Legislature(2011 - 2012)
04/14/2011 06:16 PM House FIN
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB84 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE FINANCE COMMITTEE
April 14, 2011
6:16 p.m.
6:16:04 PM
CALL TO ORDER
Co-Chair Stoltze called the House Finance Committee meeting
to order at 6:16 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Bill Stoltze, Co-Chair
Representative Bill Thomas Jr., Co-Chair
Representative Anna Fairclough, Vice-Chair
Representative Mia Costello
Representative Mike Doogan
Representative Bryce Edgmon
Representative Les Gara
Representative David Guttenberg
Representative Reggie Joule
Representative Mark Neuman
Representative Tammie Wilson
MEMBERS ABSENT
None
ALSO PRESENT
Representative Alan Dick, Chair, House Education Committee;
Laura Pierre, Staff, Vice-chair Fairclough; Barb Angaiak,
President, NEA-Alaska, Juneau; Don Smith, Anchorage School
Board, Anchorage; Carl Rose, Executive Director,
Association of Alaska School Boards, Juneau.
PRESENT VIA TELECONFERENCE
Pete Lewis, Superintendent, Northstar Borough School
District, Fairbanks.
SUMMARY
SB 58 INCREASING NUMBER OF SUPERIOR CT JUDGES
SB 58 was SCHEDULED but not HEARD.
SB 84 VOC ED & BASIC FUNDING/TAX CREDITS
HCS CS SB 84 (FIN) was REPORTED out of committee
with a "do pass" recommendation and with three
accompanying fiscal impact notes from the
Department of Education and Early Development.
6:16:21 PM
AT EASE
6:18:36 PM
RECONVENED
CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 84(FIN)
"An Act relating to funding for high school vocational
and technical instruction as a component of funding
for public schools; relating to the base student
allocation; relating to education tax credits;
providing for an effective date by amending the
effective date in sec. 57, ch. 92, SLA 2010; and
providing for an effective date."
6:18:51 PM
Vice-chair Fairclough MOVED the workdraft CS for CS SB 84
(FIN) 27-LS0465\O (Mischel, 4/14/11) as a working document
before the committee.
Co-Chair Stoltze OBJECTED for the purpose of discussion.
LAURA PIERRE, STAFF, VICE-CHAIR FAIRCLOUGH, presented a
sectional of the HB 84:
· Section 1) added the Galena, Nanana, and Lower
Kuskokwim school district's boarding schools to the
list of eligible schools for reimbursement costs
described in Section 13.
· Section 2) amended the school funding formula to
provide for high school vocational education. The
section provided for the multiplication of the
vocational and special needs factors times the
adjusted daily membership of each school.
· Section 3) amended AS 14.17.420(a) to include high
school vocational and technical instruction funding.
· Section 4) allowed the calculation for state boarding
schools to include the vocational and technical
factor.
· Section 5) authorized tax credits for contributions to
accredited schools for annual intercollegiate sports
tournaments and contributions to Alaska Native
heritage and cultural centers for educational
purposes, and for the combined limits taken by an
annual insurer against the tax due for insurance
premiums written in the state.
· Section 6) added educational contributions to
intercollegiate sports tournaments and Alaska Native
heritage cultural centers to the list of tax credits
for the combined limits against net income on taxes
due from a corporation.
· Section 7) added contributions to intercollegiate
sports tournaments and Alaska Native heritage
cultural centers to the list of contributions
available for educational tax credits against oil and
gas production taxes and oil surcharges.
· Section 8) added contributions to intercollegiate
sports tournaments and Alaska Native heritage
cultural centers to the list of contributions
available for educational tax credits for the
combined limits taken against oil and gas exploration
production and pipeline transportation property
taxes.
· Section 9) added contributions to intercollegiate
sports tournaments and Alaska Native heritage
cultural centers to the list of contributions
available for educational tax credits for the
combined limits taken against mining license taxes.
· Section 10) added contributions to intercollegiate
sports tournaments and Alaska Native heritage
cultural centers to the list of contributions
available for educational tax credits for the
combined limits taken against fisheries business
license taxes.
· Section 11) added contributions to intercollegiate
sports tournaments and Alaska Native heritage
cultural centers to the list of contributions
available for educational tax credits for the
combined limits taken against fisheries landing
taxes.
· Section 12) created a theme based education pilot
program in the Iditarod Area School District. The
cost of the program would be $1.5 million in FY 12,
FY 13, and FY 14.
· Section 13) doubled the room and board stipend per
pupil for residential education programs (boarding
schools) for two school years.
· Section 14) repealed the additional tax credits
authorized in Section 5 through Section 11 on January
1, 2021.
· Section 15) extended the 2014 repeal date to 2021 for
the combined limits and individual tax credit
maximums and modifications to the recipients of the
contributions used for the tax credits.
· Section 16) cited the effective date of July 1, 2011.
6:23:33 PM
Co-Chair Stoltze REMOVED his objection.
There being NO further OBJECTION, it was so ordered.
Co-Chair Stoltze OPENED public testimony.
6:24:25 PM
PETE LEWIS, SUPERINTENDENT, NORTHSTAR BOROUGH SCHOOL
DISTRICT, FAIRBANKS (via teleconference), voiced his
support of the bill. He wondered whether the term
"intercollegiate" should have been "interscholastic." Co-
Chair Stoltze replied that "intercollegiate" was the
correct term.
Mr. Lewis offered that the school district supported the
vocational funding and base student allocation (BSA)
contained in the original legislation. The funding
increases helped the school districts "keep pace" with
inflation.
Representative Gara asked whether the base student
allocation had been removed from the bill. Co-Chair Stoltze
explained that the vocational and technical funding was
increased but that the bill changed significantly. He
reported that the BSA would not be dealt with in SB 84.
6:26:51 PM
BARB ANGAIAK, PRESIDENT, NEA-ALASKA, JUNEAU, expressed
support for the bill. She related that the National
Educational Education Association (NEA) was disappointed
about the removal of the BSA but was very supportive of the
increase in the vocational and technical funding. The
association favored any measures that furthered the
offering of comprehensive educational programs around the
state. Co-Chair Stoltze commented that the legislature was
not finished with the school funding process.
DON SMITH, ANCHORAGE SCHOOL BOARD, ANCHORAGE, was in
support of vocational funding. He reported that Anchorage
voters supported a $17 million bond to expand vocational
education for junior and senior high school. He hoped that
the BSA increase would be included in other legislation.
CARL ROSE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATION OF ALASKA SCHOOL
BOARDS, JUNEAU, supported the CS version of SB 84. The
association supported the $11.7 million for the vocational
and technical education funding. He stated that the duty of
the legislature was to establish and maintain a system of
education. He believed that the foundation formula was the
established method of "funding the educational system and
all of its operations." He cautioned that a departure from
formula funding was problematic. He encouraged the
legislature to maintain the foundation formula for
education.
6:31:46 PM
Representative Gara commented that he was not aware of
other legislation that increased the BSA. He expressed
concern that the school districts in the state would face
staffing cuts if the BSA was not increased. Mr. Rose
understood that the legislature would address the BSA in
another bill. The association favored an increase in the
BSA and advocated for the forward funding of education in
order to plan for subsequent years.
Co-Chair Thomas advised that the BSA was not the only way
education was funded. He stated that other educational
funding included: intensive care needs, PERS (Public
Employees Retirement System) and TRS (Teacher retirement
System) relief, cost differential, and transportation. Mr.
Rose agreed.
Co-Chair Stoltze CLOSED public testimony.
Vice-chair Fairclough discussed the four fiscal notes. She
directed attention to FN2 ((EED) for the Alaska Challenge
Youth Academy. The fiscal note increased the BSA $110 to
$5,790 for FY 12. She turned to the new fiscal note (EED)
in the amount of $11.7 million. The fiscal note would fund
the high school vocational education factor adjustment of
1.01 in the foundation formula and the special needs factor
adjustment of 1.20 to generate state funding in the amount
of $11.731.5 million for FY 12. She noted that the new
fiscal note (EED), in the amount of $1.64 million
represented an increase in residential boarding home
stipends by doubling the current amounts in FY 12 and FY
13. She cited the new fiscal note (EED) in the amount of
$500 thousand for FY 12, FY 13, and FY14 to implement a
three year pilot program in the Iditarod School District to
develop theme based education.
6:39:21 PM
AT EASE
6:41:15 PM
RECONVENED
Vice-chair Fairclough corrected the fiscal note summary.
The committee discovered that the previously published
fiscal note (FN 2 (EED)) was not applicable to the CS and
was withdrawn. The three new fiscal notes were applicable
to the CS. In response to a question by Representative Gara
she reiterated that the BSA had been removed from the
legislation.
Representative Doogan referred to the new fiscal note that
appropriated $11.731.5 million. He wondered what the number
represented. Co-Chair Stoltze responded that the amount
denoted increased funding for vocational education.
Representative Doogan asked for clarification of the theme
based education pilot project.
REPRESENTATIVE ALAN DICK, CHAIR, HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE,
discussed the pilot program. He observed that the
educational process was not working and sought solutions.
He felt that it was important to prepare students for the
future.
6:46:42 PM
Representative Dick ascertained that theme based teaching
was a desired method by teachers in his district. He
explained that educators passionately believe that theme
based learning would make education relevant. He received
a "tsunami" of support for the pilot project. He
anticipated the success of the pilot project.
Representative Doogan asked how theme based education was
different than other types of learning. Representative Dick
expounded that the current system of education teaches
specific disciplines i.e., math, science, etc. in a
fragmented way. Theme based education organized information
in a way that students could relate to. He provided an
example about hunting and what could be taught related to
the activity. Educators would holistically teach the
traditional disciplines math, science, and social studies
applied to something in the real world.
6:50:55 PM
AT EASE
6:51:59 PM
RECONVENED
Representative Gara offered conceptual amendment number 1.
Insert a new section to read:
AS 14.17.470 is amended to read:
Sec. 14.17.470. Base student allocation. The base
student allocation is $5,790 [$5,680].
Representative Wilson OBJECTED.
Representative Gara communicated that he had understood the
committee would discuss a BSA increase during the meeting.
He was not aware of another plan to address the BSA. He
explained that the amendment barely kept up with inflation
and provided a two percent increase. He did not believe
that cutting program costs advanced education. He felt that
without an alternative plan to provide education the BSA
was the only way the legislature could fund education in FY
12. Without the amendment, the available funding would have
to be used to offset inflation and would lead to staff and
program cuts. He argued that flat funding would not advance
education. He summarized that "the amendment simply tried
to approximate the rate of inflation so that schools do not
fall behind." In rural areas the money from SB 84 would be
needed to pay off funding shortfalls.
Representative Wilson shared her excitement about the bill.
She did not support the amendment.
Co-Chair Stoltze reiterated that educational support was
not exclusively funded through the BSA.
Co-Chair Thomas disclosed that he requested a report from
the Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
that quantified success rates related to increment
increases in educational funding. He indicated that the
report was never received.
Roll Call:
Yay: 3
Nay: 8
The MOTION FAILED (8 Nays to 3 Yays).
Vice-chair Fairclough MOVED to report HCS CS SB 84 (FIN)
out of committee with individual recommendations and the
accompanying fiscal note(s).
HCS CS SB 84 (FIN) was REPORTED out of committee with a "do
pass" recommendation and with three accompanying fiscal
impact notes from the Department of Education and Early
Development.
SENATE BILL NO. 58
"An Act increasing the number of superior court judges
designated for the third judicial district; and
providing for an effective date."
SB 58 was SCHEDULED but not HEARD.
Co-Chair Stoltze RECESSED the meeting to the CALL of the
Chair.
6:58:21 PM
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