SB 82-2001 REVISOR'S BILL  MS. PAMELA FINLEY, Revisor of Statutes, Legislative Legal and Research Services, said SB 82 is prepared pursuant to statute. The purpose of SB 82 is to fix errors in previous legislation if the fix does not involve policy choices. SENATOR COWDERY asked if SB 82 was just a clean-up bill. MS. FINLEY replied yes. SENATOR COWDERY asked about the change of age for a minor. MS. FINLEY said when the definition of minor at 19 was enacted, the age of majority was 19, which is part of the Uniform Probate Code (UPC). The UPC Model Act says, "Here insert the age of majority," it was done and it was correct in 1972. In 1977, however, the age of majority was lowered to 18, and it was not changed in the UPC. SENATOR COWDERY asked about the Medicare supplemental policy change. MS. FINLEY said the defined term does not exist in [42 U.S.C.] 1345ss[(g)(1)]. It is being changed to fit with what the federal law actually says. SENATOR COWDERY asked for an explanation of, "required to be submitted to [SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY] the legislature." MS. FINLEY said under [AS] 23.42.15, subsection (b) the legislature had to approve the monetary terms of an agreement under "23.40," the public employee's agreement. This was changed last year, which caused the approval requirement to no longer make sense in terms of (c). (c) should have been amended last year when (b) went from approval to submission. "This says that the terms do not have to be approved and now it is saying they do not have to be submitted." These are the terms of a school district - the school district in Wasilla does not have to submit its contract terms to the legislature. Number 386 CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if "spousal equivalent" in Sec. 9 is defined again in a different section. MS. FINLEY explained that it was not defined in AS 39.50.030(g), "this was a bad cross-reference." The definition that applies to AS 39.50.030(g) is found in AS 39.50.200. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR noted that some of the changes were just grammatical. He asked for an explanation of Sec. 15. MS. FINLEY referred to the language at the top of page 5, "however, a lessee that owns or operates a natural gas pipeline." She said that (A) was in existing law and (B) was added last year. The problem was the bracketed language on lines 9 through 19 used to be at the end [(B)]. The language that required it to accept "without unreasonable discrimination," used to go at the end of the paragraph, which was acceptable, but when another exception was added, it was put in the middle where it did not belong. This language was subject to negotiation between industry and the attorney general's (AG) office. After the legislation passed, the AG notified Ms. Finley that there was a mistake. Before she added this section to SB 82, industry look at it and approved of the changes. Number 509 CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said he could not see any substantive changes in SB 82, and without the changes subsection (B) becomes convoluted. He noted, for the record, that there are no substantive or policy changes that are occasioned by the language being moved from one part of the statute to another. MS. FINLEY replied no. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR noted that on the top of page 7, the language "[LAND AND WATER MANAGEMENT]" was deleted and replaced with "division of lands." He asked if this was because the division of lands already encompassed land and water management. MS. FINLEY replied yes, the division of lands is established in statute. The division of land and water management never existed in statute it only existed in fact. Number 592 MS. FINLEY said it was a subgroup that was never statutorily created. Because it was not legally created under statute, it could very easily be uncreated by changing the name. SENATOR COWDERY asked for an explanation of the effective dates in Sec. 25 and Sec. 26. He also asked for an explanation of AS 01.10.070(c) [in Sec. 26.]. MS. FINLEY noted that AS 01.10.070(c) is the statutory provision that provides for immediate effective dates if the legislature passes it by the required two thirds vote. The reason for a special effective date for Sec. 23 is that the section being amended, AS 45.29.702(b), does not take effect until July 1. The reason the revisor's bill is given an effective date is so that any changes it makes, if the same section is amended later by the legislature, will override the revisor's bill. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if a law that was passed last year on liens occasioned Sec. 23. MS. FINLEY answered yes. This is the redo of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). In the Model Act, there was a subsection (c), which was a temporary provision, and was later moved into a temporary law provision. It was deleted because there was no subsection (c). CHAIRMAN TAYLOR said the bill was a rewrite of the UCC. He asked if a transitional piece was labeled as a regular piece. MS. FINLEY replied yes. SENATOR COWDERY moved CSSB 82 with individual recommendations from committee. There being no objection, CSSB 82 moved from committee.