Arkansas lawmakers gathered again this week in Little Rock for what should be a quick in-and-out session.
That doesn't mean the business they are about is insignificant.
The primary purpose for the gathering is to consider a bond issue aimed at attracting hundreds of new jobs and securing hundreds more in South Arkansas.
There are other items on the brief agenda for the special session, the first of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's administration; but the bond issue is front and center.
The beneficiary of the $87.1 million bond issue Hutchinson is recommending would be Lockheed Martin, a Maryland-based company competing for a defense contract to build a new line of vehicles for the U.S. Army and Marines.
The company has said it will build these joint light tactical vehicles, a successor to the military's Humvees, at its Camden plant over the next 25 years.
It would be Arkansas' first vehicle manufacturing plant, if what is being proposed pans out.
A cost-benefit analysis presented to lawmakers prior to the session suggests the state will net $16.3 million over the 25 years of the contract, assuming the project goes through and an estimated 55,000 of these military vehicles are produced in Camden.
Winning the $456.9 million Department of Defense contract would help keep 556 existing jobs at Lockheed Martin's Camden plant and create another 589 jobs by 2025, according to a report from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
Average pay for the new positions, the report said, would be $46,720 a year, growing to an average of $81,679 by 2040.
And, if the jobs don't materialize as promised, Lockheed Martin will have to pay back some of the incentives under the agreement being considered.
Importantly, the state would issue the bonds and make the money available to Lockheed Martin only if the company wins the defense contract. The state money would be used largely to improve equipment and infrastructure at the plant, although some would be dedicated to costs of financing the bond and for facilities at Southern Arkansas University Tech to help train future employees for the plant.
This is the kind of deal Arkansas voters presumably imagined when they gave lawmakers the authority to issue such bonds for "super projects."
Arkansas missed out on some other major economic development opportunities in the past but is arguably in a better competitive situation because of this authority.
And the potential economic development doesn't stop with Lockheed Martin's direct expansion.
The company will need parts and supplies, which might cause vendor companies to relocate here to meet that demand.
Arkansas voters granted this bonding authority back in 2004 through Amendment 82 to the state constitution. It limits the size of a bond issue to no more than 5 percent of the state's general revenue from the past fiscal year.
That could change. Arkansas voters will be asked in 2016 to remove the 5 percent limit. It is part of a lengthy constitutional amendment referred by the Legislature earlier this year.
The complicated proposal, which addresses other economic development issues, came out late in the regular session. It may or may not win favor with voters.
But the existing law, embodied in Amendment 82, will allow what Hutchinson is proposing now for Lockheed Martin.
This would be only the second time the state has funded a super project with a bond issue. The first happened in 2013, when lawmakers approved $125 million to finance the Big River steel mill being built in east Arkansas.
Because it was the first such project and because another steel mill nearby is a competitor, that bond issue was a bit more controversial.
So far, little opposition has been raised to the proposal lawmakers are considering this week for Lockheed Martin.
Again, the project is no slam dunk. Lockheed Martin must still best its competitors in the bidding for the defense contract to get the stars to align to create all these jobs in Camden.
Two other companies, Oshkosh Defense, based in Wisconsin, and AM General, based in Indiana, also want the contract to build the new military vehicle.
What those states will do, or have done, to get these jobs to their states isn't clear.
Arkansas is making its play this week.
Commentary on 05/27/2015