HB 304 - MOVE LEGISLATURE TO ANCHORAGE Number 2031 CHAIR JAMES announced the next order of business was HB 304, "An Act relating to the location of the convening of the legislature in regular session; repealing provisions relating to student guests of the legislature; and providing for an effective date," sponsored by Representative Green. CHAIR JAMES noted HB 304 had received extensive discussion, however, it did have the votes to pass at its last hearing. The sponsors indicated they now have the votes. Number 2040 REPRESENTATIVE JOE GREEN, Alaska State Legislature, testified before the committee. He mentioned some members were absent at the previous hearing. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said HB 304 recommends that the state does something that no other state has ever done and that is separate the executive branch from the legislative branch. That is dramatic and is the kind of policy that is destructive. He referred to the argument that the Capitol Building is not safe and that the state needs to reinvest. He stressed he objects to reinvesting in buildings and new quarters for the legislative branch before they reinvest in a school building (which he visited) which is sliding down a hill. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said, "If we are going to invest in a new building, and we are going to invest in new quarters, we should invest first in Alaskans and invest last in legislators who are supposed to be looking at the needs of all Alaska." He believes they might spend an awful lot of energy on it and at the end of session and they are going to say, "Why did we do this, and why didn't we invest our energy working on something constructive rather than trying to redivide the pie for somebody else." Number 2134 CHAIR JAMES stated people in her district did not vote to move the capital due to the cost. Although she will vote to move HB 304 out of committee, she will be a no vote on the bill unless someone proves to her there is a savings. CHAIR JAMES agreed with Representative Elton. She said, "My big challenge is to fix our fixed assets, and taking any money for doing other things that I don't think needs to be done now, or in the immediate future, I think is not necessary. I will agree, and I believe that probably without this piece of legislation that the legislature may have the authority to rove, in which case, you know I have some support for that in my district because it will allow some districts to have access to the legislature that don't now. And you know the problem with that is where do you do it, and do you have the facilities, and we don't. So that would be up to the private sector to come up and provide a place for us to do that. So I think, even though contrary to Representative Elton's statement that no other state has a legislative group separate from their administrative group, Alaska is like no other state, and we do have a huge state with disproportionate amount of people in some parts of the area that are not served, and so there is a good arguement to that. I just wanted to put on the record what my position is on this issue. It is the money issue with me and so I don't think the public is going to like us spending money that's unecessary at this time." Number 2206 REPRESENTATIVE FRED DYSON said, like Representative Elton, he suspected HB 304 is going nowhere. He asked Representative Green if it is not in the best interest for the people of the state to have the executive and legislative branches geographically in separate locations. Does the executive branch have the authority to move any and all portions of its operations? REPRESENTATIVE GREEN said many functions of the Administration have already moved to Anchorage. There are more employees in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality [Department of Environmental Conservation] in Anchorage than there are in Juneau. Number 2289 REPRESENTATIVE DYSON asked again, does the executive branch have the authority to relocate any and all executive branch offices. REPRESENTATIVE GREEN replied, "With the possible exception of his office, he does." He noted one of the commissioners publicly announced that she will locate her office in Anchorage. REPRESENTATIVE HODGINS stated his district has difficulty in getting to local government. He would like to see a roving session and suggested holding session one year in the Fairbanks area, one year in Southcentral and one year in Southeast. He indicated the Kenai Borough Assembly visited different locations which gave the people a lot of access which they would not otherwise have. REPRESENTATIVE HODGINS said the square footage in the building that the state purchased last year in Anchorage is probably more than the rest of the state combined, or fairly close to it. In common sense thinking, the capital is already in Anchorage because that is where the bulk of state services is. He indicated he had no problem with moving the session there. There will be an impact on the rest of the state. Number 2427 REPRESENTATIVE IVAN said his constituents favor less expensive access to express their needs. TAPE 98-8, SIDE B Number 0001 REPRESENTATIVE IVAN indicated he would support HB 304. At the same time Alaska continually has other needs. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said we cannot continue to define 'access' the same way we did 30 years ago. Access now means that we can pull up every bill, committee minutes, whatever we want through the Internet. We can sit down in front of a video teleconference unit and we can testify face to face. The Legislative Information Offices also provides access. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON stated the other thing that tends to bother him about this debate is it has been discussed before and is debilitating to some regions of the state. When do we learn to set aside some issues and concentrate on issues that are perhaps more important? Number 0132 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said maybe we should put it in the context of moving the capital to the wealth producing part of the state, closer to areas that are actually funding state government. He indicated they would be on the North Slope, Dillingham, Kodiak or Dutch Harbor. Maybe bump it out of the context of where the people are and move it to the people who are paying the bills for state government. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said access is no longer defined by somebody coming into their office and shaking their hand. Access is also defined by Public Opinion Messages, E-Mail, 1-800 telephone numbers, video or audio teleconferencing. REPRESENTATIVE GREEN said Representative Elton mentioned several means of communication that we did not have years ago, the historical convening of the governor and the legislature was because they did not have communication. He indicated the public would have to purchase a computer or go to a Legislative Information Office to send messages which is still not face to face. That is one reason that there is no more a necessity to have the legislature convening where the governor lives. Number 0267 REPRESENTATIVE HODGINS pointed out the City and Borough of Juneau have been extremely helpful in providing "Gavel to Gavel" in trying to establish communications. He concluded you still have the majority of the population in one area, and that is where government should be. CHAIR JAMES indicated having the capital in Juneau restricts a lot of people from running for office. She jokingly asked have you ever wondered what it would be like if we put a call on the House in Anchorage. Number 0338 REPRESENTATIVE HODGINS made a motion to move HB 304 from the committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER objected. CHAIR JAMES requested a roll call vote. Representatives Berkowitz, Dyson, Hodgins, Ivan and Chair James voted in favor of moving the bill. Representatives Elton and Vezey voted against it. HB 304 moved from the House State Affairs Standing Committee by a vote of 5-2.