Lawmakers back in Juneau

WASILLA — With the legislative session set to start today, members of the Valley’s delegation have their names attached to 20 pieces of legislation. Here’s a rundown:

House Bill 3

Sponsors: Bob Lynn

and Wes Keller (R-Wasilla)

This bill requires everyone who votes to present a driver’s license; passport; employee identification card from a state, municipal or federal agency; military ID; student ID from a high school or higher within Alaska; a tribal ID; or two forms of non-photo ID like an adoption record or birth certificate.

So-called voter-ID laws have been controversial in other states with proponents saying they’re necessary to fight fraud and opponents saying there is no fraud and voter turnout already is too low.

House Bill 8

Sponsors: Tammie Wilson and Mark Neuman (R-Big Lake)

Wilson and Neuman want to add language to state codes barring the Department of Natural Resources from putting a limit on the number of people allowed to work as big game guides in the state.

House Bill 15

Sponsor: Wes Keller

This one changes pieces of the state’s laws regarding commercial vehicles by doing things like requiring vehicles transporting hazardous materials be registered as commercial and upping the weight limit for commercial vehicles that only travel inside Alaska’s borders.

House Bill 16

Sponsor: Wes Keller

This bill would require people accepting public assistance first pass a drug test as a means to protect residents of Alaska from those who would use “cash assistance for the purchase of alcohol and illegal drugs.” It would also require recipients be citizens or legal residents. Keller has tried to pass similar legislation in past sessions.

House Bill 18

Sponsor: Bill Stoltze (R-Chugiak)

Stoltze appears to be picking a fight with commercial fishermen with this one, which would required that “all other fisheries” be limited before personal-use fisheries when the state has to limit fish harvests to meet a management goal.

House Bill 19

Sponsor: Bill Stoltze

With this one, Stoltze wants to change motor vehicle registration rules. He wants to waive registration on a vehicle permanently if it’s more than eight years old, and let the elderly and those too disabled to walk out of registration fees.

House Bill 23

Sponsor: Mark Neuman

This bill would establish the reserve fund Neuman and other Knik Arm bridge supporters tried to get through last session as a loan to cover potential shortfalls in toll revenues in the bridge’s early years. It also allows the bridge authority to sell $600 million in bonds,

House Bill 24

Sponsor: Mark Neuman

Neuman tried to push this one last session as well. It changes the rules for when a person can use deadly force. Instead of a duty to retreat from the situation if possible, people are allowed to use deadly force to stop a threat to their lives so long as they are in a place they are legally allowed to be.

House Bill 27

Sponsor: Eric Feige (R-Chickaloon)

The bill changes the way local governments are allowed to fund their school districts by, among other things, barring those governments from pulling back money from the districts unless the money left over at the end of the school year is more than 15 percent of what the government gave them at the beginning.

House Bill 30

Sponsors: Eric Feige, Bill Stoltze, Wes Keller, Lynn Gattis (R-Wasilla), Shelley Hughes (R-Palmer) and others

This one makes changes to the way the state’s legislative finance division conducts performance reviews and audits.

House Bill 31

Sponsor: Wes Keller

This is one Keller has attempted before. It would require high schools to develop and teach as a mandatory class a course in the history of the U.S. Constitution.

House Bill 33

Sponsor: Mark Neuman

Neuman is here seeking to add definitions of “gravity knife” and “switchblade” to the laws regulating those types of blades.

House Bill 40

Sponsor: Shelley Hughes

This would allow municipalities, if they chose, to exempt from taxation buildings actively engaged in farming — barns, grain elevators and the like.

House Bill 41

Sponsor: Lynn Gattis

This one would fund education a year ahead of time. Money set aside one year for education wouldn’t be spent for a full year.

House Bill 45

Sponsors: Mia Costello and Lynn Gattis

This one deals with cyber-bullying by clarifying under harassment statutes that students can be harassed via electronic communications if that communication interferes with their education, creates a threatening or intimidating education environment or disrupts school activities.

House Bill 47

Sponsor: Eric Feige

Feige tried to get this one passed before. It’s a measure that would require people suing to stop an industrial operation put up some kind of security bond to pay court costs of the project if it was wrongfully halted while the court process moved ahead.

House Bill 52

Sponsor: Eric Feige

This bill would amend eligibility rules for the Permanent Fund Dividend, changing some of the reasons people can be absent from the state and still qualify.

House Bill 53

Sponsor: Wes Keller

This one requires that anyone prescribing more than 120 milligrams of opiates per day to a patient first consult with a pain management specialist.

House Joint Resolution 1

Sponsor: Wes Keller

This would amend the state constitution to allow spending state money on private education.

It’s seen mostly as a way to implement school vouchers in the state.

Senate Bill 1

Sponsor: Charlie Huggins

This is the Senate version of Neuman’s House Bill 23 on the Knik Arm bridge funds.

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