Road bill heads for unsure panel

Gov. Asa Hutchinson's highway-funding bill will be assigned to the Senate committee that handles transportation issues in the special session starting Thursday, but the senator sponsoring the legislation said Tuesday that it doesn't have enough votes to clear the eight-member panel yet.

"We are hopeful to get five on the transportation committee," said Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, who is the Senate sponsor of Hutchinson's legislation. He was referring to the number of votes needed to get the bill out of the committee.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said the legislation will be assigned to the committee on the basis of the recommendation of that chamber's legal counsel, Steve Cook. The official name of the panel is the Senate Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs Committee.

Of committee members contacted Tuesday, three -- Sens. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith; Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs; and Bobby Pierce, D-Sheridan -- said they'll vote for Hutchinson's plan, which relies largely on using a part of general-revenue surplus funds and the state treasury's improved investment returns to come up with more state highway funds than what the state already has. The additional state funds will be used to obtain more federal highway funds that will become available in the fall.

"It's a great first step to get the program started and give us some time to look at the best long-term funding mechanism," said Hendren, who is the Senate Republican leader and a nephew of the Republican governor.

The bill now has a provision creating a new legislative subcommittee that would review the Highway Commission's criteria for distributing funds and setting spending priorities for highway construction contracts and road construction projects. The subcommittee, proposed by Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, would report to the Legislative Council, which meets between legislative sessions.

Pierce said he became comfortable with Davis' proposal after it was changed to require the new Highway Commission Review and Advisory Subcommittee to review, rather than approve, the Highway Commission's proposed rules and also after the bill changed the subcommittee's makeup.

Of other members of the Senate transportation committee, four -- Sens. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana; Ronald Caldwell, R-Wynne; Greg Standridge, R-Russellville; and Bryan King, R-Green Forest -- said they haven't decided how they'll vote on the bill. The committee chairman, Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, could not be reached for comment by telephone on Tuesday.

"Let me keep looking at it. We got another day" before the special session begins on Thursday, Hickey said.

Caldwell said he wants to see the latest draft of the governor's plan before he decides how he'll vote.

But he said he doesn't like relying on general-revenue surpluses as a source of more highway funding because working taxpayers will provide that money rather than the users of the highways, including a growing number of tourists.

Sample, Caldwell, Hickey and Standridge have circulated their own draft legislation that would phase in 8-cent-per-gallon increases in the state's fuel excise taxes. The state's gasoline tax is 21.5 cents per gallon and the diesel tax is 22.5 cents per gallon. The four propose to raise more money than Hutchinson's plan would. The tax increases would expire after four years, and legislators would refer an initiated act to voters to replace the tax increases.

Hickey said the four senators haven't decided whether to introduce the legislation in the special session.

"You do what is right, go down the road and let the chips fall where they may," he said.

King said he doesn't favor raising taxes but that he doesn't like using surplus state funds to provide more highway funds.

"In some ways, those people [proposing tax increases] are being more practical rather than gambling with the surplus," he said.

King said he wants to review the latest draft of Hutchinson's bill before deciding on his vote.

Standridge said he's not sure how he'll vote on Hutchinson's bill.

"We have to get something worked out and resolved, but I am not going to commit to anything yet," he said.

"I am leaning toward supporting [the governor's] bill for the first and second year, but it's definitely not [for the] long term," said Standridge, who was elected in a special election in February 2015 to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Sen. Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville. Lamoureux resigned in November 2014 to become Hutchinson's chief of staff.

When asked of the bill's prospects in the Senate transportation committee, Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said, "We're working with the members of the committee and optimistic that there will be the support necessary to address this very important need of our state."

Dismang said he wouldn't support an attempt for the full-35 member Senate to yank Hutchinson's highway-funding bill out of the Senate transportation committee if it fails to get at least five votes to clear the committee. Eighteen votes are required in the Senate to strip a bill out of a Senate committee. The Senate rarely takes this step.

On the other side of the state Capitol, House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said he is leaning toward assigning the House version of Hutchinson's highway funding bill to the House Rules Committee because of the proposal to create a legislative subcommittee to review Highway Commission rules. The House bill will sponsored by Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville. Gillam appointed the 15 members of House Rules Committee.

Gillam said the lack of a commitment for Hutchinson's plan from the chairman of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee, Rep. Joe Jett, D-Success, has no bearing on where he assigns the legislation.

Gillam said he has sufficient votes to get Hutchinson's bill through any of three House committees -- Rules; Revenue and Taxation; or Public Transportation.

Jett said later, "My intentions are to vote for it. But before I commit in the press, I would like to see the final draft."

Jett said he found it "very aggravating" early Tuesday afternoon that he -- the chairman of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee -- hadn't seen a final draft of Hutchinson's legislation.

"We crank up the special session in less than 48 hours," Jett said Tuesday. He said Monday that he won't introduce his draft legislation, which would partially repeal the sales tax on motor fuels and index the tax to inflation. He said that proposal would raise more money that Hutchinson's.

Douglas said Hutchinson's draft highway-funding bill and Davis' Highway Commission oversight bill already were distributed to lawmakers, and the combined bill would be distributed to them late Tuesday afternoon.

"The sooner we can get the thing out, the better," he said.

But Jett said Tuesday night that he didn't get a copy of the bill until 7 p.m. Tuesday and that it wasn't from a lawmaker or the governor's office.

The latest draft of the legislation, released by Hester, would create a 20-member Highway Commission Review and Advisory Subcommittee of the Legislative Council with at least two or more members of the General Assembly from each congressional district. The bill would allow the Legislative Council to alter the membership of the subcommittee through a suspension of its rules.

Under the bill, the subcommittee would review the Highway Commission's proposed rules regarding the criteria for the distribution of funds from the state Highway and Transportation Department Fund and the Road and Bridge Repair, Maintenance and Grants Fund.

The subcommittee also would review the commission's proposed rules regarding spending priorities for highway construction contracts and public road construction projections by the Highway Department and the commission.

Under the draft bill, the Highway Commission also would be required to submit a report to the subcommittee on the progress on each public road construction project of $10 million or more at least quarterly or as required by the subcommittee.

Dismang said it's his understanding that Highway Director Scott Bennett would rather that the department be required only to make reports to the Legislative Council subcommittee and nothing more.

Randy Ort, a spokesman for the Highway Department, said Bennett wasn't available for an interview on Tuesday but that Bennett doesn't recall voicing any concern that a legislative review of certain agency rules would run afoul of Amendment 42 to the Arkansas Constitution.

Dismang said, "It is important for the legislative body and the people of Arkansas to have a better understanding about how they are spending our state tax dollars in regards to highways. This is a review process. It is not an approval process. It doesn't violate any constitutional authority that the Highway Department has."

Gillam said, "We've had lawyers looking at this thing for a while, and there is no issue with that, with the legislative branch having that review. I know that there was some concerns from the highway folks about that, but I have no doubt it's constitutional and legal."

Amendment 42 states in part: "There is hereby created a State Highway Commission, which shall be vested with all the powers and duties now or hereafter imposed by law for the administration of the State Highway Department, together with all powers necessary or proper to enable the Commission or any of its officers or employees to carry out fully and effectively the regulations and laws relating to the State Highway Department."

Also known as the Mack-Blackwell Amendment, it was enacted in 1952 in response to allegations of corruption and favoritism. It was intended to insulate the Highway Department from political interference.

A Section on 05/18/2016