Legislature(2015 - 2016)BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
02/10/2015 03:30 PM Senate COMMUNITY & REGIONAL AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Overview: Local Boundary Commission Decision on Allakaket Annexation | |
| Confirmation Hearings: State Assessment Review Board | |
| SB22 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| *+ | SB 22 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 22-MOTOR VEHICLE REG. TAX: COLLECTION COSTS
3:47:19 PM
CHAIR BISHOP announced that the next of order of business will
be the consideration of SB 22.
3:47:28 PM
SENATOR CATHY GIESSEL, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska,
provided a sponsor's statement as follows:
SB 22 would update the Division of Motor Vehicle's
registration tax that charges to the municipalities.
The way this works is citizens renew their vehicle
registration and we do that through the State of
Alaska. Part of the fee that we pay is a Municipal
Motor Vehicle Registration Tax (MVRT); State of Alaska
collects that for the municipalities and in doing so
they charge an 8 percent user-fee, a charge to
recuperate the cost for the Division of Motor Vehicles
(DMV) for collecting this for the municipalities. DMV
passes the tax itself on to the municipalities, but
they charge this 8 percent fee. This fee was set in
1993 and it hasn't been updated since then despite a
reduction in the cost of collecting this fee. DMV has
become much more computerized, we can now renew our
registrations online and it takes less staff on the
part of DMV. In your packet you have a statement from
the Municipality of Anchorage which points out the
ramifications of this. In 2012 the municipality chose
to nearly double its auto registration fee; they did
this to reduce the amount of property tax for local
residents. As a result of that, with that 8 percent
collection fee, it doubled the fee collection that DMV
did for the very same amount of work, no increased
work, but once the registration fee had gone up and
the 8 percent was calculated off of that, then DMV
ended up collecting over $500,000 in excess fees and
that's just from the municipality of Anchorage. There
are actually 16 municipalities that the DMV collects
this user fee from, this 8 percent fee.
What the bill proposes to do is to lower that
collection percentage to 5.5 percent, so from 8
percent down to 5.5 percent. In looking at the
breakeven cost in 2010, a breakeven would have been
5.1 percent for DMV; so this actually would still give
them a bit of a buffer, it's lowering to 5.5, 5.1 they
would still be collecting the same amount of fee as
they did in 2010. So it is not taking it all away,
it's still going to be collecting some cost for their
administration, but it would essentially be moving
money from DMV into the communities where it actually
belongs, so it would still help reduce property taxes
on the local level.
3:51:11 PM
FORREST WOLFE, Staff to Senator Giessel, Alaska State
Legislature, Juneau, Alaska.
3:51:45 PM
DANIEL MOORE, Municipal Treasurer, Treasury Division,
Municipality of Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska, confirmed that the
Municipality of Anchorage did write a letter of support for SB
22. He specified that SB 22 corrects an inequity that surfaced
several years ago when the city of Anchorage increased its fee
schedule and basically DMV started to receive a windfall of
revenues based upon the 8 percent statutory rate. He continued
to confirm Senator Giessel's information on MVRT. He pointed out
that DMV has received $500,000 per year for the last 3 years
from Anchorage in additional windfall revenues. He noted that he
disagreed with DMV's assessment in the fiscal note that the
reduced percent was characterized as a loss to the division. He
asserted that DMV's user-fee change should be specified as a
reduction in DMV's windfall.
3:56:04 PM
MR. MOORE summarized that SB 22 represents a win-win for all 16
Alaska communities by reasonably adjusting the MVRT revenues
retained by DMV and corrects the inequity that was never
intended when the city of Anchorage increased its rate base.
SENATOR STEDMAN noted that there are multiple communities listed
and he asked that an impact breakdown be provided on each
community.
SENATOR MACKINNON noted that the expenses that the state incurs
for each community may differ because some communities may be
more labor intensive. She pointed out that Anchorage may have a
consolidation of services from the perspective of electronic
services. She asked that DMV share what their costs are
associated with each of the communities' expenses and variances.
3:58:01 PM
KATHIE WASSERMAN, Executive Director, Alaska Municipal League
(AML), Juneau, Alaska, noted that last year AML dealt with a
bill where DMV provided tax collection breakdowns for 16
communities' license fees. She opined that DMV can assist with
providing the committee with the tax collection breakdowns. She
asserted that AML will be helpful during the current deficit
situation to offer revenue stream assistance.
4:00:16 PM
CHAIR BISHOP announced that SB 22 will be held in committee.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Roberts resume.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| SB22 Add'l Info.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |
SB 22 |
| Van Sant Resume.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| SB22 Sponsor statement.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |
SB 22 |
| SB22 Version A.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |
SB 22 |
| SB22 Sectional.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |
SB 22 |
| SB22 Fiscal Note.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |
SB 22 |
| Allakaket Local Boundary Commission.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| Allakaket Additional Local Boundary Commission Information.pdf |
SCRA 2/10/2015 3:30:00 PM |