In advance of the upcoming legislative session a number of bills are being pre-filed, including fisheries and education bills by Sen. Gary Stevens and Rep. Louise Stutes, both R-Kodiak.
Stevens is the prime sponsor of five education bills, including SB 20, related to reciprocity of teaching certificates, and one related to a seafood product development tax credit.
Stevens noted that much of his legislation was introduced last year, but many bills never made it out of committee and were reintroduced for the 2021 session after the novel coronavirus pandemic, and mounting fiscal concerns caused a change in priorities.
Three of four fisheries related bills from Stutes, who chairs the House Special Committee on Fisheries, were being prefiled on Friday, Jan. 15. They are all new to this session.
One bill being introduced by Stutes relates to regional fishery development associations and fees to be assessed on participating harvesters as an assessment based on the value of that fishery, to help with management of that fishery.
A second Stutes bill would limit the powers of certain unconfirmed members of the Alaska Boards of Fish and Game if the Legislature has not met in joint session to confirm or reject the governor’s appointees during a regular legislative session.
A third bill prefiled by Stutes calls for renaming the Alaska Marine Transportation Advisory Board as the Alaska Marine Highway Operations Board and calls on the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, in consultation with that operations board, to revise and update long-range plans for development and improvement of the Alaska Marine Highway System at least every three, rather than every five years.
A fourth Stutes bill addresses the issue registration of commercial vessels, which are currently faced with duplicate registration requirements with the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission.
The premise behind SB 20, the one “new” education bill filed by Stevens, is to lower barriers to entry, to address the teacher shortage in Alaska, and improve opportunities for teachers certified in other states to be able to more readily apply their teaching credentials in Alaska, so they can bring teachers here more quickly.
Stevens, a former college professor, is also the prime sponsor of legislation related to extending special education services, college credit for high school students, state-tribal compacts and reporting requirements of the Board of Regents of the University of Alaska. The last, SB 36, would require that the board of regents prepare and present to the legislative committees with jurisdiction over education a biennial report not later than the 30th day of the first session of each Legislature, describing efforts of the university to attract, train and retain qualified public school teachers.
The bill states specifically that the university report must include an outline of the university’s current and future plans to close the gap between known teacher employment vacancies in the state and the number of state residents who complete teacher training.
Also, not pre-filed yet, but forthcoming, an aide to Stevens said, is a bill similar to SB 182 from last year, to align Alaska tobacco laws with federal law, requiring minimum age to purchase and possess tobacco and E-cigarette products from 19 to 21 years of age.
