Legislature(1995 - 1996)
1995-06-26 Senate Journal
Full Journal pdf1995-06-26 Senate Journal Page 1964 SB 16 Message of June 16 was received, stating: Dear President Pearce: 1995-06-26 Senate Journal Page 1965 SB 16 Under the authority of art. 11, sec. 15 of the Alaska Constitution, I have vetoed the following bill: HOUSE CS FOR CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 16(FIN) "An Act relating to the University of Alaska and university land, authorizing the University of Alaska to select additional state public domain land, and defining net income from the University of Alaska's endowment trust fund as `university receipts' subject to prior legislative appropriation." The bill provides for the selection and transfer of 350,000 acres of state land to the University of Alaska. Ever since Statehood, the University of Alaska has sought to obtain more land for their management to raise revenue to support the university system. I would support the land coming from the federal government. Like school and mental health trusts, the University obtained "in place" territorial grants of 111,211 acres from the federal government. After Statehood, a bill passed the legislature that would have conveyed additional land to them. That legislation was vetoed by Governor Egan as not being in the best interest of the state because "the administrative procedures of the proposed act would complicate the work of the division of lands and would be both inefficient and confusing." Senate Bill 16 creates this same dilemma. In the efforts to settle the Mental Health case, the state went through countless versions, including at least five legislative attempts, of what was equitable for the mental health trust and what land conveyances industry and public interest groups could support. At the end, the state still came up short of the original 1,000,000-acre goal originally established by the courts. To try again, one year later to establish another trust land account, especially with a very complicated "process" bill like SB 16, would be extremely difficult and is questionable public policy. This legislation does not adequately protect municipalities that still need to select land to fulfill their entitlements. Over 1.3 million acres of state land are committed to municipalities. Of this, only 650,000 acres have been conveyed to municipalities, 310,000 acres are selected, and an additional 350,000 remain to be selected. Under 1995-06-26 Senate Journal Page 1966 SB 16 this legislation, the university can file selections before municipalities complete their selections. This problem is further compounded because some of the land already selected by municipalities will be rejected (including Original Mental Health Trust lands.) Boroughs that could be significantly negatively impacted by university selections are the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Lake and Peninsula Borough, Northwest Arctic Borough, and Denali Borough. In addition, this bill will further reduce opportunities for future boroughs to obtain land. As a result of these two processes (mental health and municipal), the state has found that there is minimal suitable land available that can generate short term revenues. By further splitting up what is available, it would add to overhead management costs and create further conflicts between land owners and users. If there was only one land owner, however, management would be by one entity and the money would be put in the general fund for allocation by the legislature to appropriate programs, including the university. This bill would convey both surface and subsurface land, including mineral, oil, and gas lands which the public strongly believes should belong to all Alaskans. Additional conveyances of the state's oil and gas interests to third parties will further fragment ownership in oil and gas prospective areas and thus add to the frustration already experienced by the oil and gas industry in their efforts to acquire leases in Alaska. The bill exempts the conveyance process from utilizing AS 38.04 and 38.05 processes although it does require the department to make a "best interest finding." Not following Title 38 will be very controversial and could lead to never-ending administrative and judicial appeals. The bill is convoluted and unclear as to how several of the provisions would be implemented. Finally, the land conveyed to the University, under SB 16, is to be considered private land. This has major impacts. For example, the rules for timber harvest and export are different for public versus private land. Private land is not subject to sustained yield, and has smaller stream buffers. 1995-06-26 Senate Journal Page 1967 SB 16 For these reasons, I have vetoed SB 16. Sincerely, /s/ Tony Knowles Governor