SB 48-FORMER RESIDENT HUNTING LICENSE  4:36:10 PM CHAIR GIESSEL announced the consideration of SB 48. 4:36:14 PM RANDY RUARO, staff to Senator Stedman, sponsor of SB 48, Alaska State Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, explained that it encourages former Alaskans to return to Alaska to hunt or fish with family members. The qualifying former Alaskan would be allowed to pay the reduced resident rate for their hunting or fishing license. This former Alaskan must be U.S. citizen, have been an Alaska resident in the past, have held a resident license for that activity, have paid the fee for the resident license, and be sponsored by an Alaskan resident family member whom they will hunt or fish with when they return. The number of these licenses is capped at 1,000. Fish and Game officials from Montana, which has a similar program, said it took a while to build up in popularity, so they are not anticipating reaching the cap in the first year. SENATOR STOLTZE asked if this makes any other substantive changes to non-resident requirements. MR. RUARO answered that a provision in the bill exempts these non-residents from being required to hunt with a registered guide. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if this would allow non-residents to dip net. MR. RUARO replied that it reduces the rate paid for their licenses. The bill does not distinguish by type of fishing activity. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if they would gain other rights that residents have, for instance, access to personal use fisheries. 4:39:17 PM MR. RUARO answered if a right exists for a resident and a person qualifies under this bill for that resident license, they would have the right a resident has now. So, it could expand that universe. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said that he wouldn't support that. He asked if this would apply to king stamps. MR. RUARO answered that he didn't know if there was a difference for non-residents and residents for king stamps, but it would if that individual qualified under the expanded term. CHAIR GIESSEL remarked that there is no fee for personal use and it automatically goes with the resident fishing license, so it would go with that as well for the non-resident. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked on page 2, line 3, how to define "may not hunt or fish unless personally accompanied by non-resident sponsor." MR. RUARO answered that it is not a defined term; the intent is that the family member that is the sponsor would be on the same trip in the vicinity with the family member that has qualified for the reduced fee license. But there is no definition for physical presence proximity. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked what "exempt from AS 16.05.407(a)(1)" on page 2, line 4, means. MR. RUARO answered that it goes to Senator Stoltze's previous question about non-residents being required to have a professional guide. 4:41:52 PM SENATOR MICCICHE said a person could come to Alaska for a temporary project for a year, become a resident, and then move outside and just happen to have a relative by blood or marriage and forever have resident access to the state's hunting and fishing resource at the cost of a resident and asked if the sponsor would consider a minimum time for being in the state. MR. RUARO answered they had looked at various options and agreed that the timeframe for becoming a resident can be fairly short. They would continue to look for a good definition. SENATOR MICCICHE said he agreed with Senator Wielechowski that personal use is for survival of Alaskans and not necessarily to load on a plane and take somewhere else. He would like to see that amended. SENATOR STOLTZE asked the justification for determining the non- resident had to previously hold a license. MR. RUARO replied that they were trying to create some ties to actual participation in a fishery or hunting activity along with being a former resident. SENATOR STOLTZE said that two months might be semi-palatable. He remembered needing to be the age of 16 to get a license and therefore would not be able to qualify if he had left the state before then. MR. RUARO couldn't recall an age requirement for licensure. 4:45:39 PM SENATOR COSTELLO asked if creating two classes of people - the first 1,000 and the second 1,000 - was fair. MR. RUARO replied that it creates a first in the door dynamic, but it is important to cap the licenses in case they turned out to be overly popular in drawing in large numbers of folks who would be coming here anyway. SENATOR COSTELLO assumed that he wouldn't want the state to lose the revenue, which would be about a half million dollars. MR. RUARO answered that it was a revenue issue and at the same time they wanted a program in place for a few years to see how popular it was. 4:47:31 PM SENATOR COSTELLO asked for the difference in license fees. MR. RUARO answered that the previous fiscal note assumed 1,000 people that otherwise would not have come to Alaska and the new fiscal note was revised downward significantly to reflect the fact that the program wasn't expected to max out in the first year. SENATOR COSTELLO asked what the license fees are now and what they would be if this bill passes. MR. RUARO said there are different tag fees and he would have to get that information for her. SENATOR COSTELLO asked what the department uses the proceeds from fishing and hunting licenses for. MR. RUARO answered that he didn't know if the funds can be traced to exact functions in the department. SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said there are often lotteries for hunting and asked if this potentially crowds Alaskan residents out of those lotteries. MR. RUARO answered that they hadn't thought about the lottery hunts in drafting the bill. But as written a non-resident could apply for and receive a resident license if they met these requirements. They hadn't taken it the additional step to sort out whether that would also give them standing to apply for the lottery hunts. 4:50:14 PM CHAIR GIESSEL asked how many vendors sell licenses in Alaska. MR. RUARO answered in the thousands. CHAIR GIESSEL asked if you can get a fishing license on line. MR. RUARO answered yes. CHAIR GIESSEL said conceivably these licenses could be gone in one hour. MR. RUARO responded that this is an exception to getting a license on line. It will require a paper affidavit swearing that one meets the requirements. CHAIR GIESSEL asked how many fishing licenses are issued each year. MR. RUARO answered several hundred thousand. CHAIR GIESSEL said that could mean that 1,000 licenses could be reached rather quickly. MR. RUARO agreed that was a possibility. 4:51:57 PM SENATOR STOLTZE mentioned that one of the more contentious issues for the Board of Game's last cycle was Dall sheep hunts and he couldn't imagine telling one of his constituents why he let somebody's cousin jump ahead of them. Had the sponsor thought about the mess this would create? MR. RUARO replied that was an important issue and they hadn't chased down every potential hunt that a non-resident could be allowed into, so several could be of such importance to industry and Alaskans that the bill might not apply to that particular hunt. The intent behind the bill was more general: sport fish for king salmon and deer hunting. CHAIR GIESSEL opened public testimony and finding no testimony said she would keep it open and held SB 48 in committee.