By: James Brooks, Alaska Beacon

Under a new law, Alaska boroughs and cities will be able to offer property tax breaks to first-time homebuyers, new trailer parks and homeowners who convert short-term rentals into long-term rentals.

Those breaks and more are included in House Bill 13, which became law this week after Gov. Mike Dunleavy declined to veto it. Eight other bills also became law without the governor’s signature.

The new laws:

• mandate that foster children receiving psychiatric treatment receive a court hearing within one week if they’re detained; 
• require specific education for deaf children; 
• allow Alaskans to bet on the amount of snow that falls on a particular spot; 
• enable a variety of out-of-state medical providers to work in Alaska; 
• update the rules for the Legislature’s ethics investigations;
• establish permanent directors for the state’s big-game hunting board and its board of dental examiners;
• renew and extend a tax credit for commercial fishermen and processors;
• and expand the state’s agricultural tax credit to non-food growers like flower farms and hay farms (but not marijuana), as well as farmers who are registered as S corporations.

The largest of the new laws, House Bill 110, was written by Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, to include a licensing compact that allows out-of-state social workers to practice in Alaska and meet a demand for services.

In the Senate, it was amended with four other licensing compacts — ones covering psychologists, physician assistants, doctors and emergency medical service workers. Under the terms of these multi-state compacts, someone who is licensed in one compact state can practice in other states.

The compacts give Alaska a bonus in the scoring for grants offered under a new multibillion-dollar federal program, but they could reduce the number of practitioners who live in Alaska year-round because they would more easily allow people to live outside Alaska but work here.

A similar nursing compact failed to pass the Legislature this year.

The pace of gubernatorial action is unusually fast and concentrated this year. 

Legislators are meeting in special session, and under the Alaska Constitution, the governor has “fifteen days, Sundays excepted” to act on a bill if it is sent to him while the Legislature is in session.

In addition, lawmakers have deliberately transmitted bills to the governor on a concentrated schedule that would allow them to hold veto override votes during the special session.

The bills approved Monday include six from the House and three from the Senate. 

The Senate bills were not due back until Thursday, but the governor sent letters to the Senate Secretary’s office saying that he will allow them to become law without his signature.

Two other bills have due dates Thursday. One would reduce public disclosure for some Alaska Native corporations, and another would increase regulations on businesses that provide home care for the elderly. 

Twenty-five bills are due back from the governor next week.