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HOUSE BILL NO. 154
IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE - FIRST SESSION
BY REPRESENTATIVE CRONK
Introduced: 3/26/21
Referred: House Special Committee on Energy, Labor and Commerce
A BILL
FOR AN ACT ENTITLED
1 "An Act exempting certain low voltage projects from contractor and electrical
2 administrator requirements."
3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
4 * Section 1. AS 08.18.161 is amended to read:
5 Sec. 08.18.161. Exemptions. To the extent that this chapter governs
6 contractors, this chapter does not apply to
7 (1) an authorized representative of the United States government, the
8 state, or a political subdivision or agency of the state;
9 (2) an officer of a court when acting within the scope of office;
10 (3) a public utility operating under the regulations of the Regulatory
11 Commission of Alaska in construction, maintenance, or development work incidental
12 to its own business;
13 (4) a construction, repair, or operation incidental to the discovering or
14 producing of petroleum or gas, or the drilling, testing, abandoning, or other operation
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1 of a petroleum or gas well or a surface or underground mine or mineral deposit when
2 performed by an owner or lessee;
3 (5) the sale or installation of finished products, materials, or articles of
4 merchandise that are not actually fabricated into and do not become a permanent,
5 fixed part of a structure;
6 (6) construction, alteration, or repair of personal property;
7 (7) a person who only furnished materials, supplies, or equipment
8 without fabricating them into, or consuming them in the performance of, the work of
9 the contractor;
10 (8) an owner who contracts for a project with a registered contractor;
11 (9) a person working on an existing structure on that person's own
12 property, whether occupied by the person or not, and a person working on that
13 person's own existing residence, whether owned by the person or not;
14 (10) an owner or tenant of commercial property who uses the owner's
15 or tenant's own employees to do maintenance, repair, and alteration work on that
16 property;
17 (11) an owner who acts as the owner's own contractor and in doing so
18 performs the work independently or hires workers or subcontractors, purchases
19 materials, and, as such, sees to the paying for all labor, subcontractors, and materials;
20 in this case, the owner shall be limited to construction of one home, duplex, triplex,
21 four-plex, or commercial building every two years; an owner who advertises the
22 structure under construction for sale or sells the structure during the period of
23 construction or within two years after the period of construction begins shall file, on
24 forms provided by the department, a notice indicating that the owner is not engaged in
25 a business for which the owner is required to register as a contractor under this
26 chapter; for the purposes of this paragraph, construction begins on the date that is the
27 earlier of when the owner
28 (A) begins the actual construction work; or
29 (B) enters into an agreement with another person for the other
30 person to provide labor, to act as a subcontractor, or to provide materials for
31 the construction;
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1 (12) a person performing construction work incidental to farming,
2 dairying, agriculture, horticulture, stock or poultry raising, mining, logging, fishing,
3 clearing, or other work on the land in rural districts for fire prevention purposes, or
4 access road building, unless the person is a licensee;
5 (13) work on a low voltage project under one or more contracts,
6 the aggregate contract price of which is less than $10,000; this exemption does
7 not apply when the work is only a part of a larger or major operation, whether
8 undertaken by the same or a different contractor, or when the work is divided
9 into contracts of amounts less than $10,000 for the purpose of evasion of this
10 chapter or otherwise; a contractor who performs work priced at $2,500 or more
11 under this exemption shall maintain public liability and property damage
12 insurance with coverage in at least the amounts set out in AS 08.18.101; in this
13 paragraph,
14 (A) "aggregate contract price" includes labor, materials,
15 and other items for all contracts entered into for a project;
16 (B) "low voltage" means 56 volts or less.
17 * Sec. 2. AS 08.40.190(b) is amended to read:
18 (b) AS 08.40.005 - 08.40.200 do not apply to a person engaged in
19 (1) the manufacture, maintenance, or repair of electrical apparatus or
20 equipment;
21 (2) electrical work, the cost of which does not exceed $5,000,
22 involving residences or small commercial establishments in communities that
23 (A) have a population of under 500 according to the latest
24 available federal or state census or other census approved by the department;
25 or
26 (B) are over 50 miles by air or water transportation from the
27 business place of an electrical administrator licensed under AS 08.40.005 -
28 08.40.200;
29 (3) electrical installation on residential property that is owned by the
30 installer or a member of the installer's immediate family and not intended for sale at
31 the time of making the installation;
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1 (4) the operation, maintenance, or repair of a television or radio
2 broadcasting system and the installation of a radio broadcasting system under 500
3 watts input power except for A.C. power supply and wiring;
4 (5) the installation, maintenance, and repair of elevators so long as the
5 work is performed by an agent or employee of the elevator industry and is confined to
6 the elevator control system, which system does not include the power supply, wiring,
7 and motor connection;
8 (6) the operation, maintenance, and repair of telephone and
9 intercommunication facilities;
10 (7) the installation, maintenance, and repair of fire alarm, intrusion
11 alarm, or other low voltage signaling systems of 48 volts to ground or less;
12 (8) the maintenance or repair of diesel electric engines installed on
13 heavy construction equipment, either in a shop or on a job site;
14 (9) the installation in a commercial water well of the submersible
15 pump motor and the wiring to the well pump system controls if the controls are
16 outside a building or a structure;
17 (10) the installation in a noncommercial water well of the submersible
18 pump motor and the wiring to the well pump system controls;
19 (11) electrical maintenance or repair work if the work is performed by
20 the person as an employee of an owner or tenant of commercial property as part of the
21 employee's work duties with respect to the property but is not offered or performed as
22 a service to the public;
23 (12) the installation, maintenance, and repair of low voltage
24 telecommunications, broadband transmission, and video services; in this
25 paragraph,
26 (A) "broadband transmission" means a transmission that
27 has a large range of radio frequencies that can simultaneously transport
28 multiple signals and different types of signals;
29 (B) "low voltage" means 56 volts or less.
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Statutes affected: HB0154A, AM HB 154, introduced 03/26/2021: 08.18.161, 08.18.101, 08.40.190