HOUSE BILL NO. 132 "An Act relating to technical education and apprenticeships; relating to concurrent vocational education, training, and on-the-job trade experience programs for students enrolled in public secondary schools; relating to child labor; and providing for an effective date." 1:36:27 PM Co-Chair Merrick indicated that the bill was first heard in committee on May 6, 2021. 1:36:37 PM REPRESENTATIVE ZACK FIELDS, CO-CHAIR, LABOR AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE, introduced himself and declined to make any additional opening comments regarding the legislation. 1:36:44 PM Co-Chair Merrick OPENED public testimony. 1:36:52 PM AT EASE 1:39:57 PM RECONVENED Co-Chair Merrick noted there were no testifiers. Co-Chair Merrick CLOSED public testimony. Co-Chair Merrick asked Ms. Reynold to review fiscal note #5. 1:40:44 PM DEBORAH RIDDLE, DIVISION OPERATION MANAGER, DIVISION OF INNOVATION AND EDUCATION EXCELLENCE, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT (via teleconference), spoke to published zero fiscal note 5 [FN 5 (EED)] for the Department of Education and Early Development (DEED). She related that DEED currently worked in collaboration with school districts to increase career, technical, and culturally relevant education to meet student and workforce needs. The bill was not expected to have a fiscal impact 1:41:30 PM Representative Carpenter stated that the sectional analysis in section 2 added duties for DEED, to collaborate with Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DLWD). He suggested that adding duties cost something and implied that extra work was required to fulfill the mandate. He did not understand how the extra duties did not incur a fiscal impact to DEED. 1:42:36 PM Representative Fields replied that DEED currently provided financial support to the school districts through the Perkins grants. The intent of the language was to provide supporting statutory language to allow DEED and the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DLWD) to collaborate on ways to use the forthcoming federal grants to support school apprenticeship programs. He confirmed that the relationships were already established, and the language ensured that the agencies could capitalize on the grant opportunities. Ms. Riddle relayed that DEED had a state plan with the United States Department of Education to work with DLWD to help facilitate work based learning which fell under the apprenticeship bill. 1:43:50 PM Representative Carpenter thought the phrases like work with or additional duties was incredibly vague. He asked what the additional duties were being added to DEED. Ms. Riddle reported that further work with the sponsor would better define the details. She reiterated that DEED would partner with DOL to facilitate the grants and were currently working with them to match districts with apprenticeship activities. Representative Carpenter wanted the specific list of the added duties and better understanding of what the added duties were before he approved of a program that could potentially need future funding. Representative Fields replied that the commissioner of DEED had done a good job of figuring out how to support work based learning and collaborate across departments. He characterized the fiscal note request as providing statutory support for something the department already carried out. He thought the outcomes of work based programs made the statutory support important but because of departmental leadership the engagement already existed. 1:46:56 PM NICOLE REYNOLDS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, TAX DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE (via teleconference), indicated that published fiscal note 3 [FN 3 (REV)] from the Department of Revenue (DOR) was indeterminate because the revenue impact of the bill could not be determined because the department lacked sufficient information to estimate the number of registered apprentices a taxpayer may hire or the number of corporate income tax taxpayers who may hire registered apprentices. She offered that the additional cost to the department to administer the credit was minimal and could be absorbed by the department. All the required tasks like updating tax forms on the Tax Revenue Management System (TRMS), and updating Revenue Online the public taxpayer portal, could be administered with the resources currently in place. JOY HARTLIEB, DIVISION OF LABOR STANDARDS AND PUBLIC SAFETY, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT (via teleconference), reported that the published zero fiscal note [FN 2 ((LWF)] showed there were zero costs related to the bill. 1:49:55 PM GREG CASHEN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, EMPLOYMENT SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT (via teleconference), commented that the published fiscal note was zero. The department collaborated with DEED regularly. He added that DLWD and the University of Alaska created the CTE plan in 2010, updated it in 2018, included school to apprenticeship pathways from career and technical education to post-secondary education and registered apprenticeship programs that DLWD administered. Representative Carpenter cited page 4, line 2 of the bill and read using funds available for that purpose He wondered what funds the bill referred to. Representative Fields responded that there were ongoing federal funding streams through DLWD. Some of the streams were grants to organizations such as the American Apprenticeship Initiative. He noted that other funding streams like Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) went to individuals to support training [through local programs providing youth services] in partnership with American Job Centers. He expected more funding would be available in the future and reiterated that the primary funding stream currently was the Perkins grants. 1:52:32 PM Representative Carpenter asked if any of the funding went directly to school districts. Representative Fields answered that the Perkins funds went directly to school districts. Most of the DLWD funds historically, had not gone directly to the school districts with limited exceptions. 1:53:16 PM Representative Carpenter felt that he had to protest what he was hearing. He voiced that tasks like develop, create and, expand cost money and he found the zero fiscal notes unbelievable. Representative Fields provided background history on DLWD involvement in supporting apprenticeships. He shared that the Commissioner at the time [Click Bishop, former commissioner, DLWD] trained department employees to become apprenticeship specialists. He elaborated that the specialists worked closely with the federal Department of Labor that regulated and oversaw apprenticeships. The state specialists started apprenticeship programs and supported employers. The infrastructure continued across many administrations. When additional federal grant opportunities became available, the department utilized the federal apprenticeship grant money and distributed it. He shared that he had worked for DLWD and administered the grants at a time when DLWD experienced significant budget reductions. He deduced that by looking back, it was possible to see that the department could expand support for apprenticeships when federal funds became available even with reduced Undesignated General Funds (UGF). There had been proposals put forward by the administration to further expand federal grant dollars and the bill was targeting the opportunity for when additional grant dollars were received. 1:55:27 PM Representative Carpenter asked if the school districts could absorb the burden of creating additional programs. Representative Fields replied that he asked the same question to school districts when crafting the bill. He had discussions with the career and technical education directors at several school districts who wanted to expand school apprenticeship programs. He had inquired about what could be done to support the districts to strengthen the programs thus, creating more opportunities for the students. He relayed that the answer was they needed school apprenticeship coordinators who worked under the schools CTE directors. The coordinators would strengthen the programs and create more apprenticeship placement opportunities for students. He referred to prior testimony from Trish Zugg, Information Technology Instructor/Grants Administration, Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, who hoped the state would secure more of the federal grant funding and fund the positions in the school districts. He ascertained that the school districts needed more capacity and he hoped that through the collaboration with DEED, some of the funds could be used for the positions. 1:57:11 PM Representative Thompson referred to page 5 lines 6 through 11 and read the following: (f) In this section, "veteran" means an individual who was honorably discharged from service in the (1) armed forces of the United States, including a reserve unit of the armed forces of the United States; or (2) Alaska Territorial Guard, the Alaska Army National Guard, the Alaska Air National Guard, or the Alaska Naval Militia. Representative Thompson asked whether the Coast Guard should be included on the list. Representative Fields answered in the affirmative. Co-Chair Merrick noted amendments for HB 132 were due by 6:00 p.m. on Monday, May 10, 2021. 1:58:17 PM Representative Rasmussen believed that high school seniors should have more options upon completing high school. She related that a college degree was not required for her career as a residential appraiser. She did not have the kind of college debt that others had making the same level of income. She thought that the districts were already anticipating the shift toward career or vocational programs. She did not view the bill as a means of forcing an unfunded mandate. She thought that there was broad consensus in the legislature to support career and vocational opportunities. The state had a higher need for a skilled labor workforce. She suggested that even if the bill did have a cost to it, the state would benefit in the long term. She supported the legislation and relayed that school districts embraced the concept of career and vocational education. Representative Carpenter took offense to the prior comments. He believed that Representative Rasmussens comments were addressed to him, and he felt lectured to. 2:01:04 PM AT EASE 2:01:51 PM RECONVENNED Representative Johnson referred to page 4, lines 22 to 24 which she read the following: To qualify as a registered apprentice for the purposes of the credit under this section, a person must participate in a registered apprenticeship program recognized by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Representative Johnson asked if there was a list available of registered participants in the committee members packets. Representative Fields answered in the negative. He indicated that there were several hundred registered apprenticeship programs in the state sponsored by hundreds of employers. He offered to follow up with the full list. Representative Johnson thanked the sponsor. HB 132 was HEARD and HELD in committee for further consideration. 2:03:13 PM AT EASE 2:09:05 PM RECONVENED