CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 259(HES) "An Act extending the termination date of the Alaska Commission on Aging; and providing for an effective date." Alison Elgee, Department of Administration was invited to join the committee. She indicated service on the Alaska Commission on Aging. This commission has been in existence since about 1981. It was formerly known as the Older Alaskans Commission. Legislative Audit conducted a sunset review this year and for the second time recommended this commission be removed from the sunset review provisions or if that was unacceptable the sunset date be set at the year 2003. The Governor introduced the legislation to remove the commission from the sunset review. When Senate H&SS took it up they were uncomfortable with the complete removal and adopted the committee substitute now before this committee. She said she did not believe they understood the audit was actually recommending a date further out. She said they would prefer to have the commission removed as Legislative Audit had recommended because of the work required in conducting a sunset review. There were two auditors for most of two months. There is a better utilization of those resources. Co-chairman Halford indicated that he supported the existence of the commission. Auditors should be able to decide to what extent they go into audits on things they do not find anything initially and do not get requests to spend a lot of time on. Senator Frank felt this may not lie with their professional practices. They are certified public accounts and they have rules and regulations they have to go by even if they feel it is not necessary under the circumstances. Perhaps the law should be modified. Co- chairman Halford said they could be exempted from the audit requirement without exempting them from the sunset law. Senator Frank concurred. Senator Sharp asked about the fiscal notes since the costs are already in the budget. Co-chairman Frank asked Ms. Elgee about the positive fiscal note since it is already in the budget. She said the feeling of Tam Cook was that the fiscal note should represent the amount of money to be taken out of the budget should it actually be chosen to sunset the commission. It is footnoted to show that those monies are contained in the Governor's budget. Co-chairman Halford asked if this was really a zero fiscal note and she said that as long as the commission was continued it would be zero. If the commission is eliminated the money would be deleted represented in the fiscal note. Co-chairman Halford said he wanted a new fiscal note reflecting the way the law read and she said a new zero one would be submitted. Senator Frank said maybe the sunset date should be extended and rather than get into what types of audits should be used good judgment should be used about which things need closer and more periodic review and which things need to be reviewed less often. Senator Phillips said the auditor's recommendation was the year 2003. Senator Frank moved technical amendment to change the year "2000" to "2003" and the objection of Senator Rieger was duly noted. He said no commission should have more than a four year sunset. It is a useful, subtle control on what goes on in various commissions even if the sunset process is not exercised. It is not wise to have sunsets that are longer than four years. Senator Rieger said there is not enough energy, time and money for the auditors to look at certain things and so it is a tradeoff. Senator Rieger said extensive audits do not have to be required and the budget and audit committee should decide which sunset programs require an audit and which ones do not. It could be a routine question brought to members of the commission as to which sunset audits should be done and the rest would just be a bill passing without the backup of an audit. Co- chairman Halford concurred. Budget and Audit should make a conscious decision rather than a blanket decision that says anything coming up for sunset gets a full audit. Senator Phillips said if the auditors were present the matter could be fixed internally. Senator Zharoff said this was not a runaway commission and the reports indicate a good track record. It seems that an audit can be requested at any time if any discrepancies or problems are heard of. He asked if a sunset is not automatically up for review. He concurs with the proposal of Senator Frank. The committee voted on Senator Frank's motion to change "2000" to "2003" and by a vote of 4 - 3 the motion was adopted. Senator Sharp moved CSSB 259(FIN) and without objection it was reported out with zero fiscal note from Department of Administration and individual recommendations.