CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 105(TRA) "An Act extending, for purposes of a program of debt reimbursement to municipalities, the date by which debt must be incurred for a small boat harbor; and providing for an effective date." This was the first hearing for this bill in the Senate Finance Committee. Co-Chair Stedman communicated that the intent would be to move this bill from Committee today unless new information or unanticipated circumstances were presented. Co-Chair Hoffman, the bill's sponsor, deferred to staffer John Weise to present the bill. JOHN WEISE, Staff to Co-Chair Hoffman, stated that this bill is a continuum to HB 528, which was passed by the Legislature in 2002. Due to a number of delays, including a lengthy environmental impact statement (EIS) process, the small boat harbor project in the City of Unalaska which was specified in that bill could not be completed by the 2007 deadline. Mr. Weise displayed a schematic [copy not provided] of the overall project and communicated that the outer harbor work, which is a federal project, must be completed before the City of Unalaska could conduct the inner harbor work addressed in HB 528. Mr. Weise advised that the funding mechanism for the outer harbor work that would be conducted by the federal Corps of Engineers had changed, and the work could not begin until full federal funding was allocated. This funding was anticipated to be included in the FFY 2008 appropriation bill with construction to begin in 2009. Mr. Weise stated that the total cost of the inner harbor project work that would be conducted by the City of Unalaska is estimated to be approximately $12 million dollars. Five million dollars of that was reimbursable by the State. 9:50:16 AM In response to a question from Co-Chair Stedman, Mr. Weise stated that language in the title of the original version of SB 105 mirrored that of HB 528. The intent of this bill was to extend the 2007 deadline for debt incurred for projects specified in HB 528 to 2012. The Unalaska small boat harbor project is the only project included in that bill that has not incurred debt. Mr. Weise specified that since the title of the bill could not specifically denote the Unalaska small boat harbor in its title, the goal of the committee substitute adopted by the Senate Transportation Committee was to "make it as tight as possible so that the funding would only get directed toward a small boat harbor, and, in this case, Unalaska's". Senator Huggins concluded therefore, that even though multiple harbors were identified in HB 528, funding would be limited to the Unalaska small harbor project. Mr. Weise expressed that the other harbors would be covered since they are still in the bill. The distinction is that, with the exception of Unalaska, debt for the other harbor projects has been incurred. Co-Chair Stedman specified that this bill would not incur any fiscal impact to the State, as the fiscal impacts had been addressed in HB 528. This bill would simply extend the timeline of that legislation. Mr. Weise noted that a representative of the City of Unalaska was available to answer questions. 9:53:11 AM Senator Dyson spoke in support of the bill. "Dutch Harbor/Unalaska is the largest fishing port" in North America and perhaps the world, in terms of "fish poundage or value". Fishing in that area is dangerous and it is imperative that boats have access to safe harbors. The Dutch Harbor/Unalaska area is the largest fishing industry location in the State and is a significant supporter of the industry. Co-Chair Hoffman moved to report the bill from Committee with individual recommendations and accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSSB 105(TRA) was REPORTED from Committee with two previous zero fiscal notes: fiscal note #1 from Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development and fiscal note #2 from the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. AT EASE 9:55:05 AM / 9:55:02 AM