Legislature(2013 - 2014)BARNES 124
04/11/2014 03:15 PM House LABOR & COMMERCE
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB346 | |
| SB129 | |
| SB159 | |
| SB145 | |
| SB58 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HB 346 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 138 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 129 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 159 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 145 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 58 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
SB 145-VETS' RETIREMENT/LOANS/HOUSING/EMPLOYMENT
4:06:20 PM
CHAIR OLSON announced that the next order of business would be
SENATE BILL NO. 145, "An Act relating to the Teachers'
Retirement System, the Judicial Retirement System, and the
Public Employees' Retirement System for qualified military
service; relating to the definition of 'veteran' for purposes of
housing, eligibility for veterans' loans, and preferences in
state employment hiring; and providing for an effective date."
4:06:31 PM
CURTIS THAYER, Commissioner, Department of Administration,
stated that this bill provides clean-up to statutes. First, he
commented that the state has hiring preferences for veterans.
However, these statutes have not been updated since the Vietnam
War, so this bill would update the statutory definitions to the
federal definition to recognize veterans that have served in
military conflicts such as the 1991 Gulf War, Operation Iraqi
Freedom, and any conflicts arising after September 11, 2001, as
qualifying for the state's hiring preference. He noted that
veterans who apply for state service obtain a hiring preference
for having served. Additionally, the Alaska Housing Finance
Corporation (AHFC) Veterans' Housing Preference definition is
outdated and needs updating. These changes would bring the
AHFC's statutes in alignment with the federal definition used
for public housing and mortgage loans. Finally, this bill
updates the provisions related to the Heroes Earnings Assistance
and Relief Tax Act of 2008 (HEART Act), which is a federal law
passed in 2008. Basically, this would require additional tax
and health benefits for employees who are absent from state work
due to duty in the uniformed military service. For example,
someone who serves in the military reserve is called up to duty
and subsequently killed in the line of duty would have an
effective date of service coinciding with the day the person
left state service. This means the family would be eligible for
any vesting the military individual would have had for the
period of time since they left state service through the time of
military service until his/her death. It would also allow them
to collect life insurance benefits. He pointed out that this is
a federal requirement and the state is currently out of
compliance. He referred to an upcoming audit due in 2015, and
this bill would clean up some veterans' statutes and allow the
department to be compliant by 2015.
4:09:27 PM
CHAIR OLSON related two committee members are veterans and have
taken advantage of programs.
REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON asked for any costs to "back date" the
life insurance for veterans.
COMMISSIONER THAYER answered that the department has a zero
fiscal note for all three provisions. He said that the state
was lucky that it did not have any state employee who was called
up for duty and killed. He explained that actuaries review the
past to predict the future so currently the actuary's prediction
is zero. In further response to a question, he agreed the
department briefed the legislature earlier in the year on this.
4:10:59 PM
CHAIR OLSON, after first determining no one else wished to
testify, closed public testimony on SB 145.
REPRESENTATIVE HERRON moved to report SB 145 out of committee
with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal
notes. There being no objection, SB 145 was reported from the
House Labor and Commerce Standing Committee.