Senate State Affairs adopts committee substitute for Alaska Sunset Commission bill

The Senate State Affairs Committee on May 15 adopted a committee substitute for Senate Bill 107, the measure to revise the Alaska Sunset Commission's membership removal process and expand the commission's review authority to include tax credits.

The committee substitute, adopted as the working document after brief discussion, would "provide that the governor may only remove a member of the sunset commission for cause and [establish] a process to do so," staff to the committee Joe Hayes told members. Hayes also said the substitute "adds tax credits to the list of programs the commission shall review and prepare recommendations as to whether they should be discontinued or changed."

The change to removal authority is on page 4 of the working draft and the tax-credit addition appears on page 5, Hayes said during the committee meeting. A senator moved to adopt the committee substitute; the chair initially objected for purposes of discussion, then withdrew the objection after Hayes summarized the changes and members had no additional comments. The document was adopted as the committee's working draft and the bill was set aside for a future hearing when Senator Wilikowski is available.

Committee discussion during the meeting was procedural and limited to the text in the substitute. No public testimony was received during the session. The committee will take further testimony and consider the bill again at a later date, when the sponsor or additional stakeholders can be present.

The committee did not vote on final passage; the substitute was adopted as the working draft and the bill held over for a subsequent hearing.

The Alaska Sunset Commission reviews state programs to determine whether they should continue; the substitute explicitly adds state tax credits to the commission's review list and narrows the governor's removal authority for commission members.