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Ethics committee updates state benefit-and-loan list; asks agencies for documentation before removals
Summary
The Legislative Ethics Committee reviewed its annual list of state benefit and loan programs, approved one addition from the Department of Environmental Conservation, removed an expired Division of Oil and Gas program, and asked the Department of Transportation and other agencies to submit formal review forms before their programs can be removed.
The Legislative Ethics Committee reviewed its required annual list of state benefit and loan programs and made three administrative changes while asking several agencies to provide additional documentation before other items are removed.
Chair Joyce Anderson said the committee conducts the review under AS 24.60.050 and that departments are sent a list and asked whether items should be added or removed. Anderson said the committee received a change request to update a division name and a request from the Department of Environmental Conservation to add a firefighting-substances disposal reimbursement program.
Kevin Reeve, ethics office staff, explained that the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Spill Prevention and Response asked to add a “firefighting substances disposal reimbursement program” to the list because it does not meet the committee’s exclusion tests for publicly available, fixed-criteria programs. Reeve said the program will be added to the listing.
Reeve also said the Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil and Gas, asked to remove an item that no longer exists — described as “oil sale expiration incentive credits” — and that the credit actually ended in 2022 and its continued presence on the published list was an oversight.
The Department of Transportation asked the committee to remove several items (including encroachment, driveway or airspace permits, utility permits on state rights-of-way, and right-of-way rental), but did not submit the committee’s benefit-and-loan review form for each program. Don (from DOT) told the committee the department believes these transactional programs have fixed criteria set in regulation or federal rules and therefore do not meet the statutory definition of “state benefit programs or loans.” The chair and staff asked DOT to complete the committee’s review form for each program so the committee can confirm whether the items meet the disclosure criteria in statute.
Committee members discussed the legal line between discretionary awards (which typically trigger disclosure) and programs governed by fixed criteria in statute or regulation. Representative Elise Galvin urged adding the full list to committee training so legislators know when to disclose participation. The committee directed DOT and other departments to fill out the review form and provide statute or regulation citations; staff requested those responses by next week so the committee can act by email if the matter is straightforward.
No formal vote on policy was taken; the committee’s action was to accept the DEC addition and the DNR deletion as administrative updates and to request completed review forms and supporting citations from DOT and others before removing additional items.
