Legislature(1993 - 1994)
03/04/1993 01:00 PM House CRA
| Audio | Topic |
|---|
* 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 4, 1993
1:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Jerry Sanders, Vice-Chairman
Representative Con Bunde
Representative John Davies
Representative Cynthia Toohey
Representative Ed Willis
Representative Bill Williams
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Harley Olberg, Chairman
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
*HB 124: "An Act relating to grants to municipalities,
named recipients, and unincorporated communities;
establishing capital project matching grant
programs for municipalities and unincorporated
communities; establishing a local share
requirement for capital project grants to
municipalities, named recipients, and
unincorporated communities; and providing for an
effective date."
HELD IN COMMITTEE FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION
*HB 125: "An Act making appropriations for capital project
matching grant programs; and providing for an
effective date."
HELD IN COMMITTEE FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION
(* first public hearing)
WITNESS REGISTER
Shelby Stastny, Director
Office of Management and Budget
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 110020
Juneau, AK 99811-0020
Phone: 465-3568
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported HB 124 & HB 125
Jack Fargnoli, Policy Analyst
Office of Management and Budget
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 110020
Juneau, AK 99811-0020
Phone: 465-3568
POSITION STATEMENT: Responded to questions related to HB 124
and HB 125
Jim Kohler, Executive Director
124 West 5th Street
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: 463-3445
POSITION STATEMENT: Asked questions related to HB 124 and HB
125
Bruce Geraghty, Deputy Commissioner
Department of Community and Regional Affairs (DCRA)
P.O. Box 112100
Juneau, AK 99811
Phone: 465-4700
POSITION STATEMENT: Rendered information of the DCRA's
fiscal notes of HB 124
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: HB 124
SHORT TITLE: CAPITAL PROJECT GRANTS
BILL VERSION:
SPONSOR(S): RULES BY REQUEST OF THE GOVERNOR
TITLE: "An Act relating to grants to municipalities, named
recipients, and unincorporated communities; establishing
capital project matching grant programs for municipalities
and unincorporated communities; establishing a local share
requirement for capital project grants to municipalities,
named recipients, and unincorporated communities; and
providing for an effective date."
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
02/03/93 216 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME/REFERRAL(S)
02/03/93 216 (H) CRA, STATE AFFAIRS, FINANCE
02/03/93 216 (H) -3 FNS (CRA, CRA, ADM) 2/3/93
02/03/93 216 (H) -3 ZERO FNS (DCED, DEC, LABOR)
2/3/93
02/03/93 216 (H) GOVERNOR'S TRANSMITTAL LETTER
03/04/93 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
BILL: HB 125
SHORT TITLE: APPROP: CAPITAL PROJECT MATCHING GRANTS
BILL VERSION:
SPONSOR(S): RULES BY REQUEST OF THE GOVERNOR
TITLE: "An Act making appropriations for capital project
matching grant programs; and providing for an effective
date."
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
02/03/93 218 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME/REFERRAL(S)
02/03/93 218 (H) CRA, STATE AFFAIRS, FINANCE
02/03/93 218 (H) GOVERNOR'S TRANSMITTAL LETTER
03/04/93 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 93-10, SIDE A
Number 000
VICE-CHAIRMAN JERRY SANDERS called the meeting to order at
1:10 p.m. He noted for the record that Representatives
Bunde, Williams and Willis were present.
HB 124: CAPITAL PROJECT GRANTS
HB 125: APPROP: CAPITAL PROJECT MATCHING GRANTS
Number 035
SHELBY STASTNY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET,
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR, testified on both HB 124 and HB 125.
He began, "HB 124, being the governor's capital matching
grants program, a program that the governor is extremely
interested in and feels is an equitable way to allocate some
of the capital dollars throughout the State of Alaska. The
governor for some time now has been concerned that...
usually that capital money is allocated to the communities
through their representatives to the communities that have
the most able representation. ...And it isn't always the
projects that the local people necessarily are in favor of."
MR. STASTNY continued, "Another concern that he (the
governor) had was that many times, the money for projects is
100 percent granted to a community and whenever there's 100
percent granted to a community, it isn't necessarily a
project that they had to buy into... In order to solve both
of these problems, the governor suggested that we have a
program that attempts to equitably allocate, across the
state, some portion of the capital budget. ...Small
communities, their population counts two for one...there are
some medium size communities whose population counts one and
a half to one and the larger communities are one to one. So
there's a little bit of skewing in the allocation."
MR. STASTNY said, "The other thing we attempted to do then
was put a match in, that when a community is allocated
money, they have that money available for projects, but they
have to come up with some share of the project...and this is
a sliding scale as to how much they have to come up
with...based on a community's ability to come up with a
match. The bill (HB 124) that you see before you, is a bill
that's simpler than the prior bills. In last year's (1992)
bill we had what some people said was a pretty complex
formula that calculated ability to pay."
Number 155
MR. STASTNY continued, "Another thing that the bill (HB 124)
does is it allows communities to accumulate their allocation
for five years. So if 150,000 dollars is allocated to a
community and that's not large enough to do the project they
want to do, in effect they have a savings account of 150,000
that they can keep in the "bank" and if there's another
appropriation next year then they can continue to keep that
for a period of five years and utilize the money when they
have the match."
MR. STASTNY also stated, "There was some concern that a lot
of smaller communities didn't have the cash available for
match and so we tried to make it as liberal as possible that
a community can come up with land, they can use sweat
equity, whatever way they can come up with the match."
Number 177
REPRESENTATIVE CYNTHIA TOOHEY asked if, in the case of Lime
Village, native lands could be matched for a sewer project.
MR. STASTNY said Lime Village would generally be allocated
$25,000 under HB 124 which would only cover small projects.
Number 199
REPRESENTATIVE BILL WILLIAMS ensured that lands matched
would not be from Native corporations.
MR. STASTNY concurred and said, "The way the formula works
Anchorage, for example, would get a significant part because
it is based pretty much on population. This year the
appropriation bill (HB 125) that you have is $67 million
dollars... (but) no community gets less than $25,000...
It's not for big projects obviously in the smaller
communities."
Number 233
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY asked if the communities receiving
money would have to use union labor.
MR. STASTNY said, "Whatever the community can do, I'm not
really familiar with all those rules..."
Number 245
REPRESENTATIVE CON BUNDE said, "There may be some problems
with the Little Davis-Bacon Act."
JACK FARGNOLI, POLICY ANALYST, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND
BUDGET, OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR, responded, "According to the
Department of Labor, the communities will not run into any
problems with Little Davis-Bacon."
VICE-CHAIRMAN SANDERS referred to a letter sent to Senator
Randy Phillips from Mayor Tom Fink of Anchorage supporting
the Senate companion bills to HB 124 and HB 125, SB 88 and
SB 89. (A copy of this letter 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 276
JIM KOHLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE,
testified, "I'm not here to speak really in support or
against this particular bill (HB 124), but rather I bring
with me a couple of questions that I have been asked over
the last few weeks by members of our organization... Is the
degree to which the dollars that it would be appropriated to
the execution of this particular program, to what degree
that other dollars are available for projects, be they
larger projects or perhaps be they projects that go beyond a
single municipality, they may be regional in nature, etc.,
are accessible in what a lot of municipalities feel is a
traditional approach, that is through your legislature,
trying to access the dollars. ...To what degree do these
dollars usurp perhaps, the dollars that traditionally
representatives and senators try to pass down into their
districts from a larger capital pot, basically."
MR. KOHLER continued, "Secondly, is their the availability
either through this program or through other capital
appropriation activities that will allow a matching grant
project but of a regional nature?"
Number 330
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY asked for an example of a state
project that has not benefited a specific municipality.
Mr. KOHLER gave a hypothetical example.
Number 375
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE said, "Capital budgets, like other
budgets, are finite budgets and if we take this amount out
there will be that much less available for these other
projects that you address and I don't see anything coming
down the pike that will be available for regional
(projects). I think that would require strong cooperation
among the various cities, villages of the region."
MR. KOHLER explained he was trying "to make sure that
municipalities have a clarification as to what is accessible
under what circumstances, and where to invest their energies
for different types of projects."
Number 392
MR. FARGNOLI clarified saying, "This is not designed for
regional projects...(but) if they do wish to use these
grants, even though they are intended for smaller
projects...they are unfettered...we intentionally did not
try to clutter up that pathway to prohibit them from forming
associative relations on joint projects."
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN DAVIES asked, "What's the intent here?
What is this new approach in allocating capital funds trying
to fix? Why do we need to do this?"
Number 436
MR. FARGNOLI said, "The governor's trying to do three things
basically with the bill (HB 124). He's trying to increase,
enhance, or improve the ability of local communities to
select the projects they feel are most important... Second
reason he wanted to give this the priority that he has, is
to leverage state dollars in terms of limited capital to
make state capital grant dollars go further. ...Third
reason...was to help by establishing a sense of local
ownership, to have that be an effective screening devise so
they would result in better projects... These kinds of
grants tend to be treated as the discretionary capital
grants that get usually allocated at the very end of
session, and it's in everyone's interest to have that
process be as little chaotic as possible."
Number 467
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES described the current process for
funding capital projects. "(HB 124) imposes another
administrative level in between the local community and the
representatives who openly allocate the funds... We add
another administrative hoop to jump through rather than
making it a process that somehow gets the people's choice
allocated more clearly."
MR. FARGNOLI responded, "I agree with you in that respect.
The process is certainly on the executive branch side fairly
chaotic. ...We'll have fewer dollars to give to these kinds
of projects over the next decade or whatever. In the past,
a lot of projects had been funded with very little
forethought at the local level or the state level, to be
candid about it. So we think there is some improvement
there, certainly on our side in helping the governor
establish what his selections or decision would be, vis-a-
vis, the governor's economic development strategies or
community infrastructure development strategies."
Number 511
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE asked if Bruce Geraghty, the DCRA's
Deputy Commissioner, would elaborate on the DCRA fiscal
note.
BRUCE GERAGHTY, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, DCRA, said, "When the
governor first proposed this, of course, the department had
the resources with which to not have to deal with fiscal
notes. I believe last year's fiscal notes were zero to very
insignificant. Due to budget cuts last year and loss of
some people we've had to submit a fiscal note with regard to
travel and doing the normal monitoring that we do with
regard to grant projects, the internal accounting and the
administrative section."
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE asked for details on the travel budget.
MR. GERAGHTY indicated it was for follow-up and "if they run
into problems with the project and they need to amend..."
Number 556
REPRESENTATIVE ED WILLIS asked if Vice-Chairman Sanders
intended to move HB 124 and HB 125 out of committee today.
REPRESENTATIVE SANDERS said, "No, we're just going to take
testimony."
REPRESENTATIVE WILLIS asked if there was a Municipal League
representative present to testify.
VICE-CHAIR SANDERS said the Municipal League representative
was out of town "that's why he sent" the letter the members
have in their packets. (A copy of this letter 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.)
ADJOURNMENT
Number 567
VICE-CHAIR SANDERS adjourned the meeting at 1:42 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|