{"id":32,"date":"2013-02-24T19:49:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T19:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2013\/02\/24\/thelegislative-session-is-nearing\/"},"modified":"2017-06-20T16:16:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T16:16:16","slug":"thelegislative-session-is-nearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2013\/02\/24\/thelegislative-session-is-nearing\/","title":{"rendered":"89th General Assembly – Week 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nThe
\nlegislative session is nearing the halfway point and 932 bills and joint
\nresolutions have been filed so far. While that sounds like a lot of legislation
\nthis is a significantly slower pace than in the previous session and assuming
\nit continues the 89th General Assembly will wind up filing nearly 20% fewer
\nbills this time.<\/p>\n

There
\nhave been 143 of the 932 bills enacted into law so far. Eighty-nine are Joint
\nBudget Committee bills and represent the 2013-2015 budgets for state agencies
\nand departments. None of the remaining 54 bills represent major
\nbusiness-related legislation and only a few of the Acts have received much in
\nthe way of press coverage. By far, the leading headline-grabber was the bill
\nthat allowed concealed handguns to be carried inside churches, which is now Act
\n67.<\/p>\n

\nAll the signs are there that the session will
\nbegin to consider some of the major business issues of the session soon. The
\nArkansas Economic Development Commission delivered the official report
\nrequesting legislative approval of the $125 million in state support for the
\nBig River Steel project last week. This starts the twenty-day clock for either
\napproval or denial of state support for the $1 billion superproject. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe
\nmost anticipated pre-session issue – Medicaid expansion – has seen some
\nmovement this week as well. Governor Beebe met with federal officials to
\ndiscuss a partial expansion of the Medicaid program in Arkansas and Republicans
\nannounced the hiring of a consultant to provide information on cost and
\nbenefits of expansion.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nFinally,
\nthe past week saw the final anticipated piece of tax reform legislation filed
\nwhen Representative Charlie Collins submitted a bill, currently without any
\ndetails, that will likely propose a reduction in the state’s income tax rates.
\nThis bill filing might signal a willingness of the General Assembly to begin
\nconsidering which tax cuts might be feasible and, if so, how much the state can
\nafford to cut.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThere are four main tax
\ncut types that seem realistic options for consideration.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nGrocery Tax – one of Governor Beebe’s goals is to
\neliminate the state tax on groceries. Since 2006, the state’s grocery tax has
\nbeen reduced from 6% to 1.5%. SB135<\/a>
\nwould elminate the remaining 1.5% if certain revenue conditions are met and
\nwhen select state spending on bond payments and other extraordinary items are
\nphased out.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIncome Tax – Representative Charlie Collins (R,
\nWashington County) has long advocated for reducing the state’s income tax,
\nwhich kicks in the highest bracket at just $33,200 in income. While the bill, HB1442<\/a>,
\nis only in shell form at this time, in the past Collins has recommended that
\nthe income tax reductions be phased-in based on revenue increases to reduce the
\nimpact to the state’s current budget. This would require the state to maintain
\nthe flat budgets until the entire reduction is enacted, which might be several
\nyears depending upon revenue growth.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nAgriculture
\n& Manufacturing Taxes – There are nearly ten separate bills seeking to
\nexempt equipment, supplies or utilities from state sales tax. These items range
\nfrom utilities used in agricultural structures like chicken houses, baling wrap
\nfor cotton and timber equipment to utilities and replacement parts for
\nmanufacturers. The Chamber endorses eliminating the sales tax on utilities and
\nrepair\/replacement parts and equipment for manufacturers. More on that below.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nBusiness
\nTaxes – There are two major business tax cuts to be considered this session.
\nThe first is a reduction in the capital gains tax assessed on the sale of
\nArkansas investments and property. A similar bill passed the House in 2011, but
\ndid not pass in the Senate. The bill has been refiled and will likely be
\ndiscussed in detail, although it doesn’t have the champion in the current
\nlegislature that it has had in the past. The other major business tax cut would
\ndouble to ten years how long businesses can carryforward prior year losses to
\noffset current profits. Many states have even longer carry-forward policies so
\nArkansas’ current five-year restriction is much too short.<\/div>\n

\nAs
\nmentioned above, the Chamber strongly supports two of the tax reductions under
\nconsideration and we encourage you to join us in advocating for their passage
\nin the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\nHB1218<\/a>
\n– Eliminates the state sales tax on utilities used by manufacturers. Only one
\nof our surrounding states tax manufacturer’s utilities, which places Arkansas
\nat a competitive disadvantage in both recruitment and retention of
\nmanufacturers. In order to have a diverse economy, Northwest Arkansas must
\ncontinue to support and protect its manufacturers by creating an operating
\nenvironment that allows them to be the most competitive in the world. This bill
\ncontinues a steady reduction in this tax and improves our ability to recruit
\nand retain jobs.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nSB334<\/a>
\n– Eliminates the sales tax on parts used to repair or replace equipment used by
\nmanufacturers. This reduction is important to retain industry in Northwest Arkansas
\nsince many of our local manufacturers not only have competitors from around the
\nworld, they also have other facilities in the United States When a company is
\nlooking to expand production or make their facilities more efficient we want
\nthem to choose their Northwest Arkansas location to improve and expand instead
\nof moving production to somewhere less costly. Reducing the sales tax on repair
\nand replacement parts and equipment gives the state an advantage that might
\nsave hundreds if not thousands of existing jobs. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nIf you
\nwant more information on how HB1218 or SB334 might benefit your business please
\ncontact Michael@RogersLowell.com<\/a>. Also, we need your assistance to make sure legislators
\nunderstand the potential benefits of these bills. Please reply to this email if
\nyour business would be positively impacted by a reduction in the tax on
\nutilities and repair\/replacement parts. <\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The legislative session is nearing the halfway point and 932 bills and joint resolutions have been filed so far. While that sounds like a lot of legislation this is a significantly slower pace than in the previous session and assuming it continues the 89th General Assembly will wind up filing nearly 20% fewer bills this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[31,33,42,43,10,44],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chambernews","tag-89th-general-assembly","tag-arkansas-state-legislature","tag-michael-lindsey","tag-northwest-arkansas","tag-rogers","tag-taxes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8RhO8-w","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","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=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}