BENTONVILLE — Benton County’s justices of the peace are planning for next year’s session of the Legislature with a list of items they want to see addressed.
The Legislative Committee discussed issues ranging from liquor sales to confiscated firearms disposal at public auctions. State Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, attended the meeting to brief the group on legislative efforts and hear what the county’s new priorities are.
At A Glance
Legislative Wants
Benton County’s Legislative Committee on Tuesday reviewed items from the 2012 legislative packet and voted to retain most on the county’s wish list. Among the issues remaining from the 2012 list are:
Redistribution of the county’s road tax, amending the law that gives Bentonville, Rogers and Siloam Springs 90 percent of the revenue collected in those cities.
Reforming the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System to make the system sustainable and to cap the rate of money counties must provide.
Amend the law creating the district courts system so public defenders are paid by the prosecutor.
Allow property tax collection in the year the property is assessed.
Change the state’s election laws to allow no more than two special elections per year.
Source: Staff Report
Douglas said most of the items on the legislative agenda won’t be fully addressed until the 2015 session. Douglas said legislators have discussed how to handle the looming vacancy in the lieutenant governor’s office after Mark Darr resigns, as he has promised, over ethics violations.
“The session this year is a financial session,” Douglas said. “Other items can be taken up but only with a two-thirds vote of both houses. There’s been some talk about doing something about the lieutenant governor’s office, but that’s probably the only item.”
The most-discussed item at Tuesday’s meeting was increasing the amount the county receives for housing state prisoners in the county jail. Counties are paid $28 a day for each state prisoner they hold. The justices of the peace said that hasn’t changed for as long as any of them can recall.
“It’s been $28 since before I was on the court,” said District 13 justice of the peace Kurt Moore, the longest-tenured member of the court. “It’s been like that since the 90s.”
Douglas told the committee there has been discussion of a possible $5 per day increase, to be implemented in 2015. Douglas said legislators have also been told Gov. Mike Beebe is proposing the state open another 300 beds in the prison system and to bring the state closer to being current on its payments to the counties.
The committee voted to ask legislators to work on paying back money borrowed to pay unemployment benefits after the issue was raised by Mike Clifford of Bentonville during public comments.
Another new item would seek changes in state law requiring cities that annex areas where counties have improved roads to reimburse the county based on the value of the improvements.
Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the committee, said the Quorum Court will continue working on it’s agenda throughout 2014.
“We can talk about this in this committee or at any other meeting,” Allen said.