SB 26: An Act relating to the location of the convening of the legislature in regular session; and providing for an effective date. Senator Randy Phillips, sponsor of SB 26, testified in support of the bill. Margaret Branson, Rosalee Walker, and Marshall Lind, speaking as private citizens, testified in opposition to SB 26. Discussion was had by Senators Kerttula, Kelly and Sharp regarding fiscal notes and the initiative coming before voters about moving the capital to Wasilla. SB 26 was HELD in committee. SENATE BILL NO. 26: An Act relating to the location of the convening of the legislature in regular session; and providing for an effective date. CO-CHAIR PEARCE announced that SB 26 was before the committee. She invited Senator Phillips, sponsor of the bill, to join the members at the table. SENATOR RANDY PHILLIPS said SB 26 would move only the legislature from Juneau to Anchorage. The primary motivation was to give people of Alaska access to the legislature. He felt the people had the right to have access to policy makers. He said in a survey done in his district, four out of five people favored the move. He then spoke to the fiscal notes for each department. He had asked each department to show how much money had been spent on employee travel during the legislative session. He asked the committee to look at the fiscal notes with this in mind. He said over half of the legislators were within a 50 mile radius of Anchorage for some cost savings. He felt the capitol building could be a museum piece and the tourism industry would provide some income for maintenance. Senator Phillips said he had talked to Alaska Pacific University and there were buildings available that could be used on campus to house the legislature. He also thought the business people in Anchorage could help with any needs if the legislature would move. Senator Kerttula disagreed with moving the legislature and not the capital. He felt the interaction was too great for the process to be separated. He asked how that would be addressed. Senator Phillips agreed with Senator Kerttula's comments but he believed the teleconference tool could be used. Senator Kerttula noted there was an initiative to move the capital to one area and a bill to move the legislature to another. He found it disturbing. Senator Phillips thought this bill would be a more responsible answer to voter access to the legislature than moving the whole capital to Wasilla. However, he said he was not opposed to moving the capital to Wasilla. Senator Kelly said that he saw the 1993 survey but wanted to know the results of the 1994 survey. Senator Phillips said that it was 52 percent for and 48 percent against the legislative move but a 65 percent for moving the whole capital. Senator Kelly noticed that his constituents had turned around from 1993 to 1994. Senator Phillips maintained that priority of access was very important. Co-chair Pearce announced that Margaret Branson would testify via teleconference from Seward. MARGARET BRANSON, citizen and resident of Seward, said SB 26 was a back door approach to moving the capital. She disagreed that the legislative branch could function in a vacuum from the executive branch, and it showed a misunderstanding of our form of government. One could not function without the other, nor at a distance of 1,000 miles. She did not know of one government in the world that functioned in such a way. She knew it was not a matter of office space. She did not think Anchorage was more accessible to people than Juneau. In this year of declining revenues and budget crisis, it seemed self-indulgent to exercise such a move. She was opposed to SB 26. In answer to Senator Kelly, Ms. Branson said she was the chairperson for the last capital site planning commission. She said she had not looked at the financial figures for years but assured the committee that it was not a simple matter to move the legislature. She also noted that people elect officials to represent them so they do not have to go to council meetings, borough meetings, etc. She felt this was also true of the legislature. MARSHALL LIND, speaking as a private citizen, testified concerning a new communication system. He said he had been involved in education for over 30 years and just lately had seen video conferencing as an alternative way to communicate that could benefit many people in the state. The quality would not be the same as broadcast but would worked well. He said from personal experience it had saved time and money. The University was using this system in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau. A unit would come on-line in Bethel and the North Slope Borough had this for some time in their school system. He listed many ways this system could be used. He saw it as an opportunity to solve the problem of citizen access and at the same time it could benefit schools and other situations. Senator Phillips said that if the legislature moved to Anchorage, it could be used in the same way. In answer to Senator Sharp's question regarding cost, Mr. Lind said voice per hour per site was approximately $30. With three sites it was about $90 per site. For four sites it became less expensive. A bridge could accommodate 24 different locations. Mr. Lind guessed the cost of hardware and hourly rate would go down. Senator Kelly said he had used the University's video conferencing and it was interesting. He had asked Mike Harmon to look into the cost for setting up such a system for the legislature. He felt it would be more effective even though the teleconference system in place now was very satisfactory. ROSALEE WALKER, citizen and resident of Juneau, testified against SB 26. She said she did not care if the move only cost $1,000, it was $1,000 more than the state could spare right now. She reminded the committee that legislators represented the entire state and there were segments of the state in third world conditions. To move the legislature to pacify a select number of constituents was irresponsible. Also, to move one section of the government would cause more confusion than it would help. Change in location was not what was needed but change in behavior was what she wanted to see. If she was separated from her legislator, she would pick up the phone or write a letter. She asked the committee to refuse this concept. Co-chair Pearce announced that SB 26 would be HELD in committee.