HB 318-LIMITATION ON EMINENT DOMAIN  8:38:14 AM CHAIR RALPH SEEKINS announced CSHB 318(FIN) AM to be up for consideration. The last bill hearing saw extensive amendments and so the drafters submitted a committee substitute (CS) for the committee's consideration. CRAIG JOHNSON, Staff to Representative Lesil McGuire, introduced the CS. The staff and Peter Putzier from the Department of Law have reviewed the CS and feel that it appropriately reflects the intended changes. He advised that there need be one more change and that was on page 4, line 27 where the committee should remove the words "prior owner." SENATOR CHARLIE HUGGINS moved to adopt version C as the working document before the committee. Hearing no objections, the motion carried. SENATOR HUGGINS moved Amendment 1. Page 4 line 27; strike the words "prior owner." Hearing no objections, Amendment 1 was adopted. 8:40:17 AM CHAIR SEEKINS reminded the committee that he had previously closed public testimony but noting continuing public interest he opened public testimony on the bill. 8:40:58 AM Senator Gretchen Guess joined the meeting. DAVE FEEKIN, Alaska Association of Realtors, testified regarding the amendment that dealt with municipalities exercising power to acquire private property for the purpose of transferring title for economic development. He said the committee has essentially allowed for the Kelo case to happen [Kelo versus City of New London]. Eminent domain is a national issue. For example, Florida has unanimously passed a constitutional amendment dealing with eminent domain for economic development on all properties including slums and blighted areas. There are currently 10,000 active cases of private property taking in the nation, which averages out to 200 per state. Alaska has none. The media has drawn attention to the point that the issue is now an election issue, he said. Passing the municipality amendment could restrict economic development money to blighted areas. 8:44:23 AM MR. FEEKIN suggested that 50 years from now people would remember that the Legislature passed this bill. SENATOR GUESS responded the Kelo case was different because the city council delegated authority to a non-profit entity and so it was not an elected body that made the decision. She asked Mr. Feekin whether the realtors have an opinion about the legislative language in the bill. MR. FEEKIN said the discussion among realtors recognized that the New London city council delegated the authority but they also approved the action. The issue has gotten beyond the semantics of how New London did it, he said. The Alaska State Legislature is a more deliberate body and things don't move as fast and so the Association would rather see the authority left at a state level. SENATOR GUESS said she appreciated the legislative process but noted that things can get put into a bill at the last minute and so she disputed his statement that legislative authority is better than local authority. Both local and legislative processes have pros and cons in this situation. 8:47:53 AM MR. FEEKIN countered that eminent domain is not as large an issue in Alaska as it is in other states. Other states are going to extremes to protect private property and the Association believes that since it would take far more deliberative votes to decide the issue the authority should be left at the state level, especially noting that the decision would have to pass both legislative bodies. SENATOR GUESS said she wanted to make it clear that it is not possible to determine whether local control or state control would benefit the community in consideration. It depends on the particular issue at hand and the politics of the day. 8:51:49 AM CHAIR SEEKINS said that the committee perused legislation from other states and noted that they are all different. He surmised that the discussion would continue and the bill would change before it reached the Senate floor session. SENATOR HUGGINS moved SCS CSHB 318(JUD) out of committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. Hearing no objections, the motion carried.