HB 140-REGULATIONS: NOTICE, REVIEW, COMMENT  2:40:23 PM CHAIR COGHILL announced the consideration of HB 140. "An Act relating to the proposed adoption, amendment, or repeal of a regulation; and relating to contact with agencies about regulations." This was the second hearing and he noted the new committee substitute (CS). 2:41:24 PM SENATOR DYSON moved to adopt the work draft committee substitute to HB 140, labeled 28-LS0478\K, as the working document. CHAIR COGHILL objected. He explained that the CS removes the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA), the Board of Fisheries, the Board of Game, the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC), and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC) from the requirements in the bill. 2:42:11 PM REPRESENTATIVE LORA REINBOLD, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, sponsor of HB 140 expressed concern that Version K unnecessarily excludes a number of agencies and may decrease transparency. She stated her four guiding principle when she wrote the legislation: 1. The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and a minimum of government regulations. 2. The government should be separated into three branches. She said that she wanted to ensure that the Department of Law does not have any undue influence over the legislative branch. 3. A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power by the different branches of government. 4. Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government and all others being retained by the people. She said the whole purpose of the legislation was to empower the people and she wanted to maintain that as much as possible. CHAIR COGHILL opened public testimony. 2:46:15 PM MARK ECK, representing himself, Fairbanks, Alaska, stated that passing HB 140 would impose unconstitutional and overreaching regulations on the people and businesses that support the Alaskan and U.S. economies. He mentioned overregulation by agencies that have little to no check on the way they operate, regulations that have the unintended consequence of hurting more people than they help, and the financial impact of regulations on businesses that support Alaskan families and bring revenue to the state. He stated support for having the governor review regulations and posting notifications to the public about regulations that would help the people comply with such regulations. 2:47:50 PM JAMES ARTHUR SQUYRES, representing himself, Delta Junction, Alaska, testified in support of HB 140. He said that the fact that there is an Administrative Regulation Review Committee and that Governor Parnell wrote Administrative Order 266 support the notion that many state regulations overreach the statutes. He stressed the importance of checks and balances to ensure that new regulations are well written and fully vetted to avoid the unnecessary burden of changing or removing them after the fact. This can be very difficult because departments say they need every one of their regulations, citing broad statutory powers that allow their bureaucracies to grow seemingly unchecked. He pointed out that Alaska has a looming financial crisis on the horizon which makes it more important than ever to run the leanest most efficient state government possible. He applauded HB 140 as a new tool to hold regulation writing state agencies accountable, to encourage dialog between all parties, and to protect the people of Alaska from overreaching regulations. 2:51:07 PM PAMELA GOODE, representing herself, Delta Junction, Alaska, testified in support of HB 140. She said she used to think that state government had control over the state bureaucrats and the regulations that they write but she now realizes that isn't necessarily true. She discussed the problems that the groundwater protection and water well stakeholder work group is having because wellhead protection is funded 100 percent by the EPA and is a required element for Alaska to maintain primacy for Clean Water Act regulations. The group came to realize that the conflict over data and well drillers logs were an overreach of statute and constitutionality. She urged the legislature to regain its proper lawful authority. CHAIR COGHILL asked Mr. Pound to comment on the Senate committee substitute, Version K. 2:55:01 PM JIM POUND, Staff, Representative Wes Keller, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, said he worked on HB 140 with Representative Reinbold over the Interim and he had concerns with Version K. He agreed with the sponsor that the RCA should not be exempt because their decisions directly affect the public. If they approve a pipeline tariff, gas prices go up and if they approve a rate increase for a utility, light bills or telephone bills go up. He declined to address the APOC exemption without doing some homework. CHAIR COGHILL said he wanted to highlight APOC because he was concerned that it was taking over the ethics statute, but he didn't necessarily mean to provide an exemption. SENATOR MCGUIRE asked Mr. Pound his thoughts on the Board of Fisheries and AOGCC. MR. POUND said the sponsor had no objection to those exemptions because their processes are more public than other boards and commissions. 2:59:16 PM} CRYSTAL KOENEMAN, Staff, Representative Lora Reinbold, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, added that there are certain justifications for potentially exempting the Board of Fisheries the Board of Game, and AOGCC in the bill. She cited the cost analysis of fish runs and the open public processes as reasons. REPRESENTATIVE REINBOLD highlighted that those entities need to be excluded from certain but not all provisions. 3:01:37 PM CHAIR COGHILL stated that he was maintaining his objection to Version K and would hold HB 140 for further consideration.