Legislature(1993 - 1994)
02/23/1993 01:00 PM House CRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS
STANDING COMMITTEE
February 23, 1993
1:00 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Harley Olberg, Chairman
Representative Jerry Sanders, Vice-Chairman
Representative Con Bunde
Representative John Davies
Representative Cynthia Toohey
Representative Ed Willis
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Bill Williams
OTHER HOUSE MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Gail Phillips
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
*HB 1: "An Act establishing a motor vehicle recycling
grant fund and a motor vehicle recycling
registration fee; and providing for an effective
date."
SSHB 1 PLACED IN SUBCOMMITTEE, CHAIRED BY
REPRESENTATIVE SANDERS
SJR 20: Disapproving the Local Boundary Commission
recommendation regarding the annexation of
territory to the City of Palmer."
HELD IN COMMITTEE FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION
(* first public hearing)
WITNESS REGISTER
Representative Gail Phillips
Capitol Building, Room 216
Juneau, Alaska 99811-1182
Phone: 465-2689
POSITION STATEMENT: Prime Sponsor, SSHB 1
Kent Swisher, Executive Director
Alaska Municipal League
217 Second Street, Suite 200
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: 586-1325
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SSHB 1
Russell Heath, Executive Director
Alaska Environmental Lobby, Inc.
P.O. Box 22151
Juneau, AK 99802
Phone: 463-3366
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SSHB 1
Jim Kohler, Executive Director
Southeast Conference
124 West 5th Street
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: 463-3445
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SSHB 1
Jeff Ottesen, Chief of Right-of-Way and Environment
Division of Engineering and Operating Standards
Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
3132 Channel Drive
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: 465-6954
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SSHB 1
Janice Adair, Assistant Commissioner
Department of Environmental Conservation
410 Willoughby Avenue, Suite 301
Juneau, AK 99801-1795
Phone: 465-5010
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported the concept of SSHB 1
Bruce Geraghty, Deputy Commissioner
Department of Community and Regional Affairs
P.O. Box 112100
Juneau, AK 99811
Phone: 465-4700
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed SJR 20
Lee A. Wyatt
The Eyak Corporation
4792-5 Business Park Blvd.
Anchorage, AK 99503
Phone: 561-7161
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided information against the
proposed Cordova Annexation
Shirley Armstrong, Legislative Aide to
Senator Randy Phillips
Capitol Building, Room 103
Juneau, AK 99811-1182
Phone: 465-4949
POSITION STATEMENT: Described interests and testimony of
property owners affected by SJR 20
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: HB 1
SHORT TITLE: MOTOR VEHICLE RECYCLING GRANT FUND & FEE
BILL VERSION: SSHB 1
SPONSOR(S): REPRESENTATIVE(S) PHILLIPS,Finkelstein,
Nordlund
TITLE: "An Act establishing a motor vehicle recycling grant
fund and a motor vehicle recycling registration fee; and
providing for an effective date."
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
01/04/93 25 (H) PREFILE RELEASED
01/11/93 25 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME/REFERRAL(S)
01/11/93 25 (H) CRA, RESOURCES, FINANCE
01/13/93 52 (H) SPONSOR SUBSTITUTE INTRODUCED
-REFERRALS
01/13/93 52 (H) CRA, RESOURCES, FINANCE
01/20/93 116 (H) COSPONSOR(S): FINKELSTEIN
01/27/93 167 (H) COSPONSOR(S): NORDLUND
02/11/93 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
02/23/93 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
BILL: SJR 20
SHORT TITLE: DISAPPROVE PALMER BOUNDARY CHANGES
BILL VERSION:
SPONSOR(S): COMMUNITY & REGIONAL AFFAIRS
TITLE: Disapproving the Local Boundary Commission
recommendation regarding the annexation of territory to the
City of Palmer.
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
02/10/93 316 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME/REFERRAL(S)
02/10/93 316 (S) COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS
02/16/93 (S) CRA AT 09:00 AM BUTROVICH ROOM
205
02/16/93 (S) MINUTE(CRA)
02/17/93 384 (S) CRA RPT 3DP 1NR
02/17/93 384 (S) ZERO FISCAL NOTE (S.CRA/CRA)
02/18/93 (S) RLS AT 11:30 AM FAHRENKAMP
ROOM 203
02/18/93 (S) MINUTE(RLS)
02/19/93 410 (S) RULES TO CALENDAR 2/19/93
02/19/93 417 (S) HELD TO 2/22/93
02/22/93 441 (S) READ THE SECOND TIME
02/22/93 441 (S) ADVANCED TO THIRD READING UNAN
CONSENT
02/22/93 441 (S) READ THE THIRD TIME SJR 20
02/22/93 442 (S) PASSED Y16 N1 E2 A1
02/22/93 444 (S) TRANSMITTED TO (H)
02/23/93 (H) CRA AT 01:00 PM CAPITOL 124
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 93-8, SIDE A
Number 000
CHAIRMAN HARLEY OLBERG called the meeting to order at 1:06
p.m. He noted for the record that Representatives Sanders,
Toohey, Bunde, Davies and Willis were present.
SSHB 1: MOTOR VEHICLE RECYCLING GRANT FUND & FEE
REPRESENTATIVE GAIL PHILLIPS, PRIME SPONSOR of SSHB 1, read
her sponsor statement saying, "The purpose of this
legislation is to increase the present annual motor vehicle
registration fee by $2.00 and allow the legislature to
appropriate these additional revenues into a motor vehicle
recycling grant fund. The fund would then be utilized to
provide grants to municipalities to pay for the costs of
transporting abandoned motor vehicles to recycling centers."
(A copy of her sponsor statement may be found in the House
Community and Regional Affairs Committee Room, Capitol #110,
and after the adjournment of the second session of the 18th
Alaska State Legislature, in the Legislative Reference
Library.)
REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS closed by adding, "There are some
aspects of the bill (SSHB 1) that may need some further
work, including the designation of the appropriate state
agency to administer the program and the possibility of a
legal distinction between 'junked' and 'abandoned' vehicles.
Therefore, I would ask that the chairman consider sending
this legislation to a subcommittee to work out these
questions."
Number 121
REPRESENTATIVE CON BUNDE asked if there were facilities to
recycle automobiles in Alaska.
REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS gave a description of the automobile
recycling process and said, "In some cases they're going to
have to be shipped out. The rural areas of Alaska where
there are no landfill areas to take care of these... are
very excited about using, they can just back haul on the
barges and such, dump these vehicles on and ship them out
because you know, as well as all of us, once a vehicle is
abandoned in the Arctic it just stays there forever until it
rots into the tundra."
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE expressed support for SSHB 1 and asked
if the two dollars were sufficient to carry out the task.
REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "I didn't want to put a fee on
that would eliminate us entering into this program." She
added that the Municipal League had indicated their support
for the five dollars' fee due to the large amount of initial
removal.
Number 166
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN DAVIES voiced his support for the bill
on behalf of the Fairbanks area. He then volunteered to be
on the proposed SSHB 1 subcommittee.
REPRESENTATIVE CYNTHIA TOOHEY also gave her support to
SSHB 1 and suggested the five dollar fee. She inquired
where the automobile metal was customarily shipped to.
REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "In our discussion... it was
Taiwan or South Korea had a very large shortage of metal and
were very much interested in metal."
Number 209
REPRESENTATIVE JERRY SANDERS said he also supports SSHB 1
but expressed concern that the bill reads, "the legislature
'may' appropriate money collected".
REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "We can just change 'may' to
'shall'."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG added, "As chair of the subcommittee,
Representative Sanders, you'll have free reign."
Number 236
KENT SWISHER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA MUNICIPAL LEAGUE,
testified in support of SSHB 1. He said, "We do have this
problem with an accumulation of vehicles. The league does
support a five dollar fee for this purpose."
RUSSELL HEATH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA ENVIRONMENTAL
LOBBY, testified in favor of SSHB 1 in its present form but
also said, "...what we don't have in this bill is the
incentive to keep people from junking their vehicles, and I
was wondering if there was an acceptable mechanism by which
we could encourage people to properly dispose of their
vehicles." He gave an example where Alaskans would pay the
Division of Motor Vehicles a deposit until vehicles have
been properly disposed of.
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "That would be nice, but most
cars that are junked are junked because the people that own
them either can't afford to fix them or they are not
fixable. ...I think that complicates things. If their was
some way of simply doing it...but I think complicating the
bill (SSHB 1) is unnecessary."
Number 289
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE suggested, "Maybe built into the bill
(SSHB 1) somehow could be a reclaiming fee. If you brought
your own or any other wrecked vehicle to the salvage yard,
there was then 25 or 50 dollars or whatever this fund could
allow, saving the state to have to go out and collect it.
Whatever we figured it would cost the state, we could give
the individual that for towing their own car."
REPRESENTATIVE ED WILLIS asked if SSHB 1 "would be viewed as
another tax."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG clarified this was a fee, not a tax.
JIM KOHLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE,
testified in favor of SSHB 1. He said, "We recently
conducted a survey in the region we have a wealth of
information that we're more than willing and eager to share
with the subcommittee..."
MR. KOHLER added some suggestions, "...they have to do with
issues of making sure that the language in the legislation
while not too broad, is broad enough to allow communities
perhaps to access these monies for some of the preparation
costs involved before actual transportation, and secondly,
to make sure that some of our communities that are outside
of access to those particular centers that perhaps could do
this work, again, have the capability of direct shipping to
a particular vendor down below..."
Number 349
JEFF OTTESON, CHIEF OF RIGHT-OF-WAY AND ENVIRONMENT,
DIVISION OF ENGINEERING AND OPERATING STANDARDS, DEPARTMENT
OF TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC FACILITIES (DOT), testified in
support of SSHB 1 saying, "We at DOT have had a 20 year
program of removing vehicles and this program, quite
frankly, is the perfect match to make the one that we now
have and this one work statewide on an all road at all
times."
JANICE ADAIR, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION, testified, "We certainly support
the concept of the bill and look forward to working with the
subcommittee."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG appointed Representative Sanders, Bunde and
Davies to the subcommittee to work further on SSHB 1.
Representative Sanders was appointed the chairman of the
subcommittee.
Number 375
CHAIRMAN OLBERG called an at ease at 1:25 p.m.
SJR 20: DISAPPROVE PALMER BOUNDARY CHANGES
CHAIRMAN OLBERG reconvened the meeting at 1:30 p.m. and
brought forth SJR 20. He pointed out that no action could
be taken on the resolution since it had not been "read
across the floor" yet as had been anticipated.
Number 392
BRUCE GERAGHTY, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY
AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS, testified on SJR 20 saying, "This
resolution has raised some very interesting issues for us,
...the reason it is before you is that the population of the
area being annexed is so small that the individual there
would be overwhelmed if it was done through the other
process which is the local election. ...The Commission's
work is probably going to be looking at more annexations
across the state and it's going to be generated because of
the decline in state revenues. The gentleman in this case
is receiving some city services already."
CHAIRMAN OLBERG reminded the committee any action on SJR 20
would have to wait until next week when it was properly
before committee.
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY asked the specific mil rate and how
much the property taxes would increase if the Palmer
annexation proceeded.
LEE WYATT, EYAK CORPORATION, introduced himself as a former
manager of the Mat-Su Borough and explained that if this
property was annexed, there would be a city mil rate added
to the existing borough mil rate.
Number 475
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY reiterated her question.
MR. WYATT was unsure but thought the mil rate was probably
around 14.
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY asked how large the proposed Palmer
annexation was.
SHIRLEY ARMSTRONG, LEGISLATIVE AIDE TO SENATOR RANDY
PHILLIPS, PRIME SPONSOR OF SJR 20, testified that there were
five property owners that held 7.5 acres of land in the
proposed Palmer annexation. She described the interests and
testimony of the property owners in the Senate Community and
Regional Affairs meeting of February 9, 1993. She said,
"Basically, it's sort of a controversy between the neighbors
there, the people across the street from that particular
piece of property."
Number 514
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIES requested a more thorough background
presentation from Senator Phillips at the next hearing of
SJR 20.
CHAIRMAN OLBERG introduced Mr. Wyatt as a representative
from the Cordova Residents Against the Cordova Proposed
Annexation.
REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE confirmed there was currently no
legislation drafted regarding the proposed Cordova
annexation.
MR. WYATT introduced himself as a representative of "the
land interest of the Eyak Corporation" and also "to
represent the inhabitants of the area outside the
jurisdictional boundaries of the City of Cordova."
MR. WYATT testified, "We are late for one reason, because we
tried to follow the procedures of DCRA in regards to the
time frames in which this annexation petition came forward.
Originally the deadline for the petition to be submitted was
waived so that the City of Cordova could submit it at a
later date than what they like, which was the first of
March. July 1, the annexation rules changed and it seemed
like the DCRA staff and the Local Boundary Commission
fluctuated between the two sets of rules, the old ones and
the new ones. So we were somewhat confused as to what exact
standards and regulations we were actually operating under.
Prime example being that in order to get this petition to
the legislature within the first ten days, they actually
held a reconsideration meeting on the day before and got it
in on the tenth day, but yet there's a 30-day
reconsideration period that runs past that point. There
were three reconsiderations that were presented. They were
not acknowledged..."
MR. WYATT continued, "We're in favor of the annexation
basically, but we're not in favor of the procedures that
were followed. What we would like to see is the possibility
of delay in the annexation so that the city and the folks
that are involved could get together and work out a plan."
MR. WYATT added, "So we see it not only as a chance to get
some revenues from outside the city but also an opportunity
to possibly lock up some economic development on the part of
the Native community as well. Originally, the Eyak
Corporation was not allowed to select lands within a two
mile limit of the city boundary, which is now seven and a
half square miles, and they are hoping to annex out to an
area that's 68 square miles. ...It's a land grab under the
guise of future planning. We're just hopeful that maybe
perhaps another resolution could come forward for the
disapproval of this annexation so that it could come back
next year with a really workable plan.".
Number 622
CHAIRMAN OLBERG asked, "Is your lawsuit asking for a stay of
the proceedings or a delay of the imposition or is it asking
to have it overturned?"
MR. WYATT replied, "All three."
MR. GERAGHTY said, "Anytime we go about drawing lines on a
map, we start getting into controversy."
REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY asked about the property's location in
relation to the Copper River Highway.
CHAIRMAN OLBERG described the location.
ADJOURNMENT
Number 640
CHAIRMAN OLBERG adjourned the meeting at 1:49 p.m.
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