03/05/1997 03:35 PM Senate RES

                                                                               
             SCR  3 NORTHSTAR AGREEMENT LITIGATION                            
                                                                              
  CHAIRMAN HALFORD  called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to           
 order at 3:35 p.m. and announced  SCR 3  to be up for consideration.          
                                                                               
  SENATOR DONLEY,  sponsor of SCR 3, said it does two things; it asks          
 the Attorney General to use every appropriate resource and due                
 diligence to defend the State's interests in the civil litigation             
 challenging the 1996 Northstar legislation.  It also asks the                 
 Superior Court to expedite consideration of the pending litigation.           
 He said the other body had made revisions to their identical                  
 resolution which he agrees with and recommends to the committee.              
                                                                               
 Referring to the proposed CS, SENATOR DONLEY said that on page 2,             
 line 11 they inserted "voluntary" referring to commitments to hire            
 Alaskans because the Attorney General agreed that these are                   
 voluntary and were not compulsive under the actual law and to                 
 represent differently played into the hands of the litigants.                 
                                                                               
 On page 2, line 16 the Attorney General has already asked the court           
 to expedite this and the wording was changed to match that.  The              
 last "Resolve" could have been construed to anticipate the result             
 of the litigation and it might have been inappropriate for the                
 legislature to appear to order the court to rule a certain way, and           
 the legislature is merely asking the court to expedite the                    
 litigation.                                                                   
                                                                               
 Number 66                                                                     
                                                                               
  SENATOR SHARP  moved to adopt w/d CS 0-LSO606/B 3/4/97.  There were          
 no objections and it was adopted.                                             
                                                                               
  SENATOR LEMAN  announced a potential conflict he has because of              
 financial dealings he had with the company mentioned in the                   
 resolution this past year and asked to be allowed to abstain from             
 voting on this.   SENATOR LINCOLN  objected.                                  
                                                                               
  SENATOR SHARP  moved to pass CSSCR 3 from committee with individual          
 recommendations.  There were no objections and it was so ordered.             
                                                                               
  SENATOR LINCOLN  asked Senator Donley if he anticipated a fiscal             
 note for the resolution.  SENATOR DONLEY replied that they had not            
 asked for any additional money.