Today is the final day to file for your Permanent Fund Dividend check. Please go to www.pfd.state.ak.us to file your application.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
HOUSE OKs BILL STRENGTHENING AK GASLINE DEVELOPMENT CO.
Speaker’s HB189 allows team to enter into confidentiality agreements to further their mission of providing gas to Alaskans, modifies membership
Monday, March 28, 2011, Juneau, Alaska – The Alaska State House of Representatives today passed legislation allowing the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation to better carry out its mission of preparing an In-State Natural Gas Pipeline plan.
House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, sponsored the bill, HB 189, which adds an ability to enter into confidentiality agreements with other entities in order to obtain certain proprietary or unique information.
“We need to provide the tools and rights necessary for the corporation to be able to live up to their mission, and HB 189 does that,” Speaker Chenault said. “We created the corporation to report back to us on how best to bring gas to Alaskans. It’s only prudent to listen to them and make it easier for them to pursue their mission. We look forward to their report and doing the work necessary to follow our guiding principle of responsible resource development and also of providing access to affordable energy to Alaskans.”
[caption id="attachment_1588" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="Finance Co-Chair Bill Stoltze gets a laugh out of me during Monday's Committee on Committees hearing"]
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The bill also proposes changing the membership of the team, in light of the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority providing bids to competing large-diameter pipeline proposals, which raises a conflict of interest. The bill also allows for a chair’s designee of the Alaska Railroad Corporation.
The Legislature created the Joint In-State Gasline Development Team last year with passage of the Speaker’s HB 369, culminating with a development plan and report to the legislature this July.
HB 189 now moves to the Alaska Senate for consideration.
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Today, I introduced House Bill 203 “An Act establishing and relating to the in-state gas pipeline fund; and providing for an effective date.” The following sponsor statement explains why I introduced the bill.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
HOUSE ACTS TO INSTALL PERFORMANCE REVIEWS OF STATE DEPTS
Speaker’s HB166 sets schedule, team and assures state funds are well-spent
Wednesday, March 23, 2011, Juneau, Alaska – The Alaska State House of Representatives today passed legislation to push for better accountability and review the performance and operations of state agencies. House Bill 166, sponsored by House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, re-institutes performance reviews for state departments and agencies, a practice ceased in the early 1980s.
Speaker Chenault says the bill fits within the Majority Caucus’s foremost Guiding Principle for the 27th Alaska Legislature, promoting fiscal responsibility, because it forces the legislature to refocus on each agency to decide which expenditures are necessary and required state services. “We’ll end up having a base we can look at to evaluate departments instead of looking at incremental increases,” Speaker Chenault said. “It will give us an area and schedule we can look at when evaluating state spending on programs and projects – not only in the good times, when the price of oil is high – but also the when and how of addressing issues when revenues decline and we’d have to look at making cuts. I’d rather be in a position to make better, more informed decisions on doling out the people’s money and HB166 is a good start at getting us there.”
The bill captures information including funding authority, mission and measures, audits, contractual audits, the Legislative Finance Division, other studies, HB 125-required ten-year plans, and fiscal policy recommendations. HB166 also allows reviews of other state’s best practices, participation by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL,) and the Texas Sunset guidelines, which inspired the bill, without the increase in staffing or bureaucracy in the legislative audit division.
“Goal-setting is a key to establishing successful fiscal systems, and that’s what HB 166 does,” Legislative Budget & Audit Chair Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, said. “We are saying that there are no specific predefined outcomes. But the outcome is that we will be achieving improved fiscal responsibility and government accountability.”
Reviews under the bill would begin this July covering the Department of Corrections. The Legislature, Office of the Governor and Court System would follow.
HB 166, which passed by a vote of 36 to one, now moves to the Alaska Senate for consideration.
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Here’s a quick audio clip I gave to our press office on the bill: 20110323_Speaker_on_HB166_passage
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REPRESENTATIVES MIKE CHENAULT AND KURT OLSON
DISTRICTS 33 & 34 TOWN HALL MEETING
SATURDAY, MARCH 26TH, 10AM -1PM
KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH ASSEMBLY CHAMBERS
Hope to see many of you there.
House Speaker Mike Chenault talks about the budget, his HB 166, Pick.Click.Give., and where we stand with about a month left in session in this episode of “Ask the Speaker.”
The official 2010 census numbers have been released by the U.S. Census Bureau and it is now up to the Redistricting Board to begin work on a draft plan. The plan is to be drafted within 30 days and adopted by the Board. After that, the board has 60 days to submit a final plan. Census data and the Redistricting Board’s agenda can be viewed at http://www.akredistricting.org.
[caption id="attachment_1542" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Here's a screen capture of the Kenai area redistricting map from the Board's Web site"]
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Today the Committee Substitute for HB 166 will be presented in House Finance. My staff has been working with a Finance Committee work team and Legislative Audit on improvements that are included in the Committee Substitute. Changes included in the mark up include the following:
–The Review Team will operate under Legislative Audit instead of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee. Legislative Audit is an unbiased non partisan agency of the Legislature.
–The order of department reviews was changed slightly to group like departments together and allow for the two largest departments to be reviewed early on in this process. Additionally, the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee can now accelerate reviews as they deem necessary.
–The Legislature and the Office of the Governor were added into the schedule of department reviews.
–Timing of the process was changed slightly to accommodate the Legislative process.
–The review process will sunset once the first round of reviews has been completed to be sure this process is accomplishing what the Legislature intends.
It is expected there will be a couple of amendments taken up during the House Finance meeting. Hopefully, the bill will pass out of committee and go to the House Floor within the next week.
Here is a brochure the Veterans Health Council is trying to get to any veteran or doctor in Alaska.
Why? Doctors who do not know his/her patient is a veteran who has served in a location with exposures is not working with all the information they need to make a diagnosis and when prescribing medicines.
The Veterans Health Council is a national effort started by the Vietnam Veterans of America. Please pass along this information to doctors or veterans you may know.
