Legislature(1993 - 1994)
02/23/1993 09:02 AM Senate CRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SENATE COMMUNITY & REGIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
February 23, 1993
9:02 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Randy Phillips, Chairman
Senator Robin Taylor, Vice Chairman
Senator Rick Halford
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Al Adams
Senator Fred Zharoff
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 33
"An Act relating to grants for local emergency planning
committees and emergency response organizations; and
providing for an effective date."
SENATE BILL NO. 35
"An Act providing immunity for the Alaska State Emergency
Response Commission, the local emergency planning
committees, the Hazardous Substance Spill Technology Review
Council, and their members for official actions; and
providing for an effective date."
SENATE BILL NO. 88
"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."
SENATE BILL NO. 89
"An Act making appropriations for capital project matching
grant programs; and providing for an effective date."
PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION
SB 33 - No previous action to record.
SB 35 - No previous action to record.
SB 88 - See Community & Regional Affairs minutes
dated 2/16/93, 2/18/93..
SB 89 - See Community & Regional Affairs minutes
dated 2/16/93, 2/18/93.
WITNESS REGISTER
Annette Kreitzer, Staff to Senator Loren Leman
State Capitol
Juneau, AK 99801-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SB 33 &
SB 35
Michael Conway, Director
Division of Spill Prevention
Department of Environmental Conservation
410 Willoughby Ave., Suite 105
Juneau, AK 99801-17795
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of SB 33
Jeff Morrison, Legislative Liaison
Administrative & Support Services Division
Department of Military & Veterans Affairs
P.O. Box 110900
Juneau, AK 99811-0900
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of SB 33
Marie Sansone, Assistant Attorney General
Department of Law
P.O. Box 110300
Juneau, AK 99811-0300
POSITION STATEMENT: Present to answer questions on
SB 33 & SB 35
Jack Fargnoli, Senior Policy Analyst
Office of Management & Budget
P.O. Box 110020
Juneau, AK 99811-0020
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered information on SB 88 &
SB 89
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 93-8, SIDE A
Number 001
The Senate Community & Regional Affairs Committee was called
to order by Chairman Randy Phillips at 9:02 a.m.
CHAIRMAN RANDY PHILLIPS introduced SB 33 (GRANTS FOR LOCAL
EMERGENCY PLANNING) as the first order of business.
ANNETTE KREITZER, staff to Senator Loren Leman, stated
Senator Leman introduced SB 33 at the requests of the
Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department
of Military and Veterans Affairs. She explained the
legislation clarifies the granting authority for DEC and
DMVA for what they are trying to do to meet their
responsibilities under the Super Fund Act. It will allow
DEC to award grants to form local emergency planning
committees and will allow DMVA to award grants for disaster
planning and response.
Ms. Kreitzer directed attention to a proposed committee
substitute. She said after the original bill was drafted,
it was brought to the sponsor's attention that the bill
didn't do exactly what these departments needed.
Number 055
MICHAEL CONWAY, Director of the Division of Spill Prevention
and Response, Department of Environmental Conservation,
stated the department's support for the legislation. He
said this will give them the opportunity to streamline their
ability to do business with local emergency planning
committees (LEPCs).
Number 067
JEFF MORRISON, Legislative Liaison, Department of Military
and Veterans Affairs, voiced the department's support for SB
33, saying it expedites their ability to administratively
handle the money dealing with LEPC's. He directed attention
to the draft committee substitute, noting one of the
significant changes is the addition of subsection (b) in
Section 1. The original legislation just addressed training
grants, and the new subsection allows the LEPC's to contract
for developing plans as well as training.
Number 098
MARIE SANSONE, Department of Law, stated she was present to
answers questions from the committee.
Number 103
SENATOR TAYLOR moved that CSSB 33 (CRA) be adopted. Hearing
no objection, it was so ordered.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved that CSSSB 33 (CRA) be passed out of
committee with individual recommendations. Hearing no
objection, it was so ordered.
Number 122
CHAIRMAN RANDY PHILLIPS introduced SB 35 (IMMUNITY FOR
ACTIONS TAKEN UNDER AS 46.13) as the next order of business.
ANNETTE KREITZER, staff to Senator Loren Leman, explained
the legislation was introduced at the request of the
Department of Environmental Conservation. It addresses
liability of volunteers and state officials who serve on the
Alaska State Emergency Response Commission, the local
emergency planning committees, and the Hazardous Substance
Spill Technology Spill Council.
Ms. Krietzer noted that staff from the Department of Law was
present to respond to questions.
Number 150
SENATOR TAYLOR voiced his concern that the legislation would
be granting a complete blanket of immunity for all members
participating in the review of and approval of the local
emergency plans, the commission that establishes it, the
members of the council, or even the local emergency planning
committees. At the same time, we have strict liability for
damage claims against companies that have ever existed in
Alaska law, and yet we are giving the people who administer
it a complete blanket of immunity, he said.
CHAIRMAN PHILLIPS stated SB 35 would be held until the
Thursday meeting to give the committee the opportunity to
take a closer look at it.
CHAIRMAN PHILLIPS brought SB 88 (CAPITAL PROJECT GRANTS) and
SB 89 (APPROP: CAPITAL PROJECT MATCHING GRANTS) before the
committee as the next order of business.
JACK FARGNOLI, Senior Policy Analyst, Office of Management
and Budget, presented a brief recap on the provisions of SB
88, which is a high priority of Governor Hickel.
The Governor has proposed in the appropriation bill, SB 89,
a total of $67 million for funding, which, under the
provisions of the appropriation bill, would be split $65.3
million for municipalities and $1.7 million for
unincorporated communities. Under both of those programs,
there would be matching grant provisions that are broken
down by the sizes of the communities involved, such that
each time a grant or part of a grant was drawn from the
communities accounts that will be created, the communities
would be responsible for putting up a match. The match
could be in dollars or it could be in-kind.
Mr. Fargnoli said the primary intent in introducing the
legislation is to help encourage and maximize the influence
of the local communities themselves in the identification
and prioritization of their projects. The Governor would
propose those projects in their same priority order in his
capital budget each year, subject to the total amount of
appropriations available, and then transmit those projects
as part of his capital budget to the legislature for
consideration. A separate provision of the bill provides
that if he for any reason departs from the priority order
that is identified by local communities themselves, then he
would explain in writing to the legislature his reasons for
doing so.
Mr. Fargnoli reiterated that it is the Governor's sense that
this is important both for the process is creates and the
attention is gives to local priorities.
Mr. Fargnoli related that Shelby Stastny, Director of the
Office of Management and Budget, was unable to attend the
hearing because he was in a meeting with Governor Hickel.
Number 270
SENATOR TAYLOR referred to page 11, lines 3 through 11,
which relates to the local share percentage. He said the
population in Wrangell is very similar to Barrow and the
North Slope Borough. One mill in Wrangell generates about
$75,000 total, whereas one mill in the North Slope generates
several million. He said the percentile is based merely
upon population and totally disregards the tax base of the
community and its ability to pay. He then suggested putting
this on a mill equivalency basis. JACK FARGNOLI said in the
earlier versions of the bill that were in the last two
sessions, there was a rather elaborate set of formulas to
deal with the fiscal capacity of the different communities
just to capture those kinds of differences. The decision
was made this year that the desirability of simplifying the
bill for purposes of ease of understanding and ease of
administration would outweigh those concerns. The bill was
changed to a flat three-tiered structure, grouping them by
population, knowing that in some cases there would be those
kind of discrepancies. He added that Senator Taylor's point
was well taken and he had no reason to disagree with it.
Number 325
SENATOR HALFORD commented that any time we try to classify
by some arbitrary standard, we run the risk of
discriminating unfairly. He asked if they had considered
using the same match percentage across the state. JACK
FARGNOLI acknowledged that they had, and their conversations
indicated pretty strongly that then you wouldn't be dealing
simply with the polarities between the extreme cases, so
they departed from that rather early. SENATOR HALFORD said
if he were to support the bill, he thinks equity is a far
better way to simplify it. He suggested it should simply
say that the match initially is 10 percent and the match at
the second tier is 20 percent, and leave the provisions that
do provide some kind of cost of living differential and who
is eligible for a match in the bill. JACK FARGNOLI
responded that he thought they would be willing to make that
change.
Number 345
CHAIRMAN RANDY PHILLIPS stated that he was considering
offering an amendment that would limit the projects for $1
million to a community. It limits that community or the
non-organized area, or the organization that is doing it to
10 percent for administrative costs. JACK FARGNOLI said
that they wouldn't have a problem with that change.
Number 360
SENATOR TAYLOR suggested that within the percentiles that
there be some significant readjustments and that it be based
on a mill equivalency basis, or perhaps a combination of
population and mill equivalency. He also said he was not
willing to accept the Department of Community and Regional
Affairs' formula.
SENATOR HALFORD said that if we're trying to find a real
formula that reflects ability to pay, then it has to be mill
rate per capita.
Number 387
CHAIRMAN RANDY PHILLIPS stated SB 88 and SB 89 would be back
before the committee at the Thursday, February 25 meeting.
There being no further business to come before the
committee, the meeting was adjourned at 9:30 a.m.
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