High on every business group's list is hope for some attention paid to developing a long-term fiscal plan. High oil prices have lulled legislators into putting this question on the back burner.

But the sudden downturn of Alaska oil prices in recent weeks has dashed hopes for a healthy budget surplus in the current fiscal year and increased the probability for a big gap in the fiscal year beginning July 1, the budget for which lawmakers must prepare this spring.

Legislators steered clear of the fiscal issue last year after the crushing defeat, in a special election the previous autumn, of a plan developed by lawmakers to use some Alaska Permanent Fund earnings to fund public services.

Transportation companies will be active this year on proposals for insurance pooling legislation to help air carriers and regulations covering oil spill contingency requirements for marine shippers and the Alaska Railroad, who move fuel oil.

Interest in the proposed natural gas pipeline and education will also be very high.

"They'll try to force us to make a route decision in favor of an Interior route before the end of the session, before we've had a chance to complete our engineering and due diligence analysis of both routes," one petroleum lobbyist complained.

House Speaker Brian Porter and Rep. Eldon Mulder, Finance Committee co-chairman, and both Anchorage Republicans, have prefiled House Bill 21 as a vehicle for possible gas line legislation.

The bill contains only a broad statement of legislative intent. Mulder has told industry groups HB21 is to be filled in with specific language if a bill is felt to be needed. Industry would prefer to have nothing this year, however.

Petroleum taxes also may get some attention. Sen. Drue Pearce, R-Anchorage, is interested in how the Economic Limit Factor in the state oil and gas severance tax results in low tax rates on smaller fields on the North Slope.

There have been big battles in previous years over the ELF formula, and industry is loathe to see this issue reopened, several lobbyists say.

There's also a great deal of interest in the needed right-of-way renewal for the trans-Alaska pipeline system. Both federal and state rights-of-way leases for the system expire in 2004, and Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is preparing new lease applications.

State legislation will be needed to allow a new right-of-way because current state law, amended since the current right-of-way lease was awarded in the 1970s, allows only a 10-year lease of state right-of-way.

Whether the issue emerges this year or next, the right-of-way renewal will invite proposals for new stipulations and conditions that will be of concern to industry.

Many lawmakers are keenly interested in education and finding ways to put more money into the state's primary and secondary schools and the University of Alaska. Sen. Gary Wilken, R-Fairbanks, is proposing a plan to add $20 million to state funding to primary, middle and high schools, twice the $10 million that Gov. Tony Knowles proposes for increased education funding.

If money is available, legislators are likely to look favorably on the University of Alaska's request for additional funding. Lawmakers like what university president Mark Hamilton has done with increases given to the university last year.

The health care industry has its own set of concerns, including the Legislature's spending of federal tobacco litigation settlement money on nonhealth issues.

The settlement, worth some $250 million to $300 million to the state, has resulted in about $20 million a year coming into the treasury. Health care advocates are complaining that little of this is being spent so far for improvements to health care for which legislators previously voiced support.