An Act relating to metropolitan planning organizations and to designation of a metropolitan planning organization for the Anchorage metropolitan area; and providing for an effective date.

SB 203 codifies that future Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) within the State of Alaska be designated in statute, and amends the Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS), the Anchorage MPO, operating agreement by increasing the policy committee membership to seven by adding two Anchorage legislators as nonvoting members; one member each from the senate and house.

Last session Senate Bill 135, a version similar to Senate Bill 203, passed the State Senate by 13 yeas to 6 nays, but failed to be adopted by the House. The final version of SB 135 was not opposed by the Department of Transportation or the Anchorage Mayor's Office. The final version of SB 135 represented a concerted effort of compromise between the sponsor, house committee members and the administration.

The Code of Federal Regulation states that "to the extent possible" metropolitan planning organizations should be established under specific state legislation. This federal law is the basis for section one of this legislation which codifies that future MPOs be designated in state statute.

AMATS, the Anchorage MPO, was created in 1976 by an agreement between the Governor and the Mayor of Anchorage to comply with federal law requiring communities over 50,000 in population to have a MPO in order to qualify for federal highway funding. It has never been authorized by statute.

Pursuant to that agreement the AMATS Policy Committee is presently composed of two Anchorage Assembly members, one representative from the State Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, one representative from the State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Mayor of Anchorage. The AMATS Policy Committee has representation from all relevant branches of local and state government except the State Legislature.

While AMATS policy requires legislative authorization before any federal funds can be expended on AMATS priority projects, no member of the Alaska State Legislature sits on the committee.

The current AMATS format has failed to provide adequate planning for Anchorage road projects and has not provided needed leadership for advocating Anchorage's needs in the state budget process.

During the last 10 years, AMATS, to avoid controversy, ignored and failed to deal with major long term traffic problems. During that time, Anchorage witnessed a dramatic increase in both its traffic volume and congestion. Unfortunately, despite the desperate need for traffic solutions, the AMATS committee, until very recently, had not adequately planned for sorely needed major new surface transportation corridors such as; improvements to the intersection at Lake Otis Parkway and Tudor Road, major improvements to the Glenn and New Seward Highways and the connection of Abbott Loop north to Bragaw.

In 1998, AMATS even increased the ratio of funding allocated to non-road projects to about 15% which is more than 50% above the federal standard despite opposition from the Anchorage Legislative Caucus.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has stated no objection to changing the composition of the AMATS Policy Committee to include members of the State Legislature. Further, the FHWA has stated that there is no reason the AMATS program would not remain in compliance with federal regulations once the change in membership has been instituted.

An example of a successful Metropolitan Planning Organization with state legislative participation is the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization (OMPO) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Under the auspices of the federal government, created by the State Legislature in 1975 and reorganized in 1986, the OMPO consists of six voting state legislators, five Honolulu City Council members, an appointee of the Governor and an appointee of the Mayor of Honolulu.

SB 203 incorporates the compromises of last session with the standards provided by the FHWA's code of regulations, thus significantly improving the legislation introduced last session.