Legislation that would phase out the state's soda tax twice fell short of the two-thirds vote required for approval in the Arkansas House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Afterward, state Rep. Lanny Fite, R-Benton, said he plans to ask the House today to again consider approving his House Bill 1546. Gov. Asa Hutchinson supports the bill.
HB1546 requires a two-thirds vote of the House and the Senate because it would reduce and ultimately repeal a state law -- Act 7 of the 2nd Extraordinary Session of 1992 -- that was confirmed by a referendum vote in the 1994 general election, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration.
In its first vote on the bill, the 100-member House voted 64-26, which fell three votes short of the 67 votes required for approval.
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