Legislature(2015 - 2016)SENATE FINANCE 532
02/10/2015 05:00 PM Senate LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
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ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
FEBRUARY 10, 2015
5:00 PM
Approved December 4, 2015
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Gary Stevens, Chair
Representative Bob Herron, Vice Chair
Senator John Coghill
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Charlie Huggins
Senator Anna MacKinnon
Senator Kevin Meyer
Senator Peter Micciche
Representative Mike Chenault
Representative Mike Hawker
Representative Craig Johnson
Representative Sam Kito
Representative Mark Neuman
Representative Lora Reinbold
Representative Steve Thompson, Alternate
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Lesil McGuire, Alternate
AGENDA
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
RATIFICATION OF CHARITY EVENTS
CONTRACT APPROVALS
OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
SPEAKER REGISTER
Pam Varni, Executive Director, Legislative Affairs Agency
Tom Wright, Staff to Speaker Mike Chenault
5:00:04 PM
I. CHAIR GARY STEVENS called the Legislative Council meeting
to order at 5:00 p.m. in Room 532 (Senate Finance) of the
State Capitol. Present at the call were Senators Meyer,
Coghill, Hoffman, Huggins, MacKinnon, and Stevens;
Representatives Chenault, Hawker, Kito, Neuman, Reinbold,
and Herron. Representative Thompson, alternate member,
joined the meeting immediately after the roll call. Senator
Micciche joined the meeting after approval of the agenda.
Representative Johnson joined the meeting during the
discussion of the FY 16 Legislature Budget under Item V
Other Committee Business.
Absent was alternate member Senator McGuire.
II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
5:01:03 PM
VICE CHAIR HERRON moved that Legislative Council approve
the agenda as presented.
The motion passed with no objections.
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
a. January 27, 2015
5:01:21 PM
VICE CHAIR HERRON moved that Legislative Council approve
the minutes of the January 27, 2015 meeting as presented.
The motion passed with no objections.
IV. RATIFICATION OF CHARITABLE EVENTS
th
a. 15 Annual Thanksgiving in March
th
b. 26 Annual Fahrenkamp-Kelly Classic Charity Putting
Tournament
c. 2015 Sham Jam
d. Juneau Art and Culture Center Wine Tasting
CHAIR STEVENS said that the list of charitable events
before members for ratification had been confirmed by his
office as 501(c)(3) organizations and sanctioned by the
Chair. There were no questions or comments, and he asked
for a motion.
5:02:18 PM
VICE CHAIR HERRON moved that Legislative Council ratify
the Chair's sanctioning of the following charitable
events per AS 24.60.080(a)(2)(B):
· 15th Annual Thanksgiving in March
· 26th Annual Fahrenkamp-Kelly Classic Charity Putting
Tournament
· 2015 Sham Jam
· Juneau Arts & Culture Center Wine Tasting
The motion passed with no objections.
V. OTHER COMMITTEE BUSINESS
a. FY 16 Legislature Budget
b. Amendment to the 2015 Manual of Legislative Drafting
CHAIR STEVENS said that before members was a maintenance
level budget to be presented to the Finance Committees.
This does not include all the legislative areas; the
exceptions are Legislative Audit, Legislative Finance and
Legislative Budget and Audit Committee expenses, which
are done and submitted separately.
The FY 16 budget shows a decrease of $93,600 from the
Governor's FY 16 budget. Specifically, there is a
decrease in Council and Subcommittees of $179,400; these
are funds that were deleted for the Arctic Policy
Commission which completed its work and turned in its
report.
The first increase is $57,000 for the Office of Victims'
Rights; this is mostly for the salary of the director as
well as $5,000 for the case management system. For
several years, the budget included money to cover a Range
26A for the director; the Legislature passed legislation
that changed the salary to a Range 26 J. The Office of
Victims' Rights had been absorbing that underfunding for
several years but had reached the point where they could
no longer do that.
The second increase is $28,800 for the Office of the
Ombudsman for personal services. All positions are filled
and they've absorbed increases in costs for the last
several years. If flat funding continues, a position will
need to be deleted. He further noted that the case load
for the Office of the Ombudsman has increased 64% since
2010.
There are also miscellaneous transfers within individual
components and those are at a net zero. Chair Stevens
reiterated that this is a maintenance level budget going
to the Finance Committee showing a decrease of $93,600.
SENATE PRESIDENT MEYER asked what the overall percent
decrease was.
PAM VARNI, Executive Director, Legislative Affairs
Agency, responded that it is a 0.1% decrease but that is
just for the components that are in this Legislative
Council budget, not the entire Legislature's budget.
CHAIR STEVENS again clarified that this budget does not
include the budgets for Finance, LB&A and Audit
Committees.
SENATOR MEYER said that he thought the Governor had
reduced his budget by 10-11% and he thinks that should be
a target the Legislature should try to reach. He said
that, granted, this is one segment of the total
legislative budget, and that it will go on to Finance
where it will be worked hard, he was sure. He didn't want
people to think that a 1% reduction would be satisfactory
because we're all going to have to make some serious
reductions in all of the budgets.
CHAIR STEVENS said it was the understanding that a very
serious look would be taken by Finance and that Council
was prepared to offer many options, depending on what
Finance wants to consider. The main option is probably
going to be staff.
Chair Stevens, responding to a question by Senator
Huggins about the Office of Victims' Rights director's
salary, said that the Legislature increased the
director's salary from a 26A to a 26J and that it had
been, up until now, only funded up to a 26A.
MS. VARNI confirmed the Chair's understanding of the OVR
director salary, and said this is a proposed budget, but
that the House and Senate Finance Committees will present
what the final budget will be to the Legislature as a
whole. This budget is subject to what the members decide.
Passing this budget on is not really setting one's
approval, but it is just letting Council know what the
costs will be, the rent increases, the CPI increases, as
an example.
SENATOR MICCICHE asked how much of an increase it was
from the FY 15 Management Plan.
MS. VARNI said that the bulk of the increase from the FY
15 Management Plan to the FY 16 Request is $1.1 million
for the 2.5% Cost of Living increase that would be
effective July 1, 2015, that the Executive Branch and the
Judicial Branch will be getting. It also reflects the
$179,400 decrease to Council and Subcommittees. Revenue
projections have been lowered in Administrative Services
and in Session Expenses because those receipts have not
been realized. She reiterated the increase for OVR and
Ombudsman, the detail of which is on the spreadsheets
each member received; these show the $1,287,600 and that
is the FY 15 Management Plan to our Legislative Council
request that's before Council.
In response to questions from Senate President Meyer
about the amount of NCSL dues as well as the payment of,
Ms. Varni responded that Alaska would not be kicked out
of an organization for lack of payment, noting that many
states sometimes don't fully pay their dues because of
budget constraints. Alaska has done a very good job of
paying their dues, but the Administrative Services budget
has for many years absorbed these dues increases and
there is an increase this year as well. She said in the
last couple of years, the increases have been about
$16,000; for one of the organizations, the dues went from
$32,000 to $50,000. She said listed on page 17 of the
detailed budget, the total was about $310,000 for dues to
the following organizations: $89,200 for Council of State
Governments (CSG); $119,700 for National Conference of
State Legislators (NCSL); $38,400 for Energy Council;
$7,500 for Pacific Fisheries Legislative Task Force;
$5,500 for Western Legislative Forestry Task Force; and
$50,000 for Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER).
CHAIR STEVENS repeated for members that Council is
sending this budget on to the Finance Committees with the
understanding and knowledge that they will be looking
very carefully at many of these issues and that there
will have to be some decreases.
5:13:43 PM
VICE CHAIR HERRON moved that Legislative Council per AS
24.20.130 approve the FY 16 Legislative Council Proposed
Budget and transmit it to the House and Senate Finance
Committees for their review and action.
The motion passed with no objections.
B. Amendment to the 2015 Manual of Legislative Drafting
5:14:12 PM
SPEAKER CHENAULT moved that the Legislative Council
Committee amend the 2015 Manual of Legislative Drafting,
as proposed in Amendment No. 1, to remove the authority
for legislators to prefile bills as joint prime sponsors
from the date of this motion forward, and to direct the
Legal Services Division to make conforming amendments to
other references to joint prime sponsorship of prefiled
bills contained in the 2015 Manual of Legislative
Drafting prior to publication of the 2017 Manual of
Legislative Drafting.
SENATOR COGHILL objected for the purpose of discussion.
TOM WRIGHT, staff to Speaker Chenault, said there are a
number of issues as were noted in the memo from Doug
Gardner dated February 2, 2015, about the coprime policy
that was adopted by Legislative Council in 1993. A number
of questions arise that haven't really been discussed
thus far, which he said he would go over rather quickly
and would be happy to discuss in greater detail for
anyone who hadn't yet reviewed the memo.
Mr. Wright said that coprime sponsors have the same
rights as a prime sponsor. He interrupted his testimony
to note that he uses the term "coprime" and "joint prime"
interchangeably, with "joint prime" being technically
correct. Some of the rights that one has as a coprime
sponsor, for instance, are that a coprime sponsor can ask
for a bill withdrawal; they can request a CS (Committee
Substitute); they have equal ownership of a bill or
resolution. Also not addressed in the Drafting Manual are
final approval by the sponsor, the 10 Bill Limitation, or
the sponsor deadlines. Uniform Rule 36 is out of sync
with the joint prime section of the Drafting Manual.
Legislative Legal Services has adapted by interpreting
Uniform Rule 36 to include coprime sponsorships: (1) by
deferring to the original sponsor for the order that
coprimes are to appear on a bill or resolution; (2) also
requiring permission from each joint prime sponsor for
the addition of a name; (3) also requiring the approval
of the original sponsor for any changes prior to
prefiling, but then they have to invite all the joint
prime sponsors with the draft versions of a bill and any
legal memos. As the memo notes, it does take staff time
to coordinate and it's not technically sanctioned by any
rule. He said there is no rule in Uniform Rule 37 (a) for
coprimes; there's no guidance on how a coprime is to be
treated with regard to preparing a fiscal note or
distribution. Again, Uniform Rule 36 doesn't address
coprimes. Quite frankly, a joint prime sponsorship is
really a glorified cosponsor. He said that while he was
aware of some occasions where the joint sponsors have
worked together on a bill and worked very closely, most
of the work on most of the legislation is done by the
original sponsor.
There are some concerns that have been expressed by the
Chief Clerk's Office that joint prime sponsorships are a
cumbersome task for their office since the additional
joint prime sponsorship has been allowed after the
release of prefiles, which requires the Clerk to track
the number of bills a member is joint sponsoring due to
the 10 Bill Limitation. It creates confusion over the
differences between a joint prime and a cosponsor,
especially for new representatives and staff. It
increases the time to prepare bills for printing. Members
have pulled a prefile bill if they met their limit and
would prefer to be a joint prime on a different prefile
bill and that presents a status problem for the bill
history due to the fact that the bills have already been
numbered and are public. It's also inferred for
cosponsorship of a bill or resolution that unless the
Clerk has heard otherwise from the sponsor, it's okay to
be added as a cosponsor. Joint prime sponsors have to
approve each additional joint prime sponsorship which can
create the difficult task of locating the sponsors for
their signatures in a timely manner.
Mr. Wright said these were some of the concerns that have
been brought to their office and was why the Speaker was
proposing that Council adopt the amendment for the
Drafting Manual.
CHAIR STEVENS thanked Mr. Wright and encouraged any
member to speak to the proposed amendment.
SENATOR COGHILL said he objected to hear the list of
issues as there was still some question in his mind about
the value of a couple of people working together as he
has done in the past. He said he was satisfied with
amending the Drafting Manual this way and he removed his
objection.
There was no further discussion.
A roll call vote was taken.
YEAS: Meyer, Coghill, Hoffman, Huggins, MacKinnon,
Micciche, Chenault, Hawker, Johnson, Kito, Neuman,
Reinbold, Herron, Stevens
NAYS: None
The motion passed 14-0.
CHAIR STEVENS reminded members that his office was still
looking for members of this body to serve as volunteers
on the Security, the Office Allowance, and the IT
Subcommittees. Should there be no volunteers, the Chair
will make appointments.
There being no further business before the committee, the
Legislative Council meeting was adjourned at 5:21 p.m.
5:20:58 PM
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| 2-10 Leg. Council Agenda.pdf |
JLEC 2/10/2015 5:00:00 PM |
Legislative Council - Feb. 10, 2015 |
| 1.27.15 Minutes.pdf |
JLEC 2/10/2015 5:00:00 PM |
Legislative Council - Feb. 10, 2015 |
| Charitable Events Sanctioned by Chair Feb 10 2015.pdf |
JLEC 2/10/2015 5:00:00 PM |
Legislative Council - Feb. 10, 2015 |
| FY16 Proposed Legislature Budget.pdf |
JLEC 2/10/2015 5:00:00 PM |
Legislative Council - Feb. 10, 2015 |
| Amendment to Drafting Manual.pdf |
JLEC 2/10/2015 5:00:00 PM |
Legislative Council - Feb. 10, 2015 |