Legislature(2001 - 2002)
04/30/2002 03:40 PM Senate STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 509-ALASKA CHILDREN'S TRUST LICENSE PLATES
AMY ERICKSON, Aide to Representative Lisa Murkowski and the House
Labor and Commerce Committee, read the following from the sponsor
statement:
House Bill 509 makes one minor change to Alaska statute
to allow the Alaska Children's Trust (ACT) to market
Alaska Children's Trust license plates to commercial
motor vehicle owners. Current Alaska statute only
allows owners of noncommercial vehicles to apply for
and purchase ACT license plates.
This small change will allow the Alaska Children's
Trust to respond positively to requests by industry and
private business to purchase ACT license plates for
fleet vehicles and to market sales to an additional
56,500 vehicle owners who support the mission and
activities of the Alaska Children's Trust. The $100
one-time fee could increase the trust by $5,650,000 for
the prevention of child abuse and neglect.
The Alaska Children's Trust is a savings account
dedicated to funding community-initiated projects to
eliminate child abuse and neglect. The trust's funds
grow through gifts, bequests, corporate and individual
contributions, legislative appropriations, federal
funds, and sales of heirloom marriage and birth
certificates as well as children's trust license
plates.
MS. ERICKSON said passage of HB 305 would expand ACT's savings
account and improve their ability to advance the projects and
missions of ACT.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked if there was any discussion about why
the original statute did not include commercial vehicles.
MS. ERICKSON said Representative Bunde brought that up and Mary
Marshburn, Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV),
suggested there wasn't much demand for it. Ms. Marshburn was
also concerned that opening the plates for commercial vehicles
would cost DMV $30,000 to $50,000 to change their computer
system.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked if she said that at the time.
MS. ERICKSON said Ms. Marshburn said that recently.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked if that was given as a reason at the
time of the original legislation.
MS. ERICKSON said she may have misunderstood his question.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked if there were any further questions.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said he was concerned about offering ACT plates
to commercial vehicles.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said he and Senator Phillips had discussed
opening the plates up to vanity plates. HB 509 does not include
vanity plates. It only includes the ACT plates.
MS. ERICKSON said she was talking about the vanity plates as
well.
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked if only the standard plates were offered
to commercial vehicles or if DMV offered a variety of plates to
commercial vehicles, such as the veterans' plates, the Purple
Heart plates or the Pearl Harbor plates.
CHARLES HOSACK, Deputy Director of the Division of Motor
Vehicles, Department of Administration, said they did not.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said he had a problem with that.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked if DMV had a problem with HB 509.
MR. HOSACK said they did not. They believed the proceeds would
go to a worthwhile cause. He said it would cause a small problem
with the way DMV's computer system is set up. In the past year
and a half to two years, DMV issued about 275 ACT plates. Based
on those numbers, they didn't think there would be a huge influx
of requests for the plates. They were willing to accept the
problems of keeping their computer system straight. He said
DMV's only concern was the talk about opening the commercial
option up to other specialty plates. In that case, they would
have to restructure their computer system because a lot of their
statistical information is based on the fees for the type of
license plate a vehicle has. Commercial vehicles are lumped into
four categories for different weights. For noncommercial
vehicles, you can get vanity plates, veterans' plate, Pearl
Harbor plates, etc. He said DMV has about 60 different class
codes for noncommercial vehicles. They were hoping to keep that
from spreading to commercial vehicles.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said if it was going to be done for one, it
ought to be done for all, or it should be done for none. He's
concerned that in the future there will be others wanting to have
the same thing done for their cause.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said with the exception of University plates,
the extra revenue from the sales of the other plates such as
veterans' plates and Pearl Harbor plates goes to the state
treasury.
MR. HOSACK said that was correct. The revenue from ACT and
University plates is identified separately in DMV's system so the
Legislature can appropriate the funds.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said the veterans wouldn't be likely to ask
the Legislature to have their plates on commercial vehicles
because they don't derive any revenue from the sale of the
plates.
MR. HOSACK said he hoped not. He said he had not heard of any
such movement.
SENATOR STEVENS asked about the University.
MR. HOSACK said he had not heard anything about the University.
He said the reason the law was written to include only passenger
vehicles is because the language was copied from the statutes for
other personalized plates, all of which are limited to
noncommercial vehicles.
SENATOR STEVENS asked how many University plates had been issued.
MR. HOSACK said there are four different University plates. The
University of Alaska Fairbanks has the most plates with between
300 and 400 plates. The University of Alaska Anchorage has a
little over 100 plates. The University of Alaska Southeast has
about 20 and the Prince William Sound Community College has about
five or six.
SENATOR STEVENS asked if it was discussed to open the
noncommercial option for plates to the University since ACT and
the University were the only two license plates with dedicated
funds.
MS. ERICKSON said it had not been discussed.
MR. HOSACK said he was not aware of it being discussed.
SENATOR STEVENS said if it was opened up to one charity, it ought
to be opened up for the other.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said in the future the veterans might want to do
the same thing to build a memorial.
SENATOR STEVENS said the Legislature just passed a bill to that
effect.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said they could ask for something similar funded
by license plates.
SENATOR STEVENS said they would have to go through the process of
getting it approved by the Legislature again.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said that was the problem.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said it would take further legislation to do
that. He asked Mr. Hosack if he had any further comments. He
did not. He asked if there was anybody present who would like to
testify on HB 509.
SHARI PAUL, Project Coordinator of the Children's Trust, said she
was there to answer questions.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked for the current balance of the ACT.
MS. PAUL said it was about $9.6 million.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said he had not prepared a CS to HB 509. He
asked if there were any amendments. He noted the bill would also
be referred to finance because it had a small fiscal note. He
asked for the will of the committee.
SENATOR PHILLIPS moved Amendment #1 to delete "commercial and"
from page 1, line 6.
SENATOR STEVENS objected.
SENATOR PHILLIPS withdrew Amendment #1.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT asked Senator Phillips if it was his
intention to oppose HB 509.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said it was.
CHAIRMAN THERRIAULT said the bill would be held in committee
because there were not enough votes to move it out of committee.
CSHB 509(STA) was held in committee.
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