has the authority to
access someone else’s library records, especially since it’s not just what books someone has checked out but also their address
and phone numbers that would be made available. The last bill we moved from HESS was the Committee Substitute for HB
425, which gives boarding schools like the Nenana Student Living Center funding so they can continue operating. This bill
“holds harmless” schools whose enrollment falls below 10 due to students enrolling in a boarding school, therefore keeping
those schools from closing. The funding provided in this bill is set to sunset July 1, 2009 but could be extended if the schools
prove to be successful and cost-effective by that time. We were not able to finish hearing HB 427, which will be the first bill
heard on April 6th.
STATE AFFAIRS
HB 460 was heard and held in the State Affairs Committee last week. This bill creates an additional allowable absence for
individuals that wish to leave the state and receive the permanent fund dividend. The additional absence created under the bill
allows for people to leave the state for treatment of injuries. Under this absence an Alaskan would be able to go Outside to
help an injured family member and still receive their dividend. This is an allowable absence that would go beyond the 180
days currently allowable for miscellaneous travel. The committee also passed out HB 459, relating to a paper trail on electronic
ballot machines. The bill was amended and ensures that when a person votes electronically using an electronic voting
machine, a paper record would be maintained after the vote occurred. This bill is especially important if electronic voting
machines become more prevalent in future elections. There are concerns that during a recount, official recounts would be
unable to verify actual votes using the electronic voting machines.
BILL ACCESS SYSTEM
All bills can be found on the State’s BASIS system. You can
see what committee a bill is in, when it will be heard, how
committee members voted, and much more. You can access the
system from the website below:
LIVE ON THE WEB
Remember that you can hear most committee hearings or tune into just about any legislative session, present or past, by going to Gavel to Gavel, which transmits TV and public radio broadcasts of the state legislature as they occur. Gavel to Gavel also has an online archive of past meetings. Click on the link below to connect to Gavel to Gavel:
If you need to contact the staff please click on one of the links below:
Lauren Radcliffe,
Cameron Yourkowski,
Chris Knight,
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