Committee adopts substitute narrowing SB 163 to three inactive funds, reports bill with fiscal note

At the March 9 hearing the committee considered a committee substitute for SB 163, a measure derived from the 2025 Legislative Finance Division inactive state funds report that seeks to repeal unused or obsolete state funds.

Takuma Inouye, staff to Senator James Kaufman, explained the original SB 163 proposed repealing 11 inactive funds but that discussions with the Legislative Finance Division and legal counsel revealed technical entanglements. The committee substitute narrows the bill to repeal funds that can be cleanly removed without repealing associated programs or cross-referenced statutes. "The committee substitute before the committee removes 8 funds and retains 3 of the funds from the original SB 163," Inouye said; the three retained funds are the public access fund, the Alaska Temporary Assistance Program emergency account, and the 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games Reserve Fund.

A committee member moved to adopt the committee substitute as a working document; after staff explanation and no objections, Chair Bjorkman announced the substitute was adopted. The committee later voted to report the committee substitute from committee with individual recommendations and an attached fiscal note.

The committee did not enact final repeal on the floor; the action taken was committee adoption of the substitute and reporting the bill out of committee for further legislative processing.