Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Milk bill on list legislators OK
Saturday’s session a mixed bag
The sale of unpasteurized whole milk would become legal in Arkansas under legislation that cleared the state House of Representatives in a rare Saturday session.
A bill creating a division in the secretary of state’s office to investigate election fraud sailed through the state Senate, and the Senate balked at allowing a Senate committee to reconsider its decision advancing legislation that would cut maximum weekly unemployment benefits.
The House and Senate convened Saturday, the 83rd day of the 2013 legislative session, in a bid to complete the Legislature’s business by April 19.
Calling it a vote for “freedom,” state representatives disregarded health concerns and approved the sale of unpasteurized milk.
House Bill 1536, sponsored by Rep. Randy Alexander, R-Springdale, would allow dairy farmers to sell up to an average of 500 gallons of unpasteurized milk
per month. Sellers would be required to post signs and put labels on the bottles that say the milk is unpasteurized, has not been inspected by the Department of Health and that the consumer assumes all liability for health problems that may arise from drinking it. It passed 60-19. Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway, said the bill was a “freedom issue.” Other states, including Oklahoma, allow the sale of raw milk and have not had significant problems, he said.
“Folks, I’m asking you today to vote for freedom, to allow Arkansans to have that freedom to purchase raw milk if they so desire,” Meeks said.
Advocates say raw milk, which hasn’t been superheated to kill bacteria, tastes better than store-bought milk and is healthier.
But Rep. Stephen Magie, D- Conway, said raw milk “carries significant risk,” including tuberculosis and listeria. He said pasteurization was “one of the greatest public health issues in this country and in the world.”
“It’s not safe. It’s a product that has been shown in many, many clinical studies to not be safe,” Magie said
VOTER-FRAUD UNIT
In a 30-5 vote, the Senate approved Senate Bill 719 by Sen. Bryan King, R- Green Forest, to create a Voter Integrity Unit under Republican Secretary of State Mark Martin.
The unit would include the director of the secretary of state’s elections division or his designee, the general counsel for the secretary of state, one employee in the elections division, and one state Capitol police officer.
Under the bill, the unit would be required to investigate any complaint of election irregularity or alleged violation of election law that has been filed with the state Board of Election Commissioners, and would forward its findings to the secretary of state.
The secretary of state would present the unit’s report to the board, which would dismiss the complaint, issue a letter of caution or refer the matter to federal or state prosecutors. The board’s decisions would also be forwarded to the House and Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committees.
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
The Senate rejected Sen. David Burnett’s request to return a bill to reduce maximum weekly unemployment benefits from $ 451 to $ 325 to the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.
Burnett, a Democrat from Osceola, said he signed a piece of paper “being a nice guy” to allow Senate Bill 875 by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, to clear the eight-member Senate committee with five votes.
But, he said, he was “sorry” about his decision, after he read the bill and realized that he couldn’t support it.
So he asked the Senate to refer the bill back to the Senate committee for what he called “a proper vote.”
But Burnett fell four votes of obtaining the required 18 votes in the 35-member Senate to send the bill back to the Senate committee. The Senate voted 14-9 on his request.
Hester told the Senate public health committee Wednesday that the money saved by cutting unemployment benefits should stay with employers who can use it to hire new employees or purchase equipment. He said Arkansas’ maximum is higher than surrounding states.
Ron Calkins with the Department of Workforce Services’ Unemployment Insurance Administration told committee members that the average benefit in Arkansas over the past few quarters was $285 to $290 and that neighboring states offer similar unemployment benefits.
BALLOT DESTRUCTION
In a 35-0 vote, the Senate approved SB961 by King to bar a person from knowingly destroying a ballot or ballot-related materials until two years after the election is certified and only if the county board of election commissioners orders the destruction.
Violators would face prison sentences of one to six years and fines of up to $10,000.
NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE
In a 23-2 vote, the Senate approved SB874 by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, to specify that a person commits negligent homicide if he causes the death of another person as a result of negligently operating a vehicle, an aircraft or a watercraft “while fatigued.”
A person who goes 24 hours without any sleep or who falls asleep after being awake 24 straight hours would be considered
“fatigued.”
SCHOLARSHIPS
The Senate sent to the governor a bill that would force lottery- financed Academic Challenge Scholarship recipients to forfeit the remainder of their scholarships if they fail to earn any academic credit hours in a semester in which they received a scholarship.
Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, said House Bill 1489 would save the state about $365,000 by allowing the state to stop the flow of money to people who are “purposely working the system with no intent of coming back to school or going to school for the proper reason.”
RETIREMENT CONTRIBUTIONS
The House voted 58-22 for a bill that would allow the board of trustees of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System to raise the employer contribution rate to help reduce its projected 100-yearplus payback period for its unfunded liabilities.
Senate Bill 162, sponsored by Sen. Eddie Cheatham, D- Crossett , would allow the trustees to increase the amount of employee payroll charged to system employers from 14 percent to 15 percent. It also would require that any employer rate increase be paid from funds appropriated to the state Department of Education.
Rep. Duncan Baird, R-Lowell, who is co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said that if the retirement system raises the contribution rate, it would be financed from the state’s general revenue. But, he said, he has been advised that the rate increase would not be required until fiscal 2016 and suggested that the House send the bill to be studied during the interim.
Rep. Homer Lenderman, D- Brookland, said the bill would simply give the trustees another option and didn’t mean “someone would write a check.”
House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, told reporters after the House adjourned that he did not send the bill to the Senate because he’s concerned about its possible effects on the state budget. He said he would meet with the “interested parties” on Monday before sending the measure.
NONPARTISAN PROSECUTORS
The Senate State Agencies Committee approved a bill that would create nonpartisan elections for prosecuting attorneys.
House Bill 1855, sponsored by Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, would remove party affiliations from the prosecutors’ elections and send filing fees to a nonpartisan fund, some of which would be used to pay salaries for trial court assistants.
Rep. Nate Steel, D-Nashville, who is a co-sponsor of the bill, said it is an “unnatural thing” for prosecutors to be partisan. He said most prosecutors are not affiliated with a particular political party until they run for election.
POLLING PLACES
The Senate State Agencies Committee passed a bill that would clarify who is allowed in a polling area.
Rep. Ken Bragg, R-Sheridan, presented an amendment to his House Bill 1712, which the committee adopted, to remove sections that made it illegal to take a photo of a marked ballot. Critics said the provision would violate free-speech rights.
The bill clarifies that no one may enter a polling place on Election Day, except for voters, election officials, poll watchers, law enforcement and emergency personnel, a person “lawfully assisting” a voter, and people “with business in the polling place that is connected to the election.”
PUBLIC DEFENDER PANEL
The Joint Budget Committee approved Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux’s proposals to allow the Arkansas Public Defender Commission to have three more attorneys. If enacted, the prosecutor coordinator’s office would also get three more deputy prosecutors in fiscal 2014. The new employees would be authorized in SB86 and SB155, respectively.
The state’s budget administrator, Brandon Sharp, said the governor’s budget team declined to recommend that the Legislature authorize the creation of these six positions because it would cost the state’s Central Services Fund about $600,000 a year.
But Lamoureux, an attorney who works part time for the commission, said the Legislature has increased the workload of the commission and prosecutor coordinator’s office by creating new crimes and increasing the penalties for certain offenses without authorizing new positions for the commission and office.
He said it’s more efficient for the commission to hire additional attorneys as fulltime state employees rather than contracting with private attorneys.
TRIAL-COURT ASSISTANTS
The Joint Budget Committee voted to strike what amounted to 10 percent raises for certain trial-court administrative assistants from SB157.
Co-chairman Sen. Larry Teague, D- Nashville, said the committee previously approved an amendment to the bill to authorize certification rewards costing about $120,000 for these employees, “but it turns out it was basically a 10 percent raise for all of those employees.” SB157 allows for 122 trial-court assistants.
“They will get whatever [cost-of-living adjustment] everybody else gets, but not the 10 percent raises,” Teague said.