04/06/1994 01:00 PM House JUD

  HJR 48 - RESTRUCTURE PERMANENT FUND                                          
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE GAIL PHILLIPS:  "Mr. Chairman, that was an                    
  interesting subcommittee, because we had to deal with an                     
  awful lot of material and come up with a workable decision                   
  for the House Judiciary Committee to take a responsible                      
  position.  After meeting quite  a few times and coming up                    
  with what we think is a workable solution, we did put                        
  together a packet that includes the bill as originally                       
  presented to us.  It includes a letter of intent that is                     
  fairly comprehensive as to what we think  needs to  be done.                 
  It includes a resolution that we would like to see                           
  addressed, a like resolution to be addressed by the Finance                  
  Committee with a general fiscal note  on it.  Basically,                     
  what we said is this legislative body does not have time or                  
  the wherewithal to deal with this subject during the                         
  legislative year, that we would recommend the bill go on to                  
  Finance, and that Finance look into creating a blue ribbon                   
  task force comprised of major Alaskans that are                              
  knowledgeable about the state government and state budgeting                 
  process, out of the private sector; and then highly                          
  technical members of both the legislative and administrative                 
  staffs that comprise this blue ribbon task force, that will                  
  look at not only the CREMO plan, but maybe other plans that                  
  have been turned in, and come up during their investigation.                 
  And they be required to spend a lot of time looking at all                   
  the ramifications of the CREMO plan.  We did list quite a                    
  few policy issues that we felt should be addressed before we                 
  have a document that is ready to take to the public, and we                  
  would  like to pass the letter of intent with our                            
  recommendations with the bill onto the Finance Committee."                   
                                                                               
  Number 091                                                                   
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE NORDLUND:  "As a member of the subcommittee,                  
  I support that, and would certainly hope that the Finance                    
  Committee can do what we suggest, and if they have time in                   
  the evenings, or whatever, to take a look at the CREMO                       
  proposal itself,  and try to begin to answer some of these                   
  questions, or at least begin the research or get the wheels                  
  in motion to answer some of these questions.  I certainly                    
  support passing out the bill today.  I would like the                        
  opportunity to add a couple of things to the letter of                       
  intent.  I am sorry I did not get that done.  I apologize.                   
  I was given plenty of opportunity and I was late, but I                      
  would really appreciate it if we could take action to pass                   
  the bill out today.  One of the questions I think should be                  
  asked is - it's not clear in the legislation - `What are the                 
  sources of revenue that would be required to go into the                     
  principal of the permanent fund under the CREMO plan?'                       
  There is some question that income taxes that would be                       
  derived from people who earn income off of resource related                  
  jobs would go into it, that some similar sales taxes could                   
  possibly be construed as needing to go into the fund,  and                   
  it would be my hope that  that wouldn't happen, and I think                  
  that's an issue that should be addressed.  I had a couple of                 
  notes on other things that I would want to add there.                        
  Again, they are just questions.  They are not controversial,                 
  so I would like to bring those up with the Chair of the                      
  subcommittee and add them to the letter.                                     
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said she had no problem with that at                 
  all.                                                                         
                                                                               
  CHAIRMAN PORTER said what he would do then would be to                       
  initially entertain a motion to adopt the draft letter of                    
  intent as a working document for the letter of intent.                       
                                                                               
  Number 132                                                                   
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE GREEN moved to adopt the draft letter of                      
  intent.                                                                      
                                                                               
  Number 143                                                                   
                                                                               
  CHAIRMAN PORTER asked if there was any objection.  He said,                  
  "If not, we have a letter of intent before us.  I think for                  
  just purposes of consensus, if there is no objection, I will                 
  finalize the letter of intent with the items that                            
  Representative Nordlund would like to add and attached that                  
  to the bill and pass it along.  So with that in mind, I                      
  would entertain a motion to move the bill with the adopted                   
  letter of intent."                                                           
                                                                               
  REPRESENTATIVE GREEN agreed to move the letter of intent and                 
  HJR 48 to the Finance Committee.                                             
                                                                               
  Number 180                                                                   
                                                                               
  CHAIRMAN PORTER:  "The only discussion necessary would be                    
  the Chairman's thanks and sincere appreciation to the                        
  subcommittee for working diligently on what had to be quite                  
  a task, and I thoroughly agree and support your decision.                    
  This is something of the magnitude we should not try to                      
  resolve at one of our round tables in the Judiciary                          
  Committee, although we are good at that.  This might be a                    
  little bit more expansive than that process would allow for                  
  accomplishment.  With that in mind, is there objection?  If                  
  not, HJR 48, with the letter of intent is moved on to the                    
  Finance Committee.  Now, we have HB 337, Drug free                           
  recreation and youth center."