Road-funding session called by Hutchinson

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Monday formally summoned Arkansas lawmakers for a special session starting at 9 a.m. Thursday to consider his revised highway funding plan and 14 other matters.

The Republican governor -- who on Jan. 19 proposed increasing state funding for highways by tapping surplus funds and reallocating other monies -- has jettisoned one aspect of his original plan, which would have phased in a reallocation of general revenue from sales and use taxes on new and used cars. Instead, his latest plan relies in part on using returns on the state's treasury investments.

The additional state highway funds would be used to match federal highway dollars that will become available in the fall.

In January, Hutchinson announced a plan that would raise about $47 million in fiscal 2017 by tapping $20 million of the state's unobligated surplus; using $20 million of the state's so-called rainy-day funds; using the $5.9 million that is now going to state central services, which includes money for constitutional offices; and reallocating $1.5 million from the state's sales tax collections from sales of new and used vehicles.

His revised plan would scrap that $1.5 million reallocation and instead use $1.5 million from the state's increased investment returns. The revised plan also would allow the transfer of $40 million from the state's rainy-day fund to a newly created Arkansas Highway Transfer Fund. In the fiscal session that ended last week, the Legislature authorized the transfer of $50 million in surplus funds into the rainy-day fund, which had about $31 million. Hutchinson's plan would still redirect $5.9 million a year that is now going to central services and comes from the state's half-percent sales tax that's devoted to highways.

In January, the governor projected that his plan would raise $64.1 million in fiscal 2018, $71.1 million in fiscal 2019, $76.1 million in fiscal 2020 and $81.1 million in fiscal 2021 for highways.

On the basis of his conversations with lawmakers, the governor "saw the general consensus was not to pull from general revenue [and] he found an alternative way to do it, so the governor decided to do it that way," his spokesman J.R. Davis said Monday. Davis said the governor's latest plan wouldn't change the projected figures by more than a few million dollars a year from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2021.

While Hutchinson's call for the special session doesn't preclude the introduction of legislation to raise taxes to increase state funding for highways, "we just believe that our bill has the most support and it is the only one that doesn't raise taxes," Davis said.

Hutchinson said in a written statement that "the purpose of this special session is to address our state's highway funding needs without the unnecessary burden of raising taxes on Arkansans.

"In addition, the Legislature will be asked to approve legislation to promote efficiency and effectiveness of state government operations as well as a few items that warrant immediate action," the governor said.

Among other things, such as education and levees, the governor's call for the special session includes eliminating the Workers' Compensation Commission's Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund, merging Crowleys Ridge Technical Institute into East Arkansas Community College, and transferring the Arkansas History Commission to the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said they expect the General Assembly to complete legislative business in three days -- Thursday, Friday and Monday.

"Not everything may pass, but we are done in three days," Gillam said.

He said he's heard the most from lawmakers about the governor's highway funding plan and about the legislation to ax the Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund. The latter is opposed by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

Gillam said the governor's highway funding plan has enough votes in the House to be approved.

Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, and Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, said they will each sponsor Hutchinson's highway funding bill in their respective chambers.

"This seems the most likely game in town to pass to get these federal matching funds" of $200 million a year, Douglas said. Gillam said he'll probably assign Douglas' bill to either the House Rules Committee or House Revenue and Taxation Committee based on the contents of the legislation.

Dismang said he'll leave it up to Senate legal counsel Steve Cook to decide what committee should get Hester's bill, saying he's never directed Cook on where to assign a bill.

Dismang said the governor's plan in Hester's bill is the only one with enough support to clear the Senate.

Hester said he expects his bill will be assigned to the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee or the Senate Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs Committee. The latter committee includes four senators who have circulated legislation to eventually raise gas and diesel taxes by 8 cents per gallon, which is projected to raise more money for highways than Hutchinson's plan would.

Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, who is one of the four who circulated that draft legislation, said the senators haven't decided whether to introduce the bill in the special session. The state's gas tax is 21.5 cents per gallon, and the diesel tax is 22.5 cents per gallon.

As for the governor's revised highway funding plan, Hickey said: "I am going to have some questions. That's all I want to say right now."

When asked about Hutchinson's revised highway funding plan, Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee Chairman Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, said, "I think the immediate infusion to match federal dollars from the surplus is the right thing to do.

"In terms of the rest of the proposals, they seem to be a potpourri of things that don't constitute the ability to be a viable long-term plan to maintain and improve our highways. Depending on surplus revenues or treasurer's ROI [return on investment] may be fine this year or next, but in a recession may leave us scrambling for money again.

"I think a comprehensive plan would better serve us long-term with a dedicated revenue stream, and I don't see that in the governor's plan," Files said.

House Revenue and Taxation Committee Chairman Joe Jett, D-Success, said he doesn't plan to introduce his draft legislation to partially repeal the sales tax exemption on motor fuels and index that tax for inflation.

Jett, whose plan is projected to raise more money for highways than Hutchinson's plan, said he wants to read the governor's bill before deciding whether to support it.

The governor's latest plan would send the increased funds to the Arkansas Highway Transfer Fund and require the approval of both the governor and the Legislative Council or Joint Budget Committee to transfer funds to the state Highway and Transportation Department.

"It is literally set up as a rainy-day fund, and it gives an extra layer of oversight," said Davis, Hutchinson's spokesman.

Hester said he also plans to add a provision, proposed by Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, to require the Legislative Council and a new subcommittee to review the state Highway Commission's funding process.

LEVEES

The governor wants to give state officials more oversight over the patchwork of privately and locally controlled levees.

For decades in Arkansas, the maintenance and upkeep of many of the levees have been handled by local levee district boards.

But as evidenced by flooding in 2015, many of those boards are defunct and their levees have fallen into disrepair, leaving property owners at risk of catastrophic damage.

When confronted with the question of the state of the state's levees, the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission was unable to answer it. By law, it is prohibited from requiring information from the local flood bodies.

Legislation crafted by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, would require local boards to report the condition of their levees to the commission. It would also give county judges the authority to appoint people to the levee boards in order to get them back in operation.

Randy Young, the head of the commission, said Rapert's legislation is a good first step and has his agency's support as well as support from the Arkansas Association of Counties.

"First and foremost, you have to identify the problem and to what extent the problem is. The significant part of this bill will help us do that," Young said. "It's going to require the General Assembly to make some additional action, we're hoping in the 2017 [legislative] session. ... Oversight is one thing, but it will take serious financial commitment to bring [levees in the state] up to standard."

SECURITY AND LIKENESS

The governor also included a revision of a measure that he vetoed just a year ago.

The Frank Broyles Publicity Rights Protection Act is aimed at giving Arkansans the property rights to their own name, voice, signature and likeness, rights that could be passed on to family even after a person's death.

The bill -- crated by Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, after he was approached by the family of the legendary Arkansas football coach -- is meant to prevent people from making money off another's fame without the celebrity's permission.

It met much opposition during the 2015 legislative session from interest groups, and Hutchinson vetoed it because he felt it went too far.

Woods said Monday that many of the interest groups that opposed it-- like the Motion Pictures Association of America and photography groups -- are now OK with the bill, which allows a fair use of celebrity likenesses for news media and creative endeavors.

One of the reasons legislation is included in the call for a special session is that for Woods, it addresses a situation that can't wait for the next regular session. For Woods, who is facing the end of his term and is not seeking re-election, this session is his last chance to follow through on a promise he made to Broyles, who is 91, and his family.

"It's something that I want to close a chapter on. ... It's unfinished business that I'd like to have done. In addition to that, the Broyles family, and Frank, I'd like for him to be able to see it become law," Woods said. "I'm happy the governor chose it [for the session]. It means a lot to me, and I'm very thankful he did it."

Another measure brought up as a result of last year's session is a bill aimed at making technical corrections to a 2015 law that abolished a board regulating private security in the state and transferred the licensing authority over to the Arkansas State Police.

Lawmakers abolished the board that regulated security guards and alarm technicians after learning the board was allowing licenses to go to people with serious felony convictions, including sex crimes, on their record.

The problem, according to lawmakers, was that many long-time security professionals were unable to renew their licenses and lost their jobs because they had nonviolent misdemeanor offenses on their records from years before.

The proposed legislation would make eligibility focus on applicants with more serious offenses on their record.

A Section on 05/17/2016