Legislature’s plate full for session’s final days
Arkansas legislative leaders aim to wrap up the regular session early next week, but they still have numerous issues to address.
On the to-do list are passing a general revenue budget for the coming fiscal year and considering a bill to scale back the list of places where Arkansans, with extra training, will be allowed to carry concealed firearms.
Lawmakers also will consider legislation on online retailers’ collecting taxes on sales and remitting the money to the state, and on requiring transgender people to use the public restrooms that correspond with the
sex listed on their birth certificates.
Another pending issue is whether to refer a third proposed constitutional amendment to voters in the 2018 general election.
The 91st General Assembly convened this year on Jan. 9.
Under House Concurrent Resolution 1010, adopted in February, lawmakers must recess by April 7 and adjourn by May 5. During that interval, they can reconvene to consider vetoes, correct errors and oversights, complete work on constitutional amendments and consider an extension of the regular session.
House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said Friday that he would like lawmakers to wrap up action on policy measures by the end of this week, and return April 3-4 for final votes on the state’s Revenue Stabilization Act, which distributes general revenue to state agencies and programs.
$5.4 BILLION BUDGET
Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said his goal is for lawmakers to have the proposed general revenue budget on their desks by late Monday and wrap up action on the following Monday.
“I wouldn’t say things are finalized, but I think we’ll be able to do that fairly quickly on Monday,” Dismang said Friday, referring to legislative leaders and Gov. Asa Hutchinson budget negotiations.
Hutchinson said Friday, “We have a number of meetings on the [Revenue Stabilization Act], and we’ll continue to meet on Monday and later in the week, if needed.”
Dismang said the final budget proposal “will be close to what the governor’s proposal was.” With general revenue tax collections running short of forecast so far in fiscal 2017, there will be no surplus funds available for General Improvement Fund projects earmarked by lawmakers and the governor, Dismang noted. Fiscal 2017 ends June 30. The budget discussions are for fiscal 2018.
In November, Hutchinson proposed a fiscal 2018 budget of $5.48 billion — a $153 million increase over the fiscal 2017 budget, with most of the increase going to the state Department of Human Services. He also proposed using $100 million of an accumulated surplus of $229.4 million from previous years as one-time money for the state’s share of public school facility funding; $90 million for one-time funding for the Medicaid program; and the rest for other programs.
Among other things, Hutchinson said, “We are looking at what we can put into part of the [general revenue] budget itself versus a one-time plug of money.” He and legislative leaders want to reduce the reliance on onetime funding for ongoing programs.
Hutchinson hasn’t decided whether to adjust general revenue forecasts for fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2018, said his spokesman J.R. Davis.
The governor also said he wants to fill lawmakers in on how the state will raise nearly $50 million in matching funds to obtain $200 million in federal highway dollars available this fall under a recent federal highway law. Earlier this month, he announced that the state would be able to meet its match with the help of about $20 million from the state Highway and Transportation Department.
Last year, the Legislature passed his highway plan that uses as matching funds 25 percent of general revenue surpluses, $20 million a year from state treasury interest earnings starting in fiscal 2018, and several million dollars a year in reallocated funds.
CONCEALED-CARRY CHANGES
The Senate approved legislation Thursday that would provide exemptions in the state’s new law on the concealed
carry of firearms.
On Wednesday, Hutchinson signed House Bill 1249 by Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, which allows concealed-carry permit holders, if they have undergone eight hours of training, to take their guns into many public places, including the state Capitol and onto college campuses.
The Senate-approved Senate Bill 724, filed by Dismang, seeks to provide exemptions in the new law for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the State Hospital and locations that host intercollegiate athletic events.
SB724 is backed by Hutchinson but is opposed by the National Rifle Association.
HB1249 is now Act 562 and will become effective Sept. 1. It requires the Arkansas State Police to develop rules for a firearms training program within 120 days of that effective date.
Gillam said he plans to assign SB724 to the House Judiciary Committee.
“I will personally run it on the House side,” said Dismang. “I am not going to put any odds on [the bill passing] at this point. I hope they all look at it with the intent of the bill and what the language actually is.”
Collins said Friday, “I am hopeful we will get an amendment on the House side that senators, House members and the governor can support.”
He said he wants to make sure that guns are not carried into public day care centers, nursery schools and pre-kindergartens, and that there are penalties for people carrying weapons when they are intoxicated. He said he’s researching whether Act 562 runs afoul of NCAA regulations.
“There are several considerations here,” Collins said.
ONLINE SALES TAXES
Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, said Friday that he plans to ask the House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Tuesday to approve his Senate Bill 140. The bill seeks to persuade out-ofstate companies that have no physical presence in Arkansas to collect and remit taxes on their Arkansas sales. Such taxes are called use taxes and are rarely paid by Arkansans.
Last month, the committee declined to recommend the bill two times in a 10-day period. The committee balked at amendments proposed by House Democratic leader Michael John Gray of Augusta to earmark $25 million for certain programs, including pre-kindergarten programs.
Files said whether the bill clears the committee Tuesday “all depends on who is in the [committee] room and how motivated they are to vote for it.”
The 20-member committee consists of 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats. The full House has 76 Republicans and 24 Democrats.
Gray said Friday, “We have major concerns about where the money [raised by the bill] will go, and there is still some sentiment that it’s a tax increase.
“I don’t think it is going to be up to just Democrats on whether this bill gets out [of committee], and then there is a whole battle on the floor [if the bill goes before the full House],” he said.
Four days after the Senate approved SB140, Amazon announced Feb. 10 that it would collect taxes on its sales to Arkansans beginning March 1 and remit the money to the state. State officials have said they don’t know how much money that will be.
BATHROOM BILL
Legislation on the socalled bathroom bill has been stalled in the eight-member Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would require people to use the restrooms and showers, at schools and other state and local facil-
ities, that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificates.
Senate Bill 774 is sponsored by Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, R-Pocahontas. She could not be reached for comment by telephone or email Friday.
“We can [get the bill through the] committee if we get all the votes in there and the chair allows the bill to run,” said Family Council President Jerry Cox, who supports the bill.
“We have five [votes] that have been promised and promised again.
“Even though we have five votes in the committee, we would be hard-pressed to get five people to sign it out right now” and recommend that the Senate pass it, Cox said Friday.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, said Friday that he doesn’t know whether there will be enough votes to get the legislation out of committee.
“We will have meetings, and I can’t predict,” he said. Collins-Smith “had opportunity to run the bill, so I can’t be responsible that her votes aren’t there, but she will have another opportunity to run the bill.”
PROPOSED AMENDMENT
Gillam said he’ll ask the House on Monday to approve his House Joint Resolution 1003 to refer to voters
his proposed constitutional amendment.
The amendment would make it more difficult to change the state constitution.
“I feel pretty good about its chances in the House,” he said Friday. “I am not sure where we are at with senators yet. They have had their plate full.”
Dismang said he generally
supports Gillam’s proposed constitutional amendment, but he wants to study it more closely.
The proposal would require that petitions to get a measure on a statewide ballot be submitted — with the required number of signatures — 180 days before a election instead of four months before. The proposed amendment
covers constitutional amendments, initiated acts and referendums.
Also to get an amendment on the ballot would require signatures gathered from at least 25 counties, instead of the current 15. And, both chambers of the General Assembly would have to pass a resolution with two-thirds majorities, instead of a simple
majority, to get an amendment on the ballot.
At the polls, 60 percent of voters would have to approve a constitutional amendment for it to pass. The current threshold for passage is a simple majority.
This session, the Legislature has already referred two constitutional amendments to voters in the 2018 general
election.
One seeks to limit certain damages in civil lawsuits and attorneys’ contingency fees, and to allow the Legislature to rewrite the state Supreme Court’s rules.
The other seeks to require that the Legislature pass a law that voters must present photo identification for their votes to count in elections.