A representative from the state's northeast pre-filed a host of bills on Thursday that, among other things, would make social media sites like Twitter and Facebook public utilities and would dedicate revenue from vehicle sales taxes for highways.
Those bills were two of eight pre-filed by state Rep. Johnny Rye, R-Trumann.
House Bill 1028 would allow social media users to sue such public sites with more than 75 million users if the site "deletes or censors" the user's "religious" or "political" speech and if the owners or operators reside in Arkansas.
Under the legislation, the state attorney general also could file civil suits on behalf of Arkansans whose religious or political speech was censored by a social media site.
Rye's House Bill 1024 would dedicate for highway funding the first $150 million collected through sales taxes on new and used cars and trailers.
In fiscal 2018, sales taxes on motor vehicles and trailers generated about $442.2 million, according to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.
That revenue is treated the same as other sales taxes on tangible personal property. Of the state's 6.5 percent sales-tax rate, 4.5 percent goes to the general-revenue fund, 0.125 percent goes to the Conservation Trust Fund, 0.5 percent goes to the Property Tax Relief Trust Fund, 0.875 percent goes to the Educational Adequacy Fund and 0.5 percent goes to a special Highway Department fund.
Rye also pre-filed bills to:
• Give a $500 tax credit to parents with children who are blind and/or deaf.
• Require car insurers to reimburse a policyholder for rental car costs until the policyholder's car is repaired.
• Make it a felony to relocate, alter, remove, rename, rededicate or otherwise disturb historical monuments on public property without the permission of the Arkansas History Commission.
• Create a special license plate for members of the Arkansas Masonic Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.
Metro on 12/07/2018