Legislature(1993 - 1994)
03/02/1993 01:00 PM House CRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS
STANDING COMMITTEE
March 2, 1993
1:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Harley Olberg, Chairman
Representative Jerry Sanders, Vice-Chairman
Representative Con Bunde
Representative John Davies
Representative Cynthia Toohey
Representative Ed Willis
Representative Bill Williams
MEMBERS ABSENT
None
OTHER HOUSE MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Jerry Mackie
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
*HB 89: "An Act revising the law on borough assembly
apportionment as recommended by the revisor of
statutes; and providing for an effective date."
PASSED FROM COMMITTEE WITH A DO PASS
RECOMMENDATION
*HB 143: "An Act relating to the distribution of the
revenue obtained from imposition of the state tax
on motor fuel used in watercraft of all
descriptions; and providing for an effective
date."
HELD IN COMMITTEE FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION
(* first public hearing)
WITNESS REGISTER
David Dierdorff, Revisor of Statutes,
Division of Legal Services
Legislative Affairs Agency
130 Seward Street, Room 414
Juneau, AK 99801-2105
Phone: 465-2450
POSITION STATEMENT: Described the history and impact of HB
89
Representative Jerry Mackie
State Capitol
Court Building, Room 602
Juneau, Alaska 99811-1182
Phone: 465-4925
POSITION STATEMENT: Prime Sponsor, HB 143
Tom Briggs, City Manager
City of Craig
P.O. Box 725
Craig, AK 99211
Phone: 826-3275
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported HB 143
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: HB 89
SHORT TITLE: BOROUGH ASSEMBLY APPORTIONMENT
BILL VERSION:
SPONSOR(S): RULES BY REQUEST OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
TITLE: "An Act revising the law on borough assembly
apportionment as recommended by the revisor of statutes; and
providing for an effective date."
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
01/25/93 152 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME/REFERRAL(S)
01/25/93 152 (H) CRA, JUDICIARY, FINANCE
03/02/93 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
BILL: HB 143
SHORT TITLE: MARINE FUEL TAX REVENUE SHARING
BILL VERSION: SSHB 143
SPONSOR(S): REPRESENTATIVE(S) MACKIE,Grussendorf
TITLE: "An Act relating to the distribution of the revenue
obtained from imposition of the state tax on motor fuel used
in watercraft of all descriptions; and providing for an
effective date."
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
02/10/93 292 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME/REFERRAL(S)
02/10/93 292 (H) CRA, TRANSPORTATION, FINANCE
02/22/93 410 (H) SPONSOR SUBSTITUTE INTRODUCED
-REFERRALS
02/22/93 410 (H) CRA, TRANSPORTATION, FINANCE
03/02/93 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 93-9, SIDE A
Number 000
CHAIRMAN HARLEY OLBERG called the meeting to order at 1:01
p.m. He noted for the record that Representatives Sanders,
Toohey, Williams and Willis were present. The committee
first addressed HB 89.
HB 89: BOROUGH ASSEMBLY APPORTIONMENT
Number 010
DAVID DIERDORFF, REVISOR OF STATUTES, DIVISION OF LEGAL
SERVICES, LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS AGENCY, described the history
and impact of HB 89 saying, "What passed in 1980 had some
problems with it technically, and what passed again in 1985
carried those problems forward. This past year we replaced
Title 29 as we do periodically... I ran across this stuff
and said, "What does this mean?" I really couldn't follow
it. ...(I) researched the origin of the law and came up
with what I thought the scheme was that the legislature
intended in 1980, and what you're getting is my
interpretation of that, which is really very modest
amendments, but they had to be made."
MR. DIERDORFF continued, "Community and Regional Affairs
looked at it, as the department responsible for these kinds
of things, and they found no problems with it at all.
Department of Law looked at it and they've agreed with me
that it was just making it understandable. So what you have
in front of you is just some technical amendments to make
the law more readable and more understandable to those that
have to carry it out."
Number 141
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN DAVIES asked if the local government
appeal process of petitioning would remain the same.
MR. DIERDORFF said, "Exactly the same."
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES asked if there was an appeal process
beyond the commissioner's decision to order local elections.
MR. DIERDORFF indicated appeals could be taken to a Superior
Court.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES asked, "Does anything we're doing here
change the ability of a borough to be represented at large?"
Mr. DIERDORFF replied in the negative, and gave an example.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES confirmed his understanding of the
example.
Number 177
REPRESENTATIVE CON BUNDE MOVED that HB 89 be moved out of
committee with individual recommendations.
There were no objections and, therefore, HB 89 MOVED out of
committee with individual recommendations.
CHAIRMAN OLBERG called an at ease at 1:09 p.m.
HB 143: MARINE FUEL TAX REVENUE SHARING
Number 192
CHAIRMAN OLBERG reconvened the meeting at 1:14 p.m. and
brought forth SSHB 143.
REPRESENTATIVE JERRY MACKIE, PRIME SPONSOR of SSHB 143,
testified saying, "The reason I introduced this bill is it
was brought to my attention by the City of Craig that
perhaps this particular bill or change to law could serve as
an incentive to accomplish something that I believe that DOT
(Department of Transportation) and the administration, and
maybe many of us would like to see in regards to some of our
public facilities. ...That wherever possible, the DOT
wanted to try to transfer some of these remote harbor
facilities to the municipalities and let them own them so
they would have to maintain them and have the state get out
of the business of having to own, operate and maintain some
of these harbor facilities that as we all know is very
expensive.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE continued, "However, there's not a
whole lot of incentive for communities to want to take over
ownership of these facilities. Along with that comes the
liability and maintenance cost and things like that. So we
felt that this may serve as an incentive to those
communities that wanted to take these over. That this is
some way of getting some money back into the maintenance and
upkeep of some of these harbor facilities. He then read
into the record his sponsor statement which had been
provided to the committee members." (A copy of his sponsor
statement may be found in the House Community and Regional
Affairs Committee Room, Capitol #110, and after the
adjournment of the second session of the 18th Alaska State
Legislature, in the Legislative Reference Library.)
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE then referred to a list of harbors
which had been distributed to committee members." (A copy of
this list may be found in the House Community and Regional
Affairs Committee Room, Capitol #110, and after the
adjournment of the second session of the 18th Alaska State
Legislature, in the Legislative Reference Library.)
Number 352
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE added, "The majority of this amendment
is being offered as a result of the City of Ketchikan's
harbormaster calling me and expressing the City of
Ketchikan's support for this measure, the harbor
department's support. However they didn't like the word
warpage... so we came up with the language that would better
suit the wording of it. That's the first four parts of it.
The last one, page 2, line 7, moorage facility includes a
definition which the Department of Transportation asked us
to include in there to clearly define what that means."
Number 369
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES MOVED to ADOPT the amendments.
Without objections, IT WAS SO ORDERED.
REPRESENTATIVE CYNTHIA TOOHEY asked if it was legal to have
the legislation read, "The proceeds from the revenue from
the tax on motor fuel in watercraft of all descriptions
shall be deposited in a special watercraft fuel tax account
in the general fund."
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE said, "That's in statute right now.
The only part that changes in the section is what's bold and
underlined. ..It had a grandfather clause in the
constitution for that particular fund. As we know now we
can't have dedicated funds unless they're approved by the
voters. ...This bill (SSHB 143)... would still be subject to
a legislative appropriation every year, and as we do our
budget bills every year you'll see numerous appropriations
because of legislation that we've passed over the years, but
we can't bind one legislature to do something else that
we've done, so each year the legislature would still have to
appropriate those funds to the appropriate communities as
part of the total budget package."
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY asked if Craig liked SSHB 143.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE deferred to the City Manager of Craig,
Tom Briggs, and pointed out that Craig had several harbors,
some of which were currently owned by the city.
Number 420
TOM BRIGGS, CITY MANAGER OF CRAIG, via teleconference,
testified and said, "The City of Craig enthusiastically
endorses the passage of HB 143... The state has adopted a
policy that has been stated in at least two Department of
Transportation policy documents, of shifting the entire cost
burden of harbors to the municipalities where the harbors
are located. This process has begun... municipalities which
must bear the entire cost burden for maintenance and repair
of public docks and harbors transferred to the municipality
by the state should receive a proportional share of the
proceeds of the watercraft fuel tax collected within the
municipality under AS 43.40..."
MR. BRIGGS also pointed out that a similar scheme is already
found with the aviation sales tax.
Number 475
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE asked if the City of Craig was happy
with the transfer of the harbor facility.
MR. BRIGGS said, "Yes, if we receive some assistance to
maintain it. ...We don't have a lot of taxable property to
support the harbors. ...Since this tax was implemented for
this purpose, we would be much happier if it had a
proportional portion of the tax that is generated by our
community."
Number 513
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE asked if there would still be local
monies towards funding of maintenance.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE said, "My understanding is that this
would be just to help offset those costs. ...The actual
amount of money we're talking about is minimal..."
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE asked for a specific percentage of
reimbursement on harbors from the water tax.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE speculated, "Maybe 25 percent."
REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAMS cautioned, "I'd sure hate for us to
do something that we think is good for the community and end
up not benefitting.." He expressed concern that harbors
might not be repaired.
Number 567
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE said, "That's something that we're
constantly concerned with because I think our harbor
facilities throughout the whole state have been
substantially neglected as far as state contributions to
their maintenance. ...I look at this as only being able to
help some of the communities. As far as the state putting
any more money into the harbor facilities in those
communities to upgrade them, it isn't going to change
because that's going to be our ability to have those kinds
of projects and DOT's ability to have them included in their
six year plan will always remain whether we dedicate some of
the fuel taxes back or not. Those of us that have harbor
facilities in our communities are always faced with that.."
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES asked about the costs and revenues of
harbors.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE replied, "I think basically these
funds whatever they may be, I don't think they're very much,
but I think they would help to offset the costs... of
general maintenance of the facility... Any kind of major
refurbishment, expansion, or major maintenance of course all
these communities will have to look to the legislature for
that kind of support in the future and look directly to DOT
for that kind of help."
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES said, "As I read this bill (SSHB 143),
there appears to be no actual requirement that the funds be
spent for any particular purpose. Would you be opposed to
an amendment that added purpose to it?"
Number 649
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE said he wouldn't, but added that this
would probably be applied in regulation rather than statute.
He said, "I think it's a good practice not to micromanage in
statute some of these things but making sure that they are
utilized for that purpose is a very good point."
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES asked who actually paid the motor fuel
taxes, a few larger communities or many small ones.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE said, "It's unfortunate that not every
single community has a fuel facility, most do..." and, "I'm
not as convinced as DOT that this is going to cause any
fallout or cause people in hock to want to assume ownership,
because I think those that just economically can't do are
not going to do it anyway and this might help some of the
borderline communities like Craig and Ketchikan and some
other ones..."
Number 683
CHAIRMAN OLBERG asked for clarification on the routing of
the marine fuel tax dollars.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE replied, "Because we can't create a
dedicated fund by law, any harbor improvements or any money
that's given to any one particular community is through the
general fund process in the DOT budget."
TAPE 93-8, SIDE B
Number 000
CHAIRMAN OLBERG said, "This bill (SSHB 143) does not speak
to capital improvements. It does not speak to where the
fuel was purchased. It simply says that through this bill a
percentage can be returned to the community that owns its
own harbor facility."
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE gave the example of Craig. "...It's
determined that Craig owns 25 percent of the total harbor
facility. Then the community of Craig would be eligible for
25 percent of that $50,000 that was collected in Craig only.
The linear footage is only the means by which you determine
the percentage of how much harbor is municipally owned."
Number 056
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE asked if municipalities could double
dip funds.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE said, "...I think it's highly
unlikely...if the money is collected in the community of
Craig from the people that are using those harbors, some of
it should go back to maintain those harbors; and the state
hasn't had the ability to do that very well in the past, and
the municipalities are having to do it on their own anyway."
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE asked if Representative Mackie knew of
other communities that were interested in SSHB 143.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE said no and, "This is just a new idea
that Commissioner Turpin had and brought to my
attention...they decided to do this one harbor on a test run
type thing to see if they [can] really make it work, to see
if it will be beneficial. I've let the communities in my
district know that this is an option that they might want to
consider. It's not something that I'm either for or
against. I think it's really a local issue."
Number 137
CHAIRMAN OLBERG requested the discussion on SSHB 143 be
continued next Tuesday, March 9, 1993, due to a time
conflict of several members.
REPRESENTATIVE MACKIE said he wanted to find specific
numbers for the questions asked on revenues.
Number 170
ADJOURNMENT
CHAIRMAN OLBERG adjourned the meeting at 1:49 p.m.
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