Legislature(1993 - 1994)
03/18/1993 09:10 AM Senate CRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SENATE COMMUNITY & REGIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE March 18, 1993 9:10 a.m. MEMBERS PRESENT Senator Randy Phillips, Chairman MEMBERS ABSENT Senator Robin Taylor, Vice Chairman Senator Rick Halford Senator Al Adams Senator Fred Zharoff COMMITTEE CALENDAR SENATE BILL NO. 156 "An Act amending the definition of `municipality' for purposes of the human services community matching grant program." PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION SB 156 - No previous action to record. WITNESS REGISTER Senator Bert Sharp State Capitol Juneau, AK 99801-1182 POSITION STATEMENT: Prime Sponsor of SB 156 Representative Tom Brice State Capitol Juneau, AK 99801-1182 ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 93-15, SIDE A Number 001 The Senate Community & Regional Affairs Committee was called to order by Chairman Randy Phillips at 9:10 a.m. Due to the lack of a quorum, he stated only testimony would be taken on SB 156. Number 020 SENATOR BERT SHARP, prime sponsor of SB 156, said with the passage of HB 263 last session, a statutory basis was established for the Human Services Community Matching Grant Program. The intent of the legislation was not to create a new pool of money but to define the grant program in statute and establish a community match. This was done to help stabilize funding for local nonprofit organizations which provide valuable services to the community. Some local nonprofit organizations couldn't raise the necessary funds to meet the match requirement. This placed the city of Fairbanks in a difficult position because of revenue shortfalls and cannot assure the availability of matching funds. The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly has indicated their support for the Fairbanks North Star Borough to assume health and social services powers and provide the required matching funds. The major issue is that under current state statute the borough is not eligible to participate in the grant program even if it did assume health and social services. Only cities with populations greater than 20,000 and first class boroughs with populations greater than 100,000 may now participate. Senator Sharp said SB 156 would amend the definition of municipality to include a second class borough with a population that exceeds 65,000. The Fairbanks North Star Borough will be the only municipality that will be affected by this change, allowing it to participate in the block grant program. Senator Sharp added that SB 156 makes both the City of Fairbanks and the Fairbanks North Star Borough eligible to participate in the block grant program, but only one could be the recipient of a grant from the state for the same service in the same year. Number 092 REPRESENTATIVE TOM BRICE said he is the prime sponsor of the identical legislation on the House side, which he said has been met with very little to no opposition. Some questions have been raised that the bill would mandate the borough to accept these grant monies, but it does not. It only makes the borough eligible if the voters of the borough so deem it appropriate to accept those powers. Number 110 SENATOR RANDY PHILLIPS stated SB 156 would be back before the committee on Tuesday, March 23. He then adjourned the meeting at 9:15 a.m.
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