July 04, 2002
Thursday - 12:45 am

Anchorage - Praising the "Year of the Veteran" package of legislative successes, Gov. Tony Knowles on Wednesday signed into law Senate Bill 2001, changing the Alaska Pioneers' Homes to Pioneers' and Veterans' Homes and temporarily allowing about 20 percent of the beds system-wide to be reserved for veterans who meet qualifications for admission. Like other elderly Alaskans served by this system, veterans must be 65 years of age or older, and must have been Alaska residents for at least one year.

"For the first time, Alaska has developed a state proposal to provide state housing benefits to Alaska's aging veterans," said Knowles. "For the first time, the state has openly debated the issue and officially recognized the need for a home by the Legislature's unanimous, bipartisan passage of this bill."

The new law:

• Changes the name of the Alaska Pioneer's Home to the Alaska Pioneers' and Veterans' Homes;
• Temporarily allows about 20 percent of the beds in the system to be reserved for veterans who meet qualifications;
• Invites the chair of the Alaska Veterans Advisory Council and one other veteran to serve on the Alaska Pioneers' and Veterans' Advisory Home Board;
• Pay per diem to vets already in Pioneers' Home.

The bill, in its original version as House Bill 88 / Senate Bill 55, was included as part of Knowles' "2002 Year of the Veteran" package of five bills, all of which passed the Legislature. Other bills in the package named a bridge on the Glenn Highway in memory of Medal of Honor Recipient James Bondsteel; created the Alaska Veterans Memorial Endowment to fund small matching grants to maintain, repair, or renovate memorials to veterans and our military; authorized the sale of a half a billion dollars in bonds for veteran's home mortgages; and enacted the Alaska Veterans Advisory Council in state law.

"Perhaps now more than ever, Americans understand and appreciate what our military does for us every day, and what veterans did to protect our freedoms when they served," the governor said in a ceremony on Anchorage's Park Strip attended by dozens of veterans and their families.

Knowles said, "On Independence Day, as we reflect on this great nation and the enormous sacrifices that have made it so, let us salute the achievements of America's veterans and our success - together - in this, the Year of the Veteran."

Senate Bill 2001 included sunset clauses that repeal many of the bill's effects on July 1, 2005. Unless the sunset clauses are later repealed, these effects will revert back to current law. Senate Bill 2001 takes effect on July 4, 2002 (per AS 01.10.070(c)).

Source of News Release:

Office of the Governor
Web Site

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