With only two weeks left, the prevailing tension is evident. Anything is possible for Kodiak's budgetary and policy concerns, successful passage or failure.

Board of Fish

The Board of Fisheries confirmation hearings in the Fisheries Committee last week were well attended. The appointments were also held in the House Resources. The Senate Resources Committees have this on their agenda for Friday of this week. From testimony submitted in the Fisheries Committee, it appears that the confirmation of Grant Miller was the least contested of the three. Please contact Lorna or Mary at the LIO if you are interested in observing or participating in the remaining Board of Fisheries confirmation hearing.

Senate Finance

HB 284, the CFAB bill, was passed out of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee last Thursday. It now has only one committee hearing remaining, that being Senate Finance. Senate Finance is now holding three pieces of my legislation: HB 284, HB 366 (the AMSEA legislation) and HB 397 on the Offshore Landing Tax/ASMI assessment.

Floor Vote

HB 538, which regards a moratorium on the Bering Sea Hair Crab fishery passed out of House Fishery Committee again. This legislation was remanded to House Fish after Representative Moses, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, expressed misgivings about this legislation in its earlier version. It comes up this Wednesday for a floor vote.

Resolution

My staff is working with Senator Zharoff's office in drafting a resolution to gain recognition for the commercial fishing industry. It is quite apparent there is a lack of knowledge and appreciation among legislators as demonstrated by the various budget cutting gestures this session. As our state's urban centers grow, coastal Alaska proportionately loses representation in the Legislature.

HB 175

The sportfish guide licensing bill passed the House with only 8 votes in opposition. This legislation, if it passes, will require data reporting and licensing of guided sport fishery participants. HB 175 also charges the guided sport participants a fee to compile and maintain the new data at the department. HB 175 has had much industry input and support through the numerous committee hearings in the last year since introduction. I am hopeful this legislation will make it all the way through the legislature this year.

House/Senate Comparisons

I have been working on the Senate side to see if we can get some of the House figures raised a bit, especially those programs that are vital to Kodiak. Here are some comparisons. The House numbers for Public Communications is $4.522 million as compared to $4,956 million on the Senate side. This is still shy of the Governor's request, but over $430,000 added back in. The Arts dollars are significantly more on the Senate side with $542.6 thousand versus only $254 thousand proposed by the House. In Public Safety, the numbers are less on the Senate side. I will continue to work with the key players to try and find a way to recover more dollars particularly for the "enforcement" and "detachments" section of this budget. The figures are almost identical on the Fisheries Management portion of both the Senate and House proposed budget, with only a difference of $500 dollars.

More Art

Additional art from the Chiniak School has been adorning the walls this month of the 5th floor of the Capitol. Those aspiring young artist's are: Matthew Van Atta, Kelly Odell and Desiree Schmidt of the third grade, Katy Werbe, Ben Christman and Jozette Sotello all of the fourth grade, and finally fifth graders, Deric Schmidt and John Van Atta.

Visitors

The city of Juneau and this office were inundated with several Kodiak City and Borough officials this past week in conjunction with the Alaska Municipal League. In town for various meetings were: City Mayor Carolyn Floyd, Borough Mayor Jerome Selby, Marcella Dalke, Suzanne Hancock, Kathy Colwell, Linda Freed, Robin Killeen, Dr. Bob Johnson, Dr. Gary Stevens, Bill Jones, Jack McFarland, John Burt, Steve Hopgood and Mike Milligan. Former resident Gaye Vaughan was also in town in connection with AML. Several of Kodiak's seafood processors provided a tremendous amount of crab, halibut, salmon, squid and cod for the annual Kodiak reception honoring the 19th Alaska State Legislature. Over 200 people were in attendance. Hats off to all the individuals responsible for making this one of the best receptions all year.

School district officials Dr. Bruce Johnson, Norm Wooten and Jeff Stephan were in the office to confer on topics vital to Kodiak's schools. Remember, my door is always open.