Assembly weighs in on state bills

PALMER — At its meeting Feb. 19, the Mat-Su Bourogh Assembly weighed in on a whole host of decisions the state Legislature will make this session. It was kind of a mixed bag for the legislation. Here’s a rundown of what the assembly decided:

House Bill 40

A motion to endorse House Bill 40, which allow municipalities to exempt farm and food storage buildings from property taxes, failed.

The bill wouldn’t require the buildings be exempted, just permit municipalities to create carve-outs for them if they so desired. The requirement would be that the building’s owner or lessee be actively farming and earning 10 percent of his or her income from it.

The borough resolution that would have endorsed the bill drew mostly skepticism from assembly members.

“Nobody called me and said, ‘hey I need an exemption in order to keep farming,’” assemblyman Jim Colver said. “I do know a lot of farmers struggle, but why are we doing it for farming, why aren’t we doing it for trucking companies or radio stations?”

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, said at a town hall meeting Saturday that she came up with the legislation specifically because farmers were telling her that crops were being plowed under because it doesn’t make sense to pay taxes on storage buildings.

Colver also pointed out that farms are already allowed to defer their borough taxes.

The borough’s finance director, Tammy Clayton, said she may not have identified all the buildings HB40 would apply to, but her best estimate was that such an exemption would cost the borough $35,000 to $40,000 in taxes.

Assemblyman Vern Halter said his problem was with the requirement that 10 percent of the person’s income be farming-derived.

“It should be more,” he said.

Eventually the resolution failed with just Keogh in support.

House Bill 79 and Senate Bill 28

The bills that would establish a Susitna State Forest failed to gain support from the assembly.

This one ran into friction after Houston Mayor Virgie Thompson testified that putting land within her city’s borders into a state forest could impact the city’s future development.

“I understand the mayor from Houston’s concerns and I think deleting some part of the east side (of the proposed forest) would be appropriate,” assemblyman Vern Halter said.

A move to remove all lands east of the Big Susitna River failed and then a move to delete just those in Houston city limits passed.

Assemblyman Ron Arvin urged his colleagues to pass the now amended resolution.

“I think there’s some speculation and a bit of fear mongering that the government is out to do a bit of taking when in fact it is the state of Alaska’s land,” Arvin said. Making it a forest would set allowable logging limits based on re-growth. “It’s a healthy way to manage the land.”

But his colleagues, any of whom expressed concerns about increased bureaucracy and locking up the land, voted it down. Only Warren Keogh and Arvin supported it.

House Bill 23

House Bill 23, which would set up a reserve fund for the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, passed an assembly vote of support.

Assemblyman Warren Keogh pointed out that the borough had already voted in favor of the bridge.

“This is a waste of time and an unnecessary,” he said.

New numbers, Keogh said, show the bridge is going to be more expensive than envisioned. He said the borough should wait for a full audit of the project.

“I’ll vote against (the resolution) because I am increasingly suspicious of the veracity of the project,” he said.

Assemblyman Darcie Salmon said he didn’t trust that new study because it came from people on the record opposing the project before they conducted the study. Assemblyman Steve Colligan said he trusts the study, but not what he views as an assumption that this would be bad money to spend “if it were the last dollar we had to spend.” There are other projects coming, Colligan said.

Eventually the assembly voted to support the bill 6-1 with Keogh opposed.

Moose Federation

A resolution in support of the Alaska Moose Federation’s request for state funding was also passed by the assembly.

The federation is based in Southcentral and salvages moose killed on highways as well as working to prevent moose collisions by providing the animals places to feed away from roadways.

Colligan had to step out of the debate and vote because, “I’ve held the note for these folks for awhile and they’ve finally started paying back the last year.”

Assemblyman Noel Woods said he was opposed to the measure.

“They have recently received over $1 million and I think that should carry them for awhile, so I’ll vote against this,” he said of previous state appropriations.

Keogh said he opposed it because there weren’t enough specifics about the size of the funding request. Eventually, the measure hit a tie vote with Keogh, Colver and Woods opposed.

Mayor Larry DeVilbiss broke the tie to pass the resolution.

House Bill 19

House Bill 19 would let municipalities set up permanent registrations for vehicles eight years or older, a concept the assembly is OK with.

Assemblymen Woods and Keogh opposed the measure because it would be costly to the borough.

“I believe the financial disadvantage to the borough would be a loss of $2 million after 2016,” Woods said.

Colver said that a lot of the vehicles in question are snowplows and farm vehicles.

“I’m going to support it. I think it’s a well-thought-out piece of legislation,” he said.

Eventually it passed with Woods, Halter and Keogh opposed.

Unanimous support

• A resolution supporting HB4, which would empower the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. to build a gas pipeline.

• A resolution opposed to HB27, which would change the rules for boroughs pulling back unspent school district funds.

• A resolution supporting HB98, which mandates a new process for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to set goals for how many fish escape Cook Inlet into freshwater streams, sponsors believe, in a way that favors sustainable freshwater fishing.

• A resolution supporting House Concurrent Resolution 1, which would establish and operate a state food resource development working group.

• A resolution supporting HB18, which gives priority to personal-use fishing in fish management decisions.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.