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Contact Information:
Toll Free:(800) 665-2689
In the Homer Area:(907) 235-2921
Via Mail or in Person: 345 W. Sterling Hwy., Suite 102B
Homer, Alaska 99603
Fax:(907) 235-4008
Website:
Email:
Greetings from Juneau on this 106th day of the regular legislative session. Although we are still working on several elements of the oil tax restructure, the House has been working to move ahead with other bills.
You may have heard about the House’s vote not to concur with the Senate on the ‘Drug Bill’. passed the House unanimously last year and would have regulated the sale of certain products used to produce methamphetamines. However, it was held in the Senate and stripped of the logbook provision. This has since been superseded by federal legislation, which requires logbooks. The problem was that the Senate rolled 2 other complete bills into HB149. Neither of those bills had been considered or amended in the House committee process. Passing complex legislation by title, without looking at the bills would have been bad public policy. If you want more detailed discussion, please link to a letter I have posted at:
Despite last week’s snowstorm I was able to get to the Homer LIO and met with several folks from the district. Carol Swartz, Milli Martin, Brian Farrow, Phil Morris, Mike McCarthy, Doug Stark and Fred Lau were among those I was able to speak with. Back in Juneau I had several other visitors, including Eugene Anderson, Jeff Hetrick from Seward and Assistant City Manager Kristen Vessel. From Homer we also welcomed Homer’s Mayor, Jim Hornaday and City Councilmen Val McLay and Matt Schadle.
2004 Early Voting Results
I have received several calls regarding the release of voting results from the 2004 election. This was a concern immediately after the election and has received recent attention since the Democratic Party has filed suit to obtain the specific electronic memory file cards, which the Deibold voting machines use to record results.
I have spoken with the Director of the Division of Elections about this and am satisfied that they have done everything possible to ensure an accurate count of the election. This issue stems from an attempt made by the Division to provide more immediate results from early voting. The chips used to record this data were programmed for regional office early voting. Each district showed the aggregated total votes in the region. Because the early voting results were for the entire region and could not be subdivided, the same regional ‘cards cast’ numbers were repeated in each district. When the district totals are then added together, the numbers appear to be higher than in the final reports. The ‘cards cast’ is a report and not used for the actual counting of votes.
Votes have since been hand recounted and were proved to be accurate. The file type, which the Democratic Party has sued for cannot be released because they contain the passwords and proprietary coding used to secure the voting machines. To make this information public would compromise the security of the system. An explaination, along with the voting results can be seen on the Division’s website at
Personal Legislation
HB 415 – Recreational Land Use Liability: Hearing
will be heard in the Senate Resources Committee this Wednesday the 26th at 3:30pm. If you are interested in testifying on the bill, please get in touch with Mary Jackson in Senator Wagoner's office at 1-800-964-5733. If you are not able to get to your local LIO, she can arrange for you to call in.
HB 475 – PERS/TRS Cleanup: Passes House Finance
This week , the clean-up bill to the Retirement Security Act (SB 141) that passed last year, moved out of House Finance. A small change was made deleting a sentence of unnecessary language and changing a statutory reference. HB 475 will be up for a vote on the House Floor early this week.
HB 496 – PFD Charitable Giving: Heard and Held
the bill sponsored by the House State Affairs committee was heard and held in House Finance. This bill establishes a voluntary check off system on the electronic Permanent Fund Dividend application form, allowing applicants to donate a portion of their PFD to eligible charitable organizations, any of the University of Alaska campuses, Vocational Education organizations, and Community Foundations. As this bill has a companion in the Senate, I am hopeful that it will make it through this session.
State Affairs Committee
moved from committee. This bill allows the Department of Corrections to continue providing inmate work and training programs without interruption in spite of passing the sunset date. It also allows the Department to participate in federal Prison Industry Enhancement programs and to partner with private enterprise. An amendment to the bill requires the commissioner to consult with local union representatives prior to contracting prisoners out to private industry. This is to ensure that employed workers are not displaced by the use of prison labor.
On Thursday we held a confirmation hearing for Claire Hall of Fairbanks. Ms. Hall was appointed to a Republican seat on the Alaska Public Offices Commission. APOC is composed of two Republicans, two Democrats, and one member chosen by a majority vote of the four partisans.
The committee also took part in a demonstration of the new electronic touch screen voting machines. The Federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires that each election precinct have an electronic voting machine available for use by visually impaired and voters with disabilities. In the primary and general elections this year there will be 439 electronic voting machines available for Alaskan voters statewide. Each of the touch screen voting machines also produces a paper back-up ballot.
There has been discussion of the possible unreliability of the touch screen voting machines. However, , the Elections Bill that passed into law last spring contains a valuable safe guard that will allow a manual audit if discrepancies occur. HB 94 mandates that a hand count be conducted in one randomly selected precinct in each election district that accounts for at least five percent of the ballots cast in the district. If there is a discrepancy of more than one percent in any race between the precinct results certified by the election board and the results of the precinct hand count, a hand recount of the entire district is triggered.
Resources Committee
changes wording in the enabling legislation for the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve Advisory Council to reference the Mayor of the Haines Borough instead of the Mayor of the City of Haines. The city of Haines has merged with the Borough. This bill also adds the requirement that a member of the Haines Borough Assembly sit as an ex officio member of the council.
makes 200 acres of Hatcher Pass Public Use Area land available for transfer to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough following approval of the land transfer by a majority of Mat-Su voters. A deal is in place between the Mat-Su Borough and a private developer to create a ski area. However, the Borough has to acquire the land from the state before it can be sold to the developer at fair market value. I amended the bill to require a 600-foot buffer between the Little Suisitna River and potential development.
seeks to create a tax credit incentive for companies to develop heavy oil resources. There have been a number of different iterations of this legislation before the committee. In the original version that was sent to us from the House Special Committee on Oil and Gas the bill allowed a 15% credit for research, development, or production activities related to heavy oil. It also sought to allow a 25% credit for companies that engage in the development of renewable energy. The committee will be working on amending the bill. A large concern is that with high oil prices, the incentive to explore and drill for heavy oil already exists, making the credit both costly to the state and unnecessary. Anther concern the committee has with the bill is allowing oil companies to take a tax credit for development of alternative or renewable energy while other non-oil companies are not allowed such a credit. An issue under discussion is how to define the heavy oil available for credit. One suggestion is to name the geological formation where heavy oil is known to exist predominantly, and the units where heavy oil development occurs. Identifying the gravity of the oil based on American Petroleum Institute standards for heavy oil is another option.
Health Education and Social Services Committee
We moved , a resolution urging the United States Congress to support the granting of official Observer Status to the Republic of China at the World Health Assembly Annual Conference to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in May of 2006.
was also heard for a second time. This bill repeals the Certificate of Need (CON) requirement for medical clinics. Currently medical clinics are required to obtain a CON demonstrating that there is a need for their services in the community. Advocates of HB 287 believe that without CON requirements, more clinics will be started which are able to provide more affordable care for patients. Opponents are concerned that these clinics will ‘skim’ the more profitable procedures and place hospitals in small communities at risk of financial insolvency. The bill is not likely to be heard again as the end of session is rapidly approaching. However the sponsor may move the measure forward as an initiative on the November ballot.
Following Bills
All bills can be accessed through the state's Bill Action and Status Inquiry System (BASIS). You can see what committee a bill is in, when it will be heard, how committee members voted, and much more. You can view all bills relating to your specific areas of interest by selecting "Subject Summary" from the menu on the right. Access BASIS through the link below, or by doing a search for "BASIS Alaska".
Live on the Web
Most committee hearings can be seen and heard on Gavel-to-Gavel, which is broadcast on both local access TV and on the Internet. You can also access online archives from their website. .
Contact Us
If you would like to speak to me regarding a specific issue, it is helpful to first get in touch with the member of my staff handling related issues. You can click on their email addresses to send them a note, or just give us a call at the office. Please provide your full name, address and phone number on any correspondence with the office. Your time and effort are much appreciated.
Louie Flora
State Affairs, Resources, Fisheries, HB 328
(907) 465-4963
Ian Laing
Scheduling, Ways and Means, HB 415, HB 418
(907) 465-2689
Katie Shows
Health Education and Social Services, PERS/TRS, Budget, HCR 5, HCR 28, HB 238
(907) 465-2028
Rep. Paul Seaton
House District 35
(800) 665-2689
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