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THE FINAL STRETCH
We finished Friday’s session at about 2 am on Saturday morning, and Sunday’s session early Monday morning. The last several days have been
contentious, as I have been working to amend SB 194 to include a cruise ship passenger tax. The difficulty has been that a similar bill is stuck in a
committee and ‘rolling the chair,’ or removing a bill from committee, is a breach of the informal web of rules on which the legislature operates. The
bill being amended to include the cruise ship passenger tax has to be significantly different so as to not be considered the same bill as the one that is
being held in committee. After drafting two renditions of the amendment, I worked with the chair of the committee in question and the Attorney
General to get a legally defensible plan. The difficulty in drafting the amendment is due to a federal law that only allows collection of fees from
vessels or passengers for services provided to that vessel. However, the bill we were modifying included hotel guests, which complicated the issue
considerably so I withdrew the amendment at the last moment. I may soon have an opportunity to offer the passenger tax as a stand-alone cruise
ship bill, for which I hope to gain significant support. Unfortunately, to date the Senate has rejected allowing Alaskans to vote on a constitutional
spending cap. They also rejected allowing a vote by Alaskans on POMV. The Senate has been unable to get the three-quarter’s vote needed to
authorize usage of any of the constitutional budget reserve, which is needed to fund the education increase as well as the rest of the budget. The
House has passed all of those measures with the required votes. In my opinion, the only revenue areas that the House has failed to adequately
address are the tobacco tax, which was approved by the Senate and is being held in the House Finance Committee with much controversy, and the
cruise ship tax discussed above. We have passed a resolution establishing a task force to reexamine, in detail, with professional consultants, the oil
tax structure. The task force is scheduled to report to the legislature at the start of the next session. I believe we will probably soon be in special or
extended session to deal only with budget and fiscal issues. There is still some hope for a mechanism to get out of Juneau on time and I will be
pushing in that direction. The House and Governor have limited ability to pressure the Senate. Our Senator, Gary Stevens, has been supporting the
same programs as the House, but the votes have not gone his way. Neither he nor I support a statewide sales tax. That measure did not pass the
Senate. Senator Ben Steven’s amended the sales tax bill into an income tax at the last minute on the Senate floor, but without time to review the
information prior to the floor session, the Senate rejected the move by a vote of 4-15.
SHALLOW NATURAL GAS LEGISLATION PASSES LEGISLATURE
HB 531 became the vehicle for the Shallow Natural Gas Program reform this session. The bill passed the legislature early this week. This bill,
sponsored by the House Resources Committee, repeals the Shallow Natural Gas Program and replaces it with a combination of Exploration
Licensing and Non-conventional Gas Only leases to be administered under the Area Wide Lease Sale Program (AWLSP, AS 38.05.180). Under
the AWLSP, this new approach to encouraging new gas developments in the state includes a best interest finding process with standard notice,
comment periods, and competitive bidding. Several of the provisions of HB 395 (sponsored by Representatives Harris, Stoltze, Gatto and myself)
were rolled into HB 531. These provisions establish increased aquifer and drinking water protections, regulation of hydraulic fracturing and
produced waters, appropriate setbacks and noise mitigations for compressor stations and well heads, and a new burden of proof that operators
must meet before accessing surface property without the owner’s consent. These provisions will apply to the currently issued leases and any future
Coal Bed Methane developments in the state. The provision of HB 364 (of which I am the sponsor) that limits the ability of the Director of Oil and
Gas to extend Shallow Natural Gas Leases that do not demonstrate commercial productivity was also added into HB 531. Now the Director will
have to consider whether extension of the leases primary term “will accelerate the eventual production of Shallow Natural Gas.” For the Homer
area, where there has been no exploration or drilling permits applied for, this means the Shallow Natural Gas leases should expire at the end of their
original term on June 1st, 2006.
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 28
HCR 28, the resolution I sponsored at the request of the Joint Legislative Salmon Industry Task Force, was heard and moved from the Senate
Community and Regional Affairs Committee on Monday, May 3rd. This resolution now moves to the Senate Resources Committee. HCR 28 asks
the University of Alaska to continue studying the effects of salmon harvesting cooperatives such as the one authorized in Chignik, and to expand their
research to cover the broader effects on coastal communities, derivative industries and the processing sector. This information is necessary for the
state in making policy decisions with respect to the controversial salmon harvesting cooperatives. HCR 28 passed the House unanimously on
Wednesday, April 28th.
HB 260 PASSES LEGISLATURE
"The Volunteer Health Care Provider Immunity Act of 2004," is pending the House’s concurrence to the Senate’s changes as this newsletter goes
to press. I anticipate this bill will pass the legislature this evening. I sponsored this bill to increase the level of volunteerism among health care
providers and the level of affordable health care available to the most needy in the state. With limited exceptions, HB 260 exempts from liability
only health care services provided for free to individuals willing to receive such services. It does not in any other way alter medical malpractice laws
or liability, and health care providers would still be liable for actions resulting from gross negligence, reckless behavior or intentional misconduct.
Services must be provided at a medical facility owned or operated by a government entity or non-profit organization, which would still be legally
liable.
HOUSE FISHERIES
The House Fisheries Committee met on short notice two different times last week to hear last minute Senate bills. SB 69 and SB 282, both Joint
Legislative Salmon Industry Task Force bills, were moved from Committee. SB 69 exempts Board of Fish members from conflict of interest rules.
No longer would members be forced to recuse themselves from votes they had a financial interest in. In the past, the member with the most
knowledge of the issue at hand was often forced to remove him/herself from the debate. I added an amendment that distinguished between those
members that have a participatory interest (i.e. commercial fishing permit or sport fishing guide license) versus a paid financial interest (i.e. a lobbyist
or paid director of an association). SB 282 requires restaurants to distinguish between wild and farmed finfish on their menus. Current law requires
finfish to be labeled at the retail level. This bill, if made law, will further consumer awareness in Alaska.
HESS COMMITTEE
Last week the House Health Education Social Services Committee met and passed the following two bills. SB 239 deals with length of school
terms. The law is being changed to allow schools to teach the same amount of hours as set out in current law, but if this bills passes, they would be
able to teach the hours in fewer days. One purpose is to allow rural communities that want to adjourn the school year early to pursue subsistence
activities to still get in a full school year’s hours of instruction. SB 219 is the bill that would make offenses against unborn children a crime.
Therefore, if a woman who knows she is pregnant engages in an activity she knows to be illegal, such as speeding and she gets into an accident and
the fetus does not survive, she could be charged with manslaughter. The main focus of this bill applies in domestic violence situations where the fetus
may incur harm. If someone killed a woman whom they knew to be pregnant, they could be charged with two counts of murder. We met last
Thursday to take up HB 434, the legislation that would allow Naturopathic Physician’s limited prescriptive authority. After 3.5 hours of testimony
and heated debate, the bill failed to pass by a narrow margin. I am supportive of this bill, and was sorry to see it die when it was so close to
completing the process. I am sure we will see similar legislation again next session. I hope information regarding Naturopathic Physician’s training
will become more widespread by that time, dispelling some of the misinformation that has been propagated regarding the education NP’s must
receive to qualify to call themselves Naturopath’s in Alaska.
STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
The State Affairs Committee has finished its work this past week, passing a number of bills that are priorities for the Senate or Governor’s office.
The following bills were moved from the Committee. SB 354 rewrites the procedures relating to the Human Right’s Commission. The bill had some
technical problems and was amended multiple times over the course of several meetings. SB 297 creates special hunting areas in high predation
management areas. Under the bill, residents and non-residents alike would have their hunting fees waived in special game management areas until
they had a successful hunt. They would also be allowed to take additional brown bears. In this bill non-residents wouldn’t be required to have a
guide accompany them. Other language allows the Department of Fish and Game to receive donated bear hides and skulls and then conduct a
public sale. Half the money from the sale could be used for Dept. of Fish and Game, with the other half returned to the person donating the bear
parts. The provision allowing for bear part sales would not be restricted to special game management areas. I offered a comprehensive amendment
to remove many of the objectionable provisions; unfortunately, the amendment failed. SB 385 attempts to update the statutes for the Department of
Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) with regards to Homeland Defense and Security. The bill allows the governor to declare emergencies during
episodes of state security and provide procedures for the DMVA to follow with regards to communication, coordination, preparation and response
to state and federal emergencies. SJR 33, an act urging our United States Senators to work to allow a timely vote on the floor on all judicial
nominations was waived from Committee. SJR 33 has a Judiciary Committee referral, where the bill’s issues may be better addressed. The final bill
we passed was SB 231, which changes the time in statute the state must hold unclaimed property or assets from five to three years.
DEFENDER OF DEMOCRACY NOMIMATION
The national organization, Common Cause, has nominated me as a “Defender of Democracy,” based on my voting record and strong stance on
issues such as open meetings, the lobbying/campaign disclosure bill and the public interest litigant law, and my co-sponsorship of the paper trail for
electronic voting machines. Ten Alaskan legislators were nominated, and members of the Alaska Chapter of Common Cause will vote after session
adjourns.
NEWSLETTERS
This is the final ‘regular’ edition newsletter of the year. I will be publishing one more newsletter after the legislature adjourns to ‘wrap-up’ any final
unfinished business and re-cap, in brief, the major issues we faced this session. Please look forward to reading it late next week. In the ‘wrap-up’
edition, you will find a link to a poll on my website relating to the newsletter. I would appreciate it if you could take a couple of minutes to respond
in order to help me gauge the newsletter’s effectiveness and to get your feedback on how I can best communicate to you on important issues.
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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