Bills pre-filed so far by state legislators in Juneau mostly rehash issues, including controversial ones, that failed in the last Legislature.
However, several lawmakers are pushing new ethics reforms this year, and Democrats in the state House are also hoping to put oil taxes back on the Legislature's agenda.
On ethics reform, Rep. John Harris, R-Valdez, who will again be Speaker of the House, has a proposal regarding campaign contributions in House Bill 6. Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, has joined several Democrats in proposing limits in HB 10 on legislators accepting consulting work. Rep. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, a co-sponsor of Lynn's bill, is also sponsoring HB 27, dealing with disclosures of income by legislators.
In the Senate, Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, would put limits on consulting fees paid to legislators in Senate Bill 13. Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, is prime sponsor with three other senators of SB 19 and SB 20, dealing with disclosure of legislators' income and public officials acting on matters in which they have a financial interest.
On changes to the new oil and gas tax, Reps. Les Gara and Harry Crawford, both Anchorage Democrats, would change the new Petroleum Profits Tax law enacted last year in HB 89, switching from a tax on oil and gas producers' net profits to a tax on gross revenues. The net profits tax was criticized as being too difficult to administer and vulnerable to manipulation.
Defenders of the PPT, however, say it will encourage difficult and heavy oil projects by allowing high costs to be deducted from taxes. They also point to the new tax being coupled with a new investment tax credit mechanism that will accelerate exploration for new oil and gas, particularly in Cook Inlet, in southern Alaska.
Gara and Crawford would also increase the tax rate at high crude oil prices and decrease the tax if prices fall.
House Democrats also filed legislation to reinstate an annual inflation-proofing provision in the state minimum wage that was deleted by former Gov. Frank Murkowski and a majority of legislators in 2003, when the wage rate was revised. The new legislation, HB 42, would increase the minimum wage by about $1, to $8 per hour. The minimum wage is currently set at $7.15 an hour. Sponsors of the bill include Reps. Gara, Gardner, Crawford, Bob Buch, D-Anchorage, Mike Doogan, D-Anchorage, Lindsey Holmes, D-Anchorage, and Andrea Doll, D-Juneau.
The bill also requires that the minimum wage stay at least $1 per hour higher than the federal minimum wage, which Democrats in Congress are currently proposing to raise. In 2001 and 2002, labor groups gathered signatures on a ballot initiative to increase the minimum wage to $7.15 per hour and inflation-proof it annually. However, the Legislature deleted the inflation-proofing feature, freezing the minimum wage at $7.15.
“Even with inflation proofing, the minimum wage would amount to only $16,000 a year,” Rep. Doogan said. “That's not much for working Alaskans with families to feed.”
Several Republican lawmakers are pushing health care reform proposals that were before the Legislature in 2006. Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, would require hospitals to disclose itemized costs on billings to patients in SB 23. Rep. Lynn's proposed HB 4 would change the state's Certificate of Need permit requirements for health care facilities so that only nursing homes and residential psychiatric treatment centers, or rural medical facilities, would need the state certificate. The bill would essentially deregulate many types of health care in larger communities, opening up competition in the industry, Lynn argues.
Rep. Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, has two proposals aimed at resolving a $9 billion pension liability faced by state government, municipalities and school districts. Hawker's HB 13 would allow the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority to issue bonds to cover the liability, while a companion bill, HB 12, would require the liability to be paid off in seven years. Hawker's bond bill is a new version of a similar bill in the 2005 session.
Reps. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, and Mike Kelly, R-Fairbanks, are cosponsors of another bill that would fund the pension liability with purchases and sales of transferable tax credit certifications under the state's new oil and gas production tax law. The bill is HB 48.
Sen. Gary Wilken, R-Fairbanks, would resurrect a form of state revenue sharing to municipalities and borrow the title of an idea championed by former Rep. Carl Moses, a Democrat, that would establish a Community Dividend Program. However, Wilken's proposal would fund the program through general state revenues rather than earnings of the Alaska Permanent Fund, as Moses envisioned. Wilken's bill would provide a distribution of $70 per resident for all municipalities and unincorporated communities, and would add another $30 per person for municipalities that contribute to the support of local schools.
Former Gov. Murkowski ended the state's previous revenue-sharing program for local governments.
Renewable energy is also on the Legislature's agenda. Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, is again pushing legislation establishing a grant program for alternative energy projects in HB 63. Thomas had a similar proposal before lawmakers last year. Rep. Crawford proposes a state grant in HB 73 to build a wind energy project on Fire Island, near Anchorage, an idea also being advanced in the Senate by Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, in SB 44.
