SENATE RESOURCES COMMITTEE May 2, 1997 3:52 P.M. MEMBERS PRESENT Senator Rick Halford, Chairman Senator Lyda Green, Vice Chairman Senator Loren Leman Senator Robin Taylor Senator John Torgerson MEMBERS ABSENT Senator Bert Sharp Senator Georgianna Lincoln COMMITTEE CALENDAR CS FOR HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 14(RLS) Relating to supporting the "American Land Sovereignty Protection Act." - MOVED CSHJR 14(RLS) OUT OF COMMITTEE SENATE BILL NO. 184 "An Act relating to access by the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Fish and Game to confidential tax records for fisheries resources prepared or kept by the Department of Revenue under AS 43.75." - MOVED SB 184 OUT OF COMMITTEE PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION HJR 14 - No previous action to consider. SB 184 - No previous action to consider. WITNESS REGISTER Ms. Myrna McGhie, Staff Representative Jeannette James State Capitol Bldg. Juneau AK 99801 POSITION STATEMENT: Staff to sponsor of HJR 14. Mr. Paul Dick Income and Excise Audit Division Department of Revenue 550 West 7th Ave, Suite 560 Anchorage AK 99811-0402 POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 184. ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 97-30, SIDE A Number 001 HJR 14 SUPPORT AMERICAN LAND SOVEREIGNTY ACT  CHAIRMAN HALFORD called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to order at 3:52 p.m. and announced HJR 14 to be up for consideration. MS. MYRNA MCGHIE, Staff to Representative Jeannette James, sponsor, said that in 1971 the United States joined the U.N. program calling for establishing biosphere reserves around the world. Forty seven national parks which cover 51 million acres of land are classified as these sanctuaries. Sixty eight percent of our national parks, preserves, and monuments have been designated to the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to biosphere reserves and world heritage sites without any legislative or congressional direction. Most disturbing is that 40.7 million acres of this land are in Alaska. A world heritage site in Alaska is Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve and the six biosphere reserves are: Admiralty Island National Monument, the Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Denali National Park and Preserve, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, and Noatak National Preserve. There is legitimate concern about possible international interference. SENATOR TAYLOR said that he is thoroughly convinced this is a wonderful resolution and moved to pass it from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered. SB 184 DEC & ADFG ACCESS TO FISH TAX RECORDS  CHAIRMAN HALFORD announced SB 184 to be up for consideration. MR. PAUL DICK, Department of Revenue, said this bill is essentially the culmination of three agencies work, ADF&G, DEC and Department of Revenue, on recommendations by seafood processors as part of the Governor's marketing Alaska initiative. Their recommendations strongly suggest that they simplify the reporting and application procedure for seafood processors and he thought the agencies had been very responsive in doing that. The next thing they want to do is consolidate the fishery business tax return with an annual report that's submitted to ADF&G into one booklet. MR. DICK said with development of their data base they would restrict access so that ADF&G would have access to only fish tax data. DEC wants this information so they can set up their application fees by looking at the values that are being reported by the processors. SENATOR LEMAN said that although he trusted DNR, he had seen some breaches in that trust the other departments. He applauded their consolidating forms, but he was concerned about the two departments getting tax returns unless there's some way of removing the tax payer's identity. SENATOR TORGERSON asked if either one of the departments has something now that they consider confidential. MR. DICK replied that he thought the commercial operators annual report had some bounds of confidentiality. SENATOR TORGERSON said he didn't think DEC had anything that was confidential. They can't keep anything secret for more than five minutes and they run faster to the press than anyone he has ever seen. MR. DICK said that DEC gets all the value information which is the basis of their tax and they are recording that value on the commercial operator annual report. If they wanted to go an additional step and multiply those values out times the rate, they would essentially have the tax by the taxpayer. He would envision only working with DEC to give them data and not associate that information with the taxpayer and that would only be on a need to know basis. SENATOR TORGERSON asked if that information was used to levy a fee on someone based on how much money someone is making. MR. DICK replied that they would set up some schedule rate and they have already done this. SENATOR TORGERSON sad he didn't favor this proposal. Number 176 CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he didn't hear a motion and adjourned the meeting at 5:03 p.m.