SSHB 1: MOTOR VEHICLE RECYCLING GRANT FUND & FEE REPRESENTATIVE GAIL PHILLIPS, PRIME SPONSOR of SSHB 1, read her sponsor statement saying, "The purpose of this legislation is to increase the present annual motor vehicle registration fee by $2.00 and allow the legislature to appropriate these additional revenues into a motor vehicle recycling grant fund. The fund would then be utilized to provide grants to municipalities to pay for the costs of transporting abandoned motor vehicles to recycling centers." (A copy of her sponsor statement may be found in the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee Room, Capitol #110, and after the adjournment of the second session of the 18th Alaska State Legislature, in the Legislative Reference Library.) REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS closed by adding, "There are some aspects of the bill (SSHB 1) that may need some further work, including the designation of the appropriate state agency to administer the program and the possibility of a legal distinction between 'junked' and 'abandoned' vehicles. Therefore, I would ask that the chairman consider sending this legislation to a subcommittee to work out these questions." Number 121 REPRESENTATIVE CON BUNDE asked if there were facilities to recycle automobiles in Alaska. REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS gave a description of the automobile recycling process and said, "In some cases they're going to have to be shipped out. The rural areas of Alaska where there are no landfill areas to take care of these... are very excited about using, they can just back haul on the barges and such, dump these vehicles on and ship them out because you know, as well as all of us, once a vehicle is abandoned in the Arctic it just stays there forever until it rots into the tundra." REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE expressed support for SSHB 1 and asked if the two dollars were sufficient to carry out the task. REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "I didn't want to put a fee on that would eliminate us entering into this program." She added that the Municipal League had indicated their support for the five dollars' fee due to the large amount of initial removal. Number 166 REPRESENTATIVE JOHN DAVIES voiced his support for the bill on behalf of the Fairbanks area. He then volunteered to be on the proposed SSHB 1 subcommittee. REPRESENTATIVE CYNTHIA TOOHEY also gave her support to SSHB 1 and suggested the five dollar fee. She inquired where the automobile metal was customarily shipped to. REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "In our discussion... it was Taiwan or South Korea had a very large shortage of metal and were very much interested in metal." Number 209 REPRESENTATIVE JERRY SANDERS said he also supports SSHB 1 but expressed concern that the bill reads, "the legislature 'may' appropriate money collected". REPRESENTATIVE PHILLIPS said, "We can just change 'may' to 'shall'." CHAIRMAN OLBERG added, "As chair of the subcommittee, Representative Sanders, you'll have free reign." Number 236 KENT SWISHER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA MUNICIPAL LEAGUE, testified in support of SSHB 1. He said, "We do have this problem with an accumulation of vehicles. The league does support a five dollar fee for this purpose." RUSSELL HEATH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA ENVIRONMENTAL LOBBY, testified in favor of SSHB 1 in its present form but also said, "...what we don't have in this bill is the incentive to keep people from junking their vehicles, and I was wondering if there was an acceptable mechanism by which we could encourage people to properly dispose of their vehicles." He gave an example where Alaskans would pay the Division of Motor Vehicles a deposit until vehicles have been properly disposed of. REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "That would be nice, but most cars that are junked are junked because the people that own them either can't afford to fix them or they are not fixable. ...I think that complicates things. If their was some way of simply doing it...but I think complicating the bill (SSHB 1) is unnecessary." Number 289 REPRESENTATIVE BUNDE suggested, "Maybe built into the bill (SSHB 1) somehow could be a reclaiming fee. If you brought your own or any other wrecked vehicle to the salvage yard, there was then 25 or 50 dollars or whatever this fund could allow, saving the state to have to go out and collect it. Whatever we figured it would cost the state, we could give the individual that for towing their own car." REPRESENTATIVE ED WILLIS asked if SSHB 1 "would be viewed as another tax." CHAIRMAN OLBERG clarified this was a fee, not a tax. JIM KOHLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE, testified in favor of SSHB 1. He said, "We recently conducted a survey in the region we have a wealth of information that we're more than willing and eager to share with the subcommittee..." MR. KOHLER added some suggestions, "...they have to do with issues of making sure that the language in the legislation while not too broad, is broad enough to allow communities perhaps to access these monies for some of the preparation costs involved before actual transportation, and secondly, to make sure that some of our communities that are outside of access to those particular centers that perhaps could do this work, again, have the capability of direct shipping to a particular vendor down below..." Number 349 JEFF OTTESON, CHIEF OF RIGHT-OF-WAY AND ENVIRONMENT, DIVISION OF ENGINEERING AND OPERATING STANDARDS, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC FACILITIES (DOT), testified in support of SSHB 1 saying, "We at DOT have had a 20 year program of removing vehicles and this program, quite frankly, is the perfect match to make the one that we now have and this one work statewide on an all road at all times." JANICE ADAIR, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION, testified, "We certainly support the concept of the bill and look forward to working with the subcommittee." CHAIRMAN OLBERG appointed Representative Sanders, Bunde and Davies to the subcommittee to work further on SSHB 1. Representative Sanders was appointed the chairman of the subcommittee. Number 375 CHAIRMAN OLBERG called an at ease at 1:25 p.m.