05/09/1998 09:10 AM House RLS

CSSB 259(TRA) am - METROPOLITAN PLANNING AUTHORITY                             
                                                                               
Number 011                                                                     
                                                                               
Chairman KOTT announced the first order of business would be CSSB
(TRA) am, "An Act relating to the membership of a metropolitan              
highway planning organization," sponsored by Senator Donley.  He               
noted the bill had been heard previously.                                      
                                                                               
SENATOR DAVE DONLEY came before the committee.  He said he has had             
ongoing discussions with the Anchorage Assembly and mayor on this              
issue.  He said the bill addresses the restructuring of local                  
metropolitan planning organizations for transportation purposes.               
The only one currently in Alaska is the Anchorage area.  He said               
the bill would specify that it applies only to communities over                
200,000.  For a long time, it would only apply to Anchorage.  That             
is consistent with some of the break points in the federal                     
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) as far as             
planning certain levels of local municipal planning that needs to              
go on.  Senator Donley said, "One of the concerns that has been                
raised -- and remember this was kind of a close question with the              
assembly.  There was a vote that was 7 to 4, and since that time I             
think there has been even a closer meeting of the minds.  Against              
the earlier version was that it disrupted the balance of power                 
between the city and the state and made the state more powerful.               
In an effort to alleviate that concern, we have a proposed CS                  
(committee substitute), I hope the committee will entertain, to                
have three assembly people appointed by the assembly and three                 
people appointed by the mayor on AMATS (Anchorage Metropolitan Area            
Transportation Study) - one from the Senate, one from the House,               
one from the Governor.  (Indisc.) even making the city even                    
stronger than it's been in the past, making it a 2 to 1 ratio                  
rather than the current 3 to 2 ratio of city control over the                  
planning process, which is one of the key points we heard in the               
public testimony.  They wanted to make sure it remained local                  
control.  That's always been fine with the Anchorage Caucus.  The              
Anchorage Caucus is simply looking at a better way of coordinating             
the AMATS process.  And the example - what happened last week with             
the capital budget is a good example of why that could really                  
payoff down here.  When we were doing the capital budget in the                
Senate, DOT (Department of Transportation), on behalf of AMATS,                
submitted the AMATS projects.  They didn't submit all the AMATS                
projects.  They failed to do that and when we, in the Senate, over             
the weekend, were trying to inquire about why projects were                    
missing, nobody could answer our questions.  And since nobody in               
the Senate or the House had any say or any involvement in the                  
actual development process or how they voted, why they chose what              
projects they did, we didn't know what had happened and why DOT                
didn't submit certain projects.  And we took about two or three                
days to get any kind of answers and it turned out that it was a                
faxing glitch.  DOT failed to fax the complete list.  So it was                
quite a scramble to try to restore the $3 million project, that had            
been left out, into the budget and it wasn't easy.  There was a lot            
of work for me that night trying to explain that to the people on              
the Finance Committee - how to restore a $3 million project that               
had magically disappeared during the fax transmission.  But it                 
really pointed out to me the difficulty in not having anybody                  
(indisc.) involved in the actual budget process have any knowledge             
of how the projects were chosen and what priority they were given              
and why.  And it's never been the intent of the Anchorage Caucus to            
dominate this process in any way, or have the state dominate the               
process.  We just wanted to have a level of expertise to be able to            
facilitate our constitutional function within that process, which              
is to develop the state budget and have a level of knowledge on why            
things are there and how they got there and what is, in fact,                  
actually there -- because you might remember the AMATS was                     
seriously delayed this year - much more than usual for I don't know            
why.  But we didn't get the rewrites until about a week ago or ten             
days ago, which made our job really a scramble here.  So                       
additionally, I would think that, you know, it would be good to                
bump up that process to where (indisc.) be done.  It was usually               
done by January of the year, it was usually completed."                        
Representative Donley urged the committee to pass the proposed CS              
that says 3 and 3.                                                             
                                                                               
Number 115                                                                     
                                                                               
CHAIRMAN KOTT explained there is a draft CS, Version X, dated                  
5/6/98.                                                                        
                                                                               
REPRESENTATIVE GAIL PHILLIPS moved to adopt the draft CS, Version              
X.  There being no objection, Version X was before the committee.              
                                                                               
REPRESENTATIVE BRIAN PORTER made a motion to move HCSCSSB 259(RLS)             
out of committee.  There being no objection, HCSCSSB 259(RLS) moved            
out of the House Rules Standing Committee.