SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE LOG NOTES 01/28/00 GENERAL SUBJECT(S): Overview: Review of Department's Accomplishments For FY'99 and FY'00 Department of Fish and Game Department of Transportation and Public Facilities The following overview was taken in log note format. Tapes and handouts will be on file with the Senate Finance Committee through the 21st Legislative Session, contact 465-4935. After the 21st Legislative session they will be available through the Legislative Library at 465-3808. Time Meeting Convened: 9:03 AM Tape(s): SFC-00 # 15 Side A and Side B PRESENT: Senator P. Kelly Senator Torgerson Senator Green Senator Donley Senator Phillips Senator Leman NOT PRESENT: Senator Parnell Senator Wilken Senator Adams ALSO PRESENT: FRANK RUE, COMMISSIONNER, DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME; KEVIN BROOKS, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME; KEN TAYLOR, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF HABITAT AND RESTORATION, DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME; DOUG MECUM, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIES; JOE PERKINS, COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC FACILITIES LOG SPEAKER DISCUSSION 000 CO-CHAIR TORGERSON (Chairing the meeting in Co-Chair Parnell's absence) Introduction 11 FRANK RUE, COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME I will give quick overview and answer the ten questions that you posed. Ken Taylor of the Division of Habitat and Restoration and Doug Mecum of the Division of Commercial Fisheries will address the specific measures you gave to their divisions. 29 SENATOR PHILLIPS Do you have a measurement for revenues taken in by the department and how they are spent? 31 MR. RUE We do and will get you the annual report showing that information. 36 SENATOR PHILLIPS Thank you. 37 MR. RUE Ten questions. 1. What is your mission? We've lived under this mission for a number of years. Project maintain, improve the fish, game and aquatic plant resources of the state and manage their use and development in the best interest of the economy and well-being of the people of the state consistent the sustained yield principle. A few years ago, we did a survey of all department employees and found that everyone agreed this is a good mission. They can do their jobs and understand why they are doing them. 61 3. Who are our customers? People of Alaska and people outside of Alaska who wish to use and enjoy the fish and wildlife resources for a wide variety of uses. The uses include commercial fishing, sport fishing, subsistence fishing and hunting, sport hunting, guiding, viewing and tourism. Along with direct users, there are many others who benefit from uses. 82 2. What are programs and how do they contribute to the mission? The department's programs reflect the functions we must perform to be successful in sustaining yield and maintain opportunity for the future. Those functions fall into the following areas: ? protect habitat ? Good science and information. ? Sound management principals and sound infield management to manage harvest of resources. Key to our success is having managers close to the resource and the users of the resource. ? Access by the public through the boards and divisions. 136 4. What are our performance measures and how did we do last year? a. Did we provide opportunity? We came up with several measures to check this: Did we follow the Board of Fisheries or the Board of Game management plans? Did we meet our own internal guideline harvest levels? b. Did we meet our production goals? Escapement goals? Population goals? Is the resource sustained over time? c. Did we protect the habitat? 168 5. Did we provide the public an opportunity to participate and influence the regulatory process and the management program implemented in the field? 175 These key areas will define a successful management program. 178 6. What do we intend to do differently this year? The main difference is that we will have to deal with the federal fisheries program. We will start to see proposals under the federal subsistence program. We are seeing a tremendous staff drain regarding data requests, and having a second, federal, board. We also have proposals for new and developing fisheries. 195 SENATOR PHILLIPS Assume you are talking about the failure of the legislature to adopt a constitutional amendment regarding subsistence, resulting in a burden to the Department of Fish and Game. MR. RUE That is correct. SENATOR PHILLIPS Do we have to cooperate with the federal government and hand information over to them? 200 MR. RUE The information is public and we must provide it to anyone who asks. 207 SENATOR PHILLIPS Are we legally required to cooperate? 208 MR. RUE We have to hand over any public information. We don't hand over data that we have not first analyzed. We don't want to give them raw data. SENATOR PHILLIPS Are you treating the federal government any differently than the public? MR. RUE No. However, we cooperate all the time with the federal government on research as land managers. Do we need to participate in their regulatory process or just ignore it? It is to our benefit to participate and try to influence their process rather than have them make arbitrary decisions that only consider subsistence uses. 232 CO-CHAIR TORGERSON 233 SENATOR DONLEY My questions relate to development of additional performance measures. 234 MR. RUE I'll finish answering the restated questions then address Senator Donley's specific questions. CO-CHAIR TORGERSON Concur. 238 MR. RUE 7. What are your strategies and priorities for this next year? Are strategies are similar to those we have found successful in the past. We will focus on good management, research, productivity and providing opportunity. We do have some new priorities to get better data on existing fisheries and also new fisheries. 252 8. Which measures are you going to use to validate and monitor our investment? We will be using the measures written with this Committee and the House Finance Committee. We also have missions and measures developed in the Administration that are consistent with the legislatures. 262 9. Is there duplication between agencies? I don't believe so. We complement and work with other departments, such as the Department of Environmental Conservation. 272 10. Are other options viable to accomplish these results? I think we've done a good job using the current system of managing fish and wildlife. We are always looking for opportunities to work with the private sector for research. 282 MR. RUE Conclusion 287 CO-CHAIR TORGERSON 292 SENATOR DONLEY A recent legislative audit was critical of the department's method used for measuring productivity of commercial fishing versus sport fishing. What have you done to address that issue? MR. RUE SENATOR DONLEY The department has adopted a method of "angler days" to measure sport fishing productivity that is not used anywhere else. The audit was critical of that method saying that a lot of revenues dedicated to sport fish programs are being used for commercial fishing means. However, because the measures are so different, you can't do an analysis of the situation. Why do you continue to defend the concept of "angler days"? Why not go to apples and apples and compare fish caught? 303 MR. RUE It is hard to come up with a useful measure to allow successful comparison. We could use dollars or economic benefit of different uses of wildlife in situations where there is a conflict between uses. 317 SENATOR DONLEY It is a question of what is a fair allocation of the resource, which is a constitutional responsibility, as well as management questions. I think going to an economic measurement is not appropriate. You need to compare fish to fish to get a good measure of the sustained yield provision. I think the "angler day" theory is deceptive. To say that an "angler day" where no fish were caught is the same as one where fish were caught is a fraud. I don't think you've taken the spirit of the legislative audit to heart. 330 MR. RUE We have looked at ways to measure opportunity for sport fishing. Whether there is an opportunity to catch fish may be a better way to measure. I am willing to work with you on that. 340 KEVIN BROOKS, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME "Angler day" is a widely used measure in many states and is used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine the amount of aide provided to the state. This is not to say that sport fish does not report on harvest information. We've worked with the subcommittee staff to develop measures for next year to address this matter. 352 SENATOR DONLEY If the "angler day" method had a factor to report how many angler days were successful, the method would be more appropriate. 357 MR. RUE "If you took the same concept and applied it to commercial fishing, for instance, I don't expect to supply a number of fish to commercial fisherman. I expect to supply an opportunity to fish on the harvestable surplus." I would be concerned if success were measured by how many fish were caught. SENATOR DONLEY But that is exactly what you do with commercial fisherman. If they haven't caught enough you open up more fishing days. MR. RUE But we are not fishing to a quota for that individual fisherman. CO-CHAIR TORGERSON The audit suggested using different measurements than apples to oranges. The audit suggests using numbers and weight of fish. The recommendation is that you develop "a better benefit measure approach with greater commonality in order to better identify and segregate the user groups." That doesn't sound difficult. 384 SENATOR DONLEY What is the mission of the sport fish component of the department relating to the defense of sport fishermen? There is a current proposal to limit the catch to one halibut per day. What actions is the department taking? 389 MR. RUE We are not supporting a proposal to limit the charter fleet to only one halibut per day. That is just one option considered by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) and is not an actual proposal. It is a potential management tool that could be used if halibut numbers become low. We are working with the council to establish allocations that are fair for all users. 405 SENATOR DONLEY What is department doing? Who has the department designated as the lead person and why was he chosen? 408 MR. RUE David Benton is the department's representative on NPFMC. However, the department doesn't only work with one person. SENATOR DONLEY What is Mr. Benton's job title? MR. RUE Deputy Commissioner SENATOR DONLEY What is the job description? MR. RUE It includes international and national fisheries issues, and he is the Commissioner of the Pacific Salmon Commission. He represented the state at the table during the treaty talks. SENATOR DONLEY Is he actively expressing the position opposing the one halibut per day limit to the commission? 421 MR. RUE Yes. None of the options before the council include that limit. It is only included as one of the tools. Other tools are prohibiting shippers or crew to catching fish or allowing guides to keep fish. The Board of Fisheries will give us those options if the population numbers drop. 432 SENATOR DONLEY That sounds reasonable, but there is no proposal to limit commercial catch if the numbers went down. Why is the only proposal on the table to limit the amount individual Alaskans can catch? 435 MR. RUE Incorrect. The proposal on the table is that Individual Fish Quota holders will only get a certain percentage of the biomass. They are limited by abundance. The council is dividing allocation. The commercial catch will go up and down depending on the resource. 442 SENATOR DONLEY One of you missions is to protect the public. We've discussed the appropriateness of having internal policy setting maximum yield versus putting it into regulation. What progress have you made at giving more public notice so the public understands what the department's position is and develop maximum yield through the regulatory process? 451 MR. RUE The department has been working with the Board of Fisheries on a sustainable salmon fisheries policy. This will include definitions of the terms to give the public a better understanding. It will be put out for public review and then board will decide whether to adopt definitions into regulation. 460 SENATOR DONLEY Is the final result of this policy going to be a proposal to adopt the definitions into regulation? 463 MR. RUE It will define that but I understand it is in one of the definitions. SENATOR DONLEY My concern is that the definitions would be in internal policy rather than regulation. MR. RUE The intent is for the definitions to be in regulation at some point. First we have to decide whether it should be a board regulation or a department regulation. 468 SENATOR DONLEY How much is currently in the fish and game fund? MR. BROOKS I can't give today's balance. We have a balance sheet that I can provide. . We generate approximately $21 million a year through license revenue and we allocate the funds to the Division of Wildlife Conservation and the Division of Sport Fish depending on the source. As of this year we are also depositing revenue from the sale of crewmember licenses and tracking those funds as a separate account. 476 SENATOR DONLEY Can you estimate within a couple million dollars? MR. BROOKS No. SENATOR DONLEY How about if it is narrowed down to Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson funds? MR. BROOKS Those are federal funds that are not in the fish and game fund. SENATOR DONLEY Separate fund? MR. BROOKS Correct. We get an annual allocation from the federal government SENATOR DONLEY Do you have an account balance? MR. BROOKS We don't hold the balance, the federal government does. We have a couple of years to spend down our allocation and there is some fluctuation. SENATOR DONLEY What is the non-obligated balance in that fund, plus a summary of what you intend to do this year? Last year the legislature gave money for an indoor shooting range in Anchorage. How did you utilize that? 493 MR. BROOKS Wayne Reglin, Director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation is the best person to respond to that. CO-CHAIR TORGERSON Please supply that information to my office. 502 KEN TAYLOR, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF HABITAT AND RESTORATION There are four performance measures you provided for us to apply to the division. 1) Permit projects involving construction of a dam or other obstruction in a fish- bearing water body where efficient fish passage was maintained, mitigated, or compensated compared to projects permitted. Last we had 324 projects and only one permit was denied. 2) Permit projects where fish and game populations and habitat in specified anadromous water bodies were maintained, protected, or enhanced compared to number of projects permitted. Of 1100 projects last year, 1043 were permitted, nine were denied and 48 did not require a permit. 3) Compare projects where unavoidable losses to fish and game populations were successfully mitigated compared to the number of (A) projects involving unavoidable losses to fish and game and (B) all projects permitted. We had some difficulty getting the statistics for this measurement. Will have information within a week. 519 4) Issue permits where violations of permit terms and conditions are satisfactorily resolved compared to the number of (A) permits whose terms and conditions were violated; and (B) all permits issued. We estimate that less than 30 Notices of Violation were issued last year and less than 10 violations were pursued for prosecution during this period. The normal procedure is to approach the person in violation and work with them to bring the project into compliance. 528 We've suggested to the budget subcommittee some modifications to those measures to more accurately reflect what the division does. We have three primary functions: protect anadromous water bodies and fish passage for resident fish; review large- scale projects of other departments for consistency with habitat protection; and restoration. Therefore, it would be better to measure how well we do that and how timely we are. 536 CO-CHAIR TORGERSON The subcommittee is working on this matter. 538 SENATOR PHILLIPS Who bears the cost of the permits? MR. TAYLOR There is no charge. It is paid for by an allocation of the legislature. SENATOR PHILLIPS So the user of this state resource is paid for from general funds? Are there any proposals for the permitee to pay for this service? MR. TAYLOR There have been some larger-scaled discussions between the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Fish and Game. SENATOR PHILLIPS The Department of Natural Resources budget subcommittee is looking into having the permittees pay for services. I think that philosophy should apply to other departments as well. CO-CHAIR TORGERSON I image many services are paid for out of general funds. I understand what you are trying to do and hope all subcommittees are looking at this as well. 556 MR. TAYLOR The department receives about 3000 applications a year. Most are for smaller projects. In the larger projects such as the Red Dog Mine, the industry tends to pay for the inspection work. SENATOR PHILLIPS Of the 3000 permits, how much is taken from the general fund? MR. TAYLOR $1.6 million CO-CHAIR TORGERSON Conclude the Division of Habitat and Restoration 566 DOUG MECUM, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIES, DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME Handout We have been working with the subcommittee on developing new measures. The attached tables are our best attempt to address last year's measures. Two of the proposed measures are achievement of escapement goal objectives and allocation objectives. I would say our grade is a B+. 576 CO-CHAIR TORGERSON Were there any of the six measures adopted last year that you could not obtain information? 578 MR. MECUM We were able to put information together for all the measures. However, there was some question as to how meaningful those measures were and how manageable they were. For example: Fishery Harvests Compared with 10-Year Average. For salmon, we were 122% of the ten-year average. Does that mean we performed well or that the environmental conditions were favorable? 586 Another example is the percentage of permits actively fished compared to the 10- year average. The purpose of some programs is to actually limit participation. 589 CO-CHAIR TORGERSON The subcommittee has agreed with new performance measures based upon your recommendations. SFC-00 #15 Side B 9:50 AM CO-CHAIR TORGERSON Conclude Department of Fish and Game 584 Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (No Handout) 575 JOE PERKINS, COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC FACILITIES The mission of the department is to improve the quality of life for Alaskans by cost- effectively providing, operating and maintaining safe, environmentally sound and reliable transportation systems and public facilities. I'm representing 3000 employees who work hard. They don't understand the budget difficulties, but only know that they have to work harder with fewer resources. If we don't support them we can't meet goals. 562 Performance measures included in SLA99, starting with the Alaska Marine Highway System. We were told these areas needed monitoring but no specific goals were established in the legislation. We've developed three into performance measures for this year's budget. 1) The percentage of on-time departures for vessels Currently, we are running at 80 percent and our goal is to improve by five percent to 85 percent. 555 2) Also pertains to the marine highway system, revenue received and expenditures made for each rider mile. Revenues for the last three years have been between 58 and 59 cents and expenditures have been between $1.05 and $1.12. Our goal to improve this ratio by three percent up from the current 61 percent. Compare to Washington State's ratio of 6-0. We are currently at 6-1 and want to go to 6-4. 545 3) Total ridership including passengers, vehicles and cabin occupancy compare to a five-year ridership average We currently have more cars and fewer people. 534 4) Onboard sales for each passenger for food, alcohol, etc. Currently onboard sales are about $10.75 per passenger. The goal is to raise this 50 cents. 526 The biggest goal is safety and we won't compromise to reach a performance goal such as on-time departure. 521 We have and are reviewing other departmental operations to set baselines and establish performance goals. We are proceeding carefully because performance measures must be designed to provide the required information to support measurement and management of these goals. Setting up a system and providing that information can be extremely costly and sometimes systems take on their own life information that is provided can end up being only used by those in the system. The system we are developing will be to measure only our most critical functions. We've targeted the maintenance operations as an area we will define and measure. We have completed an inventory of equipment statewide and in the field. This includes the scope of the work required, the status of that work, and the assets we have to do that work. We are now ready to decide what systems we will use and how we will report and monitor the work. 494 Will going out with a Request for Proposals (RFP) to set up this system. Deferred maintenance needs and defined them as never before. Our total deferred maintenance needs total $303 million. The state is incurring deferred maintenance at a rate of $24 million per year. Even if that amount is cut in half, it is still tremendous. This also takes into account $25 million of federal funds for highway surface maintenance each year. The management system that we come up with will help but won't be a major contributor to reducing the deferred maintenance needs. 476 We've done a lot of work with finance committee staff on coming up with performance measures. 471 We now have a list we are in agreement of, that we can use and will show results. 468 Goals: Project design to stay within the approved budget. When we estimate a project will cost $1 million, I want to stay within 10 percent of that amount. We are currently above that. 465 SENATOR DONLEY There is a lot of concern in the private engineering sector that designs done within the department take much longer and cost about four times as much as the same designs done in the private sector. How are you working to reduce the design costs within the department? 458 MR. PERKINS I'm talking about all design costs. Studies show that the department is not four times higher and is sometimes cheaper and faster. Fifty percent is contracted out to private industry. We will measure both the department and private industry to keep design costs down. Small projects can balloon up but large projects can be as low as six or seven percent. 448 SENATOR DONLEY There is private sector concern on how the department calculates those percentages possibly by using a different accounting system. MR. PERKINS It is difficult to measure this. For example, bonuses in private sector don't show up in overhead but are charged to government. We need to compare apples to apples. We don't include the costs to heat our building, but the private sector does count as overhead. I could take our staff and work them well in the private sector and still make money. They are trying to make a profit and we don't. 427 SENATOR PHILLIPS Will hold questions. 425 SENATOR LEMAN You've set a goal for design cost. What about other professional costs? 421 MR. PERKINS Pre-design includes "right of way", environmental impact, etc. SENATOR LEMAN Does it include services during construction? MR. PERKINS No. We have to be careful with big projects in Anchorage with right of way costs. CO-CHAIR TORGERSON MR. PERKINS 2) Try to bring construction costs within five percent of the bid amount. We are currently running seven percent. 407 3) Increase driver safety and commercial inspections to 3600 next year and more the next year. We are currently at 3500. 404 4) Technical goals such as maintaining pavement condition indexes of 70 for runways and 60 for taxiways at the international airport. This will tell us when we should do what and where. We will continue our pavement management system. 395 SENATOR GREEN Please explain. MR. PERKINS The system looks at every road in the state and rates their condition as red, needing work, yellow, will soon need work, and green, no work needed. We also look at pavement grade smoothness. We base construction projects off this system. SENATOR GREEN Are you working with communities? MR. PERKINS This applies to National Highway System (NHS) highways. 378 We are also reducing the physical part of the infrastructure of people, equipment and material, as low as possible. The places to improve efficiencies are in the process. We will make major changes in the right-of-way and leasing processes, through new regulations. We need to save money on how we issue permits. 362 Accomplishments. We have a new system of advertising when going out to bid. We put information on the Internet with a much shorter ad in the newspaper. 350 Y2K was an intensive program and we spent $1.3 million to look at all facilities. There were only two problems. The credit card machines on the ferries did not function and the information had to be taken by hand. A sander on Thompson Pass had a counter that needed to be reset by hand to the year of 2001. 335 We received good report from the Federal Highway Administration on completion and review of the department's affirmative action plan. If not done, they would have cut our money off. A court decision changed the federal regulations and we had to spend a great deal of time rewriting our plan. We now set the goals rather than the federal government on criteria that are set by the federal government. 318 Anchorage International Airport has the highest cargo landed weight in the US and is still growing. 312 Important projects completed include a project on the Alaska Highway near Crystal River that now brings the entire highway up to standard for width, line and grade. 305 We put extensive effort with the Federal Resurfacing Program to smooth roads. I've even had compliments on the Tok Cutoff. 300 We reopened the entrance to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks at the intersection of College Road and University Avenue. We started the Gateway Alaska project in Anchorage. 290 A total of $21 million was spent on the Anchorage and Fairbanks airports. 289 We finished major construction on the Whittier Tunnel, which will open in June. 283 The Gravel to Black Program was only approved in July but we still paved sixty miles before the end of the construction season. We are getting Alaska out of the mud and dust. 276 The first phase of construction was started of the road into Wasilla. 271 We spent $1 million to make Americans With Disabilities corrections to facilities. We will need to address this on a larger scale someday. 267 We obligated all federal money and received $1.4 million in extra money that other states could not obligate. 261 We contracted out $328 million for professional services, construction projects, etc. This was our direct impact on the private economy. 255 We operated the dayboat service between Juneau, Skagway and Haines and the cross- gulf ferry service. We spent millions to bring all vessels up to Safety Of Life At Sea (SOLAS) Requirements. If not up to standards, a vessel cannot land in a foreign port. 245 We also completed our business plan for Intelligence Transportation System for commercial vehicles. This enables trucks to go by weigh stations and be weighed while they are in motion. The system also will know the temperature on bridges to know when to sand the bridges. This will save money. 232 We've finished the Southeast Transportation Plan. An RFP for a new ferry, that is funded, will be issued this spring. 226 We've continued the regional transportation plans for the Prince Williams Sound and the YK Delta and Southwest Alaska. We are starting to look at the transportation system in Northwest Alaska. 219 We need to continue to do our needs based assessment of capital projects. We need to continue our efforts to receive federal funds. We must stay on top of technology. We need to address deferred maintenance. We need to continue to get NHS up to standards. We need to find ways to stop the drain on services. Construction workers are aging, and we need to entice new workers. 178 SENATOR PHILLIPS You mentioned the cost of operation of the marine highway. What about British Columbia's ratio? MR. PERKINS I will get that information for you. 171 SENATOR PHILLIPS Constituents in my district want to sell the ferry system. 164 MR. PERKINS The problem with selling is that revenue only pays for 60 percent of operation. The only way to turn a profit is to run ferries only in the summer and only from Bellingham. This would be no benefit to the residents of SE Alaska. I know of no ferry system in nation that pays for itself. 151 SENATOR PHILLIPS I haven't seen this feeling in about 20 years. 147 MR. PERKINS We need to get the information out. The question is who would be the buyer? 142 SENATOR PHILLIPS I don't think that message has been delivered. MR. PERKINS Agree. SENATOR PHILLIPS Are the renovations to the Anchorage International Airport to be completed on July 1? 131 MR. PERKINS The road will be open on that date. SENATOR LEMAN MR. PERKINS SENATOR PHILLIPS I want to brace myself for delays. MR. PERKINS The project is currently on schedule. 124 SENATOR LEMAN I served on the deferred maintenance task force and we developed a long list, which continues to grow faster than we can complete. One of my concerns is that government projects are among the highest costing projects for a number of constraints such requirement for Davis/Bacon Wages, environmental cleanup. While these may not be appropriate constraints in many areas of the state, they are still included. Could you look at that list and find ways to reduce the cost of some projects so we can spread the money further? I'm also working with Department of Environmental Conservation on this. MR. PERKINS I will provide that information. SENATOR LEMAN This will be a constructive effort and we should look for cooperation of the engineering and contracting community. Are you going to be losing Mike Downing? MR. PERKINS No. 77 SENATOR DONLEY You say the Marine Highway System pays for about 60 percent of its operations, how much money is that other 40 percent? MR. PERKINS About $28 million. 67 SENATOR DONLEY How much of that is general funds? MR. PERKINS It is all general funds. SENATOR DONLEY There are no federal funds? MR. PERKINS There are some federal inspection funds. 58 SENATOR DONLEY In perspective, how much money is spent in Southcentral? MR. PERKINS I will have to get that information for you. The statewide amount is about $71-72 million plus $28 million for the marine highway system. SENATOR DONLEY Comments about percent allocated for the distribution of population. MR. PERKINS 33 CO-CHAIR TORGERSON 31 SENATOR DONLEY Last year you made a commitment to the Committee that if we submitted modifications to the projects you proposed in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) and if we made allowances in funding, you would incorporate the changes we made. Did you meet that? 16 MR. PERKINS This is a capital issue and I will provide an answer in that overview. 10 CO-CHAIR TORGERSON 6 Adjourn 10:36 AM SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE LOG NOTES 01/28/00 Page 17