Representative Les D. Eaves

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (2:01:30)

comprehensive database of all the underground stuff. What we've found is there are operators who have failed to join because there was no penalty. What this bill will do would be give you a 30-day warning if you fail to join. After that period it'd be a $1,000 fine. After another 30 days it would start a $500 fine for every 30 days you fail to join. The reason we want to do that, like I said, is so that we can have a comprehensive list of all the things that are underground and so excavators aren't inadvertently cutting pipes and causing more damage and expense, those kind of things. With that, I appreciate, take any questions?

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (2:01:21)

clean up some things we did with the 8-1-1 call center. We've made it mandatory that these operators join the 8-1-1 call center so that we have a

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (2:01:16)

a few years ago, let me back up, this bill comes to us from the AG's office trying to

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:03:45)

to school and with that i'll take any questions seeing none i'd appreciate a good vote Representative

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (21:19)

give a shout-out to Searcy High School, who was unable to be here. The Goonies also had a big role in doing this too, so don't want to forget those folks. Seeing no additional discussion, we have a motion on the

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (18:01)

your area, I know where they're having competitions, and it's in my area, and you're welcome to come.

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (17:53)

So it is, if you've never seen one, I highly encourage you to go take a look at the next competition that is going to be in your area. If you don't have one in

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (17:23)

tasks and then at another point it's autonomous it does it all its own that they program in it is it is truly uh mind-blowing and these robots aren't small they're like the size of a of a of a washing machine maybe not that tall but that kind of footprint is what they are they're heavy big machines so these young men and women are learning skills that people like me would hope to hire for engineers and operators and all of these things.

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (16:53)

make and they make all of it they machine all of the parts i mean i i was just shocked at all of stuff. The electronics they do themselves. I mean, everything is done by themselves. These young men and women, I mean, I'm at a loss for words, really, when you go see it. And of course, when I went to see it the first time, I thought it was going to be, you know, they're going to be shooting flames out of them and having axes and all that. But it's even more technical than that. I mean, at one point, they have a driver that drives this robot to do certain

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (16:20)

uh build and practice the robots uh and most of you know i'm in manufacturing and in our facility that i have we have some pretty cool tools we have you know high def plasma tables and all kinds of computer controlled machines but when i visited uh their facility i was absolutely blown away at what they have and a little smaller scale than what we have at our factory but the the plasma tables the cncs the lathes i mean and i'm like so how much of this robot did you

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (15:44)

education on where they would come up with the funding for again it's a grant program uh wouldn't be any general revenue the schools would have to come up with i think it's 25 matching um i believe i heard in testimony that it's somewhere around 20 000 a year roughly for a robotics team to go to the competitions that they go to in fact i'm correct me if i'm wrong you guys are going to world here yeah that's that's a pretty big deal um but it would be something that would the department of ed would would would take care of on their own okay all right thank you and i want to say something too about um what i saw when i visited harding's particular facility where they

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (15:41)

be entirely up to the department of

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (6:36)

No general revenue. It is a grant program. It will be worked through the Department of Education. The teams will have to come up with a 25% matching. But there are some students here that, if your permission, I'd like to bring them up and let them give you the details of the bill in a

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (7:08)

of Brooks was involved in helping. I mean, just plausible. Talent can skip a generation. Fair enough. That's because they're

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (6:05)

Uh, interestingly, the bill was, uh, entirely written by Harding students, uh, uh, in the academy. And I, I, uh, was talking to Senator Dismang about this bill and he said, when the bill was sent to drafting, there was, uh, little, if any changes at all that needed to be done. So these, uh, young men and young women have spent a lot of time working on this bill, trying to craft it in a way that, uh, was fair, equitable, and would, and would give, uh, them the opportunity along with their colleagues across the state to, uh, establish this robotics grant program.

Education Committee (House) — April 1, 2025 (5:41)

record and then have them introduce themselves all right yep Representative Les Eves, District 58. Just real quick before I bring him up, this is a bill that was brought to Senator Dismay and myself from Harding Academy back in Searcy, also at Searcy High School. It's a bill that would establish a grant program to help pay for and establish robotics programs for, I believe, grades 6 through 12 all over the state.

Revenue & Taxation (House) — April 1, 2025 (43:58)

I do like the idea of having some sort of umbrella process that captures all of these, especially when they're this small. So, anyway, wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I would agree. And that does align with the goal of

Revenue & Taxation (House) — April 1, 2025 (43:34)

operating budgets less than $200,000, you're probably having

Revenue & Taxation (House) — April 1, 2025 (43:37)

a tough time making ends meet on the operation or the nonprofit that you serve. And I'll tell you, my opinion, too, would be what Representative Kavanaugh said. It gets a little tiresome every time we come here and we have to name a new nonprofit or a new business that's asking for an exemption.

Revenue & Taxation (House) — April 1, 2025 (42:47)

Representative Eves, you're recognized. I think Representative Johnson may have answered my question. I mean, we sit here and talk about exemptions for huge companies. And when I'm reading this, I have to believe that if your operating