By John Lyon and Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The House voted Thursday to refer to voters a proposal to lower the threshold for issuing state bonds to attract major new industries to Arkansas.
The Senate, meanwhile, passed legislation to boost per-student funding for public schools by $69 million and to add the city of Marion to a West Memphis exemption to the state’s recently increased tobacco tax.
Senators defeated a bill that would write into law the prison system’s policy against shackling pregnant inmates.
In a 98-0 vote, the House passed House Joint Resolution 1007 by House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway. The resolution would place on the 2010 general election ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to remove the current standards for issuing state bonds to attract so-called “superprojects” and would allow the Legislature to set new criteria.
A 2004 constitutional amendment authorizes the state to issue bonds for projects that will invest more than $500 million and create more than 500 jobs.
“It levels the playing field with many of our surrounding states” that do not have such a high threshold, Wills said.
The resolution goes to the Senate.
The House also approved, 94-0, HB 1060 by Rep. Tracy Pennartz, D-Fort Smith, which would provide an investment tax credit for projects in central business improvement districts. The credit would be equal to 20 percent of up to the first $1 million of a project’s cost.
In a single year, the state could award a maximum of $10 million in investment tax credits, with up to half of that amount going to projects in cities with a population under 50,000 and half going to projects in larger cities.
“This is really an economic development tool. It creates jobs (and) stimulates our downtown areas,” Pennartz said.
The bill goes to the Senate.
The House voted 99-0 to approve HB 2243 by Wills, a follow-up bill to legislation already signed into law that establishes the framework for Arkansas’ state-run lottery to fund college scholarships. The measure goes to the Senate.
Among other things, the bill would create a 16-member advisory council that would make recommendations to the state Department of Higher Education and the lottery commission. The bill also would clarify that the maximum salary the lottery director could receive is $354,000.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed, 35-0, Senate Bill 862 by Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, which would raise per-student funding for public schools from $5,719 to $5,905 next fiscal year. The bill also would authorize an additional $35 per student, an enhancement aimed at funding schools at a level higher than the amount the Legislature has determined is needed to provide an adequate education for Arkansas’ students.
The bill goes to the House.
The Senate also gave final legislative approval to HB 1942 by Rep. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, whose hometown is exempt from charging the recently enacted 56-cent increase in the state cigarette tax because it borders a state, Tennessee, that charges a lower tax than Arkansas’.
Ingram’s bill would extend the exemption to cities that adjoin border cities separated by a navigable river from a city in another state that is located in a metropolitan statistical area, with a population of at least 1 million. Only Marion meets the definition.
The bill passed 26-6 and goes to the governor.
Senators rejected, on a 13-14 vote, SB 839 by Sen. Mary Ann Salmon, D-North Little Rock, which would prohibit prison officials from restraining pregnant inmates during labor. It also would bar restraint during delivery or during transport to a medical facility. The measure would make exceptions if prison officials determine an inmate is a flight risk or to protect an inmate’s health and safety.
The Senate also passed two other House bills, HB 1706 to exempt from public scrutiny all procedures related to carrying out the death penalty in Arkansas except the chemicals used, and HB 1473 to require that a DNA sample be taken from anyone arrested on charges of murder, kidnapping or sexual assault.
HB 1706 passed 25-5 and goes back to the House for concurrence in a Senate amendment. HB 1473 passed 21-5 and goes to the governor.
