Legislature(1993 - 1994)
05/08/1994 01:00 PM House CRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS
STANDING COMMITTEE
May 8, 1994
1:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Harley Olberg, Chairman
Representative Ed Willis
Representative Bill Williams
Representative Cynthia Toohey
Representative John Davies
Representative Con Bunde
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Jerry Sanders
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
CSSB 217: "An Act relating to the University of
Alaska and university land, authorizing
the University of Alaska to select
additional state public domain land, and
defining net income from the University
of Alaska's endowment trust fund as
'university receipts' subject to prior
legislative appropriation; and providing
for an effective date."
AMENDED AND PASSED OUT OF COMMITTEE WITH
INDIVIDUAL RECOMMENDATIONS
WITNESS REGISTER
WENDY REDMAN, Vice President for University Relations
University of Alaska
910 Yukon Drive
Fairbanks, AK 99775-2388
Phone: 474-6302
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported CSSB 240
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: SB 217
SHORT TITLE: INCREASE LAND GRANT TO UNIV. OF ALASKA
SPONSOR(S): SENATOR(S) FRANK,Kerttula,Miller,Rieger,Taylor,
Sharp
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
05/11/93 2311 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME/REFERRAL(S)
05/11/93 2311 (S) HES, RESOURCES, FINANCE
01/26/94 (S) HES AT 01:30 PM BUTROVICH
ROOM 205
01/26/94 (S) MINUTE(HES)
01/31/94 (S) HES AT 01:30 PM BUTROVICH
ROOM 205
02/02/94 (S) HES AT 01:30 PM BUTROVICH
ROOM 205
02/02/94 (S) MINUTE(HES)
02/04/94 2679 (S) HES RPT CS 4DP NEW TITLE
02/04/94 2679 (S) FISCAL NOTE TO SB & CS (DNR)
02/09/94 (S) RES AT 03:30 PM BUTROVICH
ROOM 205
02/14/94 (S) RES AT 03:30 PM BUTROVICH
ROOM 205
02/14/94 (S) MINUTE(RES)
02/15/94 (S) RES AT 03:30 PM BUTROVICH
ROOM 205
02/15/94 (S) MINUTE(RES)
02/18/94 2882 (S) RES RPT CS 3DP 1NR NEW TITLE
02/18/94 2882 (S) PREVIOUS FISCAL NOTE APPLIES
(DNR)
03/10/94 3145 (S) FIN RPT CS 3DP 1DNP NEW TITLE
03/10/94 3145 (S) FNS TO CS PUBLISHED (UA, F&G)
03/10/94 3145 (S) ZERO FN TO CS PUBLISHED (REV)
03/10/94 (S) FIN AT 08:30 AM SENATE
FINANCE 518
03/16/94 3238 (S) FISCAL NOTE TO CS PUBLISHED
(DNR)
03/29/94 (S) RLS AT 00:00 AM FAHRENKAMP
ROOM 203
03/29/94 (S) MINUTE(RLS)
04/06/94 3465 (S) RULES RPT 2CAL 1NR
04/06/94 3466 (S) READ THE SECOND TIME
04/06/94 3466 (S) FIN CS ADOPTED UNAN CONSENT
04/06/94 3467 (S) AM NO 1 MOVED BY KERTTULA,
ADAMS
04/06/94 3467 (S) AM NO 1 ADOPTED Y12 N8
04/06/94 3467 (S) AM NO 2 MOVED BY ADAMS
04/06/94 3473 (S) AM NO 2 WITHDRAWN BY ADAMS
04/06/94 3474 (S) AM NO 3 MOVED BY ELLIS
04/06/94 3474 (S) AM NO 3 ADOPTED Y11 N9
04/06/94 3474 (S) AM NO 4 MOVED BY LINCOLN
04/06/94 3475 (S) AM NO 4 ADOPTED Y11 N9
04/06/94 3475 (S) MOTION TO RESCIND ACTION IN
ADOPTG AM 1
04/06/94 3475 (S) MOTION TO RESCIND ACTION
FAILED Y10 N10
04/06/94 3475 (S) MOTION TO RESCIND ACTION IN
ADPTG AM 4
04/06/94 3476 (S) MTN TO RESCIND ADOPTING AM 4
WITHDRAWN
04/06/94 3476 (S) HELD IN SECOND READING TO 4/7
CALENDAR
04/07/94 3505 (S) HELD IN 2ND RDG TO 4/12 CAL
W/AMS PNDG
04/12/94 3602 (S) HELD IN 2ND RDG TO 4/14 CAL
W/AMS PNDG
04/14/94 3674 (S) AM NO 5 MOVED BY DUNCAN
04/14/94 3675 (S) AM NO 5 ADOPTED UNAN
CONSENT
04/14/94 3676 (S) AM NO 6 MOVED BY FRANK
04/14/94 3676 (S) AM NO 6 ADOPTED UNAN
CONSENT
04/14/94 3677 (S) AM NO 7 MOVED BY LINCOLN
04/14/94 3677 (S) AM TO AM 7 MOVED BY TAYLOR
04/14/94 3678 (S) AM TO AM 7 WITHDRAWN
04/14/94 3678 (S) AM NO 7 ADOPTED Y12 N7 E1
04/14/94 3678 (S) ADVANCED TO THIRD READING UNAN
CONSENT
04/14/94 3678 (S) READ THE THIRD TIME
CSSB 217(FIN) AM
04/14/94 3679 (S) PASSED Y14 N5 E1
04/14/94 3679 (S) EFFECTIVE DATE SAME AS PASSAGE
04/14/94 3690 (S) TRANSMITTED TO (H)
04/15/94 3458 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME/REFERRAL(S)
04/15/94 3458 (H) CRA, RESOURCES, FINANCE
04/25/94 (H) CRA AT 02:00 PM CAPITOL 124
04/27/94 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
04/28/94 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
04/28/94 (H) MINUTE(CRA)
04/29/94 (H) MINUTE(CRA)
05/02/94 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
05/03/94 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
05/04/94 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
05/05/94 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
05/06/94 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 94-23, SIDE A
Number 000
CHAIRMAN HARLEY OLBERG called the meeting to order at 1:00
p.m. He noted for the record Representatives Toohey,
Willis, Bunde and Williams were present and that a quorum
was present.
Representative Davies joined the committee at 1:01.
CHAIRMAN OLBERG described three amendments to CSSB 217 found
in the committee members packets. (A copy of these
amendments may be found in the Legislative Reference
Library.) He then brought forth the amendment from
Representative Gail Phillips and said, "It basically says
that...if the university does not use the land, put it into
active management, within ten years the commissioner of the
Department of Natural Resources has the authority to
retrieve the land."
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE moved to adopt the amendment proposed
by Representative Phillips.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES objected.
Number 062
WENDY REDMAN, VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY RELATIONS,
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, testified saying, "Frankly, as I've
discussed with Representative Phillips, we didn't think the
amendment was necessary but we did work with her in drafting
it and she was amenable to making some amendments to it. So
the way the amendment is written is acceptable. I would
say, however, that I think that our concerns with it have
been that it takes a long time sometimes to get land into
active management. It took us seven years so far to get our
White River timber on line and we're not quite on line yet.
So the second concern which Representative Phillips doesn't
really know how to address...is if we end up in litigation,
which we have, particularly on timber, that litigation can
extend our ability to get it into active management
indefinitely. She didn't really see any way to figure out
how we can get this into this amendment. We're just hopeful
that that won't occur on the new land and, hopefully, the
ten years will in fact be enough time for us to try to
overcome that."
Number 086
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN DAVIES moved to amend the amendment. He
said, "For any parcel of land that does get encumbered with
litigation, that for the period of litigation, the ten year
period is held."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG said, "The clock stops. I recollect quite
recently Representative Brice having an amendment to that
effect on mineral entry. That strikes me as a pretty good
idea."
REPRESENTATIVE CYNTHIA TOOHEY asked, "What is going to be
the sum and total of acreage in this?"
MS. REDMAN replied, "500,000 acres."
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY continued, "I personally think this is
an unreasonable amount of land you have to dispose of in ten
years."
Number 104
CHAIRMAN OLBERG pointed out, "The ten years starts after the
university receives the land."
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "I realize that. And if they're
going to receive the land, Mr. Chairman, in one lump sum..."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG interjected, "They will not."
MS. REDMAN said, "I would expect it would take many years
for us to complete the conveyance. It will come over a
period of time and in small pieces over that period of
time."
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "If you should get 100,000 acres
at one time and it's beneficial to the land to hold it for
future development, what happens there?"
MS. REDMAN said, "That's one of the concerns that we did
address with Representative Phillips. There certainly are
some selections where, because our lens is so long in terms
of setting an endowment for the university, there may be
some lands that we select that we choose not to develop
until far into the future."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG said, "Those kinds of cases will be
addressed in the future. This is the start to a process
which will be modified over the next twenty years probably."
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "I don't want to do something
today with a little amendment that we're going to have to
undo in five years or ten years or twenty years from now."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG said, "That's one way to look at it. I also
look at it as a problem we can fix next year."
Number 133
REPRESENTATIVE BILL WILLIAMS asked, "Can we put in there
somewhere that once the university has come up with a plan,
a land use plan, for the properties, so we at least know
what they're going to be doing with it?"
CHAIRMAN OLBERG said, "The onus is on the university to put
the land into active management within ten years of receipt,
before they lose it."
Number 162
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "I would really feel more
comfortable with something that says here on 'the right to
reenter the land conveyed and recover title to it if on the
tenth anniversary unless otherwise noted in a long range
plan of the execution of the conveyance the commissioner of
DNR and so forth. I would like to see something in there
that says 'unless the long range plan denotes otherwise'
which means you've obviously looked at it by a long range
planner."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG asked, "Don't you think the University would
have a plan before they selected the land?"
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "If you are comfortable with
that. To me it's kind of pointless to have that ten years
hanging over your head."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG said, "I didn't hear any objection to the
amendment as far as the clock stopping during litigation."
Number 182
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES said, "In offering this amendment I
want it to be clear that I don't support the main amendment,
in any case but I'm just offering this if it, for some
reason, does get adopted I think it will be improved by this
amendment. Here's what I would suggest: For any parcel of
land the development which is held up due to litigation or
other appeal process, the ten year period is extended by the
duration of the litigation and/or appeal process."
There was no objection to Representative Davies' amendment
to Representative Phillips amendment.
Number 212
CHAIRMAN OLBERG brought forth Representative Gail Phillip's
amendment as amended and said, "Which fundamentally says the
university has ten years to place selected years into active
management after they have conveyance. I think that's a
reasonable span of time, although probably unnecessary, but
it makes somebody somewhere feel better and that's important
to me."
MS. REDMAN interjected, "If I may just say, I think that it
says that the commissioner shall have the right to reenter
the land, so I believe that if the university had a parcel
of land for which we had a very long term plan that we would
argue that case and it would be fine."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG asked Representative Davies maintained his
objection to the amended Representative Gail Phillip's
amendment.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES said `yes,' he maintains his
objection.
Number 230
A role vote was taken. Representatives Olberg, Williams,
Bunde and Toohey voted to adopt the amended amendment of
Representative Phillips. Representatives Davies and Willis
voted against it. So the motion passed.
CHAIRMAN OLBERG brought forth a second amendment found in
the members packets he referred to as the Chenowith
amendment dated 4/27/94.
MS. REDMAN said, "We are certainly amenable to trying to
make the kinds of amendments internal that the miners
representive, Mr. Ward, spoke to you about at the last
meeting. This amendment is technically the way we have to
do it. That is it would be our mineral leasing, mineral
entry and location policies would be substantially similar
to those included in AS 38. AS 38 does not lend itself to
having the university drop into it the way we had originally
had planned. This will work. Our intention is to work with
them. They're concerned about some access rights,
royalties, rents, those kinds of things. Our intention
would be to try to keep it as close to the current AS 38 as
we can."
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES moved the Chenoweth amendment dated
4/27/94.
There were no objections. So the amendment was adopted.
CHAIRMAN OLBERG brought forth an amendment produced by
Representative Bunde relating to page 10, line 12 of CSSB
217.
Number 268
REPRESENTATIVE CON BUNDE moved this amendment and said, "It
discusses deleting the word 'possible' and inserting the
work 'practicable'. Many things are possible. They are not
all practicable. The analogy I heard is; it is possible to
build a bridge from Juneau to Skagway. The practicality may
be in question."
There were no objections. So the amendment was adopted.
Number 285
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY moved to pass CSSB 217 as amended out
of committee with individual recommendations.
Hearing no objection, the bill was moved from committee.
CHAIRMAN OLBERG thanked the members for their attendance and
active involvement this session in commitee.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES said, "I would like to express my
appreciation to the chair for the way he ran this committee.
I think he was always willing to listen, sought public input
frequently and generally ran a good ship."
REPRESENTATIVE WILLIS said, "I echo those sentiments."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG adjourned the meeting 1:25 p.m.
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