04/17/1997 08:05 AM House STA

 HB 188 - DEFINITION OF COMPENSATION IN PERS                                 
                                                                               
 The first order of business to come before the House State Affairs            
 Standing Committee was HB 188, "An Act relating to calculation of             
 compensation for the public employees' retirement system."                    
                                                                               
 Number 0081                                                                   
                                                                               
 CHAIR JEANNETTE JAMES explained that the public testimony was                 
 closed at the last meeting.  She would open it up again so that the           
 Municipality of Anchorage could testify.  There would not be any              
 action taken on the bill today, however, other than testimony.                
                                                                               
 Number 0119                                                                   
                                                                               
 TIM ROGERS, Legislative Program Coordinator, Municipality of                  
 Anchorage, was the first person to testify via teleconference in              
 Anchorage.  He thanked Representative Cowdery for introducing the             
 bill on behalf of the municipality.  It could save the municipality           
 and the state a tremendous amount of money in the long run.  It was           
 also a safety issue and concern for an officer who worked 1,500               
 hours of overtime.  The municipality had a certain amount of                  
 control to reduce the amount of overtime.  He cited recently the              
 police officers were put on a five-day week, eight hour shift; and            
 were taken off of a four-day week, ten hour shift, saving money in            
 overtime.  More police officers were put on the streets as well.              
 However, a lot of the overtime was out of our control.  For                   
 example, several hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on               
 overtime fighting the Millers Reach fire.  It was clearly not a               
 municipal issue; and was out of our control, but it had to be done.           
 In conclusion, the municipality supported the passage of HB 188.              
                                                                               
 Number 0329                                                                   
                                                                               
 FRANK SMITH was the next person to testify via teleconference in              
 Barrow.  He was concerned because the legislature had short funded            
 many state departments which were not able to fill positions.  This           
 left current workers subject to serious overtime to make up for the           
 short fall.  Therefore, removing overtime from the retirement                 
 system removed one more incentive to not fill the empty positions.            
 He was opposed to the bill                                                    
                                                                               
 Number 0442                                                                   
 CHAIR JAMES announced the public testimony was closed again for HB
.  The bill would be taken up again at a later date yet to be              
 determined.