Hello to Everyone 

We are settling into a routine here, and it s a very busy one. I have three staff members this year - a reduction from last year when the Senate had four staff. Two of them have been with me since I began, Mary Jackson and Nancy Kosch.

Our new staff is Krystal Murphy, who was born and raised in Seward and graduated from Seward High School in 1991.

I am proud of the fact that all my staff are from the Peninsula. Between the four of us we have 112 years of hands-on experience on the Peninsula, from Seward to Seldovia, and all points between  We all look forward to a successful session - call us anytime 

JOHN

call me at 1-800-964-5733

Committees

My committee appointments this session are pretty substantial. I am a member of the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Resources Committee, and the Senate Rules Committee. As you can imagine, my daily schedule gets crowded.

As a member of the Finance Committee, I will be responsible for chairing  sub-committees  to review the operating budgets for the departments. I ve been given the Departments of Transportation DOT) Environmental Conservation DEC), and Commerce and Economic Development DCED).

I will also be serving on the Senate Finance Committee s welfare reform subcommittee.

Resources

The Senate Resources Committee will hear bills which have an affect on the resources of the State of Alaska. Since the Peninsula literally has almost every resource that is in the state, I expect to be very busy protecting our interests in this committee.

Visit my home page at: http://www.akrepublicans.org/pastlegs/Torgerso.htm

Finance

The Senate Finance Committee probably sees at least 75%  of all the bills during a session. Any bill that has a fiscal impact, positive or negative, will come before the committee. Some of the bills of course will be ones I m familiar with from my Resource Committee work. Many more will be brand new, and require a lot of research and review from not only the fiscal impact, but also on the merits of the bill itself.

The Finance Committee has tackled the operating budget very quickly this year - we held meetings with all the departments the first two weeks we were here and we met with our fiscal analysts, who gave us the results of audits they did on the departments. It is a very good informational process and I m excited to work on this committee for the Peninsula.

Rules

The Senate Rules Committee sees every bill which goes to the Senate floor for action. I expect there will be some bills which come before Rules that I have not reviewed, but there shouldn t be too many, since I sit on the other two committees.

Legislation

I have introduced several bills this session and here is a brief explanation of two of them.

SB 4: Simply put, SB 4 would allow a senior citizen to take a sabbatical from the state and remain eligible for receipt of the Permanent Fund Dividend. But, only those who are on a legitimate sabbatical as defined in §47.45.035 the Longevity Bonus Program) would be allowed this absence.

I believe that our seniors are a cultural resource to be protected and encouraged, and this bill will do that.

SJR 8: This resolution urges Congress to provide the authority necessary for the State of Alaska to regulate, restrict or prohibit the export of unprocessed logs from State Lands, Municipal Lands, and the University of Alaska Lands.

In 1990, Congress adopted the Forest Resources Conservation and Shortage Relief Act, which in part authorized eleven Western States an exemption to the Commerce Clause. The exemption has led those States to restrict the purchase of timber to only entities that are in operation within their borders. Alaska was not included in this legislation; therefore, authorizing other states to come to Alaska and purchase our raw materials and  export  them from Alaska to their own state. Alaska s manufacturers are restricted from going to any of the other states in search of raw timber to run our facilities.

e-Mail me at: Senator_John_Torgerson@legis.state.ak.us