Legislature(2007 - 2008)BELTZ 211
03/01/2007 09:00 AM Senate STATE AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
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| Start | |
| Overview: Impacts of a 90-day Session | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE STATE AFFAIRS STANDING COMMITTEE
March 1, 2007
9:02 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Lesil McGuire, Chair
Senator Gary Stevens, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
Senator Con Bunde
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Lyda Green
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Overview: Impacts of a 90-day session.
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No action to report.
WITNESS REGISTER
RYNNIEVA MOSS, Staff
To Representative John Coghill
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Explained the House version of 90-day
session legislation.
JERRY BURNETT
Department of Revenue (DOR)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke of changing budget reports to fit a
90-day session.
WIN GRUENING
Alaska Committee
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke of the lack of impacts on Juneau from
a 90-day session.
CLARK GRUENING, Lobbyist
City and Borough of Juneau
Alaska Committee member
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Spoke favorably on a 90-day session.
PAM VARNI, Executive Director
Legislative Affairs Agency
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Reported on session length of other states.
TAMARA COOK, Director
Legislative Legal and Research Services
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Answered questions regarding a 90-day
session.
ACTION NARRATIVE
CHAIR LESIL MCGUIRE called the Senate State Affairs Standing
Committee meeting to order at 9:02:43 AM. Senators Stevens,
McGuire, Bunde, and French were present at the call to order.
^Overview: Impacts of a 90-day session
CHAIR MCGUIRE announced the discussion of a 90-day session.
RYNNIEVA MOSS, Staff, to Representative John Coghill, said the
House version of the 90-day session bill is identical to the
Senate version with some additions. The House version requires
the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to supply its narcotics
and alcohol report on the first day of the regular session
instead of 30 days after convening. Section 2 requires the DPS
to report on sexual abuse and criminal exploitation of children
on the first day of the session in the odd-numbered year. The
House Section 3 is the Senate Section 1. Section 4 is the same
as the Senate's Section 2 regarding when the session convenes.
9:05:17 AM
CHAIR MCGUIRE asked why session starts at one o'clock.
MS. MOSS said it gives everybody time to get into town. Section
5 is the Senate's Section 3, and it allows both houses to adopt
uniform rules of procedure in both years of the session. The
House Section 6 is the Senate Section 4, which requires fiscal
notes to be produced when requested by committee within three
days. Section 7 is the Senate's Section 5, and it addresses
prefiling of bills and resolutions. The House Section 8 is not
in the Senate version, and it requires a bill to die if it is
introduced in the first session and does not pass the house of
introduction.
9:06:57 AM
SENATOR FRENCH noted that currently bills stay where they are
from one session to the next, and he asked how many bills will
die each year from this provision.
MS. MOSS said she didn't know.
SENATOR FRENCH said if a bill is to be considered in the
interim, it must be introduced the session prior, but under this
proposal it would die.
9:08:19 AM
MS. MOSS said it is a policy call. There will be more interim
work, and a bill may have to be prepared prior to coming to
Juneau. The section may be amended or eliminated, but it is one
way to try to decrease the number of bills, she said.
SENATOR FRENCH said this is important; the shorter the session
the more opportunity the legislature needs to work on bills, so
it seems like it's going the wrong way.
SENATOR STEVENS said the issue is how to rip 30 days out of the
session and removed 25 percent of the days and still hope to get
the job done. "I just don't see the specifics that will cause us
to lose a quarter of the time we're here and still get the job
done." He said he agrees with Senator French and thinks they
ought to be trying to figure out how to move bills in the
interim and not kill them in the first year.
9:10:33 AM
MS. MOSS said this is one half of what the legislature must do;
it also has to look at uniform rules and attendance on weekends.
SENATOR STEVENS noted that state employees go home on weekends.
MS. MOSS said that is a policy call. The uniform rules will need
to be addressed.
9:11:19 AM
CHAIR MCGUIRE said she prioritizes her committee bills, and some
she considers to be second-year bills whereby she works on them
during the interim and brings them to fruition the second year.
Everyone manages their docket of bills differently. It is
important that the Senate understands what the House is doing.
9:13:00 AM
SENATOR STEVENS said the legislature may be setting itself up to
fail. Issues like limiting the number of bills per member,
voting by phone, and video conferencing should be discussed.
"We're not getting down to the real issue," he said.
MS. MOSS said it is being worked on through uniform rules, "and
we will be coming forward with legislation to address that."
9:14:08 AM
CHAIR MCGUIRE said she invited Ms. Moss to represent the House
because often both bodies work hard but don't track each other,
and time is wasted. The work going on in the other body is
important. The Senate may disagree, but it is a good starting
point, she explained.
MS. MOSS said Section 9 is cleanup language; it has been on the
books for many years but it clarifies that employees of the
legislature cannot be awarded bonuses. The Legislative Budget
and Audit Committee will be organized in 10 days. Section 11 is
the Senate Section 6. Section 12 requires the Budget and Audit
Committee to file copies of approved audits by the first day of
session instead of within five days. Section 13 requires the
Alaska Public Offices Commission to publish a directory of
registered lobbyists within 15 days of convening. Section 14
eliminates a report required by the commission, and "you may
want to amend this so that a report is due the first part of
March," she opined.
9:17:03 AM
MS. MOSS said Section 15 is not in the Senate version. It
followed discussions at the last Senate State Affairs meeting,
and it gives the governor one month longer to present the
budget. Section 16 provides that legislative finance gets an
advance copy of the governor's budget on the first Monday in
February instead of January. Section 17 is the Senate Section 8
and changes the deadlines for the supplemental appropriations
request and the governor's budget amendments. Section 18
requires OMB to submit a report to the Legislative Budget and
Audit Committee five days after convening. Section 19 changes
the date of a report by DNR. She calls these accounting changes
to speed up the process. Section 21 is the Senate Section 9, and
the rest of the bill is identical to the Senate version, she
concluded.
9:19:09 AM
JERRY BURNETT, Legislative Liaison and Administrative Service
Director, Department of Revenue (DOR), said each year DOR
creates formal revenue forecasts in the fall and spring. DOR is
now projecting the price of oil for the next several years, and
that will be completed at the end of March. With a short session
and a due date for the governor's budget of January 15, OMB
would do a forecast later in the year. He said OMB would likely
do one formal forecast prior to the release of the governor's
budget and an informal price forecast during the session. Moving
the forecast a month doesn't change its accuracy unless there
are events such as the pipeline shutdown. There is already
seasonality built in, so "we don't believe that it would make a
huge difference in the accuracy," he stated.
9:22:06 AM
SENATOR FRENCH asked if there is something structurally fixed
about the timing of the forecast, like international reports.
MR. BURNETT said there is not a specific event that matters.
WIN GRUENING, Chair, Alaska Committee, said the Alaska Committee
is a non-profit volunteer group that is dedicated to enhancing
Juneau's Alaska capital. He said the committee has worked
closely with Pam Varni to accommodate the needs of the
legislature, especially special needs and requests from
legislators. "We've attempted to accommodate those whenever we
can." He said the partnership has worked well and will continue
regardless of the length of the session. "Depending on when the
session begins and ends, I don't see that the housing situation
in Juneau would necessarily be impacted negatively or
positively," he said.
9:24:49 AM
CLARK GRUENING, Lobbyist, City of Juneau, said Juneau has taken
the housing shortage and affordability issues seriously, and it
would be eager to help to make sure the legislature's needs are
met no matter how long the session is. If the 90-day session
started anytime within the 120-day period, it could be that it
may increase housing availability with fewer impacts to
landlords who rent to the tourism industry. "At this point I
can't assume that it will be more difficult, and hopefully it
will be better as the city works through some of the larger
issues and we try to accommodate you in any way we can."
SENATOR BUNDE asked if it would be better to start at the
traditional time and end 30 days earlier because of the influx
of tourism at the beginning of summer.
9:27:17 AM
MR. WIN GRUENING said he thinks that is possible, "but I don't
think the entire 30 days would be necessary." He suggested the
session start 15 days later and end 15 days earlier.
SENATOR FRENCH asked about the seasonal creep of the cruise ship
season earlier in the year and when tourist shops open.
MR. WIN GRUENING said there has been a little bit of a creep,
but May 15 is considered the real start of the cruise season. He
said shops get ready at the beginning of May. The Alaska season
is rubbing up against the southern cruise season, so he doesn't
see an earlier cruise ship season in Juneau's future.
SENATOR STEVENS said he has lived in an apartment during regular
session and spent special sessions in a hotel, and he is
concerned about the hotel space. A 90-day session could mean
more special sessions, which may mean more hotel use. He asked
if there are plans to increase hotel rooms in Juneau.
9:30:05 AM
MR. WIN GRUENING said the hotel room inventory has increased,
but it would be advantageous to do the special sessions after
the tourism season ends in mid-September.
PAM VARNI, Executive Director, Legislative Affairs Agency,
provided a report of what other states do. There are 19 states
that hold sessions of no more than 90 days. Three of those meet
biannually and sixteen meet annually, she explained. Of those
sixteen, seven states count by calendar days rather than
legislative days. Differences in constitutional and statutory
schemes and other variations make comparisons to other states
difficult, but extensive prefiling of bills, substantial
committee work during the interim, and strict procedural
deadlines appear to be common for those with short sessions.
Sources report intensive activity and long days, nights, and
weekends near the end of the process, she said. Some
legislatures noted extensive use of recessing rather than
adjourning in order to save legislative days.
MS. VARNI said the Florida legislature has 60 calendar days,
substantial committee work during the interim, a significant
prefiling system with no filing after the start of session, and
some limitation on bills. Maryland has a 90-calendar-day session
with strict procedural deadlines, committee work during the
interim, and liberal use of both legislative and calendar days.
New Mexico has 60 calendar days in odd-numbered years and 30
calendar days in even-numbered years. It has strict deadlines
for the introduction of bills, joint interim committee work,
limitation on bills, and shifting of legislative days. Utah has
a 45-calendar-day session, and it has substantial committee work
during the interim and an early deadline for introduction of
bills. Virginia has intensive evening and weekend work, and
staff work year round. West Virginia has frequent special
sessions and substantial interim committee work. The report
includes many more comparisons, she stated.
9:34:56 AM
SENATOR BUNDE said the report supports his suspicion that by
using legislative days, a short session can be more of an
illusion than a reality in some states.
9:35:56 AM
CHAIR MCGUIRE asked about a list of places where statutory
changes would be required for a 90-day session.
TAMARA COOK, Director, Legislative Legal and Research Services,
said she searched deadlines that apply to reports that had to be
delivered to the legislature. "I'm not sure that all of those
deadlines need to be changed," she said, but she noted them in
case anyone might want to look at them. The House did elect to
do a few more changes, she stated.
SENATOR BUNDE asked if legislative rule or law prevents bills
from moving from committee unless the legislature is in Juneau.
MS. COOK said it is hard to understand how a committee can move
a bill from one committee to another without reading it across,
because it takes the full body to accept a committee report. A
committee reports its recommendations to the full body. "What
you're talking about, I think, is cutting out that section where
the body accepts a committee report and then again makes a
decision to move it on to the next committee of referral. At
that point they could change committee referrals…or they could
decide that the committee report is somehow defective and they
want to return it to first committee. So, that process is really
inherent in the uniform rules," she explained.
9:38:20 AM
SENATOR BUNDE said currently the bill passes from a committee
and goes back to the full Senate floor to be read across. Often
it is simply moved to the next committee, but occasionally
another committee will be added. He said he doesn't recall a
bill being sent back to its original committee. It is just a
procedure, but occasionally it has substantial utility.
MS. COOK said that is accurate, and there is usually no
objection to a committee report, but "bear in mind that as a
parliamentary rule, the opportunity to object is lost once the
process moves past the parliamentary point in time where the
defect is noted." If the legislature cuts out the step of the
committee reporting to the full body, it will also eliminate the
opportunity of a member to object to that report, she stated.
9:39:54 AM
SENATOR BUNDE noted the loss of some internal checks and
balances.
SENATOR FRENCH said it is important, and he asked what rule
changes are needed to allow the consideration of bills and the
movement of bills from committee during the interim.
MS. COOK answered that there is no need to change the uniform
rules for committees to consider bills during the interim. All
committees have that authority now. Changes would be needed to
allow a committee of referral to pass the bill on to another
committee without being read to the full body. It would probably
not be difficult to draft, she said. An amendment to the uniform
rules is awkward because it requires a two-thirds vote of both
houses. She said she would be glad to work up the language.
SENATOR FRENCH said that should be done. The legislature has
been told to go to a 90-day session next year, and there will
have to be room for committee work outside the regular session.
9:42:17 AM
SENATOR BUNDE noted a new question of legislative days versus
session days. If a committee meets for 10 days in the interim,
does that mean the session is 100 days? he asked.
SENATOR FRENCH agreed. "What is a legislative session?"
9:43:10 AM
SENATOR BUNDE said he takes the definition of his job as a
representative literally and sent five questions to people in
his district that he normally contacts. He said one of his
districts supported the vote and the other failed it, "so
clearly not a mandate." He has had 80 replies to his questions.
His questions asked what the public had in mind when it voted
for the 90-day session: 1) should all business be completed in
90 days? 2) should legislators be limited in the number of
bills? 3) should there be limited hearings? 4) should committees
do legislative work and pass bills outside of regular session?
5) should the notification time of hearings be reduced?
9:45:16 AM
SENATOR BUNDE read several replies with many diverse opinions.
CHAIR MCGUIRE asked for a copy for the committee.
SENATOR BUNDE said he can redact the names and do that.
9:50:27 AM
SENATOR BUNDE said his district was split on the issue, and he
suggested that members ask their own constituents.
CHAIR MCGUIRE said her hunch is that they will be similar.
9:51:00 AM
DIANE HOLMES, Anchorage, said the voters did decide. There are
some issues that need to be dealt with, but many other states
deal with short sessions. She likes the idea of not allowing the
introduction of bills once the session begins. It is not true
that there won't be enough public process, because fewer bills
can get quality time, she opined. The budget passes quickly in
the end, anyway, without many people knowing what is in it. The
public was not well-informed because the voter pamphlet was not
written well. Special sessions are for specific projects that
the governor wants. The session can be extended a day or two if
necessary. There is a lot of "stuff" that comes through the
legislature that doesn't need to, she said. [A short session]
will help the legislature prioritize. Alaskans are being asked
to do more with less, including the governor's proposal to cut
capital projects. The legislature should make a real effort to
streamline its activities. She said she respects Gretchen Guess
who wouldn't support the 90-day session without thinking. "What
about swearing in the new legislators in December with the
governor so that those people can get themselves established,
and they won't be floundering at the very beginning of the
session?"
CHAIR McGUIRE adjourned the meeting at 9:54:36 AM.
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