SB 94-PFD ALLOWABLE ABSENCE: ANTARCTIC PROGRAM  CHAIR MENARD announced the consideration of SB 94. She noted there is a draft committee substitute (CS). 9:13:44 AM KRISTEN BRESSETTE, Staff, to Senate District B, Alaska State Legislature, said SB 94 would create a Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) allowable absence for Alaskans who are employed in Antarctica with the United States Antarctic Program. This small group of Alaskans works seasonally and returns to their primary residences in Alaska. The income they earn in Antarctica is predominantly spent here. These Alaskans have residences in Anchorage, Denali Park, Eagle River, Hope, Juneau, McKinley Village, Moose Pass, Soldotna, Sutton, and Talkeetna. The bill includes a provision that workers must return to Alaska within 30 days of leaving Antarctica. The Antarctic program is funded by the National Science Foundation. All but one of these Alaskans works for Raytheon Polar Services Corporation. One works for the National Science Foundation. NANA regional corporation and Alaska-based RSA Engineering are subcontractors. Work contracts average six months. Nine Alaskans are working in Antarctica this winter. PFD applicants must demonstrate the intent to return to Alaska. All of these workers do so. 9:15:48 AM SENATOR FRENCH asked how many people fit into this category. MS. BRESSETTE said she estimates there are 20 to 25 individuals. LEE PARKER, South Pole, Antarctica, said she has been a resident of Alaska for 33 years. Her vehicle is licensed in Alaska and in her Alaskan garage. She has voted in almost all Alaskan elections since 1976. Antarctica is often called "the ice." All but 140 pounds of her worldly goods and her pets are in Alaska. Jury duty can be demanded of her. She can pay resident tuition at Alaskan schools. "I'm an Alaskan." She is stationed at the South Pole and will work nine cold, dark months. She will return to Juneau, which isn't as cold and dark. She has worked in the Antarctic program since 2000 and always returned home soon after each contract ended. There is no such thing as a permanent job in Antarctica. No one can stay longer than 14 months. She gets homesick for her pets and friends. Most of her ice-earned income is spent in Alaska. One percent of her income stays in Antarctica because all her costs are covered. There is little opportunity to spend money there. She wants the PFD, which will be spent in Alaska. 9:21:45 AM WILLIAM HENDRICKSON, McMurdo Station, Antarctica, said he recently purchased a home in Eagle River, but he needed his sister to be his power to attorney. He has lived in Alaska since 1961 excluding four years. He has spent over five years in Antarctica, "but essentially I always come back to the state of Alaska." He spends his money in Alaska. He sold a home two years ago. He was working for RSA Engineering, an Anchorage firm, and was tasked to go to Antarctica to do inspections. Then he went back as the winter manager for Raytheon. He represented Alaska in that fairly significant position at South Pole Station. He came back as a station manager for the National Science Foundation in McMurdo. This is his fourth season in that job, which lasts about six and a half months. He is a registered voter in Alaska, but he has missed a few elections. The money is not that important because he makes a fairly significant amount of money. Not getting the PFD money makes a person in Antarctica feel like less of an Alaska citizen. 9:26:17 AM SENATOR FRENCH moved to adopt the proposed committee substitute (CS) to SB 94, labeled 26-LS0371\E, as the working document. There being no objection, Version E was before the committee. SENATOR FRENCH moved to report the CS of SB 94 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There being no objection, CSSB 94 (STA) moved out of committee.