Legislature(1999 - 2000)
04/03/2000 02:00 PM House FIN
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CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 281(FIN) am
"An Act relating to missions and measures to be applied
to certain expenditures by the executive branch of
state government and the University of Alaska from the
state operating budget for the fiscal year ending June
30, 2001; and providing for an effective date."
SENATOR SEAN PARNELL testified in support of the
legislation. He noted that House Finance Committee staff and
agency personnel worked with the Senate on the legislation.
He stressed the importance of the legislation and noted that
the legislature appropriates funding to state agencies and
expects them to follow through on expenditures in a way that
is never clearly defined. Missions and Measures were
developed for each agency. He gave examples of the missions
and measures:
Alaska Vocational Technical Center.
(a) The mission of the Alaska Vocational Technical
Center is to provide market-driven vocational and
technical training to state residents.
(b) The legislature intends to measure the success of
the center in achieving its mission by considering;
(1) The percentage of graduates who are employed
in their areas of training;
(2) The wage increase for graduates;
(3) The percentage of students who complete long-
term training programs;
(4) The percentage of students living in student
housing compared to student- housing capacity; and
(5) For each long-term program, the number of
students enrolled in the program compared to the
number applying to the program.
Division of Juvenile Justice.
(a) The mission of the Juvenile Justice is to protect
and restore communities and victims while holding
juvenile offenders accountable for correcting their
behavior.
(b) The legislature intends to measure the success of
the division in achieving its mission by considering:
(1) The percentage of juvenile offenders that re-
offend;
(2) The percentage of juvenile offenders in long-
term treatment who improve their grade point
average during their time at the facility;
(3) The percentage of juvenile offender court-
ordered restitution and community service that is
paid or performed; and
(4) The number of escapes from juvenile justice
institutions.
Senator Parnell stressed that the bill will only be as
effective as the follow-up and accountability that the
legislature gives it in upcoming years. He stressed that the
legislature needs to work with agencies to determine if they
have met their mission and if not, why not. The legislature
can then respond to issues of management or inadequate
funding. The mission and measure bill is separate from the
actual budget bill. He spoke in support of combining
missions and measures, and the actual budget into one piece
of legislation. He noted that the state of Texas combines
its missions and measures and appropriations into one
document. The public can locate the mission and outcomes
with each appropriation item. He encouraged Alaska to take
the next step to integrate missions and measures into one
booklet with the operating and capital budgets.
Senator Parnell suggested deletion of the Senate language
for the Division of Banking, Securities, and Corporations on
page 7, line 28: "protect shareholders in corporations". He
pointed out that it is a broad and big statement and that
there is no statutory direction to protect shareholders in
corporations in such a broad-brush way. This language was
added on the floor of the Senate.
Representative J. Davies questioned if the purpose of the
measures is to actually measure outcomes, not to measure
what is produced. Senator Parnell agreed and gave examples
of the intention. In the Department of Public Safety the
intent is to measure how safe the roads are. In the
Department of Transportation and Public Facilities the
intent is to measure if the roads are adequately maintained
to citizen standards. The intent is not to measure the
number of lane-miles that are maintained; the measure is how
well they are maintained. He stressed that as a result, the
public would have a more readable and understandable budget.
Representative Phillips questioned if there was much
difference between the House and Senate language. Senator
Parnell explained that the work was divided between the
House and Senate. The House language was incorporated along
with the Senate language into a bill. There were amendments
in the Senate Finance Committee and on the Senate floor. He
stated that the only significant change was to the mission
and measures of the University of Alaska.
VINCE USERA, SENIOR SECURITIES ADMINISTRATOR, DIVISION OF
BANKING, SECURITIES, AND CORPORATIONS, DEPARTMENT OF
COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT provided information on
the legislation. He stressed that the measure for Division
of Banking, Securities, and Corporations on page 7, line 28
(see above) is so broad as to be impossible to comply with
and that it would cover any person that owns a share in any
corporation.
Representative Phillips agreed with comments by Mr. Usera.
She stated that an audit by the Legislative Budget and Audit
Committee found that the legislature had no statues in place
to implement the measure.
JACK FARGNOLI, SENIOR ANALYST, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND
BUDGET, OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR testified in support of the
legislation. He stressed that the governor would look
forward to a more comprehensive process for more public
involvement. He spoke in support of greater public
participation. He emphasized that as the measures become the
focus of a more comprehensive discussion that the role of
the commissioners and the governor's cabinet would be
interpreted more broadly in terms of the statutory
responsibility of the departments. He added that use of a
standardized approach for administrative services of
functions is problematic and emphasized that the departments
are inherently different and that future discussion
regarding the differences would be fruitful.
Representative Phillips MOVED to delete language on page 7,
line 8, subsection (3): protect shareholders in
corporations. There being NO OBJECTION, it was so ordered.
Representative J. Davies MOVED to ADOPT the House language
for the university and to delete the Senate version. He
maintained that the Senate language was "weak tea".
WENDY REDMAN, VICE PRESIDENT, STATEWIDE PROGRAMS, UNIVERSITY
OF ALASKA provided information on the amendment to the
legislation. She acknowledged that the House worked
extensively with the Board of Regents on the university's
missions and measures, but noted that the Senate language
picked up the key measures. There isn't any inconsistency
between the House and Senate language. The primary
difference is that the Senate did not include all of the
language adopted by the House. She stated that the primary
issues were addressed and that the university would support
either version.
(Tape failure occurred at this point.)
Senator Parnell noted that Senate changes were the result of
discussions that concluded that many of the measures were
not true measures. He gave the following examples:
The new or expanded degree programs in teacher
education, health careers, process technology,
transportation and logistics, information technology,
seafood processing, and other high demand job areas;
The increase in research grants in arctic biology,
climate change, resource development, fisheries and
ocean science, logistics, geosciences, and atmospheric
sciences;
Senator Parnell emphasized that the intent was to not focus
on the income or new programs but on the outcomes.
Ms. Redman observed that the House Subcommittee wished to
direct were the university would spend their efforts in
relationship to research. The intent was to increase
research in some areas such as arctic research.
Representative J. Davies agreed and explained that a problem
with research is that the most important research does not
payoff for a long period of time. Therefore, it is difficult
to measure the outcome. He acknowledged the need to measure
results, but emphasized the difficulty of measuring a
research enterprise with results based orientation. He
observed that the House included a measure of "the number of
annual citations and references per research faculty
member." He maintained that research, cooperative extension
and public service is left out of the Senate version. He
observed that much of the language in the House version was
derived from language recommended by the Board of Regents
and refined by the House Subcommittee with their help. He
felt that the Senate language was vague.
Senator Parnell observed that the measure of the number of
University of Alaska graduates, by community of origin and
by community of current employment, who are new teachers,
new principals, and new superintendents does not measure the
quality of the teachers.
Co-Chair Mulder expressed appreciation for the brevity of
the Senate version. He suggested that the proper balance
could be derived from combining the Senate and House
language. He felt that House items 8 - 10 were worth
considering.
Representative J. Davies stated that it is appropriate to
have a mix of measures with productivity to measure the
quality of the program in meeting a state need. He stressed
the need to produce teachers that can be employed in rural
Alaska.
Representative Phillips agreed that an ideal statement could
be derived from a combination of the House and Senate
language. She felt that the Senate version was incomplete
and emphasized the need for measures regarding vocational
education. Representative J. Davies noted that a typical
mission of a university doesn't include a community college.
Alaska is unique and it is important to roll in the
vocational mission to highlight the uniqueness of Alaska's
system.
Co-Chair Therriault referred CSSB 281 (FIN)am to a
subcommittee consisting of: chair Phillips and members
Bunde, and Davies.
Senator Parnell pointed out that the Senate version included
measures relating to research:
(8) the number and amount of research grants in
Alaska-specific areas of inquiry;
(8) the occurrences of applied research benefiting
Alaska's economy;
(8) the average number of hours faculty members spend
on classroom instruction, student advising,
research, and other activities.
Representative J. Davies stressed that they are not in the
mission statement.
CSSB 281 (FIN)am was heard and HELD in a subcommittee
consisting of: chair Phillips and members Bunde, and Davies.
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