Number 366 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE asked if the Department of Education (DOE) could tell the committee what impact the amendments just passed would have on the list of school projects outlined in HB 83. CHAIR BUNDE said it would be premature, as he intended to rewrite HB 83 thoroughly. Number 379 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE said he had been provided HB 83, a list of projects and an appropriations bill with $150 million going to those projects. He asked if the changes to HB 82 would change the amount of money available for the projects in HB 83. CHAIR BUNDE said that, while he hesitated to speak for the DOE, the percentages under consideration by the DOE were not the same as those presented by the DOE. He said the changes were revenue-positive. REPRESENTATIVE OLBERG said the committee might at least have to make HB 83 not subject to the changes in HB 82, because he was sure that HB 83 represented money available before any changes, and that if the committee changed the funding figures in HB 82 it would throw off the numbers in the priority list. REPRESENTATIVE BRICE said that the committee would have to change the effective date on HB 82. He said the committee should keep in mind that it could establish various effective dates for different parts of the bill. REPRESENTATIVE IRENE NICHOLIA asked a representative from the DOE to explain the impacts of the changes in the district participating share provisions of HB 82 on Rural Education Attendance Areas (REAAs). Number 412 GARY BADER, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION said, "It is very difficult to say, the first question about overall, would it require more state money to fund the same list, or less, (I) simply can't say without actually running the numbers. The table is different, the match requirements are different. As you recall, HB 83 as it's before you without the committee substitute, has a sliding scale on the first year. The matching requirements weren't as aggressive as they were further out. So it's just impossible to say." MR. BADER continued, "In terms of the REAAs, clearly we have a zero match the first year. This committee substitute would have a 5% match. And so in terms of the dollar amount of match that would have to be raised, I couldn't say, but we can certainly get a feel for it." HB 83: APPROP: SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION GRANT FUND Number 170 CHAIR BUNDE opened public testimony on HB 83. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY distributed copies of a blank CS version of HB 83. REPRESENTATIVE OLBERG asked if the CS version of HB 83 was different from the version under consideration earlier. CHAIR BUNDE asked Representative Vezey to address the question. Number 179 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY said that the CS contained changes in the funding source. The original funding source for HB 83 was to have been a school construction fund, the name of which he could not recall. The CS to HB 83 discussed in the HESS subcommittee which he chaired considered the General Fund as a source of funding. The blank CS currently before the committee assumed the constitutional budget reserve as its source of funding, he said. REPRESENTATIVE NICHOLIA asked Representative Vezey if he followed the governor's priority in writing his work draft. She observed that some of the construction proposals in the work draft were low on the governor's list. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY replied in the negative. REPRESENTATIVE NICHOLIA repeated her question. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY repeated his answer. Number 206 CHAIR BUNDE said the governor's priority list did not come close to allocating funds in relation to the percentage of students in a district or area. He said that the blank CS was an attempt to allocate the funds more equitably; the more students in a district, the more projects it received. The governor's construction projects' proposal invested 9% in Anchorage, 8% in Fairbanks, 3% in Mat-Su, and 0.3% in Kenai, but 56% in REAAs, he said. In the CS, the funding was distributed in approximate proportion to the distribution of the student population in the state, he said. CHAIR BUNDE pointed out that the title called for appropriation from the constitutional budget reserve, and called that a major step forward which he believed deserved to be noted. Number 231 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE asked for comment from the DOE, and asked a departmental representative if he had seen the list earlier. MR. BADER answered that the list contained in the blank CS was presented in the subcommittee two weeks before. He said he could not comment, and added that when the DOE assembled the list it had not tried to balance it according to percentages of money spent by each school district. Number 245 REPRESENTATIVE NICHOLIA said the governor had written his list based on how long schools had been waiting for funding, and on whether the funding addressed life-threatening situations. MR. BADER said the governor's list was built according to an internal DOE ranking of all projects statewide, and that there was a decision to spend approximately $40 million on maintenance, with the balance coming from the school construction account. Number 261 CHAIR BUNDE had a letter from the governor seeking a technical adjustment to the funding list. He said the Ketchikan Gateway Borough High School was already under construction, and that the funding amount in HB 83 should be $9,501,600. He said there had been a funding error, which the governor's suggested funding level would correct. REPRESENTATIVE BRICE MOVED an AMENDMENT to increase the Ketchikan High School line to the level requested by the governor. Number 279 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY OBJECTED. He did not believe it was possible to simply add money to that project without cutting funding elsewhere in the bill. He opposed any motion to add an increment without taking a corresponding decrement. CHAIR BUNDE said the committee would discuss the decrement after addressing the increment. Number 290 REPRESENTATIVE G. DAVIS said that HB 83 drew money from the constitutional budget reserve. He said any additions to the bill could simply be added to the bill, and the additional money withdrawn from that reserve fund. REPRESENTATIVE OLBERG asked Representative Brice to amend his motion to increase the total appropriation by the same amount as it increased money for the Ketchikan High School, which he said was $2,850,500, as stated in the governor's letter. REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY did not believe the motion was necessary, as the $8,240,000 in the blank CS was a state grant, and if there was a 20% local match, the project would have enough money to be completed. Number 305 MR. BADER said the project had been going on for several years. The DOE believed Ketchikan had already met its obligation for matching funds, he said, which was the reason the appropriation amount was understated. He said the school project was in its final phase, and short-funding it by about $1.3 million would force the addition of another phase to the project, and add expenses. There followed much general discussion among committee members relating to the total amount of money necessary to fund the various phases of the high school building project, how much money had already been appropriated for it, and how much of the Ketchikan school district's obligation for local matching funds had already been provided. Number 355 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE CALLED THE QUESTION. CHAIR BUNDE acknowledged the call for the question of whether the committee should amend the working draft of HB 83 to increase the appropriation to the Ketchikan Gateway Borough for the final construction phase of its high school building project to $9,501,600. He called for a roll call vote on the motion. Those voting YEA were Representatives G. Davis, Olberg, B. Davis, Nicholia, Brice, Toohey, and Bunde. Those voting NO were Representatives Vezey, and Kott. The MOTION PASSED. CHAIR BUNDE said that the committee then faced the question of whether to increase the total appropriation by $1,261,666, or whether there should be a decrement in that amount to the total appropriation amount. REPRESENTATIVE BRICE believed the motion was to increase the total appropriation. CHAIR BUNDE said that the committee had already increased the Ketchikan portion but had not decided if there would be a decrement. He asked if Representative Brice was making a motion to increase the total appropriation by the $1,261,666 making the total appropriation $109,441,663. REPRESENTATIVE BRICE CALLED THE QUESTION. Number 450 REPRESENTATIVE OLBERG asked if the committee was working from HB 83 or from the CS for the bill. He was notified that the committee was working from the CS version. He then asked if the committee was amending the amount in section 1 as well as the amount of the appropriation. CHAIR BUNDE said the committee had amended line 12 to read $9,501,600. Further discussion followed. Number 465 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE announced that he had to leave for another engagement, and asked the chair's intention. CHAIR BUNDE intended to have a vote on the bill soon. REPRESENTATIVE BRICE asked for 15 to 20 minutes. CHAIR BUNDE noted that there was an amendment on the table to increase the total amount of the appropriation to $109,446,663. He called for further discussion. Number 470 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY OPPOSED the AMENDMENT because the committee would get unlimited requests for additional projects, and $150 million in FY 94 school spending had been agreed upon. Without some discipline, he said, the requests for more funding for school construction would be unlimited. REPRESENTATIVE G. DAVIS could not disagree with a little discipline, and stated there had been some dispute about the numbers. He did not want to see the state's share of the Ketchikan High School project reduced, as his district had experienced the shock of the state reducing its share of school funding, and leaving it up to the local school district to make up the difference. He said it was impossible for the committee to deduce the meaning of the governor's letter. He said he would support the legislation as a way to reduce the shock to the people of Ketchikan. CHAIR BUNDE asked for more discussion, and hearing none, called for a roll call vote on the amendment. Those voting YEA were Representatives Kott, Olberg, B. Davis, Nicholia, Toohey, Bunde, and G. Davis. Representative Vezey voted NO. The MOTION PASSED. CHAIR BUNDE announced that the appropriation from the constitutional budget reserve in HB 83 was $109,446,663. He called for discussion. Number 500 REPRESENTATIVE OLBERG asked if the committee was willing to dive into the constitutional budget reserve at that point. CHAIR BUNDE said he was ready to do so. Number 506 REPRESENTATIVE PETE KOTT SUGGESTED a TECHNICAL AMENDMENT to page 5 line 25, concerning $1.2 million for a new Eagle River elementary school road, and said that he would like to see the money used for roads, even though it was probably appropriated to schools. CHAIR BUNDE said he could not speak to the correctness of the list, as it was taken from the governor's list. He examined the original HB 83, and asked Representative Vezey to offer information on the project. Number 518 REPRESENTATIVE VEZEY said the best information the committee had was the information in the bill, and that Representative Kott was the first to question it. MR. BADER SUGGESTED that DELETING the word "roads" from the language in question and INSERTING the words "new elementary" would probably cover the intended purpose, and allow the money to be used for either purpose. CHAIR BUNDE asked Representative Kott if he would make such a motion. REPRESENTATIVE KOTT MOVED AMENDING page 5, line 25 to DELETE the word "roads" from the language in question and INSERT the words "new Eagle River elementary." REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY said, "If we could build a school for $1 million, I'd say let's do it. I don't think we can." REPRESENTATIVE B. DAVIS said the money must be for site preparation, not a whole school. CHAIR BUNDE asked if the committee had the original information the projects were taken from. He said Representative B. Davis was probably correct. Number 555 JOE RYAN, LEGISLATIVE AIDE TO REPRESENTATIVE AL VEZEY, testified in Juneau on HB 83. He said that the Anchorage School District did not appropriate money for roads when it built the school. Since that time, inflation had raised the cost of roads to the price listed in HB 83, he said. REPRESENTATIVE KOTT WITHDREW his AMENDMENT. Number 562 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE MOVED an AMENDMENT to page 3, line 19 of the bill, to ADD $61,631,000 for phase two of a Fairbanks North Star Borough high school. CHAIR BUNDE RULED Representative Brice OUT OF ORDER. Number 572 REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY OBJECTED. CHAIR BUNDE said, "Now, back to reality. Representative Brice, would you like us to vote on that amendment? REPRESENTATIVE BRICE indicated that he did, indeed, want the committee to vote on his amendment, when he had finished reading it. He said his amendment also included changes to page 1, line 5, increasing the total appropriation to $170,811,963. CHAIR BUNDE continued, "Any other discussion? May we vote us back to reality?" REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY reminded the chair that she had objected to the motion. CHAIR BUNDE said that the committee would then vote. REPRESENTATIVE B. DAVIS added, "I thought he was just kidding, but if he's serious I need to know what he wants us to vote on. Because if we're going to play that game then I guess we could all start putting some out." CHAIR BUNDE threatened, "If we're going to play that game, we'll adjourn. If he wants $61 million for a high school in Fairbanks, a noble cause, but..." A roll call vote showed that those voting YEA were Representatives Brice, and Vezey. Those voting NO were Representatives Kott, Olberg, B. Davis, Nicholia, Toohey, Bunde, and G. Davis. The MOTION FAILED. REPRESENTATIVE BRICE noted for the record that he and Representative Vezey had voted together on an issue, setting a record. TAPE 93-51, SIDE A Number 026 REPRESENTATIVE TOOHEY MOVED PASSAGE OF THE BILL WITH INDIVIDUAL RECOMMENDATIONS. CHAIR BUNDE heard OBJECTION to the motion, and called for a roll call vote. After a brief interruption from Representative Kott, the chair ordered the roll call vote to resume. Those voting YEA were Representatives Olberg, B. Davis, Nicholia, Toohey, Bunde, G. Davis, Vezey, and Kott. Representative Brice voted NO. The MOTION PASSED. ADJOURNMENT Seeing no further business before the committee, CHAIR BUNDE adjourned the meeting at 4:40 p.m.