Legislature(2007 - 2008)BUTROVICH 205
03/26/2008 01:30 PM Senate HEALTH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HJR29 | |
| HB284 | |
| SB280 | |
| HB284 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 280 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 284 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HJR 29 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HB 284-PFD ALLOWABLE ABSENCE: FELLOWSHIPS
1:40:23 PM
CHAIR DAVIS announced consideration of HB 284. [Before the
committee was CSHB 284(FIN).]
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER, prime sponsor, presented HB 284, which
resulted from constituent contacts in his and in Representative
Beth Kerttula's districts. The original intent of the Permanent
Fund Dividend (PFD) language was that it would be only for
resident Alaskans, questions quickly arose about the fairness of
that to certain Alaskans, specifically students who had embarked
upon a university education outside of the state. In response,
the legislature passed the "exception to the absence" statutes,
saying that a person might be absent from Alaska for specific
purposes and still receive a dividend.
The very first exception created was for students receiving
secondary or post-secondary education on a full-time basis; but
in the process of writing regulations interpreting that statute,
an inequity was created. While the exception included students
outside of Alaska pursuing a secondary or postsecondary
education on a full-time basis, the regulators interpreted that
to mean that students traveling abroad on the prestigious
Fulbright Scholarship did not qualify.
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER said the Fulbright program was created in
1946 in the aftermath of World War II specifically to foster
better understanding among peoples of nations. A student who was
awarded a Fulbright Scholarship was allowed to sit in a reserved
seat at a foreign university and participate fully in the
courses, but did not have to enroll. The [PFD] regulations
stated that, in order to qualify for the out of state student
exemption, one had to be "enrolled".
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER said that they had worked with the
Department of Revenue, Permanent Fund Division, to find a remedy
by amending the regulations. Both sides became frustrated with
the legal quagmire of that attempt however, so they hoped to
correct it in statute. This bill added language so a person
would have an allowable absence if he/she was participating for
educational purposes in a student fellowship sponsored by the
United States Department of Education or the United States
Department of State.
SENATOR COWDERY asked whether members of the military serving
outside the state qualified to receive a dividend.
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER responded "absolutely" that they needed
only to have the intent to return to Alaska [after their tour of
duty].
SENATOR COWDERY asked how the Permanent Fund interpreted the
status of people serving in the Peace Corps and asked if there
were representatives of the Permanent Fund available to speak to
that.
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER answered yes, they did have
representatives of the Permanent Fund Dividend Division on hand;
but he noted that language expanding the allowable absences to
Peace Corps volunteers was included a year ago as the 14th
exception to the residency requirements.
SENATOR ELTON asked if it would be appropriate to bring an
amendment while the sponsor was at the table.
CHAIR DAVIS asked Senator Elton if he would mind waiting until
she had heard testimony on the bill.
SENATOR DYSON encouraged Chair Davis to allow Senator Elton to
announce what his amendment would do so that people could
comment on that as well.
SENATOR ELTON explained that this amendment would extend to
Vista Volunteers the same exception under the law as had been
extended to the Peace Corps, people working in the maritime
industry and others.
1:49:54 PM
DEMIAN ASA SCHANE, representing himself from Juneau, said he had
provided written testimony but wanted to put a face to that
testimony. He went to Iceland the previous year on a Fulbright
exchange. There he developed a program he felt would be of
interest to both Iceland and Alaska; he studied the policies and
regulations behind preventing escapes of farmed fish in fishing
operations, which he knew was an important issue here.
SENATOR DYSON said he assumed Mr. Schane was in favor of the
bill.
MR. SCHANE answered that he was, and that he appreciated the
efforts of Representative Hawker and Miss Debbie Richter in
getting this done.
1:51:30 PM
DEBBIE RICHTER, Director, Permanent Fund Dividend Division,
Department of Revenue came forward to answer questions.
SENATOR DYSON complemented Ms. Richter on the job she does and
asked if she could speak to the potential dangers of continuing
to expand the exceptions.
MS. RICHTER responded that as more allowable absences were
introduced, the division's workload increased. She said they
were advised by counsel that to enlarge the list of allowable
absences was OK to a certain point; but beyond that point it
became difficult to qualify or disqualify people for
eligibility. The question that needed to be asked when adding an
exception was whether it could be defined clearly enough to
support fair eligibility determinations.
SENATOR DYSON asked if Representative Hawker's exception was
sufficiently easy to define.
MS. RICHTER answered that it was.
SENATOR DYSON opined that a talented college athlete who took a
year sabbatical from his studies to train for a world
competition would not qualify because the existing law specified
that the absence must be for education.
MS. RICHTER agreed.
SENATOR DYSON asked Ms. Richter what the legal guys had told her
about how to know when they were reaching that precipice.
SENATOR COWDERY asked how the number of checks issued compared
to the current population of the state.
MS. RICHTER answered that they had sent out 632,000 PFD checks,
approximately 10,000 of them to people who did not reside in the
state at that time.
SENATOR COWDERY asked if felons were eligible.
MS. RICHTER answered "No." During the year they were sentenced
or incarcerated they were not eligible; after that they were.
SENATOR COWDERY asked if there was a citizenship requirement.
MS. RICHTER said a person must have filed for citizenship in
order to qualify.
ROBB M. KULIN, Anchorage, said he was a former Fulbright scholar
to Italy and a strong proponent of the bill.
CHAIR DAVIS asked if the sponsor of the bill would like to speak
to Senator Elton's amendment.
SENATOR THOMAS moved amendment 1.
CHAIR DAVIS objected for discussion purposes.
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER said he had seen this amendment before. It
would add an exemption unrelated to the education exemptions
currently in the bill, exempting persons serving as volunteers under
the National Community Service Trust Act of 1993, generically
referred to as AmeriCorps. He explained that the Peace Corps was for
foreign service and the federal government established AmeriCorps for
domestic service. Representative Hawker resisted this amendment for 2
very pragmatic reasons that did not imply any comment on the value
and importance of the AmeriCorps program. First, every exception to
the residency statutes was very controversial. Many legislators, and
he included himself in that number, resisted adding to the reasons
one could be out of the state; the PFD was meant for in-state
residents. That controversy did not touch the exemption for Fulbright
scholars, but adding an exemption for the AmeriCorps program could
make it difficult to correct the inequity they were attempting to
correct with this bill. Second, the VISA program had been discussed
previously as a possible exception to the residency requirements in
the context of bringing the Peace Corps exception into statute. At
that time, the consensus was that while the Peace Corps was a foreign
service operation and easy to define, VISTA volunteers could serve
anywhere in the United states and indeed there were VISTA volunteers
from other states working in Alaska. They might actually be creating
conflicting objectives if the idea was to encourage young Alaskans to
stay and help in Alaska, but they were incentivized to go work in
other states through the maintenance of the Permanent Fund Dividend.
He conceded that it was a policy call, but respectfully asked the
committee to leave this bill as it was, righting a wrong in what was
clearly the intent of the statutes, and bring the VISTA Volunteer
exception forward as its own proposition.
CHAIR DAVIS set HB 284 aside until Senator Elton returned.
HB 284-PFD ALLOWABLE ABSENCE: FELLOWSHIPS
2:21:54 PM
CHAIR DAVIS announced the committee would again hear HB 284.
SENATOR ELTON moved to adopt Amendment 1.
CHAIR DAVIS objected.
SENATOR ELTON explained that this amendment would change the
title of the bill to include participation in AmeriCorps
programs as an allowable absence. The substance of the change in
the bill was on page 3, line 2, following 17, inserting "serving
as a volunteer under the National Community Service Trust Act of
1993, AmeriCorps." Speaking to the bill, he said that he thought
he was responsible for one of the exceptions that allowed
Alaskans who have to leave the state to tend for a terminally
ill family member to receive a PFD.
He recognized that they had to be careful as they added
exceptions, not to provide a "Christmas tree" atmosphere in
which one good idea was met by a second and a third etc; but he
suggested that since this was the last committee of referral
that would not happen. He felt members of the AmeriCorps should
be extended the same courtesy as had been extended to those
volunteering for the Peace Corps.
CHAIR DAVIS asked the bill sponsor to speak to Senator Elton's
amendment.
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER explained to Senator Elton that he had 2
resistances to including this amendment in the bill. One was
perfectly pragmatic, in that he believed it increased the
likelihood the bill would fail in that session. The substance of
the bill as it existed, limited only to clarifying a regulatory
inconsistency, was something that would be universally well-
received by the bodies. Any exception clauses, no matter how
meritorious, always created great controversy, so he was
advocating strongly against introducing any element of discord.
Secondly, they researched the history of the Peace Corps
amendment and found that the VISTA program was discussed during
testimony on that amendment. It was not adopted at that time
because the legislative consensus was, since VISA volunteers
serve domestically including in Alaska, it made more sense to
incentivize those volunteers to stay and work in Alaska. They
felt the difference between this and the Peace Corps was that
Peace Corps service was not available in the state.
2:28:28 PM
He continued to say that the rationale was very consistent with
the second existing exception, which allowed persons "(2)
receiving vocational, professional, or other specific education
on a full-time basis for which, as determined by the Alaska
Commission on Postsecondary Education, a comparable program is
not reasonably available in the state;" to continue to receive a
PFD.
REPRESENTATIVE HAWKER summarized by saying that he saw merit to
the VISTA provision, but felt that it should be brought forward
as a separate, stand-alone provision.
CHAIR DAVIS stated that this amendment had failed in 2 other
committees; she supported the amendment but was afraid its
inclusion would cause the bill not to pass.
SENATOR ELTON said he did not disagree on the substance. His
preference would be to add this [exception] and subtract 3 or 4
more, because he did not understand some of the priorities in
that list of exceptions. For example, he did not understand why
a person working as a staffer to one of our congressional
delegates should get a dividend without, perhaps, ever having
stepped foot in Alaska. He did not understand why someone who
committed to volunteerism should be kept out of the dividend
system while a person working as a mariner in the merchant
marine did qualify. To the sponsor's point that they wanted to
encourage Alaskans working in Alaska, it was a good argument,
but not one that compelled a previous legislature promoting
volunteerism in foreign countries. He stressed that he was not
unsympathetic to any of the arguments he had heard against this,
and perhaps this amendment could have been coupled with removal
of a couple of amendments that were already in law; but he
decided that was a sure way to kill it.
A roll call vote was taken on Amendment 1. Senators Elton and
Thomas voted yea and Senators Cowdery, Dyson and Davis voted
nay. Therefore, Amendment 1 failed 2 to 3.
2:34:52 PM
SENATOR ELTON moved to report CSHB 284 from the committee with
individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There
being no objection, CSHB 284(FIN) moved from committee.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|