02/23/1993 01:00 PM House CRA

  SSHB 1:  MOTOR VEHICLE RECYCLING GRANT FUND & FEE                            
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE GAIL PHILLIPS, PRIME SPONSOR of SSHB 1, read                  
  her sponsor statement saying, "The purpose of this                           
  legislation is to increase the present annual motor vehicle                  
  registration fee by $2.00 and allow the legislature to                       
  appropriate these additional revenues into a motor vehicle                   
  recycling grant fund.  The fund would then be utilized to                    
  provide grants to municipalities to pay for the costs of                     
  transporting abandoned motor vehicles to recycling centers."                 
  (A copy of her sponsor statement may be found in the House                   
  Community and Regional Affairs Committee Room, Capitol #110,                 
  and after the adjournment of the second session of the 18th                  
  Alaska State Legislature, in the Legislative Reference                       
  Library.)                                                                    
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS closed by adding, "There are some                    
  aspects of the bill (SSHB 1) that may need some further                      
  work, including the designation of the appropriate state                     
  agency to administer the program and the possibility of a                    
  legal distinction between 'junked' and 'abandoned' vehicles.                 
  Therefore, I would ask that the chairman consider sending                    
  this legislation to a subcommittee to work out these                         
  questions."                                                                  
                                                                               
  Number 121                                                                   
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE CON BUNDE asked if there were facilities to                   
  recycle automobiles in Alaska.                                               
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS gave a description of the automobile                 
  recycling process and said, "In some cases they're going to                  
  have to be shipped out.  The rural areas of Alaska where                     
  there are no landfill areas to take care of these... are                     
  very excited about using, they can just back haul on the                     
  barges and such, dump these vehicles on and ship them out                    
  because you know, as well as all of us, once a vehicle is                    
  abandoned in the Arctic it just stays there forever until it                 
  rots into the tundra."                                                       
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE expressed support for SSHB 1 and asked                  
  if the two dollars were sufficient to carry out the task.                    
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "I didn't want to put a fee on                 
  that would eliminate us entering into this program."  She                    
  added that the Municipal League had indicated their support                  
  for the five dollars' fee due to the large amount of initial                 
  removal.                                                                     
                                                                               
  Number 166                                                                   
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE JOHN DAVIES voiced his support for the bill                   
  on behalf of the Fairbanks area.  He then volunteered to be                  
  on the proposed SSHB 1 subcommittee.                                         
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE CYNTHIA TOOHEY also gave her support to                       
  SSHB 1 and suggested the five dollar fee.  She inquired                      
  where the automobile metal was customarily shipped to.                       
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "In our discussion... it was                   
  Taiwan or South Korea had a very large shortage of metal and                 
  were very much interested in metal."                                         
                                                                               
  Number 209                                                                   
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE JERRY SANDERS said he also supports SSHB 1                    
  but expressed concern that the bill reads, "the legislature                  
  'may' appropriate money collected".                                          
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "We can just change 'may' to                   
  'shall'."                                                                    
                                                                               
  CHAIRMAN OLBERG added, "As chair of the subcommittee,                        
  Representative Sanders, you'll have free reign."                             
                                                                               
  Number 236                                                                   
                                                                               
  KENT SWISHER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA MUNICIPAL LEAGUE,                   
  testified in support of SSHB 1.  He said, "We do have this                   
  problem with an accumulation of vehicles.  The league does                   
  support a five dollar fee for this purpose."                                 
                                                                               
  RUSSELL HEATH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA ENVIRONMENTAL                      
  LOBBY, testified in favor of SSHB 1 in its present form but                  
  also said, "...what we don't have in this bill is the                        
  incentive to keep people from junking their vehicles, and I                  
  was wondering if there was an acceptable mechanism by which                  
  we could encourage people to properly dispose of their                       
  vehicles."  He gave an example where Alaskans would pay the                  
  Division of Motor Vehicles a deposit until vehicles have                     
  been properly disposed of.                                                   
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "That would be nice, but most                    
  cars that are junked are junked because the people that own                  
  them either can't afford to fix them or they are not                         
  fixable.  ...I think that complicates things.  If their was                  
  some way of simply doing it...but I think complicating the                   
  bill (SSHB 1) is unnecessary."                                               
                                                                               
  Number 289                                                                   
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE suggested, "Maybe built into the bill                   
  (SSHB 1) somehow could be a reclaiming fee.  If you brought                  
  your own or any other wrecked vehicle to the salvage yard,                   
  there was then 25 or 50 dollars or whatever this fund could                  
  allow, saving the state to have to go out and collect it.                    
  Whatever we figured it would cost the state, we could give                   
  the individual that for towing their own car."                               
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE ED WILLIS asked if SSHB 1 "would be viewed as                 
  another tax."                                                                
                                                                               
  CHAIRMAN OLBERG clarified this was a fee, not a tax.                         
                                                                               
  JIM KOHLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE,                        
  testified in favor of SSHB 1.  He said, "We recently                         
  conducted a survey in the region we have a wealth of                         
  information that we're more than willing and eager to share                  
  with the subcommittee..."                                                    
                                                                               
  MR. KOHLER added some suggestions, "...they have to do with                  
  issues of making sure that the language in the legislation                   
  while not too broad, is broad enough to allow communities                    
  perhaps to access these monies for some of the preparation                   
  costs involved before actual transportation, and secondly,                   
  to make sure that some of our communities that are outside                   
  of access to those particular centers that perhaps could do                  
  this work, again, have the capability of direct shipping to                  
  a particular vendor down below..."                                           
                                                                               
  Number 349                                                                   
                                                                               
  JEFF OTTESON, CHIEF OF RIGHT-OF-WAY AND ENVIRONMENT,                         
  DIVISION OF ENGINEERING AND OPERATING STANDARDS, DEPARTMENT                  
  OF TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC FACILITIES (DOT), testified in                  
  support of SSHB 1 saying, "We at DOT have had a 20 year                      
  program of removing vehicles and this program, quite                         
  frankly, is the perfect match to make the one that we now                    
  have and this one work statewide on an all road at all                       
  times."                                                                      
                                                                               
  JANICE ADAIR, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF                          
  ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION, testified, "We certainly support                 
  the concept of the bill and look forward to working with the                 
  subcommittee."                                                               
                                                                               
  CHAIRMAN OLBERG appointed Representative Sanders, Bunde and                  
  Davies to the subcommittee to work further on SSHB 1.                        
  Representative Sanders was appointed the chairman of the                     
  subcommittee.                                                                
                                                                               
  Number 375                                                                   
                                                                               
  CHAIRMAN OLBERG called an at ease at 1:25 p.m.