04/24/1998 12:30 PM House TRA

HB 482 - MOTOR VEHICLE REGISTRATION                                            
                                                                               
Number 0003                                                                    
                                                                               
CHAIRMAN WILLIAMS announced HB 482, "An Act relating to                        
registration of noncommercial trailers and to registration of                  
vehicles owned by disabled persons or persons who are 65 years of              
age or older; and providing for an effective date."                            
                                                                               
Number 0005                                                                    
                                                                               
REPRESENTATIVE BEVERLY MASEK made a motion to adopt CSHB 482, O-               
LS1721\B, Ford, 4/23/98, as the working draft.  There being no                 
objections, CSHB 482 was before the committee.                                 
                                                                               
Number 0009                                                                    
                                                                               
PETER ECKLUND, Legislative Assistant to Representative Bill                    
Williams, Alaska State Legislature came before the committee to                
explain the committee substitute.  He pointed out the difference is            
the original version also dealt with noncommercial trailers and                
proposing a one-time registration for those.  He explained that has            
been removed, it's not in the new committee substitute, there was              
a problem of working out the municipal tax structure if we would               
have made that change.  Since it's a larger issue, and with such a             
short time left in session, he suggested that it should be left for            
discussions for maybe next year.                                               
                                                                               
MR. ECKLUND reported senior citizens, who currently register their             
vehicle, now register annually and are not subject to a fee, what              
the bill would do, is to require them to register once.  And the               
same with disabled persons, they're required under current law to              
register annually but the bill proposes to have them register just             
once.  There is no impact to the general fund because we currently             
don't receive a registration fee from those people.                            
                                                                               
Number 0021                                                                    
                                                                               
MR. ECKLUND referred to page 2 of the committee substitute.  He                
stated currently there are many trucks on the market that are                  
extended cabs and (indisc. - noise) the way current law is written,            
even though you as a private citizen may own one of those larger               
trucks that weights more than 6,000 pounds, and you may not use it             
for a business, the way the law is written you would have to                   
register it as a commercial vehicle.  Since there are more and more            
trucks coming on the market that are more than 6,000 pounds, we                
propose to move that to 10,000 pounds so if you own a vehicle and              
use it for private purposes you would not have to register it                  
commercially.                                                                  
                                                                               
PETER ECKLUND stressed it also clarifies that, if you register your            
vehicle in the name of the company or business, then you should                
register that as a commercial vehicle.                                         
                                                                               
Number 0032                                                                    
                                                                               
JUANITA HENSLEY, Chief, Driver Services, Division of Motor                     
Vehicles, Department of Administration came before the committee to            
testify.  She expressed the departments support of the committee               
substitute and thanked the committee for introducing it on their               
behalf.                                                                        
                                                                               
MS. HENSLEY spoke on the fiscal note.  Because we register them,               
but we do not receive any money for the general fund for those                 
license plates that we issue to handicapped recipients or for                  
senior citizens exemption, the fiscal note would be zero.  He                  
indicated she can't show any cost-savings because there spread all             
over the state, she can't say that there's 50 registered in                    
Ketchikan and 100 registered in Juneau, so it's not feasible to                
reduce any type of revenues that way.                                          
                                                                               
Number 0040                                                                    
                                                                               
REPRESENTATIVE MASEK asked how many registrations will this bill be            
dealing with.                                                                  
                                                                               
MS. HENSLEY replied the Division of Motor Vehicles deals with                  
14,000 senior citizen exemptions and approximately 6,000                       
handicapped license plates, that's around 20,000 transactions.                 
                                                                               
Number 0043                                                                    
                                                                               
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN COWDERY asked if the senior exemption applies              
to a husband and wife if they each have their own vehicle.  Or they            
have to apply separately.                                                      
                                                                               
MS. HENSLEY responded it allows one exemption per household for a              
calendar year.                                                                 
                                                                               
Number 0048                                                                    
                                                                               
REPRESENTATIVE MASEK made a motion to move CSHB 482 as amended,                
with individual recommendations and attached zero fiscal note.                 
There being no objections, CSHB 482(TRA) moved from the House                  
Transportation Standing Committee.