M E M O R A N D U M
07-84
TO: HOMER
FROM: COUNCILMEMBER ROBERTS
DATE:
SUBJECT:
We began our visit on Friday, April 27th with a stop in Senator Tom Wagoner’s office, where Councilman Doug Stark joined us. Senator Wagoner reported he felt a bill would be submitted for a maximum municipal contribution to PERS of 22% in the next day or so. We discussed our 5 top priority projects with Senator Wagoner.
The next office we stopped in was Representative Kevin Meyer’s, where we had the opportunity to speak with his aide, Pete Ecklund, who is involved in the crafting of the budget on the House side. Though Pete also reported the 22% PERS figure, he was not too hopeful the House budget would include any municipal revenue sharing, as many viewed PERS assistance as a form of revenue sharing. We discussed our Water Treatment plan in the governor’s budget and Pete felt it was positioned well.
Representative Mike Chenault, from Nikiski spoke with us. We spoke with him about the hope of the university getting funding to purchase our City Hall but Representative Chenault was not encouraging. He felt K-12 education would get more attention than the university but he assured us he would be cognizant of our needs.
We traveled to the US Coast Guard district office to meet
with Admiral Brooks. He reported the dolphin proposal has been rejected by the
state because of concerns for the ferry access to the area. They continue to be
concerned about the yearly cost of $200,000 for dredging. The USCG is still
considering whether to build their 7000 square foot support building for the
Fred Fisher, an aide to Senator Bert Steadman, who chair is of the Senate Finance committee, also took the time to meet with us. We spoke about municipal revenue sharing with him and he said Senator Steadman is a supporter of this concept. Another topic we spoke about was the university receiving funding to purchase the old City Hall. Mr. Fisher did not hold out much hope for an increased university budget this cycle.
We then spoke to Darcy Dugan who is an aide for Representative Les Gara. Again we spoke about our interest in the university getting funding for purchasing the City Hall. We were told Representative Gara is a strong university supporter.
We met with our local representative Paul Seaton. There we
were able to hear the current list of capital projects in our district. The
list as of the Friday included $50,000 for the Senior Trail, $65,000 towards
the Spit Trail, $25,000 for the Pratt Museum Fuel tank, $50,000 for the ski tow
and $15,000 for the
Doug Stark took me to the AML office at lunch and introduced me to their staff and meet new employees.
After lunch we had hoped to meet with Representative Kurt Olson, who is a member of the House Finance Committee. We spoke extensively with his aide Eleanor Wolf. We presented our short list of projects and discussed PERS/TRS issues in depth. Ms. Wolf had worked on legislative issues for a number of years and had lots of background information for us.
Gary Stevens came off the legislative floor to discuss our pending capital projects. He also assured us if the budget remains as anticipated, that Homer will be receiving funds for the 5 projects mentioned above. Senator Stevens felt the Senate may be providing some revenue sharing funds to the municipalities.
Senate President Lyda Green was able to meet with us. We discussed the effectiveness of the Senate Bipartisan Working Group and the possibilities of revenue sharing. Senator Green felt our Water Treatment Plant project stood a great chance of staying in the budget, as Governor Palin had included it in her budget. She reiterated the message that she believed there most likely was an acceptable fix for TRS/PERS problem on the horizon.
After that meeting, we traveled to the DEC offices to meet
with Dan Easton, Deputy Commissioner of DEC and several other DEC officials via
teleconference-Lynn
At the DOT, we met with John MacKinnon, the deputy
commissioner and Michael Lukshin, who oversees marine DOT projects, as the
commissioner was not available when we arrived. We brought up the topic of the
USCG dolphin and the difficulties it was causing the
Though we were scheduled only to meet with Jesse Kiehl, an aide to Senator Kim Elton, the senator also joined in the conversation. We spoke about our PERS/TRS concerns and they felt optimistic of a fair fix. Senator Elton recommended we attend the Finance Committee meetings on Saturday, when the PERS/TRS bill is introduced. Senator Elton, like many of his colleagues in the Senate, felt some revenue sharing would be provided.
We met with Lynn Smith, at the Office of the Governor. There we were welcomed and spoke about our projects from our CIP list. Mrs. Smith was familiar and supportive of our needs. We discussed the Water Treatment project on the Governor’s budget and Mrs. Smith also felt this project would be in the final budget.
On Saturday, we spent the day observing the Senate Finance
Committee. Hearings were held from
Though we had planned to return to Homer on Sunday morning,
April 29th, the flight was cancelled and we spent the majority of
Sunday traveling home, reaching Homer about
Overall, I found the trip to be extremely beneficial for the
City of
I would recommend the Council consider some overall guidelines as to how the Council wants to approach group lobbying in the future, addressing such issues as the size of the party and how the council would select issues to be addressed during the lobbying trip.
Respectfully submitted,