HB 535 An Act making appropriations for capital project matching grant funds and for capital projects; and providing for an effective date. OVERVIEW: Labor, Commerce, Military & Veterans Affairs, Natural Resources, Fish & Game DEPARTMENT OF LABOR DAVID TEAL, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, 1 DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, explained the capital project requests for the Department. * Workers compensation Information Handling System This project request for $1,653.8 million dollars will automate some of the essential services of the Employment Service offices in order to accommodate public access self- registration work stations. In addition, the project will provide work areas and equipment for the use of staff and the public. * Employment Service Automated Client Service Project This project request for $499.8 thousand dollars will provide a system which allows clients to file their weekly claims for Unemployment Insurance benefits by using a touch- tone phone. * Employment Service Voice Response Filing/Telephone Systems Enhancement This project request for $585.9 thousand dollars will provide funding to complete the Workers' Compensation information handling system. DEPARTMENT COMMERCE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CHRIS GATES, DIVISION DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, DEPARTMENT COMMERCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, explained the capital project requests for the Department. * Economic Development Matching Grant Program This project request for $500.0 dollars thousand would provide state funds to communities, boroughs and other eligible applicants to match grants from federal and other non-state sources. The primary purpose of the EDMGP program would be to provide an eligible applicant with the necessary economic development matching funds if that applicant would be unable to provide such funds from other local sources. * Alaska Small Business Assistance and Development This project request for $253.0 thousand dollars outlines a multifaceted program to enhance Alaska's small business sector. A strong small business sector is vital if Alaska is to have a healthy and diversified economy. He added that small businesses provides up to 95% of the nongovernment employment in the state, and that it has been shown on a 2 nationwide basis that most of the new jobs created each year come from small business. * Chugiak-Eagle River Arctic Winter Games This project requests $250.0 thousand general fund dollars. * Procurement Technical Assistance This project requests $183.0 thousand general fund match dollars. DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY AND VETERANS AFFAIRS JEFF MORRISON, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY AND VETERANS AFFAIRS, explained the capital project requests for that Department. * Major Project Design This project request for $2 million dollars would provide for the planning and design of several projects in support of the Army National Guard including design of projects in which the construction would be shared funding under a new program offered by the Army Directorate, National Guard Bureau. Provision are now available to allow advance federal funding of the state's design costs of those projects. He added that the state will be required to reimburse their share of the design costs at the time of construction. * Army Guard Deferred Statewide Maintenance This request for $665.0 thousand dollars will provide basic facility repair and renovation statewide. Projects will consist of mechanical repair/replacement, fencing, lighting, electrical, repair/upgrade, structural repair/replacement/additions, grounds, OSHA and other safety upgrades and related projects. * Army Guard Renewal and Replacement This request for $100.0 thousand dollars would address the scheduled replacement of worn-out major building components and the retrofitting or replacing of obsolescent and/or inefficient building systems. Renewal and replacement funding maintains, and in some instances extends, the useful life of facilities. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES NICO BUS, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, 3 DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, explained the capital project requests of that Department. * Contaminated Site Assessment/Cleanup-Isabel Pass Camp This request for $45.0 thousand dollars would address numerous sites throughout the state which have been used by various agencies, companies, individuals, etc. for different purposes resulting in the land and water being contaminated by hazardous substances. Changing these hazardous substances is a priority not only to protect the public's health and safety, but also to return the land to an environmentally safe and marketable condition. * Multi-Mission Village Work Crew This request for $500.0 thousand dollars would be used for fighting fires in a controlled manner to meet land use objectives and/or the reduction of high risk forest fuels and would require a work force organized and trained in skills and ability common to those necessary for the suppression of wild land fires. Federal land management agencies have identified a substantial number of projects which require access to the state's organized fire fighting work force. * State Land Acquisition Classification/Assessment This request for $650.0 thousand dollars would address state land acquisition. During FY 92-94, the Legislature funded the state land selection project as it approached the final land selections deadline of January 3, 1994. The Department filed over 24 million acres of new selections as a result of these projects. The state now has nearly 40 million acres selected, from which it will receive its final 17 million acres of entitlement. * Mental Health Trust Lands Reconstitution This request for $450.0 thousand dollars would continue the essential process of Mental Health Trust Lands reconstitution started in 1991 under the authority and requirements of Chapter 66, SLA 1991. Substantial aspects of the trust reconstitution process were completed in FY 93 & 94, including most comparability, valuation and the title evaluations of non-conveyable original trust land and proposed substitute land. The work effort in FY 95 will continue the previous effort to convey original trust land and replace encumbered trust land with state land of comparable character and equal value. 4 * Fire Fighting Equipment Upgrade Replacement The request for $50.0 thousand dollars will fund equipment replacement and upgrades to maintain and increase fire protection capabilities on private land, public land and communities in the state and will enhance public and fire fighter safety. * State Park System Emergency Repairs The $50.0 thousand dollar request will fund the repairs needed in State park areas due to the forces of nature and man. These activities have been delayed and now the state park system requires emergency repairs to prevent major loss of natural and historic resources. * State Land Status/Inventory Database The $250.0 thousand dollar request will complete the state's land status database (the public land records), including capturing relevant hydrography information, and merge that database in a common computer system with the state's resource inventory data. * Geological Mineral Inventory The Geophysical/Geological Mineral Inventory Project request of $225.0 thousand dollars would be a multi year project which was originally designed to systematically interpret the geophysical areas and, when necessary, geologically survey about 40 million acres of state-owned uplands within a seven year period. Funding restrictions have led to decreasing the scope of the project although the goal remains the same to identify and delineate mineral zones on Alaska state lands that have major economic value and that can offset the future loss of Prudhoe Bay oil to the state's economy. (Tape Change, HFC 94-126, Side 2). * Forest Practices Act Effectiveness Research This request for $300.0 thousand dollars would provide funding to meet the requirements for protecting state water quality from the effects of timber harvest operations as required under Section #319 of the Clean Water Act, and would establish the fish habitat protection standards and policy and review processes. He added that the necessary monitoring of the effectiveness of the riparian standards and the best management practices would be funded by this project. 5 * Forest Resource Inventory This request for $100.0 thousand dollars would provide for responsible forest management including wood utilization and would provide a dependable economic base in areas of Alaska that can benefit from further development of such a renewable resource. A sustainable forest resource is dependent on inventory information by species, location, size and growth and would provide managers with information for harvest analysis and layout. The information has to be gathered and updated periodically in order to provide an accurate data base. This project will provide new information and update old information on the forest resource inventory in the Interior Region. * National Historic Preservation Fund/Federal Grants Program This request for $640.0 thousand dollars would provide the state's portion of the of the 60/40 matching grant for State Historic Preservation Programs, which were identified and defined in the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. The NHPF provides money for the administration of Alaska's State Historic Preservation Program which includes the programs necessary to maintain the state's eligibility to receive federal NHPF monies and provides a basic preservation program. * Land and Water Conservation Fund Federal Grants- Outdoor Recreation Facilities This request for $500.0 thousand dollars would provide the state's portion of the matching grants to state and local communities for planning, acquisition and development of outdoor recreation facilities. The operating costs for administration of the program would be paid from a surcharge to the federal apportionment and the recipient's share of the grant. * RS 2477 Assertions and Mapping The $400.0 thousand dollars would cover the second year of a two year project to gather historical information and adjudicate potential RS 2477 rights-of-way. The first year was aimed at identifying routes to clarify "criteria" differences between the state and federal governments. The first year allowed the State to position for legal challenges through established criteria cases. In addition, the first 500 key routes were researched and adjudicated. Any additional funding in future years will be for legal and court challenges and route land surveys. 6 DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME CHARLES MEACHAM, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME, commented on the over all capital project budget request for the Department of Fish and Game. KEVIN BROOKS, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME, explained the individual components of the Department's capital project budget. * Statewide Facilities Maintenance Repair and Replacement The Department of Fish and Game has numerous facilities in every geographical area of the State. Many are located in rural and/or inaccessible areas. Many of the facilities have suffered from years of deferred maintenance activity and are in dire need of repairs/maintenance in order to stop further deterioration. Many of these facilities owned by the Department also serve public interests in the community, as a contact point with the projects and programs of the Department. Due to considerable concern for the deteriorating condition of these facilities, and a concern for the health and welfare of departmental employees, the CIP request of $650.0 thousand dollars is rated as the highest priority for ADF&G. The efficient conduct of the program is now jeopardized by past inattention which was due to funding scarcity for these facilities. * Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwin Salmon Fisheries Stock Assessment Equipment This CIP request for $300.0 thousand dollars will fund equipment as well as support funding for the public participation projects and Norton Sound salmon restoration. * Alaska Peninsula Chum and Coho Salmon Stock Study/Equipment This request for $150.0 thousand dollars will provide funds to obtain samples from the June fishery in 1995 and 1996, and using genetic stock identification techniques, identify and quantify chum salmon stocks. Current research conducted by the Department has shown that the difference in genetic markers between stocks of interest are great enough to allow statistically significant discrimination. * Fisheries Resource Assessment Vessels Maintenance This request for $250.0 thousand dollars will cover costs for general maintenance work as performed on the R/V Media, 7 R/V Sundance, R/V Montague, R/V Pandalus and R/V Resolution. These vessels support fishery monitoring efforts involved in salmon, herring, and shellfish stock assessment programs contained in the Department's FY 94- 96 policy budget. * Assert/Project State's Right to Manage Alaska's Resource under ANILCA The request for $500.0 thousand dollars would be for a coordination effort to assert and protect the State of Alaska's fish and wildlife management rights on State and private lands and waters. A major portion of the request would be dedicated to the federal legislative reauthorization process for the Endangered Species Act. * Trail and Habitat Area Clearing/Enhancement This request for $350.0 thousand dollars would improve habitat for a variety of wildlife species that thrive best among the young deciduous trees and shrubs that follow site disturbances and would improve consumptive and nonconsumptive opportunities to see and use wildlife and improve wintering conditions for moose to reduce threat of die-off during the severe winter. * Rural Fur Market Protection/Development This request for $400.0 thousand dollars would provide a two year project to protect Alaska's fur market to Europe, expand existent markets in North America and Asia, and assist Alaskans in understanding and coping with the European Economic Community (EEC) fur import ban and international Standard Organization requirements for more humane traps. * Public Access Land Purchase and Facilities Construction/Renovation This request for $1,550.0 million dollars would provide funds to the Sport Fish BRU to construct boating access facilities and purchase land along waterways. The access sites that will result from this project are needed to improve public recreational boating and sport fishing access throughout the state. The amount of federal funds in this request include the mandatory boating access set-aside plus an additional amount for angler access projects that do not necessarily qualify as boating access.