Governor touts amendments as boost

Gov. Asa Hutchinson is pushing for two amendments to the state's constitution that have economic development implications, he said Thursday at a luncheon for the state's economic development foundation.

One amendment would change the "powers of the governor" to allow the state's chief executive to remain in control of state government when he travels beyond the state's borders. Currently, the lieutenant governor is in control while the governor is out of state.

"When I'm on an economic development trip out of state or a trade mission, I don't want to lose the powers of the governor," Hutchinson said in an interview after the annual Arkansas Economic Development Foundation luncheon.

The second proposed amendment would allow the state to issue more bonds to land superprojects.

"We'll compete for [superprojects], but those are unpredictable totally," Hutchinson said. "I'm more focused on the everyday expansion of existing businesses in Arkansas as well as the less-than-superprojects that may add up to a great opportunity."

Amendment 82, the state's superproject amendment, allows the state to issue bonds for major projects to pay for infrastructure and other needs, such as land acquisition, site preparation and employee training. The first Amendment 82 project was Big River Steel, a $1.3 billion steel mill under construction near Osceola.

"This would allow us to maximize our superprojects and not be constrained and only have one or two existing at the same time because of funding constraints," Hutchinson said.

The amendment would expand the amount of bonds the state could issue to help finance such projects -- currently limited to 5 percent of state general revenue collected during the most recent fiscal year -- by removing the 5 percent limit, said Arkansas Economic Development Commission spokesman Scott Hardin.

The amendments, if approved for the ballot, would have to be ratified by state voters in the 2016 general election.

As recently as last week, legislators said they didn't expect any amendments would be proposed for the 2016 election because the state representatives and senators couldn't agree on which of the 41 possible amendments to refer to voters.

Hutchinson also introduced Mike Preston as the new executive director for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. For more than six years, Preston has been vice president of government relations for Enterprise Florida, the official economic development organization for Florida.

Hutchinson said he was drawn to Preston because of his experience in Florida and his success in job creation.

Florida was able to grow many of its jobs with existing businesses, Preston, 32, said.

But there is a sector of competitive jobs that Florida was able to attract and which Preston believes Arkansas can, too.

"If I'm in Alabama or Texas or Florida, I'm going to go to the place where it's the best business decision for me," Preston said of prospective businesses.

Danny Games, who was interim executive director of the commission until Preston was hired, will stay on as deputy director.

Arkansas has some distinct advantages over other states, said Randy Zook, chief executive officer of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

Arkansas has one of the lowest costs of doing business in the country, Zook said.

"And we have very competitive utility costs," Zook said. "Businesses that have a high utility component in their cost structure are attracted to Arkansas for that reason."

Arkansas, being centrally located, has a great distribution advantage with good transportation options, including river traffic, interstate highways and railroad access, he said.

Arkansas obviously won't win all the jobs it competes for, Zook said.

"But we can compete effectively," Zook said.

Business on 03/27/2015

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