LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Monday he will call a legislative special session later this month to consider incentives that could create almost 600 new jobs in southern Arkansas.
Lawmakers will return to the Capitol on May 26 to consider an Amendment 82 bond issue, which would allow Lockheed Martin in Camden to bid on a defense contract to assemble military joint readiness training vehicles, Hutchinson told members of the Political Animals Club of Little Rock. Amendment 82, approved by voters in 2004, allows the state to issue bonds to pay for infrastructure to attract projects to the state.
The contract would retain about 500 existing jobs and bring almost 600 new jobs to Lockheed Martin's facility in the Highland Industrial Park in Camden, Hutchinson said.
Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company headquartered in Bethesda, Md.
Hutchinson said he will ask lawmakers to approve this "contingent liability" but that there would be no guarantee Lockheed Martin would win the bid for the contract.
The governor praised the legislature for passing several of his initiatives, including his middle-class tax cut and extending the Medicaid private option through 2016, but said there were "other issues" that had not been resolved during the General Assembly's 82-day session that formally adjourned last month.
Hutchinson said additional items could be addressed during the special session, but he would announce those at a later time.
Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
