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HEA VISIT
Several members of the Homer Electric Board visited Juneau last week. I appreciated the extended time we had to talk during
dinner about issues related to electric utilities and consumers. We will be working to get the southern inter-tie money allocated to
reconstruction of the main power line to Anchorage and to Seward. Better reliability of power service and the ability to transmit
higher amounts of electricity from Bradley Lake are important.
CONCERNED CONSTITUENT GROUPS VISIT JUNEAU
It was a pleasure host the Kachemak Bay Property Owners’ Alliance here in the Capitol last week, they were joined by members
from Friends of Mat-Su and Alaska Conservation Voters. The groups were here lobbying for a statewide buy-back of Shallow
Natural Gas leases statewide and for protection of property owners’ rights in already leased areas. Representative Harris and myself
helped arrange a meeting room for them and we, joined by Senator Gary Stevens, Rep. Gatto, Rep. Stoltze and Rep. Croft, met with
the groups for about an hour. Our meeting was televised and if you are interested, you can access the meeting via Gavel to Gavel’s
archives (see link at bottom of newsletter). We appreciate the groups work on the "Property Owners’ Bill of Rights." At the meeting
we discussed how their concerns are mostly incorporated into different pieces of legislation currently before the legislature. I will
soon be sending out an email outlining how the various bills correspond to the elements of the "Property Owners’ Bill of Rights."
SHALLOW NATURAL GAS UPDATES
HB 531 (House Resources) is the companion bill SB 312 (see below). This bill has now had two hearings in the House Oil and Gas
Committee, but has not yet moved, despite wide Committee member support. The bill was amended to limit the discretion in
extending non-productive shallow natural gas leases. SB 312 (Senate Resources) was heard twice last week in the Senate
Resources Committee. Discussion was focused on how the recently revealed “Property Owners’ Bill of Rights,” interacted with the
changes made in this bill. The proponents of the Bill of Rights would like to see all their concerns addressed in this one piece of
legislation. At this point the debate is centered on the constitutional issues surrounding property owners’ consent. The Legislative
Legal Department has drafted the resolves of the Bill of Rights into an amendment to SB 312, but that amendment has not been
offered to date. SB 312 ends the Shallow Natural Gas lease program of much controversy and replaces it with a “gas only” leasing
program that requires a best-interest-finding, public notice and public comment review process. This new program corrects the
problems of the Shallow Natural Gas program but fails to address the concerns surrounding the leases that have already been let.
SSHB 364- Homer Shallow Natural Gas Leases- HB 364 was not heard again in the House Oil and Gas Committee last week. As
I have indicated in previous newsletters, this Sponsor Substitute, as amended, preempts the reissuance and extension of the recently
issued Shallow Natural Gas leases in the Homer area if the leases are not proven economically viable by the end of their three-year
term. The bill also establishes a moratorium on future Shallow Natural Gas leases in the Homer area. This is a much less expensive
and more politically feasible way of safeguarding the interests of local residents. HB 395 (Harris, Stoltze, Gatto, Seaton). I have
been assured that the new draft of HB 395 will be heard in the House Resources Committee sometime the week of March 29th,
please feel free to contact my office for details as they develop. HB 395 was moved from the House Oil and Gas Committee on
Tuesday March 9th. The new version of the bill addresses water quality, notification, bonding, and public complaint resolution issues,
and repeals the Commissioner of DNR’s override authority of local ordinances.
HB 524 AMENDMENT
The House passed HB 524 during the March 18th floor session. HB 524 deals with "...protection of land and water from waste
disposal...." I was able to successfully amend the bill on the floor by deleting the following language "or coal bed methane drilling or
other natural gas drilling to recover gas from a field if a part of the field is within 3,000 feet of the surface." The effect of this
amendment was to put waters produced from SNG/CBM wells under the regulation of the Department of Environmental
Conservation, which is the agency that controls water quality in Alaska. Even though the SNG/CBM buy-back, moratorium and
regulation bills are stuck in Committees, I have successfully brought SNG/CBM produced waters under DEC’s regulation.
NEW BILL TO BE INTRODUCED IN STATE AFFAIRS
I have been working on a bill that encourages people to return to the state if they are receiving Permanent Fund Dividends (PFD)
under an allowable absence. The State Affairs Committee will introduce this bill the week of March 29th. I expect the bill to be
heard in the State Affairs Committee on April 1st. Our current statutes include a number of allowable absences, which a person can
claim and be still eligible to receive their PFD. Last year the Permanent Fund Division issued almost 17,000 PFD’s to people not
living in Alaska who still qualified to receive their PFD under one of the allowable absences created by the legislature. This equates
to about $18 million in PFD’s being sent out of the state each year. The bill accounts for allowable absences, but disallows for the
collection of PFD’s until a person returns to Alaska for one year. Basically, a person’s PFD’s will be set aside for them until they
reestablish their permanent residency in the state for one year, then they can collect their back PFD’s. I expect the bill to draw some
criticism, but I feel that allowing people to collect their PFD’s when they return to Alaska will give them an incentive to stay in
Alaska. The current allowable absences let people collect PFD’s out of state for up to 10 consecutive years. Alaska suffers from
the “brain drain” as our brightest minds leave the state to attend college in another state. Often times these students end up staying
Outside after graduation. By creating a windfall of deferred PFD’s, perhaps our university graduates will decide to return to Alaska,
or even stay in Alaska for their college education. *Reminder- PFD applications are due this week! If you have not mailed or
electronically filed for your PFD yet, you have until Wednesday, March 31st.*
STATE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
The Committee is in overdrive mode, meeting two or three additional times each week on top of our regularly scheduled meetings.
We focused on many bills last week, and heard multiple presentations on Native Alaskan Tribes. While some would argue that
native tribes do not exist under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act ( ANILCA), the federal government currently
recognizes 233 native tribes in Alaska. About $800 million in federal money is brought into the state by native corporations and native
councils each year. The money is utilized for health, education, telecommunication and other services. We heard presentations on
the effectiveness of tribal courts as opposed to magistrates or state judicial courts. These meetings were meant to educate and
promote understanding within the Committee on the way the state can utilize current structures inherent in tribal government. The
State Affairs Committee passed HB 496 from Committee. HB 496 creates youth vote ambassadors and allows people over the age
of 16 to work at election offices. HB 496 is meant to increase awareness and interest in voting among Alaska's youth and to allow
for meaningful student involvement in elections as well as to help relieve the shortage of election workers. I added some language that
guides the Department of Elections in how it selects poll workers. The new language says that workers should be selected by their
precinct of residence, then by district and then statewide if no one from that precinct is available. The bill passed from the
Committee, but will probably be amended further.
JOINT LEGISLATIVE SALMON INDUSTRY TASK FORCE (JLSITF)
The JLSITF met on Sunday the 28th of March. This was the final meeting of the JLSITF. The members adopted a “scope of work”
document to forward to the Board of Fish (BOF). This document is to encourage and fund the BOF to develop criteria for analyzing
future salmon industry restructuring proposals. I think that this direction is a good use of the remaining JLSITF funds and will help the
fishing industry develop successful restructuring proposals to bring before the BOF. It was my pleasure to serve as an alternate on
this important task force.
HOUSE FISHERIES
The House Special Committee on Fisheries heard one bill this past week. HB 309 would make the introduction of non-indigenous
fish into state waters a class C felony with a minimum fine of $1,500. Present law sets this offense as a misdemeanor. Rep. Wolf has
sponsored this legislation; it is directed specifically at the pike problem on the Kenai Peninsula. The Fisheries Committee made a few
minor changes to ensure that there are no unintended consequences of this legislation with respect to commercial fishing practices and
ornamental fish. HB 309 was moved from Committee.
WAYS AND MEANS
Although the meetings begin at 7am and I am not a member of the Committee, I still try to attend Ways and Means Committee
meetings because I think that finding a fiscal solution is extremely important. Last week we concentrated on the proposed tax
increase of $1 per pack on cigarettes (HB 538). It was enlightening to find out that tobacco related illness is the number one cause
of death in Alaska and our most serious health problem – even exceeding alcohol and the associated fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
Although there are still details to be worked out, there is surprising support to attempt to offset more of the $60 million in health care
costs from tobacco to the state.
EDUCATION COMMITTEE
We heard and moved SB 179 from Committee. This bill allows teachers to receive a name-based background check for the
purposes of a obtaining a teaching certificate if their fingerprints are unreadable because they have worn off over time. This is an
important change to current law, as teachers and nurses have the highest professional rates of illegible fingerprints. My office has
heard from at least two teachers within our district that have had problems getting certified because their fingerprints could not be
verified. It was my pleasure to support this bill as it was passed from the Education Committee on Tuesday the 23rd of March. SB
179 now moves on to the House HESS Committee.
LAST WEEK IN THE HESS COMMITTEE
The House HESS Committee was very busy this past week. We heard and passed HB 333- An Act relating to an endowment for
public education; HB 405-An Act relating to reports on school and school district performance and relating to accountability of
public schools and school districts; HB 440- An Act relating to the Alaska Pioneers' Home, and the Alaska Veterans' Home, relating
to eligibility for admission to the Alaska Pioneers' Home and Alaska Veterans' Home,
relating to state veterans' home facilities; HB 500- An Act relating to medical review organizations and finally SB 201- An Act
relating to home care and respite care. We also heard and held HB 535- An Act relating to liability for expenses of placement in
certain mental health facilities, relating to the mental health treatment assistance program and HB 338- An Act relating to attendance
at public school, which will be discussed further in a future newsletter.
BILL ACCESS SYSTEM
All bills can be found on the State’s BASIS system. You can
see what committee a bill is in, when it will be heard, how
committee members voted, and much more. You can access the
system from the website below:
LIVE ON THE WEB
Remember that you can hear most committee hearings or tune into just about any legislative session, present or past, by going to Gavel to Gavel, which transmits TV and public radio broadcasts of the state legislature as they occur. Gavel to Gavel also has an online archive of past meetings. Click on the link below to connect to Gavel to Gavel:
If you need to contact the staff please click on one of the links below:
Lauren Radcliffe,
Cameron Yourkowski,
Chris Knight,
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