House passes sales-tax holiday; Beebe fears hits to some services

— The state House of Representatives voted 90-3 Wednesday to create a sales-tax holiday for school supplies, a bill the governor said could lead to cuts in public services if it becomes law.

House Bill 1369 by Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, would create a “salestax holiday” one weekend each August for clothing, accessories, school supplies, school art supplies and school instructional material. No article of clothing costing more than $100 would be eligible for the tax break.

“Every state around us has a sales-tax holiday so it just to me makes sense [for Arkansasto have one],” Shepherd said. People in his district go to northern Louisiana or Texas to take advantage of tax holidays in those states, he said.

Rep. Marshall Wright, D-Forrest City, said he takes his family to Tennessee to take advantage of its tax holiday.

According to the Department of Finance and Administration, the bill would result in a revenue loss of $2.1 million in fiscal 2012 and a $710,000 loss to city and county tax collections.

Shepherd said he thinks the loss will be offset by thesales tax on purchases of nonexempt items that will be bought at the same time.

Gov. Mike Beebe said that because the revenue loss is not in his state budget proposal an equal amount will have to be cut from state services such as higher education.

He said the tax holiday and other tax-cut proposals have merit.

“They’re good ideas, everybody likes tax cuts. What I can’t support is what it does to a budget, and the more they pass, the more we adjust the budget,” he said.

On Tuesday the Senate approved three tax-cut bills that would reduce state revenue by about $34 million a year. The House has passed threethat would cut revenue even more.

EXECUTIVE PARDON

The House also approved a bill to require that people who were denied executive clemency wait an additional four years before they can ask again

Arkansas law currently requires a person sentenced to life in prison without parole to wait six years between requests.

HB1419 by Rep. Michael Patterson, D-Piggott, would require the requester wait 10 years. The House voted 86-6.

FUNERAL PROTESTS

A bill that would further restrict how close protesters can get to funerals passed the Senate 33-0. HB1207 by Rep. Randy Stewart, D-Kirby, now goes to the governor.

State law already requires protesters to stay at least 150 feet from any ingress or egress of a funeral from 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the funeral, during the funeral or for 30 minutes after the funeral. The bill would increase the distance to 300 feet.

Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, told senators that the bill is a response to protesters at funerals of soldiers.

Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., led by Fred Phelps Sr., has been protesting at services for military personnel across the nation for more than five years now as part of the group’s belief that the war deaths of troops is God’s punishment for the nation’s acceptance of homosexuality. Protesters often carry signs with slogans such as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”

Almost all 50 states have restrictions on funeral protests, according to the First Amendment Center.

SUBPOENA POWER

The Senate approved Senate Bill 262 by Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould, to specify that the attorney general has subpoena power in “criminal matters” in which the interests of the state are involved or may become involved before any tribunal, board or commission.

Under existing law, the attorney general has subpoena power in litigation in which the interests of the state are involved or may become involved.

Thompson said Attorney General Dustin McDaniel plans to start a cyber-crimes investigative unit in his office and the legislation is aimed at allowing the office to investigate such crimes.

ABORTION BILL

McDaniel said in an opinion requested by Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, that an amendment to her legislation that would bar health insurance policies offered through insurance exchanges under the federal health-care law from offering coverage for abortions except to save the life of the woman is constitutional.

The amendment, added to the bill by a House committee, would allow abortion coverage for rape and incest.

McDaniel said Bledsoe’s original version of SB113 and its amended version attempt to exercise a provision of the federal law that allows each state to decide whether the private insurers participating in that insurance exchangemay cover abortion services.

Amendment 68 to the Arkansas Constitution requires that no public funds be used to “pay for any abortion, except to save the mother’s life,” he wrote. “You seem to be concerned that Amendment 68 somehow renders amended SB113 unconstitutional...this is not the case.”

McDaniel said Amendment 68 prohibits the use of state money except to save of the woman’s life, but neither version of SB113 purports to appropriate state money for abortions. Nothing in the federal law requires states to fund abortions of any kind, he said.

Bledsoe said late Wednesday that she hadn’t read the opinion and would comment on it today.

FLUORIDE

A bill to require more water systems in Arkansas to fluoridate cleared the Senate’s Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee. Senate Bill 359 by David Johnson, DLittle Rock, would require the state Board of Health to adopt rules for the fluoridation of systems serving at least 5,000 people and requirements and procedures for maintaining permissible concentrations of fluoride.

But a system wouldn’t be required to fluoridate until funds sufficient to pay capital startup costs for fluoridation equipment have become available from any source other than tax revenue or service revenue regularly collected by the company, corporation or government agency that ownsor controls the system.

Johnson told the committee that Delta Dental Foundation has pledged $500,000 to pay for the cost of capital equipment for water systems.

A system for a city in this state that receives its water supply from a communityin another state wouldn’t be required to comply with the bill until a substantially similar fluoridation program is enacted for the system of the community in another state. Johnson said this provision provides an exemption for Texarkana.

Robert Mason of Fort Smith, president of the Arkansas State Dental Association, said about 1.7 million Arkansans already reap benefits of fluoridated water. Fluoridation is effective, economical, and safe, and can prevent up to 65 percent of tooth decay, he said.

The bill would affect 640,000 water customers in Arkansas, according to Ann Wright, a spokesman for the state Department of Health.

Johnson said the largest communities affected by the bill would be Hot Springs and Fort Smith, and suggested the state could save $1.1 million on Medicaid costs after the bill is fully implemented.

Other water systems affected by the bill include Alma, Booneville, Cherokee Village, Clay County, Cross County, Danville, De Queen, Dumas, Greenwood, Lawrence County, Little River County, Madison County, Magnolia, Marion County, McGehee, Mena, Mountain View, Ozark, Sardis, Ward, Warren and Watson Chapel, Wright said.

Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, said she had to purchase fluoridated water from Wal-Mart when she was pregnant.

But Joe Walls of Little Rock, a former water operator and wastewater operator, suggested mothers should buy unfluoridated water if the bill becomes law. “Chemicals affect people in different ways,” he said.

Delta Dental Foundation’s $500,000 pledge “isn’t going to touch the cost” of the bill, Walls said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/24/2011

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