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The Rap Sheet –

Week of April 21, 2009

Year one of the 25^th Legislature will be remembered primarily for the following:

These four developments captured lots of legislative attention and caused lots of disagreement. To some degree these developments impacted legislation of interest to PSEA.

When the legislature adjourned, oil prices were below $50 per barrel and hovered between $40 and $50 during much of the session. The weakened price from last year’s all time highs fiscally constrained lawmakers. As a result, important labor issues such as repeal of the Tier IV defined contribution retirement program, HB 30 and SB 23, stalled in each chamber. At a time when 401Ks performed at their worst for virtually all participants in such plans, enough political will could not be generated to move public employees to more fiscally sound defined benefit plans. Even legislation written to correct flaws in the current defined benefit program found no traction in 2009. HB 87 and SB 79 to allow disabled public safety employee members of Tier I, II and III to qualify for major medical benefits if injured between the twentieth and twenty-fifth year of service failed to pass the Houses from which they originated. Bills related to retirement simply went nowhere.

HB 30 sponsored by some heavy hitters like Representative Mike Hawker and John Harris along with 16 other Representatives never made it out of the House Labor and Commerce Committee where it was referred on January 20. SB 23 passed Senate Labor and Commerce and Senate State Affairs and is stalled in Senate Finance. Senator Kim Elton’s departure to join the Department of the Interior slowed SB 23’s progress.

Because of the lack of traction for all retirement bills, PSEA’s strategy to make medical credit count for persons who purchase their military time a part of a retirement bill progressing in the legislature was unsuccessful.

PSEA worked with Representative Jay Ramras to introduced HB 136 to provide a peace officer a means to have his or her personal information removed from certain public records. During its first committee hearing on March 12, representatives for assessors and those who record property titles argued against the cost of shielding personal information from the public. Some alluded to needing over a million dollars to fix systems in order to shield peace officer names. A staffer for Representative Ramras lamented that if this type of legislation had been introduced last year no one would have batted an eye but this year bills with any cost are difficult to impossible to pass.

HB 136 is in the House Judiciary Committee and will be taken up next session and worked on this summer during the interim.

Senator Hollis French kept his promise to PSEA and held SB 19 in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill has rested in his committee since being heard on March 9. Senator French met with PSEA on numerous occasions and heard from PSEA members – Terrance Shanigan and Rob Cox – who testified against the bill. As DPS Commissioner Masters develops the Office of Professional Standards within DPS, Senator French agreed with PSEA’s request to hold the bill.

HB 13 was pre-filed in early January but due to PSEA’s efforts struggled midway through the session and sits in House Finance since April 2. HB 13 proposes increasing the dollar amounts assigned to degrees of Theft and Concealment of Merchandise offenses three to five times more than current law. It seeks to raise the A Misdemeanor threshold from $50 to $250; and the Felony threshold from $500 to $1500. PSEA viewed HB 13 as being soft on crime. PSEA lobby in Juneau by Rob Cox caused two co-sponsors – Representatives Nancy Dahlstrom and Bob Lynn to remove their names from the bill. PSEA made several large retailers aware of HB 13.

In the interim contacts with local business could add significant opposition to HB 13.

Senator Joe Paskvan will introduce legislation in 2010 to provide “binding” arbitration to public employees of a municipality. PSEA expected the bill to be filed the last week or two of the session. Much of the Senate’s attention, however, focused on filling the Juneau Senate seat as Senators struggled with the Governor to find an acceptable replacement. Given the climate and the time being consumed with the selection process, it was agreed to wait until next year.

PSEA has worked with Senator Paskvan to prepare the bill because the Alaska Supreme Court has held, if an arbitrator issues a monetary award to public employees of a municipality or other political subdivision under the arbitration provisions of the Public Employment Relations Act (PERA), a municipality can decide not to fund the monetary terms of an arbitrator’s decision

PSEA was made aware that the Senate amended HB 81, the FY 10 operating budget, to reduce over $1 million to Alaska Wildlife Troopers. The House earlier approved the increase so the difference between what was passed by the House and what was passed by the Senate was subject to legislative conference committee to resolve the discrepancy. PSEA was successful in keeping the House appropriation and prevented the $1,018,100 reduction.

PSEA supported a provision in HB 10 that gives municipalities by ordinance an option to offer a property tax exemption as one means to attract law enforcement officers to reside in areas of a community where there is a higher occurrence of crime than is found in the municipality as a whole.

The municipality must by ordinance adopt the tax exemption and define law enforcement officer. If the municipality adopts an ordinance, it exempts from taxation an amount not to exceed $150,000 of assessed value of real property for an officer who owns and occupies a primary permanent residence in a designated area.

HB 10 was approved by the House but failed to make it through the Senate. The bill is in the Senate Finance Committee.

SB 1 by Senator Bill Wielechowski was passed by the House the last day of the session. The bill will raise the minimum wage from $7.15 per hour to $7.25 in July 2009. In January 2010 the wage will increase to $7.75 per hour or 50 cents above the federal minimum wage.