newsminer.com

JUNEAU — Rep. David Guttenberg made his pitch Thursday for a statewide approach to getting high-speed Internet to more Alaskans.

The Fairbanks Democrat said he first started looking into Internet access when his own high-speed service provider left the state at the end of 2006, leaving him and other Fairbanks residents with nothing but slow dial-up service.

Guttenberg sent out a survey, went to high schools and studied access in the Fairbanks area. The stories he heard were dramatic — including people who couldn’t do business because they couldn’t get online and students who couldn’t do research.

“As a legislator, I could not open BASIS (a legislative Web site), do any research, look at my calendar,” he said Thursday, adding that it took more than a year before another company stepped in.

Guttenberg is proposing setting up a task force that would include lawmakers, government officials and service providers. The group would be charged with studying the level of access now, identifying barriers to increasing the level of service, and recommending solutions. He mentioned that lawmakers had set up a similar task force a few years ago but it hadn’t really gone anywhere.

This task force would be required to compile a preliminary report by January and a final report by the end of the year. Guttenberg said he didn’t imagine the group asking for state subsidies, and he suggested one recommendation could be directed toward federal regulators.

“I don’t have any preconceived ideas where this is going to go,” he said.

The task force would need about $33,000 for travel costs, according to the Legislative Affairs Agency, and would be terminated in 2010.

Guttenberg presented the bill to the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee.

Committee co-chair Rep. Anna Fairclough, R-Eagle River, held the bill over when the committee ran out of time. She said afterward she wanted to tweak it a little but generally liked the proposal.

During the hearing, a consultant specializing in high-tech product development and representatives from the Institute of the North and the Association of Alaska School Boards all spoke in favor of the bill.

Steve Smith, the chief information technology officer for the University of Alaska, also offered his support.

“Broadband technology is as critical to us in this age as roads, power and water treatment are for all our communities,” he said.

Real ID Act

A resolution sponsored by Rep. John Coghill, R-North Pole, calling on Congress to repeal the federal Real ID Act had its first hearing Thursday in the House State Affairs Committee.

The resolution notes that states have long been in control of issuing driver's licenses. It states that the new federal law would place a “huge” fiscal burden on the state, and that noncompliance with the law would ultimately penalize individual Alaskans — rather than the state government — by placing restrictions on travel. It also claims that the federal government has not shown the Real ID Act will secure U.S. borders and protect citizens against terrorism.

The resolution, HJR 19, was moved out of committee. It now goes to the House Rules Committee, where bills are scheduled for floor votes.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, would block the state from putting any money toward implementing the federal law. That bill, SB 202, is before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In sponsor statements, both lawmakers describe the Real ID Act as infringing upon state and personal rights.

Supervisors end holdout

The supervisory unit of the Alaska Public Employees Association has voted to ratify a new contract with the state after more than a year of negotiations, according to a news release from the union.

The contract includes a retroactive 5.5 percent pay increase and pay increases of 3 percent in each of the next two years.