HB 133-AK ED SAVINGS PROGRAMS/ELIGIBILITY  3:13:54 PM CO-CHAIR ZULKOSKY announced that the first order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 133, "An Act relating to the Alaska savings program for eligible individuals; relating to education savings programs; relating to the Education Trust of Alaska; relating to the Alaska advance college tuition savings fund; relating to the Alaska education savings program for children; and relating to the Governor's Council on Disabilities and Special Education." REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS, as prime sponsor, offered to answer questions on HB 133. 3:14:44 PM STUART SPIELMAN, Senior Vice President for Advocacy, Autism Speaks, testified in support of HB 133. He explained that Autism Speaks is dedicated to promoting solutions across the spectrum and throughout the lifespan for the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families. He highlighted that one of the needs of the community is to provide for the expenses that are incurred as a result of disability. He noted that Autism Speaks has supported the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act and legislation surrounding the ABLE Act, including the proposed legislation [HB 133]. He explained that individuals with autism often incur extra expenses, and the ABLE Act allows for family members to plan and provide for those expenses. He added that the ABLE Act became law in 2014 and the first programs were established in 2017. He relayed that he has data that shows that, at the end of 2020, there were 82,019 accounts with $643 million in assets invested. He compared this to 2017 when there were no accounts. He concluded that Autism Speaks supports HB 133 because it would conform Alaska law to the changes in federal law. 3:17:08 PM MR. SPIELMAN in response to Representative McCarty, noted that the accounts and assets data was sourced from "ISS Market Intelligence." In response to a follow-up question, he clarified that the data relates to ABLE programs nationwide. REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY asked Mr. Spielman whether he has the numbers for Alaska. MR. SPIELMAN responded that he does not. 3:18:26 PM PAMELA LEARY, Treasury Division, Department of Revenue (DOR), responded to Representative McCarty's question, stating that there are currently over 620 ABLE Accounts in Alaska which total $5 million in assets. 3:19:06 PM REPRESENTATIVE KURKA noted that it had been mentioned in a previous hearing that a benefit of the proposed legislation is that it would support individuals who require federal assistance in becoming independent. He asked Representative Fields to describe how the process would work and how it would facilitate independence. REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS responded with the example of his dad who was a social worker, and some of his dad's clients would need a lot of help, and some did not. He shared that some of his dad's clients had jobs but didn't necessarily make enough money to live independently. He explained that an ABLE account would allow an individual able to live independently right now to save up and invest in avenues such as education so that this individual could become more independent in the future. It would also ensure that, while working and saving up for education, an individual wouldn't lose the critical support necessary to get by. He agreed that a cap on provided public assistance is necessary but opined that the caps are currently so low that individuals can be disincentivized to save for things like education. REPRESENTATIVE KURKA offered his understanding that these programs seem to be an "on or off switch," not a graduated "weaning off." He said that it seemed to him like a disincentive to being independent and to working within one's capacity. He applauded the concept of allowing individuals to find personal freedom and provide for themselves. 3:22:29 PM REPRESENTATIVE SPOHNHOLZ commented that many benefits being discussed are related to financial subsidies, but many others are related to home and community-based waivers services that are designed to pay for people who do the kind of work like Representative Fields' dad did, or like she herself did early on in her career. She shared that part of her work involved going into the homes of people with disabilities who lived independently in the community, most of whom had jobs, but due to cognitive disabilities, these individuals were not able to earn enough money to live financially independently and needed people to help them do things like balance their checkbooks and go grocery shopping. She shared that if these individuals' income got too high, these services would no longer be available to them, and these individuals would have to go live in an assisted living facility or something similar. A facility like this, she noted, costs the state much more money and allows for less autonomy and dignity for the individuals. 3:24:31 PM REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY referred to page 2, section 6, lines 30- 31 of HB 133, which read: (1) "department" means the Department of Health and  Social 31 Services [REVENUE]; REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY asked Representative Fields the reason for removing revenue if the bill deals with the management of money. REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS responded that he understands Representative McCarty to be referring to a draft of the bill that was originally considered in a House Labor and Commerce Standing Committee, but that committee passed a committee substitute [CSHB 133 (L&C)] to change it back to the responsibility of the Department of Revenue (DOR). He explained that individuals had different perspectives on the most logical department to house the proposed legislation, and the committee decided to leave it in DOR. REPRESENTATIVE MCCARTY asked which draft is being considered. REPRESENTATIVE ZULKOSKY offered clarification that the version before members should be [CSHB 133 (L&C)]. REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS added that that was the one substantive change that was made to the previous version of the bill introduced during the Thirty-First Alaska State Legislature. 3:26:35 PM CO-CHAIR SNYDER moved to report CSHB 133 (L&C) out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSHB 133(L&C) was reported from the House Health and Social Services Standing Committee.