By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK – Legislators are expected to get their first look this week at Gov. Mike Beebe’s proposed 56-cents a pack increase in the state cigarette tax to fund a new statewide trauma system and other health programs.
Also this week, the third of the 87th General Assembly, a Senate-approved bill to make aggravated cruelty to a dog, cat or horse a felony on first offense is due for debate in a House committee.
With committee consideration of Beebe’s proposed penny reduction in the state sales tax on groceries likely a week away, focus this week will be on the debut of one of the most anticipated pieces of legislation of the session — the proposed funding source for the governor’s $88 million health care package.
Rep. Gregg Reep, D-Warren, is expected to file the bill Monday, and he and Beebe are scheduled to unveil the measure at a rally at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. The nationally renown facility would be one of two Arkansas hospitals designated as a Level 1 trauma center if funding for a statewide trauma system is secured.
House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, and Senate president pro tem Bob Johnson, D-Bigelow, also are expected to attend in support of the measure.
“Really all the stakeholders in this, legislators and folks in the health care community that will be helped by this,” will be at the rally, Wills said last week.
The legislation is expected to provide for a 56-cents a pack cigarette tax increase and a revision of how the state taxes smokeless tobacco.
The estimated $88 million in annual revenue the changes would generate would be used to fund not only a trauma system with a $30 million annual price tag, but also a variety of other health programs, along with the $3.5 million needed to operate a new satellite medical school campus in Fayetteville.
The House speaker acknowledged mustering the three-fourths majority vote necessary to get the tax proposal passed in the House will be difficult, but he said he believes it can be done.
“It’s going well,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of members that are taking the position that they need more information. We’ve had very few members that have said definitely not.
“An $88 million health care initiative for Arkansas is huge.”
The governor has said he would be open to slight changes in the proposal as long as all components of the health plan he has proposed are funded.
On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee is expected to discuss Senate Bill 77, the animal cruelty bill.
The Senate passed the measure 34-0 last week with no discussion.
The co-sponsors of the bill, Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, and Rep. Pam Adcock, D-Little Rock, both said they are optimistic it will get through the House because at least 51 House members have signed on as co-sponsors.
Along with making aggravated cruelty to a dog, cat or horse a felony on first offense — the offense is a misdemeanor under current law — the bill also provides enhanced penalties for acts of animal cruelty committed in the presence of a child. It also authorizes only certified law enforcement officers to make arrests.
Under the proposal, a conviction of animal cruelty would be punishable by no more than six years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. The current misdemeanor offense is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel developed the proposal after more than nine months of discussions with a variety of groups, including the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation and the Arkansas Humane Society.
The Farm Bureau, which had opposed similar proposals in previous sessions, supports the measure because it protects regular farm practices and limits enforcement to only law enforcement officers.
Also this week, Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, is expected to present Senate Bill 55, which asks the state Department of Higher Education to list online the salaries of college administrators who earm more than $100,0000 a year.
The measure is on the Senate Education Committee’s agenda. That panel meets Wednesday.
SB 55 asks — but does not mandate — that the department post the salaries, including housing and vehicle allowance, deferred compensation and other fringe benefits, online by July 15 of each year.
Baker said he filed the measure, in part, because of the furor surrounding the resignation of former University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin last year.
Hardin stepped down after public disclosure of a secret $300,000 bonus he received from the UCA board and the lengths to which he went to keep the bonus quiet.
The requested salary information is available through the state Freedom of Information Act, but Baker said putting it online would make it accessible to more people.
Rep. Ray Kidd, D-Jonesboro, said he plans to present his bill to make it illegal to text or talk on a cell phone while driving on Tuesday to the House Public Transportation Committee.
He said he put off his presentation last week after having trouble getting witnesses into town to testify.
House Bill 1013 would designate texting and talking on a cell phone while driving primary offenses for which law enforcement officers could pull a driver over and issue a citation without a warning.
Other bills on committee agendas the could be discussed this week include:
- HB 1011 by Rep. Donna Hutchinson, R-Bella Vista, which would expand a law she sponsored in 2007 to prohibit taking a photograph or video under a person’s clothing without the person’s consent. The bill was presented last week in House Judiciary Committee but pulled after questions were raised. The committee meets Tuesday.
- HB 1058 by Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-Hensley, which would remove the statute of limitation for rape, kidnapping and first-degree battery. The measure has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee, which meets Tuesday.
- HB 1097 by Rep. Randy Stewart, D-Kirby, which would allow a person licensed to carry a concealed weapon to have that weapon in a vehicle on a college campus. The bill also has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee.
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Reporter John Lyon contributed to this report.
