{"id":30,"date":"2013-03-26T04:40:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2013\/03\/26\/arkansas-general-assembly-winding-down\/"},"modified":"2017-06-20T16:16:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T16:16:16","slug":"arkansas-general-assembly-winding-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2013\/03\/26\/arkansas-general-assembly-winding-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas General Assembly – Winding Down?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nThe
\nlegislative session is rapidly winding down. Maybe quicker than anyone
\nimagined. More than a few people suggested that the General Assembly would
\nadjourn on April 5, which leaves just two weeks to either consider the
\nnearly 2,000 bills that remain on the table or disappoint a lot of legislators
\nwho didn’t have a chance to have their bill heard. Of course the General
\nAssembly won’t consider them all, but they do typically pass around fifty or
\nsixty percent of introduced bills so that would mean they would need to consider
\nand approve more than 900 bills before adjourning. No way that happens by April
\n5.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nOne
\nof the big stories for the past week was HB1418, which would have phased-in a
\ntransfer of sales taxes from vehicle-related sources (batteries, tires, car
\nsales) from the state’s general revenue to the Highway Department. As originally conceived the bill would have phased-in a
\ngradual transfer of this revenue so that in ten years the Highway Department
\nwould have had nearly $400 million per year in additional funding to pay for
\nmaintenance and construction. The Highway Department’s main funding source –
\nthe federal trust fund and state gas taxes – have been flat while the cost of
\nmaintaining and building new highways has skyrocketed. This disparity prompted
\nthe proposal to shift sales taxes to the Highway Department<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nGovernor Mike Beebe and the state’s institutions of
\nhigher education led a very spirited opposition to HB1418 because of their fears
\nthat any transfer of general revenue to the highway department would result in
\ncuts to universities and community colleges. A number of other advocacy groups
\njoined in the opposition and were able to strip away co-sponsors from the bill.
\nThe bill’s sponsor amended the legislation a number of times to reduce the
\npotential impact to higher education, but an acceptable compromise could not be
\nreached. The Transportation Committee heard the legislation on Thursday and the
\nnormally quiet committee was transformed into standing room only as supporters
\nand opponents took over an hour to argue the merits and drawbacks of the bill.\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe
\nbill required 11 votes to pass out of committee and on to full consideration by
\nthe House. After a roll call, the bill garnered ten yes votes – one short and
\nHB1418 failed to advance.<\/div>\n
\n <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nAlso
\nthis week, the legislature received a consultant’s report on the viability of
\nthe proposed Big River Steel project. The
\nHouse and Senate Agri\/Economic Development committees meet on Monday to discuss
\nthe report and make recommendations on incentives. The state is being asked to
\nissue $125 million in bonds to fund a $50 million loan to Big River Steel and
\nuse the remaining $75 million for site preparation and issuance costs.
\nThe state is also offering various sales tax
\nexemptions and income tax credits estimated at more than $200
\nmillion.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIn
\nreturn, Big River Steel will build a $1.1 billion steel facility in Osceola that
\nwill employ 525 people at an average wage of $75,000. The success of the
\nfacility depends in large part upon the global demand for steel. The report
\nprojects steel demand will increase by 8.7 million short tons a year and the new
\nplant has a capacity for more than 3 million short tons or approximately 1\/3 of
\nprojected increase in demand.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nSo
\nhow does the state benefit from this investment? The state will collect
\nadditional income taxes from the 525 jobs created, collect sales tax from
\npurchases made by the plant both during construction and operation and corporate
\nincome taxes from the company itself. The report projects that by investing
\n$125 million in bonds the state will likely recover their investment plus earn a
\nreturn of more than $50 million in sales, corporate and income taxes.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIf
\nthis “modest level of economic benefits,” as the report describes it, is enough
\nto prompt the state to issue the bonds we shall likely see next week.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThis
\nweek could also see an announced agreement on tax cuts. Media reports say
\nthat legislative leadership and the Governor’s office are hinting that an
\nagreement is close on up to $100 million in total tax cuts. With so many tax
\ncut proposals introduced (in the billions if all were approved) there appear to
\nbe a few that have the most support. The leaders seem to be cuts to grocery,
\nincome and manufacturing-related taxes.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThere is so much to be decided between now and the end of
\nthe session. They have to make a decision on Medicaid\/insurance expansion for
\nArkansans earning 138% or less of federal poverty limits, cobble together a
\nbudget and consider up to three potential constitutional amendments. I can’t
\nimagine a more frenzied finish to a legislative session than what the 89th is
\ngoing to experience.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIf you want to
\nsee a list of committees, their members and pending legislation you can find
\nthat information HERE<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The legislative session is rapidly winding down. Maybe quicker than anyone imagined. More than a few people suggested that the General Assembly would adjourn on April 5, which leaves just two weeks to either consider the nearly 2,000 bills that remain on the table or disappoint a lot of legislators who didn’t have a chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[32,34,38,39],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chambernews","tag-arkansas-general-assembly","tag-big-river-steel","tag-hb1418","tag-transportation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/157.jpg?fit=800%2C597","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8RhO8-u","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}