Alaska State Legislature

News From The House Majority

Ken Freeman, Press Secretary
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: (907) 465-3804
Actuality line: 1-800-478-6540
web site:
http://www.akrepublicans.org

House To Address Unused Accounts

For Immediate Release: February 18, 1997 Contact: Ken Freeman (907) 465-3804

JUNEAU -- Keeping with their pledge for a smaller/smarter government, the House of Representatives Wednesday will discuss legislation to streamline certain state administrative functions. The proposed package of bills, sponsored by the House Finance Committee, enacts a major clean-up of nearly 30 inactive state banking accounts.

Representative Terry Martin spearheaded identification of the inactive accounts during his tenure as last year's Chairman of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee. "Following our initial investigation, we contacted agencies responsible for the funds and discovered that in many cases, departments were unaware of the accounts, and considered them obsolete," said Representative Martin. "Virtually without exception, we found that departments support the elimination of these inactive accounts."

Representative Gene Therriault, Co-Chairman of the House Finance Committee, said that the package of bills clears unnecessary language from state statutes and removes a large number of unused accounts from the accounting process. "Great care was taken to ensure that the legislation does not impede the intent of or appropriation to any existing programs," Therriault said.

The package includes House Bills 103, 105, 106, 107, 108.

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