An Act relating to program receipts collected by the division of insurance and to program receipts collected by the Department of Community and Economic Development for occupational licenses; and providing for an effective date.

House Rules Committee Substitute for House Bill 418 will add the following to AS 37.05.146(b)(4): (1) receipts of Occupational Licensing fees, receipts of seafood marketing assessments and other receipts of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, administrative cost charges for state's role in the federal community development quota (CDQ) program; and dive fishery management assessment receipts.

Subsection (X) of HB 418 adds licensing fees received by the Division of Occupational Licensing to the program receipts category. Fees collected by this Division include licensing fees, examination fees, renewal fees, etc. By legislative mandate the Division of Occupational Licensing is a self-sustaining agency - charging the licensees for the cost of each board or commission and the work of the Division's staff. We are at a point now, in our budgetary process, where the Division and its Boards and Commissions are being held back because of the budget gap. The Division, even when it has increased spending funded by license fees, does not add to the budget gap because these expenditures are taken care of by fees not by general funds. The Division is now facing a situation where licensees would like to receive extra services from their respective Board or Commission but cannot do so because of our budgetary process. Moving these funds into a place where they are accounted for separately would assist with this problem. The Committee is aware of several examples where a Board or Commission has the funding to do an activity but cannot accomplish this because of the budgetary process. For example, the Board of Nursing would like to remain involved with an outreach program but cannot do so because of budgetary restrictions. The Board of Registration of Architects, Engineers, Land Surveyors and Landscape Architects would like to publish a newsletter and send members to more national events but, even though the funds are present, cannot do so.

Subsection (Y) of the legislation adds receipts from the seafood marketing assessment, the salmon marketing tax, and other receipts of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

Subsection (Z) adds receipts from administrative cost charges for the state's role in the federal community development quota program. The CDQ program has created jobs and expanded economic opportunities in western Alaskan. This legislation would require that comity development groups participating in the CDQ program to pay an assessment fee to the state. This fee will have two components: a standard flat amount that will total half the state's administrative costs and a variable share of the remaining administrative costs based upon the value of that group's fisheries quota allocation.

The remainder of the bill makes conforming amendments to statutes in orders that the goals above may be accomplished with regarding to the dive fishery management assessment receipts and the CDQ administrative cost charges.

HB 418 would help of these state agencies meet their customer services goals and live up to the expectation of the customers who pay the fees to run the programs.

Your support is appreciated.