Legislature(2003 - 2004)
04/01/2004 03:35 PM Senate STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 231-DECREASE TIME TO CLAIM UNCLAIMED PROPERTY CHAIR GARY STEVENS announced SB 231 to be up for consideration. SENATOR JOHN COWDERY motioned to adopt the committee substitute (CS) for SB 231 for discussion purposes. It was identified as work draft dated 12/5/03. There being no objection, it was so ordered. BETTY MARTIN, State Comptroller with the Department of Revenue, introduced herself and Rachel Lewis. She explained that the bill was introduced late in the previous session and dealt only with increasing the dormancy claims on unclaimed property. Over the interim, the Department of Revenue and the Department of Law worked to bring Alaska's unclaimed property law into conformance with the Unclaimed Property Uniform Act passed in 1995 and the CS is the result of that effort. SENATOR JOHN COWDERY asked what kind of property they were talking about. RACHEL LEWIS with the Unclaimed Property Section of the Department of Revenue explained that it has to do with any kind of intangible money such as payroll checks, utility deposits, or health insurance reimbursements that have been sent to someone and remain un-cashed for a certain dormancy period. The only tangible property they receive are safe deposit boxes. SENATOR COWDERY asked if they wanted to reduce the dormancy period from five years to three years. MS. LEWIS said reducing the dormancy period would make it easier to find people, but actually they're just requesting various property reductions that are in line with the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act. SENATOR COWDERY noted that most checks he's seen have a 180 day limit before they become stale dated and he wondered how they were addressing those. MS. LEWIS explained that just because there is an expiration date doesn't cause them to be eliminated from unclaimed property. State of Alaska and government items are usually good for one year while Alaska warrants are now good for six months before they are listed as unclaimed property. SENATOR COWDERY asked whether there are expenses associated with unclaimed property that they try to recover. MS. LEWIS said no. Unclaimed property is held in perpetuity for the owner and the information is a matter of public record. CHAIR GARY STEVENS asked about opposition to the bill. MS. LEWIS said they haven't heard any opposition because everyone benefits. CHAIR GARY STEVENS noted that Mary Ellen Beardsley from the Attorney General's Office was online to answer questions. SENATOR BERT STEDMAN asked how long unclaimed property is held before it's reabsorbed. MS. LEWIS told him it's never absorbed. Prior to 1986, Alaska had an estate law that had a seven years claim period, but that is no longer the case. The committee substitute makes it clear that the request is to reduce the reporting period; there is no request to reduce the period for claiming unclaimed property. Property may be claimed by subsequent generations if that's how long it takes before the owner is identified. She advised that most of the requested changes are all in line with the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, but three are not. Section 5 is a new type of unclaimed property called demutualization. This has to do with mutual companies deciding they wanted to enhance their financial security by turning policyholders into stockholders. Because of this, they don't have records on the policyholders because the accounts may be several decades old. Section 5 calls for those proceeds and that stock to be reportable as unclaimed property at the time the policyholder is known to be lost. Alaska is the only state that has the provision addressed in Section 10, which is that unclaimed property reports for diminutive amounts are not required. Businesses may hold small amounts of unclaimed property until the aggregate total reaches $750 at which time an unclaimed property report is due. This reduces needless paperwork. Turning to Section 13 she informed members that the Department of Revenue must publish annually the name of every person that has unclaimed property of more than $100. Last year the publishing cost for that was $30,000 and they received just 348 claims. They already list all the names on the Internet, which cost almost nothing and that listing generated 1,800 claims. It's more cost efficient for the department to reach people over the Internet, she said. Section 15 streamlines the meaning of "last known address" and Section 16 deals with gift certificates. As per the Uniform Act, they are changing the reporting period to three years instead of five, but they are expanding the definition of gift certificates to include electronic gift cards as well. CHAIR GARY STEVENS announced that he intended to move the bill from committee, but there wasn't a quorum. The bill would move as soon as a quorum was reestablished. SB 231-DECREASE TIME TO CLAIM UNCLAIMED PROPERTY CHAIR GARY STEVENS noted there was a new fiscal note on CSSB 231(STA) then asked for a motion. SENATOR COWDERY made a motion to report CSSB 231(STA) from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. There being no objection, it was so ordered.
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