SB 124-ALASKA WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BD ALLOCATION    1:38:13 PM CHAIR ELLIS announced SB 124 to be up for consideration. He said it had already been before the committee. 1:39:57 PM DAVE GRAY, staff to Senator Donny Olson, sponsor of SB 124, said initially the bill had to do with funding for a VocTech effort in Nome. Subsequent to that, the Senate was approach by a number of interests to expand the bill's application to take a broader look at the education needs of Alaska's workforce prior to any kind of a pipeline construction effort. 1:41:42 PM DANA OWEN, staff to the Labor and Commerce Committee, reviewed the proposed CSSB 124, version L, saying it changes the allocation scheme significantly on page 2. The University of Alaska now gets 37 percent, the Galena project gets 3.5 percent, Kotzebue is at 8.5 percent, Alaska Vocational Technical Center will get 16 percent, Northwestern Alaska Career and Technical Center will get 3.5 percent, Southwest Alaska Vocational and Educational Center will get 3.5 percent, the Ute People's Learning Center gets 8.5 percent, the Delta Career Advancement center gets 3.5 percent and Alaska Works Partnership gets 16 percent. He said the idea was to find an equitable distribution that would not disadvantage any of the centers and would try to fairly distribute the monies. All the other provisions remain the same. 1:42:57 PM SENATOR BUNDE said he had visited many of the centers he mentioned and noticed their reductions and asked for the rationale behind taking money away from people who are already doing a successful job to give it to new places. MR. OWEN responded that he has spoken with both the University of Alaska and the Alaska Works Partnership and they are both supportive of this bill. No one will receive an actual reduction in funding amounts. MR. GRAY had no comments on the proposed CS. 1:45:12 PM SENATOR DAVIS asked where the numbers came from. CHAIR ELLIS answered there was input from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), Alaska Works Partnership, and the University of Alaska to his staff and he had a discussion with Senator Stevens. 1:46:03 PM recess 1:50:08 PM MIKE ANDERS, Director, Alaska Works Partnership, Inc., said the one thing that wasn't stated earlier in looking at the changed allocations is that actually the technical vocational education fund has increased 50 percent as a result of this legislation. Therefore, the overall allocations are changed. The formula was arranged so that no current training facility loses money or gets less money as a result. 1:51:14 PM WENDY REDMAN, Vice President for University Relations, University of Alaska, supported CSSB 124 (L&C) and getting money into the other programs that the University partners with. Adding to their capacity will be a great help to the state. SENATOR BUNDE asked if she could use more money if it were available. MS. REDMAN replied that the University certainly could use more money. It has a budget request with a lot of workforce training requests and it is trying to get some money through the AGIA bill that is more gasline related. 1:52:34 PM SENATOR STEVENS moved to adopt the CSSB 124 (L&C), version L. There were no objections and it was so ordered. 1:53:42 PM SENATOR STEVENS moved to pass CSSB 124(L&C), version L, from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. SENATOR BUNDE objected saying he thought success should be rewarded by giving the successful programs more money rather than siphoning some potential money away into new and unproven programs. A roll call vote was taken. Senators Stevens, Davis and Ellis voted yea; Senator Bunde voted nay; and CSSB 124(L&C), version L, passed from committee.