News

LEGISLATIVE LEADERS TO SEE QUICK QORK ON TAX HIKE

By Rob Moritz and John Lyon/ARKANSAS NEWS BUREAU
Saturday, March 29, 2008 9:28 PM CDT

LITTLE ROCK — You’d think raising a tax for the first time in 50 years, and having to muster a three-fourths majority in both chambers of the Legislature to do it, would take a while.

But legislative leaders expect quick work of the special session they will convene Monday to consider raising the state severance tax on natural gas.

“Our goal is to be there Monday at noon and be out of the people’s hair by Wednesday at noon,” said House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart.

Gov. Mike Beebe made sure he had the support he needed for his tax hike proposal before summoning legislators to the Capitol. In announcing the session last week, he said he had commitments from 30 of the 35 senators and 81 of the 100 House members, more than enough support to raise the severance tax for the first time since 1957.

“I look for a dull and non-eventful three-day session,” Senate President Pro Tem Jack Critcher said.

The main item on the legislative agenda is Beebe’s proposal to raise the severance tax to 5 percent of market value at the time of extraction with some exemptions, up from the current rate of three-tenths of 1 cent per 1,000 cubic feet, one of the lowest rates in the nation.

Officials say the change will eventually raise about $100 million annually, which the governor’s proposal earmarks mostly for state and local road improvements.

Lawmakers also will consider two other issues: Repealing a change in the Arkansas’ marriage age of consent law and giving two Pulaski County school districts longer to request being removed from federal supervision of their desegregation programs.

Beebe is scheduled to address a joint session of the House and Senate at 12:30 p.m., after which legislative committees are to assemble to quickly get down to business.

Because the governor and legislative leaders want to complete business and adjourn in three days, the minimum time required for a bill to be approved by both chambers of the Legislature, the three bills will be simultaneously by both Senate and House committees, Petrus said.

“We’ll start the bills in both the House and Senate and everything should be orderly and a smooth deal,” he said.

Act 441 of 2007 by Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville, was intended to set the age of consent to marry at 18 for both sexes, raising the minimum age for girls from 16 and boys from 17. It included a provision that was supposed to make an exception for pregnant women younger than 18 who have parental consent.

However, county clerks later raised questions about the minimum age, and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel issued an opinion saying the new law actually allowed anyone under 18, including young children, to marry with parental consent.

The Code Revision Commission tried to fix the problem. At the request of the Legislative Council, the commission met in July and voted to remove the word “not” from two places in the act where it appeared in front of the word “pregnant,” to clarify that it was only pregnant girls who could get married under the age of 18 with parental consent.

Some legislators objected, saying the commission had exceeded its authority by changing the meaning of the legislation. Some wanted Beebe to call a special session to fix the law, but Beebe said the problem was not serious enough to merit the expense of a special session for that purpose alone.

In September, former state Rep. Timothy Hutchinson of Rogers filed a lawsuit on behalf of a woman whose 17-year-old daughter had been refused a marriage license in Benton County. The girl, a high school graduate, was not pregnant.

The suit contended the law should stand as it was passed by the Legislature, not as revised by the Code Revision Commission, and the girl should be allowed to marry. Sen. David Bisbee, R-Rogers, later revealed that he had asked Hutchinson to file the suit because he believed the Code Revision Commission should not have changed the law.

The Legislative Council voted in September to withdraw its request for a revision and to let the act stand as it was passed. The following month, a Benton County circuit judge ruled in the lawsuit that the Code Revision Commission had exceeded its authority, and the law should stand without the revision.

Beebe said after the ruling that he still saw no need for a special session just to fix the law.

“If we see that there’s someone trying to take advantage of the law in a way that appears to be offensive and creates a crisis, then we wouldn’t hesitate to call a special session. We’re not there yet,” he said in October.

Including the issue in the severance tax special session gives Bond a chance to correct the inadvertent error by reinstating the marriage age law as it was before last year.

Print this story   |   Email this story