SB 77-SECOND CLASS BOROUGH SERVICE AREAS  3:46:47 PM CHAIR BISHOP announced consideration of SB 77. RACHEL HENKE, staff to Senator Peter Micciche, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, presented SB 77 for the sponsor. She said SB 77 would expand the authority for second class boroughs to exercise the local option of creating a non-taxable service area, specifically, areas where there are no voters within the service areas boundaries. No new taxes will be levied, but rather the borough could use a portion of its federal payment in lieu of taxes allocation to cover the costs. The point of SB 77 is to just give boroughs more authority to protect their main roadways at no extra cost to the state. CHAIR BISHOP opened public testimony on SB 77. 3:49:25 PM MIKE NAVARRE, Mayor, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Soldotna, Alaska, supported SB 77, and said its purpose is to clarify a provision that already exists in law, but is difficult to implement. He elaborated that the borough has stretches of highway that have no emergency coverage and a very low taxable base in order to provide for that service. So, volunteer emergency responders are struggling to provide those services. The highway corridor between Anchorage and Kenai is heavily traveled and they end up responding to a lot of travelers who are traveling to and from the Kenai Peninsula and it's beyond their ability to cover it. Additionally, existing statutory provisions restrict using service area funds from one area in another service area or outside the boundaries of the service area, so they are having a difficult time trying to supplement the volunteer efforts. MAYOR NAVARRE said SB 77 would allow the borough to create a highway corridor service area where there will be no residents and no taxpayers, and because most of the land adjacent to the roadway is federally owned or even in some cases state lands, this authority would allow using in lieu of taxes funds that the Kenai Borough currently gets from the federal government in order to help provide and supplement those services. He showed a map illustrating the number of accidents in the highway corridor. MAYOR NAVARRE explained that the reason the law needs clarification is because even though it says they can do this already, they still have to get approval from all the owners of the property, and that is next to impossible to do. And because it's a highway corridor that has underlying land owners that makes it even more difficult than it ought to be to provide reasonable emergency service coverage. MAYOR NAVARRE said SB 77 has a zero fiscal note; the Alaska State Troopers support it, and none of the other second class boroughs have concerns or object to the language. It enhances public safety and allows the borough to close the legal gap in a significant public safety concern using funds it currently gets from the federal government while recognizing that those funds are already fully utilized within their budget, and it likely means that either some other area will have to be reduced or all the residents of the Kenai Peninsula Borough will be paying to help support this service. 3:53:59 PM SENATOR STEDMAN noted that Prince of Wales Island is not on the list of affected areas even though it is the only island that has multiple inter-connected communities on it. MAYOR NAVARRE said this measure only applies to second class boroughs. 3:55:08 PM CHAIR BISHOP said he liked the bill, but asked if the Mayor said his borough would provide "mutual aid" along the safety corridor helping these other smaller communities. MAYOR NAVARRE replied yes; the reality is that the mutual aid authority is kind of stretching already existing state law for fire and emergency services, because there is nothing mutual about it. "Mutual aid" also requires that somebody actually responds and calls for the mutual aid. In some cases that doesn't happen, because the community of Cooper Landing is a senior community and has a very high number of senior tax exemptions, but also some of the volunteers have been doing it for 20 or more years and can no longer drive at night or lift as much weight. All they are trying to do is make sure legal authority is established to provide the service and recognize that more than half of the responses are to people who don't live in the Cooper Landing area boundaries. 3:57:26 PM LARRY PERSILY, Chief of Staff to Mayor Navarre, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Soldotna, Alaska, said he was available to answer questions on SB 77. DAVID GIBBS, Director, Emergency Services, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Fairbanks, Alaska, supported SB 77. He said the Fairbanks North Star Borough is a second class borough and they fully recognize that this measure may provide a benefit for them as they work on their road corridor safety issues, in addition to the obvious benefit it provides to the Kenai Borough. 3:59:04 PM KATHERINE WASSERMAN, Executive Director, Alaska Municipal League (AML), Juneau, Alaska, supported SB 77. She said AML really likes this kind of legislation, because it identifies an issue that needs to be fixed and then provides a tool to actually fix it. This concept could be expanded to communities on Prince of Wales Island if the legislature wanted to do that. SENATOR STEDMAN noted that language on page 1, line 5, says "a second class borough may establish," and that answered his earlier question. SENATOR MICCICHE remarked that this is a life or death situation. CHAIR BISHOP said he understands what Senator Micciche wants to accomplish and that he likes the bill. He closed public testimony and said he would hold SB 77 for a later hearing.