Legislature(2019 - 2020)SENATE FINANCE 532
03/27/2020 09:00 AM House CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ON HB205
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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| += | HB 205 | TELECONFERENCED | |
31ST ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SECOND SESSION
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ON HB 205
March 27, 2020
9:04 a.m.
9:04:46 AM
CALL TO ORDER
Chair Stedman called the Conference Committee meeting on
HB 205 to order at 9:04 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
House:
Representative Neal Foster, Vice-Chair
Representative Jennifer Johnston
Representative Cathy Tilton
Senate:
Senator Bert Stedman, Chair
Senator Natasha Von Imhof
Senator Donny Olson
MEMBERS ABSENT
None
ALSO PRESENT:
Pat Pitney, Director, Legislative Finance Division.
SUMMARY
HB 205 APPROP: OPERATING BUDGET/LOANS/FUNDS
HB 205 was HEARD and HELD in committee for
further consideration.
CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 205(FIN)(Corrected) am(brf sup maj
fld)
"An Act making appropriations for the operating and
loan program expenses of state government and for
certain programs; capitalizing funds; making
supplemental appropriations; and providing for an
effective date."
SENATE CS FOR CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 205(FIN) am S
"An Act making appropriations for the operating and
loan program expenses of state government and for
certain programs; capitalizing funds; making capital
appropriations, supplemental appropriations, and
reappropriations; making appropriations for the
operating and capital expenses of the state's
integrated comprehensive mental health program; making
appropriations under art. IX, sec. 17(c), Constitution
of the State of Alaska, from the constitutional budget
reserve fund; and providing for an effective date."
9:05:26 AM
Chair Stedman noted that the committee would be addressing
open items in HB 205 based on the motion sheets distributed
to members and dated March 27th on the following:
Department of Public Safety
Fiscal Year 2020 Supplemental
Permanent Fund
Debt Service
Chair Stedman invited Pat Pitney, Director of the
Legislative Finance Division to join the committee at the
table.
9:05:52 AM
^DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY:
Vice-Chair Foster MOVED to ADOPT the following in the
Department of Public Safety's budget:
Item 1 Open
Item 2 Senate
Item 3 House
Item 4 Senate
Item 5 Senate
Item 6 House
Item 7 House
Item 8 House
Item 9 Senate
Item 10 Senate
Item 11 Senate
Item 12 Senate
Item 13 Senate
Item 14 Senate
Item 15 Senate
Item 16 House
There being NO OBJECTION, it was so ordered. This action
CLOSED Item 2 through Item 16 in the Department of Public
Safety's budget.
9:07:14 AM
^DEBT SERVICE:
Vice-Chair Foster MOVED to ADOPT the following supplemental
items:
Item 3 Senate
There being NO OBJECTION, it was so ordered. This action
CLOSED all items in the conferenceable debt service items.
9:07:36 AM
PERMANENT FUND:
Vice-Chair Foster MOVED to ADOPT the following permanent
fund items:
Item 1 Open
Item 2 House
Item 3 House
Representative Tilton OBJECTED to Item 2.
Representative Tilton OBJECTED to Item 3.
Representative Tilton stated that Item 2 and Item 3 were
linked. She spoke to her objection on Item 2 and Item 3.
She summarized that the items would provide inflation-
proofing from the Earnings Reserve Account into the corpus
of the Permanent Fund. She stated that although she
believed the fund should be inflation-proofed, she thought
there had already been forward-funding with a $4 billion
transfer that would happen at the end of the fiscal year.
Chair Stedman affirmed that Item 2 and Item 3 were linked
and he asked to address the items together.
Vice-Chair Foster explained that when the Alaska Permanent
Fund Corporation (APFC) recently came to the House Finance
Committee, it had made the recommendation that the
legislature move forward to inflation proof the fund
despite there being intent language for the $4 billion
transfer. He supported the inflation proofing and adopting
the House numbers for Item 2 and Item 3.
Representative Johnston stated that Vice-Chair Foster
addressed her concerns.
Chair Stedman supported inflation-proofing of the fund. He
acknowledged a large carboard depiction of a check to the
Permanent Fund for $4 billion on the shelf behind him in
the committee room. He was concerned that there was
significant interest in the legislative body to spend the
ERA; and the only way to not access the funds was if it was
in a corpus and there was a vote of the people. He
supported adding $1,055,600,000 to the corpus to protect it
for future generations of Alaskans.
Senator Olson considered the $4 billion transfer to the ERA
and wondered if it was enough inflation proofing to protect
the fund. He thought it was important to have the funds to
use for legislative issues being considered. He thought
funds put in the corpus were inaccessible and he thought
the legislature could have access to whatever funds that
were available in a time of emergency. He queried the
committee to comment what flaw was in his thinking.
9:12:13 AM
Chair Stedman estimated that the funds only represented
only one-eighth of the balance of the ERA. He recognized
that the state was coming into hard times, but after
liquidation of the state's savings accounts, he was
concerned that the Permanent Fund would fall into the same
financial abyss and get liquidated.
Senator Olson had been the Senate Finance Committee
previously when Chair Stedman was the co-chair and had put
large sums of billions of dollars into state savings. He
wanted to thank Chair Stedman.
Representative Tilton was concerned with how fast the state
was running through money and used the example of the
Constitutional Budget Reserve. She did not want to see the
monies form the ERA gone through quickly. She acknowledged
that the state did have cash on hand as it once did, and
she supported a constitutional spending limit to keep
downward pressure on the budget.
Representative Tilton MAINTAINED her OBJECTION.
A roll call vote was taken on the motion.
IN FAVOR: von Imhof, Johnston, Stedman, Foster
OPPOSED: Olson, Tilton
The MOTION PASSED (4/2).
There being NO further OBJECTION, it was so ordered. The
action CLOSED Item 2 and Item 3 for the Permanent Fund.
9:15:07 AM
^FISCAL YEAR 20 SUPPLEMENTAL ITEMS:
Vice-Chair Foster MOVED to ADOPT the following supplemental
items:
Item 1 Senate, modified, delete "and development of
economic opportunities for the state at the state and
federal level"
Item 5 Senate
There being NO OBJECTION, it was so ordered. This action
CLOSED all but one of the conferenceable supplemental
items.
Chair Stedman informed that he would recess this meeting to
the call of the chair, and that he wanted the committee to
finish its work later in the day. He mentioned that the
state continued to have residents around Southeast Alaska
that were infected with the COVID-19 virus, and the
committee would proceed expeditiously in an orderly fashion
to bring the conference committee to resolution.
9:17:21 AM
RECESSED
[Chair Stedman adjourned the meeting at 7:01 p.m.]
ADJOURNMENT
7:01:14 PM
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