SENATE RULES COMMITTEE April 5, 1993 7:35 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT Senator George Jacko, Chairman Senator Steve Rieger, Vice Chairman Senator Rick Halford Senator Suzanne Little Senator Fred Zharoff MEMBERS ABSENT None COMMITTEE CALENDAR CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 55(FIN) "An Act making appropriations for the operating and loan program expenses of state government and to capitalize funds; and providing for an effective date." PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION HB 55 - No previous action to record. WITNESS REGISTER Senator Steve Frank, Co-Chair Senate Finance Committee State Capitol Juneau, AK 99801-1182 ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 93-3, SIDE A Number 001 Chairman Jacko called the meeting of the Senate Rules Committee to order at 7:35 p.m., and stated that the full committee was present. CHAIRMAN JACKO: We have one item on the calendar for consideration today. It is Senate Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for House Bill 55, and I ask for a motion that we adopt it for consideration. SENATOR LITTLE: I have some amendments, Mr. Chairman. SENATOR HALFORD: I move that we adopt the Senate CS for Committee Substitute for House Bill 5, which is the Senate budget substitution for the House budget bill. Senator Frank is here to answer any questions about the hearing process or anything else that has been applied as far as that bill is concerned. SENATOR ZHAROFF: I object just for some clarification and the record here. When did the Senate receive the House's budget? CHAIRMAN JACKO: Senator Frank, do you want to answer these questions? SENATOR STEVE FRANK, Co-Chair, Senate Finance Committee: Like I always do when I'm testifying before a committee, I thank the Chair for holding the hearing. Yeah, we've had a lot of hearings on this bill. It is basically the Senate operating budget. We had extensive subcommittee hearings, and I've got a list of the subcommittee hearings here available for anybody to look at if they want. We worked Friday, Saturday on Senate Bill 175, passed it out of committee on Saturday night at about 7:00 o'clock. Again, I would say that we have had substantial hearings at the subcommittee and at the full committee level. CHAIRMAN JACKO: Thank you, Senator Frank. SENATOR ZHAROFF: Well again, I guess my question there was when did the Senate receive the House committee substitute on 55? SENATOR FRANK: Oh, fairly recently. Within the last hour, I think. SENATOR ZHAROFF: Doesn't it seem like this is rather fast -- that we're acting on this in this haste? SENATOR FRANK: Well, we've already done our work, basically, on the Senate budget. Now the House, of course, did their work on their budget. Our intention is to, and expectation, is that, as usual, we would reject the House budget and put our Senate budget onto the House budget as is done in every year, in every case. We don't intend to accept the House's approach to the budget. We have gone through the public hearing process. We have our approach and that is why we are -- I am supportive of amending the House bill to incorporate the Senate's budget into their House bill so that we can work with it on the floor, look at possible amendments on the floor, debate the bill, and move it back over to the House for either their acceptance or their rejection. If they do not pass our bill, if they reject our amendments, ask us to recede from our amendments, then, of course, a conference committee would be approved and we would go to work on a conference committee. SENATOR ZHAROFF: I guess my reason for asking the question -- and the quest of the majority to adjourn this session in a timely manner, or I guess in a short timely manner, or very shortly -- that it may be quite possible that the House budget that came over from the other side may have included maybe the wishes and the desires of the Senate. And, possibly, if the Finance Committee had been given to the opportunity to review the House budget, as it came over, it may be that you had not have wished to amend it -- you would just deal with the one budget and bring that to floor and vote it up or down. And if it goes up, we'd get out of here. SENATOR HALFORD: Well, I think it's important to note the House passed out their version of the budget several days ago out of their Finance Committee and the copies have been available to anyone that wanted to look at the comparisons. I think there probably are side-by-side runs of the House version and the Senate version. So, certainly, although the House budget bill was actually transmitted by the House within the last hour, the House proposal has been well known, as has the Senate proposal. CHAIRMAN JACKO: There is a motion before us. Is there further objection maintained to the adoption of Senate Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for House Bill 55. SENATOR LITTLE: Mr. Chairman? CHAIRMAN JACKO: Objection maintained? SENATOR LITTLE: Yes. CHAIRMAN JACKO: Roll call vote. SENATOR LITTLE: Mr. Chairman, may I speak? CHAIRMAN JACKO: As soon as we take the vote. ( A roll call vote was taken with the following result: Senators Rieger, Halford and Jacko voted "yea;" and Senators Little and Zharoff voted "nay." ) CHAIRMAN JACKO: We have before us Senate Committee Substitute for Committee Substitute for House Bill 55. Senator Little. SENATOR LITTLE: I was going to say that I agreed that the House bill needed to be amended and I have several amendments to put forward, and now I guess that is out of the question. We'll have several amendments on this bill. Thank you. CHAIRMAN JACKO: Senator Halford. SENATOR HALFORD: In that case, I would move that Senate CS for CS for House Bill Number 55 (Rules) be reported out of the Rules Committee and approved for calendaring at the chair's discretion. SENATOR LITTLE: I object. CHAIRMAN JACKO: Objection. Roll call vote. SENATOR ZHAROFF: I object and I'll speak to the objection. CHAIRMAN JACKO: Senator Zharoff. SENATOR ZHAROFF: Thank you. I think that Senator Little was mislead there -- that the adoption of the CS does not preclude the introduction of amendments. If there are amendments to be offered, they should be offered at this time to the CS. Just because we adopt the CS, it just means that you have just the working document in front of you. If you have amendments to offer, it is entirely up to you to offer them at this time. SENATOR LITTLE: The amendments are -- if I could speak to that, Mr. Chairman? CHAIRMAN JACKO: Senator Little. SENATOR LITTLE: The amendments I have to offer are with the original bill and not the Senate CS, or the CS that we've just created. SENATOR HALFORD: Question. CHAIRMAN JACKO: Question? There is a motion on the table. (The roll was taken with the following result: Senators Halford, Rieger and Jacko voted "yea;" and Senators Little and Zharoff voted "nay.") CHAIRMAN JACKO: The motion passes. There being no further business to come before the Rules Committee meeting, we are adjourned at 7:40 p.m.