SB 265 - 2010 REVISOR'S BILL  3:07:26 PM CHAIR RAMRAS announced that the final order of business would be CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 265(JUD), "An Act making corrective amendments to the Alaska Statutes as recommended by the revisor of statutes; and providing for an effective date." 3:07:50 PM KATHRYN KURTZ, Assistant Revisor, Legislative Legal Counsel, Legislative Legal and Research Services, Legislative Affairs Agency, explained that the purpose of SB 265 is to "correct deficiencies, errors, and obsolete provisions." She pointed out that this is done annually. She explained that SB 265 had 31 Sections and 10 of these dealt with short titles. She added that the bill makes conforming changes, and in six cases it was "curing anguished English." She clarified that the bill does not make substantive changes to the law. MS. KURTZ explained that the proposed amendment, labeled 26- LS1220\P.1, Kurtz, 3/16/10 would return a reference to "newsboys'", which had been changed the prior year in an attempt to make it gender neutral, to its original wording. She explained that the change had resulted in a tax consequence. 3:09:28 PM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG moved to adopt [Amendment 1], labeled 26-LS1220\P.1, Kurtz, 3/16/10, which read: Page 9, following line 13: Insert a new bill section to read:  "* Sec. 15. AS 23.20.526(a) is amended to read: (a) In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, "employment" does not include (1) domestic service in a private home, except as provided in AS 23.20.525(a)(13); (2) newsboys' services [SERVICE PERFORMED BY AN INDIVIDUAL UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE] in selling or distributing newspapers on the street or from house to house; (3) service not in the course of the employing unit's trade or business performed in a calendar quarter by an individual, unless the cash remuneration paid for the service is $50 or more and the service is performed by an individual who is regularly employed by the employing unit to perform the service; an individual is here considered to be regularly employed to perform service not in the course of an employing unit's trade or business during a calendar quarter only if the individual performs the service for some portion of the day on each of 24 days during the quarter or during the preceding calendar quarter; (4) service performed by an individual in the employ of the individual's (A) son, daughter, or spouse; (B) parent or legal guardian if the individual was under the age of 21 years and a full- time student during eight of the last 12 months and intends to resume full-time student status within the next four months; and (C) mother or father if the service is performed by a child under the age of 18; (5) service with respect to which unemployment insurance is payable under an unemployment insurance program established by an Act of Congress; (6) service performed in the employ of a foreign government including service as a consular or other officer or employee or a nondiplomatic representative; (7) service performed in the employ of an instrumentality wholly owned by a foreign government if (A) the service is of a character similar to that performed in foreign countries by employees of the United States government or its instrumentalities; and (B) the department finds that the United States Secretary of State has certified to the United States Secretary of the Treasury that the foreign government, with respect to whose instrumentality exemption is claimed, grants an equivalent exemption with respect to similar service performed in the foreign country by employees of the United States government and its instrumentalities; (8) service performed by an insurance agent, insurance solicitor, real estate broker, real estate salesperson, or securities salesperson to the extent the person is compensated by commission, unless the service is required to be covered under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, as amended; (9) notwithstanding AS 23.20.525(a)(9), service performed by an officer or member of the crew of an American vessel on or in connection with the vessel, if the operating office, from which the operations of the vessel operating on navigable waters inside or inside and outside the United States are ordinarily and regularly supervised, managed, directed, and controlled, is outside this state; (10) service performed on or in connection with a vessel not an American vessel by an individual if the individual performed service on and in connection with the vessel when outside the United States; (11) service performed in the employ of the United States government or an instrumentality of the United States exempt under the Constitution of the United States from the contributions imposed by this chapter, except that to the extent that the Congress of the United States permits states to require an instrumentality of the United States to make payments into an unemployment fund under a state employment security law, all of the provisions of this chapter apply to the instrumentalities, and to service performed for the instrumentalities in the same manner, to the same extent, and on the same terms as to all other employers, employing units, individuals, and service; however, if this state is not certified for any year by the United States Secretary of Labor under 26 U.S.C. 3304(c) (Federal Unemployment Tax Act, Internal Revenue Code), the payments required of the instrumentalities with respect to the year shall be refunded by the department from the fund in the same manner and within the same period as is provided in AS 23.20.225 with respect to contributions erroneously collected; (12) service performed in the employ of another state, or political subdivision of another state, or an instrumentality of another state or political subdivision that is wholly owned by another state or its political subdivision, or a service performed in the employ of an instrumentality of another state or its political subdivisions to the extent that the instrumentality is, with respect to the service, exempt under the Constitution of the United States from the tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 3301 (Federal Unemployment Tax Act, Internal Revenue Code); (13) service performed in the employ of an international organization; (14) service covered by an election approved by the agency charged with the administration of any other state or federal employment security law, in accordance with an arrangement under AS 23.20.090(a) during the effective period of the election; (15) service performed by an individual in agricultural labor, except as provided in AS 23.20.525(a)(14); the term "agricultural labor" means remunerated service (A) on a farm, in the employ of any person in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training, and management of livestock, bees, poultry, and fur- bearing animals and wildlife; (B) in the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement, or maintenance of the farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane, if the major part of the service is performed on a farm; (C) in connection with the production or harvesting of any commodity defined as an agricultural commodity in 12 U.S.C. 1141j (Sec. 15(g), Agricultural Marketing Act), as amended, or in connection with the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs, or waterways, not owned or operated for profit, used exclusively for supplying and storing water for farming purposes; (D) in the employ of the operator of a farm in handling, planting, drying, packing, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing, or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, in its unmanufactured state, any agricultural or horticultural commodity; but only if the operator produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which the service is performed except as stated in (b) of this section; (E) in the employ of a group of operators of farms, or a cooperative organization of which the operators are members, in the performance of service described in (D) of this paragraph, but only if the operators produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which the service is performed; (F) on a farm operated for profit if the service is not in the course of the employer's trade or business; (16) service performed as a student nurse in the employ of a hospital or a nurses' training school by an individual who is enrolled and is regularly attending classes in a nurses' training school chartered or approved in accordance with the laws of this state, and service performed as an intern in the employ of a hospital by an individual who has completed a four-year course in a medical school chartered or approved in accordance with the laws of this state, unless the service is required to be covered under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act; (17) service performed by an individual on a boat engaged in catching fish or other forms of aquatic animal life under an arrangement with the owner or operator of that boat under which (A) that individual does not receive any cash remuneration except as provided in (B) of this paragraph; (B) that individual receives a share of the boat's, or the boats' in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, catch of fish or other forms of aquatic animal life or a share of the proceeds from the sale of that catch; and (C) the amount of that individual's share depends on the amount of the boat's, or the boats' in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, catch of fish or other forms of aquatic animal life; but only if the operating crew of that boat, or each boat from which the individual receives a share in the case of a fishing operation involving more than one boat, is normally made up of fewer than 10 individuals; (18) service performed as a prospective or impaneled juror in a court; (19) service performed for a corporation by an employee of the corporation if (A) the corporation is incorporated under AS 10.06; (B) the corporation is not a government corporation; and (C) the employee is an executive officer of the corporation; (20) service performed by an individual who drives a taxicab whose compensation and written contractual arrangements are as described in AS 23.10.055(a)(13); (21) service of an individual who (A) directly sells or solicits the sale of consumer products, for resale or otherwise, personally to a prospective consumer in the home or otherwise than in a permanent retail establishment; a sale or solicitation by telephone, mail, other telecommunications method, or other nonpersonal method does not satisfy the requirement of this subparagraph; (B) is compensated solely by (i) commissions on sales or other remuneration directly related to sales or sales performance; or (ii) a profit represented by the difference between the wholesale cost of the product to the seller and the final sale price to the consumer; and (C) performs under a written contract with the person for whom the service is performed that provides, notwithstanding AS 23.20.395(a), that the individual is not an employee for purposes of this chapter or for federal or state tax purposes; (22) temporary services related to emergency oil spill training and response activities by an individual described in (17) of this subsection; in this paragraph, "temporary" means a period of less than seven continuous days." Renumber the following bill sections accordingly. Page 15, lines 1 - 2: Delete "sec. 25" Insert "sec. 26" Page 15, line 16: Insert a new bill section to read: "* Sec. 30. The uncodified law of the State of Alaska is amended by adding a new section to read: RETROACTIVITY. Section 15 of this Act is retroactive to June 21, 2009." Renumber the following bill sections accordingly. Page 15, line 19: Delete "Section 21" Insert "Section 22" Page 15, line 22: Delete "sec. 21" Insert "sec. 22" Page 15, line 24: Delete "sec. 30" Insert "sec. 32" REPRESENTATIVE HOLMES objected for the purpose of discussion. REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG asked if there was any other gender neutral descriptor. MS. KURTZ explained that the gender neutral language had been taken from federal statute, and given the tax issue, she would prefer to return to the original wording. 3:10:58 PM CHAIR RAMRAS, after ascertaining that there was no more testimony, closed public testimony. REPRESENTATIVE HOLMES removed her objection. There being no further objection, Amendment 1 was adopted. 3:11:31 PM REPRESENTATIVE HERRON moved to report CSSB 265 (JUD), as amended, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, HCS CSSB 265(JUD) was reported from the House Judiciary Standing Committee.