Legislature(1999 - 2000)
04/07/1999 03:15 PM Senate RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SENATE RESOURCES COMMITTEE
April 7, 1999
3:15 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Rick Halford, Chairman
Senator Robin Taylor, Vice Chairman
Senator Pete Kelly
Senator Jerry Mackie
Senator Lyda Green
Senator Georgianna Lincoln
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Sean Parnell
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 128
"An Act relating to the storage tank assistance fund; eliminating
the grant portion of a program relating to risk assessment,
containment, corrective action, and cleanup of underground
petroleum storage tank systems and replacing the grant portion with
a loan program; relating to discharges from underground petroleum
storage tank systems; and providing for an effective date."
-MOVED CSSB 128(RES) OUT OF COMMITTEE
PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION
SB 128 - No previous action to record.
WITNESS REGISTER
Senator Dave Donley
State Capitol Bldg.
Juneau, AK 99811-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 128.
Ms. Juli Lucky, Staff
Senator Halford
State Capitol Bldg.
Juneau, AK 99811-1182
POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 128.
Mr. John Barnett, Executive Director
Board of Storage Tank Assistance
P.O. Box 240651
Douglas, AK 99824
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed SB 128.
Mr. Jim Hayden, Program Manager
Storage Tank Program
Department of Commerce and Economic Development
410 Willoughby Ave., Ste. 105
Juneau, AK 99811-1795
POSITION STATEMENT: Opposed SB 128.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 99-21, SIDE A
Number 001
SB 128-STORAGE TANK ASSISTANCE FUND
CHAIRMAN HALFORD called the Senate Resources Committee meeting to
order at 3:15 p.m. and announced SB 128 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR DONLEY said SB 128 is part of the overall financial package
to utilize state money more efficiently. We are the only state in
the union that has a grant program for storage tank facilities.
The other states have loan programs. Our existing program utilizes
money from the "470 fund" and the statutes don't allow us to use
that money for public storage tanks.
SB 128 does two things; since the program would otherwise go away
because of lack of funding, it turns it into a loan program and
allows the Legislature to utilize money from the "470 fund" for
doing necessary projects on government storage tanks.
SENATOR DONLEY said he also supported the proposed committee
substitute.
Number 66
MS. JULI LUCKY, Staff for Senator Halford, said the basic intent of
the bill is to create a loan program out of what used to be the
Cleanup and Upgrade and Closure grants. She noted there was a
sectional analysis in the packets and explained the spreadsheets
are a breakdown of the FY99 proposed projects.
SENATOR LINCOLN asked if there were commitments for future funding.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said there were commitments for these programs
that go out for the foreseeable future of funding of the State of
Alaska, one is $24 million.
MS. LUCKY explained that there are basically four programs: the
first one is the Tank Tightness, Testing, and Site Assessment
Incentive Program and hasn't been funded since FY92. The Tank
Cleanup Grant and Loan Program and the Tank Upgrade and Closure
Grant Programs, which are active, are the ones addressed in SB 128
by converting them to loan programs. The first program is
repealed.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said the intent is to repeal the Reimbursement
Program, as well, but that's in a session law, not in permanent
law. It also doesn't have funding.
MS. LUCKY responded that it's not an active program and hasn't been
funded basically because the other programs took precedence.
MR. BARNETT, Executive Director, Board of Storage Tank Assistance,
said that Mr. Jim Hayden, DEC, actually administers the program,
but the Board acts as an appeal board and mediates disputes between
the tank owners and DEC. They also review and adopt regulations
that DEC proposes.
MR. BARNETT explained that this whole program is driven by the 1988
Underground Storage Tank Act established by the EPA. It required
all the motor fuel tanks in the U.S. to upgrade by December 22,
1998. Those two conditions created this program. The cost to
clean up these tanks in order to obtain insurance was found to be
excessive and a lot of smaller businesses could not afford to it.
The Legislature in 1989 and 1990 decided to develop a four phase
program. The first one was the Site Assessment and Tank Tightness
Program which was to determine the extent of the problem. This
program is complete and puts into place a list of applicants all of
them were funded to a fairly small level. The second phase was the
Upgrade and Closure Program providing a portion of the funds to
upgrade tanks up to $60,000 per facility with a maximum of 60
percent of the cost of the upgrade. The upgrades for a typical
four tank facility was $150,000 - $200,000. The $60,000 worked out
to about $45,000 for upgrade and about $15,000 toward the closure
of old tanks. The $45,000 was about 20 percent of the cost to
actually upgrade the tanks. The tank owners, then, went to the
Small Business Administration or the bank and obtained financing
for the balance of the upgrade. So the upgrade portion is sort of
a down payment incentive program for getting the upgrades complete.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if the $60,000 was per business site or per
owner.
MR. BARNETT answered that it was per facility.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if Mapco and Tesoro could have 10 facilities
at $60,000 each.
MR. BARNETT answered yes.
SENATOR KELLY asked why some people on the list have received
hundreds of thousands of dollars for the same place.
MR. BARNETT answered those funds probably came from the clean up
program which is the third aspect of the financial assistance
program. Alaska has a higher ground water table than places in the
lower 48, so contamination was much more extensive and expensive.
Banks would not provide the financing to clean up the sites and
there were no other funds available to do the job.
Previously, when a tank owner could not clean up the site, EPA and
DEC enforcement people would step in and clean up the site using
the old 470 fund and hand the bill to the tank owner. If he
couldn't afford to pay, he would have to declare bankruptcy,
getting the state into a major legal battle. The conclusion was
instead of the State becoming a bank to provide loans, they felt
the default rate would be high as the cost of the loans would be
too high of a financial burden in order for the businesses to stay
in business. At this point, it was determined that there would be
a grant program with a portion of it being a loan up to $25,000.
The balance would be covered by the State up to $1 million per
facility.
The fourth program is the reimbursement program which is in the
Session Law. These were for the people that upgraded their tanks
between the EPA law going into effect on December 22, 1988 and the
State law going into effect on September 5, 1990. These are the
people who acted first. The conditions to get money out of that
was that everyone else would be taken care of first and if there
was still money, they would get paid.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked how much money it would take to get to them
under the existing program.
MR. BARNETT said it would go to $24 million before they could even
touch the reimbursement program.
He explained that a ranking system was established by the
Legislature at the time that emphasized public health threats and
the smaller businesses. This ranking system pushed the larger
companies toward the bottom of the list. Most of the smaller and
rural businesses have been taken care of.
The cleanup program still has an extensive list. They focused on
the upgrade and closure because of the 1998 deadline. EPA was
threatening a $10,000 per day per tank fine for noncompliance with
the upgrade requirements. There is one more year for the upgrade
program to finish it; then they would work their way down the
cleanup list. The application period closed in 1994.
The cleanup program sites are ranked with the highest threats to
public health at the top. The next criteria would be their
location and size of business. To change the program now, like SB
128 does, although they applaud the Legislature on looking for ways
to save money, the Board feels would be detrimental to the small
businesses left on the list and probably be more costly to the
State in the long run. Many tank owners will not have sufficient
collateral to be able to obtain a loan of this size for the
cleanup. Those that might have sufficient collateral may also be
mortgaged to the hilt because they have just finished financing
their upgrade tanks and are carrying a loan for $140,000 - $150,000
to the banks for their new tanks. They would not be able to afford
another loan on top of that for the cleanup. If they can afford to
get the loan, should they default, the State would assume the
liability on those site, have to clean them up, and then seek cost
recovery from the owner.
MR. BARNETT explained that the large companies on the bottom of the
upgrade and closure list will not go for a loan. Most of their
work is already complete. They are on the list because it was
originally required that everyone had to register their tanks. And
the argument was, if I have to register my tanks, I should be
eligible for financial assistance. They are on the list because
they have paid registration fees to the State for 10 years.
Number 354
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked what the registration fee is.
MR. BARNETT answered that it begins at $500 per tank, per facility.
It declines depending on the level of upgrade completed. The
larger facilities have dropped down to about $50 per tank. He said
there are smaller businesses who are awaiting upgrade funds that
are paying the higher registration fee while waiting for funds to
upgrade.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked how much they were proposing to spend in the
upcoming year.
MR. BARNETT answered $1 million for cleanups and $4 million for
closure and upgrade. The emphasis is to finish the upgrade and
closure program and focusing on the cleanup program. He explained
that originally there was a real low reporting requirement because
of possible large EPA fines. The Board held out a carrot and said
if you report your contamination, you would be given a grant.
Their concern now is that some of the smaller companies at the
bottom of the list are being punished for being there by having to
pay back their loans as previous ones did not and they acted in
good faith to report.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked DEC if they have a list that is in approval
order.
Someone from DEC responded that they did.
MR. BARNETT noted that the larger companies had been moved to the
bottom of the list. Initial estimates for these programs have been
significantly reduced by developing more efficient ways of cleaning
up and creative ways to finance the rest of the cleanup could be
looked at, but the Board didn't think a loan program would work for
the small businesses.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked how much had been disbursed in total.
MR. BARNETT answered $22 million.
SENATOR LINCOLN noted there were a lot of Seven Eleven's on the
list and asked why.
MR. BARNETT said at the time of the owner's application, they were
in a bankruptcy state and they are now owned by Tesoro.
MR. BARNETT reiterated that their ranking system has worked putting
big companies at the bottom of the list. They were determined to
be eligible and this is the last year of funding for the upgrade
program. They can't be ranked any lower.
Number 444
SENATOR LINCOLN said that $2.2 million was for the applicants who
ranked the very lowest which would be the larger businesses which
may not have had public health concerns. $2.2 million would not be
a great impact to these individuals if it went from a loan to a
grant.
MR. BARNETT said he didn't disagree.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked why West Side Service on page 3 was just now
getting its funding when its installation had been completed for
some time.
MR. BARNETT explained the way the ranking system works, if work has
already been completed to a certain extent, in many cases they were
dropped down on the list. The Board was trying to get to the
people who had yet to upgrade in order to protect public health.
They have been waiting for money for quite some time.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked if they went ahead and spent the money relying
upon that money coming through in this fashion.
MR. BARNETT said that was correct.
SENATOR TAYLOR noted that West Side Services had received $14,000
and Mr. Barnett has projected for 1999 they would receive the
remainder of $44,331.
MR. BARNETT said that was correct.
SENATOR TAYLOR pointed out that this legislation does not impact
them, because it doesn't take effect until July 1.
MR. BARNETT said that was correct if they were in the reimbursement
mode, but if they had yet to do the work...
SENATOR LINCOLN said she was confused with what Senator Taylor is
saying because it means the whole $11 million is committed, because
it's all FY99.
Number 500
SENATOR LINCOLN asked if $4.2 million was committed for FY99
because it was last year's appropriation.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said let's see where next year's money goes.
MR. BARNETT said there is a cleanup list, but the Board doesn't
just give a loan or grant and "it" gets done. It usually takes
four to five years to complete a cleanup, so a business receives
multiple grants. Work gets done; they wait a year; they test it
again; they get results; they do the next phase of work. That way
they don't overspend on a site, a very cost effective way to do
something and a lot of sites can be helped at once.
Some businesses have been on the continuing project list for quite
a while because of the extent of the contamination. This was a
concern with a loan program, because you would have to do phased
loans. The grant program was determined to be the simplest and
most cost effective way to do it in the long run. He said that
businesses do not have to be reranked for FY00.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked what the $39,000 to Chugiak Texaco was for.
MR. JIM HAYDEN, Storage Tanks Program Manager, explained that it
was on the ranked list of the cleanup applications that had not
been funded to date. Because of the 1998 deadline, this list was
suspended to make sure all the upgrades and closures were funded.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked what was more important to the State,
cleanup or new tanks and closures.
MR. HAYDEN replied at this point, because of the deadline, the
decision was made to put the money into the upgrade and closures
and try to meet that deadline and prevent leaks from occurring.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if that decision was discussed with the
legislature in the funding process.
MR. HAYDEN answered that they testified a number of times regarding
the 98 deadline.
SENATOR HALFORD said they have already shut down the cleanup
program for one year.
MR. HAYDEN said that was partially true for the new cleanup
applications, but they have a very highly ranked list of cleanups
that have been ongoing for the last few years. Generally, they
are the ones that cause drinking water or water supply
contamination.
TAPE 99-21, SIDE B
Number 590
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked about number three.
MR. HAYDEN said it's planned to reopen about the top ten sites in
FY00. That particular site would be eligible for funding next
year. He didn't know the specifics of that site other than it
ranked very highly. He explained that when the tanks were tested
and either upgraded or closed, some contamination was found in the
ground. There's probably a low water table, so the water table in
the area has been impacted and there's probably a stockpile of soil
that they need to get rid of.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said that site was a service station that's been
closed for at least a decade. The guy who owned it has since died,
and he didn't know the status of the property. If there had been
any danger to the public, some time in the last decade, it would
have occurred. Number 7, Fire Lake Flying Club, is about a half
mile from his house. It sits on the Old Glenn Highway and is one
500 or 1,000 gallon tank along the side of the road. It was from
a group of people who got together and sold each other gas - hardly
the most needy of the community. He didn't know how they could
possibly spend $181,000 unless you're going to fix the whole Fire
Lake dam.
MR. HAYDEN responded that these are estimates that were provided
with the application, but the Board hadn't done ground proofing on
them. Often, when the Board sends a letter to the applicant saying
they are eligible for funding; then they have to review the
application. The amount may very well be different than the one on
the application.
MR. BARNETT added that the percentage of money they provide tank
owners does not cover the full cost of the facilities.
MR. HAYDEN explained that this is why they phase the grant program.
They don't give a business $120,000 and say go at it and give us
your receipts. The owners have to submit a work plan to the
Department; they do the first phase of that work; report the
results back and then the work plan is reviewed and changed. A lot
of times the $100,000 cleanups are only $20,000 cleanups.
Sometimes it works the other way, too.
SENATOR LINCOLN asked since some of the applicants are from 1991,
those numbers could increase, as well.
MR. BARNETT agreed that it could go in the other direction, but
they have found that most costs have been less than originally
asked for. The cost goes up for a few because of the ground water
contamination.
SENATOR LINCOLN asked why applications are dated 1995, 1996, etc.
if they are accepting no new applications since 1994.
MR. BARNETT replied that those who were already on the closure and
upgrade list prior to 1994 were given two more years to determine
if they had any contamination. They could squeak an application in
until July 1, 1996.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked how far down he thought they could get on
the six page list.
MR. BARNETT responded that the plan for this next year's funding
cycle is to fund only the continuing projects.
MR. HAYDEN said recent information indicates there were withdrawals
from the Upgrade and Closure Program which will allow, for the
first time in two years, some new cleanup sites. It's likely they
would get to the first 10 or so after reviewing the work plans.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked if the people in FY99 would get their money.
MR. BARNETT said they have yet to start their work. They are
waiting for the season to begin. The process is that the money
becomes available to many of the applicants mid-season or at the
beginning of the fiscal year which is too late in the season to
line up contractors to do their work. A lot of times the work will
actually take place the following spring.
MR. HAYDEN added that some people have a combined closure upgrade
program where the tanks were closed three or four years ago with a
closure grant, but now they are waiting for their upgrade grant.
SENATOR PETE KELLY said he is concerned about a lot of people on
this list, because in Fairbanks there's a huge storage tank
facility. In that same area is the headquarters of the Alaska Gold
Company and Golden Valley Electric where they used to have their
generator. The municipality also used to spray the gravel roads
there with excess oil. Out on the edge is "old Bud Kelly" who had
a little tank and used to sell gas. Then it's found there's
petroleum products in the soil and he's got to pay, and pay the
full cost of cleanup on his site. But it's possible that he didn't
contribute one molecule of particulates to that site. He thought
there were more people like that on the list, particularly where
everyone is bunched up. This was a bad idea, he said.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said there were tens of thousands of residential
people who had quit using underground fuel tanks that were just
waiting to leak.
SENATOR PETE KELLY said in Fairbanks the Department of Public
Health hasn't said there's a higher level of cancer and something
has to be done. This issue is driven by a bunch of Greenies who
hate industry and unfortunately the easy ones to get are the small
businesses. He thought it was bad public policy to give people
money.
SENATOR GREEN asked what happened in other states that don't have
a grant program.
MR. BARNETT answered that there are reimbursement programs in some
states which are predominantly loan programs. The cleanup costs in
the lower 48 were considerably lower and more manageable loans
could be obtained. The ground water table was typically much
deeper. This fact alone is what really drives the cost up.
Minnesota's loan program is financed by their lottery system;
others are funded by a motor fuel tax. There are some forgiveness
programs on the loans after a certain point and certain costs are
reimbursable. Our intention up here was to keep as many of these
people as possible in business.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he needed Mr. Barnett to find a way to make
a transition to a loan program. The list is full of things that
are unnecessary expenditures of state money to profit-making
companies, some of whom make more by polluting more. Some are
totally innocent of that and it's not fair to put this in their
laps.
MR. BARNETT said they are funded through the 470 fund and that
state tanks are eligible to receive those funds, also. The Board
wants to wrap up the upgrade/closure program and look at long term
funding and financing techniques for the cleanup program. There
may be some ways to do creative grants and loans.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he thought the upgrade, at least for one
person he knew, was the financial responsibility of the person who
was going to profit from it.
Number 338
SENATOR TAYLOR said he didn't see how they could solve the problem.
The federal law was wrong. By the time the law was implemented, it
closed 40 percent of the service stations in the United States.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he thought one of the criteria in the
original law was the individual's ability to pay.
MR. BARNETT responded that's what their problem was. There was no
financial need base within the original set of statutes causing
constitutionality questions. It was determined if everyone paid
their registration fee, they would all be eligible. The federal
requirements are driving the program.
SENATOR KELLY asked if an area comes up clean, why wouldn't they
sign a Notice Of No Further Action.
MR. BARNETT answered the only time there might not be a No Further
Action letter would be if there was some question about the results
of the testing.
Number 245
MR. HAYDEN informed the committee that there is a pot of money
called the "Federal Lust Trust" which comes from the surcharge that
every citizen pays at the motor fuel pump. It's now at $1.2
billion. It's not being used; small pieces of it are trickled out
to certain programs. We get a federal grant from that fund, but
it's been the policy of the EPA to limit it to pay for staff to
oversee the cleanups in the state. It doesn't go for actual
cleanups.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked how long their list was for the public
tanks.
MR. HAYDEN answered that they are all on the same list and had to
meet the application deadline. Anchorage and Fairbanks seemed to
submit the most applications.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked why the public tanks ranked lower than the
private large private profit making corporation tanks.
MR. BARNETT replied that it could have been the degree of
contamination.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD commented that a criteria was the bigger the mess,
they higher you rank.
MR. BARNETT responded that is a clause within the statute itself.
The Board was given the authority to rank sites, but instead of
giving them the authority to rank them with their own criteria,
they were limited to half of the list had to be public health
based.
MR. HAYDEN added that most of the municipal tanks are diesel which
is not as hazardous as gasoline tanks, because the components in
gasoline dissolve in water which causes more of a problem.
The characteristics of diesel are that they do not dissolve in
water and are immobile in the ground. They basically stay put,
whereas gasoline evaporates, but it also dissolves and is carried
by rain water. It can dissolve up to a thousand parts per million
in the water. It's very easy to distinguish a water supply that's
been contaminated with gasoline. It's very sweet smelling and
tasting.
MS. ANNETTE KREITZER, Staff to Senator Leman, explained his
proposed amendment which accelerates the termination date of the
Storage Tank Assistance Board by one year. They would still have
their wind down year through 2000. The last legislative audit
recommended extending the Board through June 30, 2000. There will
be another audit of the Board in the summer of 1999, so the
Legislature will still have the opportunity to make a policy call,
if they chose to extend it longer.
SENATOR GREEN moved to adopt the CS to SB 168. There were no2
objections and it was so ordered.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved the "sunset amendment". SENATOR GREEN
objected for clarification.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD explained that the current sunset is the year
2000, but there is always a year after that of wind down. Senator
Leman is recommending June 30, 1999 which leaves the one-year wind
down. CHAIRMAN HALFORD assumed that he understood the
prioritization of the Board was essential for the grant programs,
but not for the loan programs.
SENATOR GREEN withdrew her objection.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD announced that the amendment was adopted.
Number 97
SENATOR GREEN moved to repeal the fourth category, to pay back
grants that have never been funded or the retroactive reimbursement
program. There were no objections and it was so adopted.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said another concern was the interest rate of the
loans that replace the grants. He thought it should be a
preferential one. Current federal discount is four and a half and
he thought it was good to put it at a half percentage point above
that. So these would be five percent loans which would still
represent a subsidy. At least, it is some incentive to pay back
instead of letting the interest rate grow.
MR. BARNETT responded that the only people who can afford these
loans are the ones the committee is most concerned about like
Tesoro and Chevron. Others already have their places mortgaged to
cover their upgrade loans and he thought the state would end up
cleaning their sites, anyway, through the response fund. A fellow
in Delta Junction contacted him saying he was already mortgaged to
the hilt and there was no way he could finish his cleanup. He
would basically put a "For Sale" sign out and walk.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said Mr. Barnett had the rest of this year with
state funding for grants. The timing of when this occurs will ride
with the effective date of the legislation and what the Finance
Committee does in terms of money.
SENATOR GREEN asked what happens if you're the owner of the
property and can't afford a loan.
MR. BARNETT answered if you are on the list and have a $100,000
cleanup and are offered a loan through the program and you
determine you don't want the loan, you can sit there. The next
thing that will happen is that the State will come in and file a
Notice of Violation that you haven't cleaned up your site. You
would receive more Notices of Violation; it would be turned over to
the Attorney General's Office or the EPA for enforcement. They
would step in and direct the owner to clean up the site. If he
didn't, the State would do the clean up.
TAPE 99-22, SIDE A
Number 001
They would present the bill to the owner and the owner would
probably leave the state.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD remarked that all this based on a risk that was
assessed so low by DEC that it didn't need to get any help for a
decade. He said it seemed like they could do something else with
the enforcement before it gets that far.
SENATOR TAYLOR said if we don't do it to them, the feds would.
MR. BARNETT said this program was started because the feds were
being highly unreasonable and using a big stick approach. It was
felt the state had to intervene with its own program and people.
We don't see the headlines of 10 years ago about the heavy handed
enforcement of the EPA. If you take away key portions of the State
program and EPA steps in, there will be a repeat of the 80's. The
sites with contamination that doesn't rate as a public health
threat are still obligated by federal law, which is mirrored by
state law, to clean it up. We don't have any way around that
except to change it at the federal level.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if the enforcement actions in the past were
state actions.
MR. BARNETT said that was correct. The federal fines are set at
$10,000 per day per tank for noncompliance. These people were
being treated like criminals and that's why this whole program
began.
Number 69
SENATOR GREEN asked if this program was intended to last forever.
MR. BARNETT answered that the original appropriation for this
program was $10 million for the first year. In the summer work
sessions of 1989 and 1990, the number that came out was $100
million problem. Now it's a $14 million problem; it won't go on
forever. There are creative financing ways to still address the
problem. The Board does not feel the loan approach is the best way
to protect our businesses. The original estimates have been
greatly reduced through the Department's innovative approvals of
new remediation technologies.
SENATOR GREEN moved to establish the interest rate at a half
percent above the federal discount rate which is currently 4 +
percent. There were no objections and it was so ordered.
SENATOR TAYLOR noted that his district had so far received $59,000,
where as Anchorage and Fairbanks had each received millions. They
could get rid of the entire problem in his district with less than
$120,000. He wanted to know why they were spending so much more
money in a handful of communities and not a dime anywhere else.
Number 138
MR. HAYDEN answered if more communities from Southeast Alaska had
applied, they would have been on the list.
SENATOR TAYLOR responded that these people did apply and they
haven't seen a dime. Only eight communities have had any help -
Wasilla, Soldotna, Palmer, North Pole, King Salmon, Ketchikan,
Fairbanks, and Anchorage. He asked if villages were taken care of
on some different program.
MR. BARNETT said that village programs were handled through DCRA.
SENATOR GREEN moved to pass CSSB 128(RES) from committee. There
were no objections and it was so ordered.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD adjourned the meeting at 5:00 p.m.
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