05/01/1996 08:10 AM House RES

 CSSB 283(RLS) - DOCUMENT FILING, INDEXING, & RECORDING                      
                                                                               
 CO-CHAIRMAN GREEN announced the first order of business would be              
 CSSB 283(RLS).  He asked Nico Bus to come forward to testify.                 
                                                                               
 Number 043                                                                    
                                                                               
 NICO BUS, Acting Director, Division of Support Services, Department           
 of Natural Resources, said that Senate Bill 283 is a combination of           
 bills.  House Bill 438 sponsored by Representative Tom Brice is the           
 recording bill by location index and the essence of that bill is              
 that the Recorder's Office has been doing recording by location               
 indexing since 1972 on a discretionary basis.  When the workload              
 would get too heavy, that would be dropped and the Recorder's                 
 Office would simply do grant or grantee.  Section 5 of CSSB
(RLS) would make that mandatory and guarantee a better quality             
 record in terms of researching the real estate files.                         
                                                                               
 Number 123                                                                    
                                                                               
 MR. BUS further explained the other part of CSSB 283(RLS) is the              
 result of many years of process analyses by the Recorder's Office.            
 Knowing they have to do more with less, the office has tried to               
 streamline the operation to make it more uniform and easily                   
 understood by the public and by the 14 different offices.  In doing           
 so, the Recorder's Office has done everything they could on the               
 administrative side and those things which they were unable to do             
 are contained in this bill.  The housekeeping measures would                  
 actually make the recording process easier, there would be less               
 rejection and the documents could be turned around faster.  The               
 department has met with their customers - the mining industry and             
 the title companies and they all support this legislation.  He                
 noted the department will be saving some money and has prepared a             
 positive fiscal note.  If CSSB 283(RLS) is passed, the department             
 projects a savings between $140,000 and $145,000 annually.  He                
 commented that in budget deliberations, the Senate recognized they            
 had reduced the department's budget immediately for 1997; the                 
 department had hoped that could be delayed in order to catch up on            
 the backlog of archiving.                                                     
                                                                               
 MR. BUS directed the committee's attention to a letter of support             
 from Alaska Land Title Association which represents all the title             
 companies which is 40 percent of the customers of the Recorder's              
 Office.  He urged the committee's support of CSSB 283(RLS).                   
                                                                               
 Number 293                                                                    
                                                                               
 CO-CHAIRMAN GREEN noted that Mr. Bus had testified that with this             
 legislation the department could do a better job, a faster job and            
 also save money.  He asked what was wrong with the bill?                      
                                                                               
 MR. BUS said this is a win/win for everyone involved.                         
                                                                               
 Number 315                                                                    
                                                                               
 REPRESENTATIVE SCOTT OGAN made a motion and asked unanimous consent           
 to pass CSSB 283(RLS), Version C from the House Resources Committee           
 with individual recommendations and the attached positive fiscal              
 note.  Hearing no objection, it was so ordered.