Speaker hopeful on repeal for truckers' sales-tax break

Senate President Pro Tempore Paul Bookout (right) speaks with Sen. Kim Hendren during budget talks Tuesday. Bookout said nobody in the Senate had budged on the trucker sales-tax exemption repeal.
Senate President Pro Tempore Paul Bookout (right) speaks with Sen. Kim Hendren during budget talks Tuesday. Bookout said nobody in the Senate had budged on the trucker sales-tax exemption repeal.

— The House speaker said Tuesday that he thinks there is still a chance a sales-tax exemption for truckers could be repealed before the fiscal session ends Friday, but Senate leadership said there still is not enough support.

House Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr., D-Arkansas City, told reporters he is still pressing senators to approve House Concurrent Resolution 1009 by Rep. Larry Cowling, D-Foreman, that would, if approved, allow the Legislature to consider a bill to repeal the exemption, which the Legislature enacted in 2011.

But if the resolution isn’t approved today, Moore said, he may have to drop the issue entirely.

The exemption was approved in exchange for the Arkansas Trucking Association’s support for a proposed ballot issue that would have increased the diesel fuel tax by 5 cents per gallon. The association withdrew support for the dieseltax increase after it said a poll indicated the ballot issue had no chance of adoption.

The House passed the resolution 81-15 on Feb. 16. The Senate has not brought it up.

After telling reporters the resolution was dead Monday, Moore said Tuesday that it had regained vigor because city and county officials are worried the exemption will mean less money for local projects.

The exemption will cost the state Highway and Transportation Department about $4 million a year, he said. Of that, $1.2 million would go to cities and counties for local repairs, he said.

“Some of the senators are hearing from their local folks back home, mayors and county judges that know that a portion of this ongoing deference of revenue ... is money that is earmarked to go back home,” Moore said.

But Senate leaders said nothing has changed.

Senate Budget Chairman Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, said the repeal doesn’t seem to have a chance.

Senate President Pro Tempore Paul Bookout, D-Jonesboro, said no minds had been changed on considering the resolution.

“Right now, as far as we can tell everybody’s still in the same posture,” Bookout said.

If the Senate did vote to approve consideration of the repeal, Moore said, the Legislature might have to extend a day to go through several procedural steps to get it approved.

“I doubt we’d be able to get out of here Friday. We’d probably have to come back Saturday,” Moore said.

BUDGET BILLS

The Legislature’s main job in the fiscal session is to enact a state budget for fiscal 2013, which starts July 1. The bills largely follow Gov. Mike Beebe’s proposed budget despite lawmakers, particularly in the House, spending most of the first two weeks of the session, which started Feb. 13, on House Republican leader John Burris’ proposals to trim Beebe’s plan.

The House and Senate voted to amend “shell bills” to put the actual budget in the bills and then sent those bills — Senate Bill 136 and House Bill 1163 — back to the Budget Committee for consideration today.

Burris of Harrison said he expects several potential cuts to Beebe’s plan to re-emerge during the committee’s discussions.

“We’ll be highlighting areas where we could possibly save money,” Burris said. “I think we’ve made our point...”

MEDICAID SHORTFALL

The Budget Committee voted 34-16 to reject an amendment by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, that would have set aside some of the state’s surplus this fiscal year and the next into the Medicaid Trust Fund to address an estimated $350 million to $400 million Medicaid surplus that the Department of Human Services says will hit the state in fiscal 2014.

The amendment would have required that up to 75 percent, or at most $60 million, in fiscal 2013 state surplus be transferred to the Medicaid Trust Fund. The other 25 percent, and any amount above $60 million collected in surplus, would go into the General Revenue Allotment Reserve Fund.

The governor could ask the Legislature for more than the amount sent to the reserve fund to meet debt obligations or for the Quick Action Closing Fund, the state fund has been used to attract companies or keep them in Arkansas.

It also would put $40 million from the current state surplus, or whatever amount is left, into the Medicaid Trust Fund.

The governor has said he prefers not to put the money aside at all in case there is an unforeseen use for it. Surplus is often spent the next year either to supplement agencies’ budgets or projects that lawmakers or the governor want.

Sen. Jimmy Jeffress, DCrossett, said the money needs to be available in case an emergency or natural disaster hits the state.

“I see this as not being the responsible thing to do,” Jeffress said. “We’re not in a hole. You never deplete your checking account if it is at all possible.”

ASSOCIATION SALARY

The committee also amended the appropriation for the Administrative Office of the Courts to specify that a portion of the Municipal Court Judge and Municipal Court Education Fund could be used to reimburse the District Judges Association for a shortfall that occurred when money was transferred to the state Administration of Justice Fund.

Rep. Bubba Powers, DHope, said an 18 percent across-the-board cut to the Administration of Justice Fund to shore up salaries for trial-court assistants inadvertently cut the salary of the District Judges Association’s executive secretary who is paid out of that fund.

“It will make it right with the only employee who has had to take a pay cut in this,” Powers said.

He said the salary cut was worth about $10,000. The secretary is not a state employee, but is paid from the fund, Powers said.

LIGNITE

The House voted 96-0 to approve 11 appropriation bills on topics ranging from the Department of Correction to the Tobacco Settlement Commission.

The House also rejected two bills that would fund a study of lignite.

One, House Bill 1002 by Rep. Garry Smith, D-Camden, would appropriate $2.5 million to Southern Arkansas University to study the cost of mining the soft, brown coal that lies underneath much of southern Arkansas.

Smith said the bill would help the state obtain $650,000 in federal funds to study the feasibility of converting lignite to crude oil.

The other bill, Senate Bill 128 by Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, would appropriate $20,000 to the University of Arkansas to study whether there is a benefit of giving lignite-infused water to poultry.

The Senate voted 34-0 to pass Senate Bill 134, an appropriation bill for the state auditor’s office that would transfer $150,000 in unused funds from the Judicial Fine Collection Enhancement Fund to the Trial Court Administrative Assistant Fund to pay the salaries of trial-court administrative assistants.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/29/2012

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