Legislature(1999 - 2000)
03/27/2000 01:20 PM House JUD
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 435 - REVISOR'S BILL CHAIRMAN KOTT announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 435, "An Act making corrective amendments to the Alaska Statutes as recommended by the revisor of statutes; and providing for an effective date." Number 1538 PAMELA FINLEY, Revisor of Statutes, Legislative Legal Counsel, Legislative Legal and Research Services, Legislative Affairs Agency, informed the committee that this bill is prepared every year pursuant to statute. The bill is introduced through the Legislative Council and is primarily a cleanup bill. She pointed out that HB 435 primarily has changes in nomenclature, conforming federal references to new laws. There should be no policy changes in HB 435 and there are not really any substantive changes either. MS. FINLEY referred the committee to page 3, Section 7, which would authorize banks to own real or personal property in connection with a negatively amortizing loan. She explained that several years ago the legislature amended the interest statute in order to allow negatively amortizing loans. She understood this to essentially allow people who are terminally ill or elderly to stay in their homes and receive the money from their homes. "In order to do that, I am told, the bank needs to own the property and that statute was not amended." Essentially, Section 7 allows the policy determined by the legislature several years ago to go into effect. MS. FINLEY pointed out that HB 435 has an error. On page 4, line 3, the word "loan" should be bracketed, and on page 4, line 4, "[LOAN]" should not be bracketed. She noted that the bill packet should include an amendment to rectify this error. CHAIRMAN KOTT announced that [the aforementioned correction] would be accepted as a technical amendment. Number 1680 REPRESENTATIVE MURKOWSKI noted that this committee has had several discussions with regard to the political correctness of certain terminology, specifically that of "chairman." She asked how this is handled in the statutes. MS. FINLEY said that in new bills she tries to make sure that the language used is "chair" because that seems to be the common [terminology] and most people can distinguish between the furniture and the person. She a noted that "chairperson" is an alternative. She recalled that in 1982 the legislature passed a law instructing [the legislature] to avoid personal pronouns, which she took to mean to avoid "chairman." In other words, [the intent] was to use sex neutral language to the extent possible. However, there are plenty of references to "chairman" left over in old law from the 1960s. She said, "I have thought about it. I have in my suspense file 'a go through and do a revisor's bill that changes them all,' but there are people, I think, in this legislature who would not like that." She commented that she would be willing to introduce such legislation, but she did not feel the need to "pick fights" over that. Number 1819 REPRESENTATIVE GREEN moved to report HB 435 out of committee with individual recommendations. CHAIRMAN KOTT interjected that the aforementioned correction would be recognized as a technical amendment, labeled Amendment 1. Chairman Kott asked if there were any objections [to reporting HB 435 as amended out of committee]. There being no objection, it was so ordered and CSHB 435(JUD) was reported from the House Judiciary Standing Committee.
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