House Revenue & Taxation Committee
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Transcript
Bills discussed (4)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
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HB1039
· 2 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “HB1039”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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SB5
· 2 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “SB5”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1692
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1692”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB2164
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB2164”
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Pre-2017 bill |
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I've Thank You mr. Chairman You recognize represent award law and if you have someone with you if I have
Gene Far
Unverified
0:18
him introduce yourself. Thank you. Thank you My name is gene far. I'm from Lincoln
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
0:29
and Washington County County all right guys I sure appreciate the chance to come and present these
bills today and thank you committee for hearing us we'll go through a few remarks and more present house bill 1039 first as a famous farmer once told me that farmers buy retail sale wholesale and pay freight both ways if you guys take a minute and think about that there's never been a more statement it's true these guys fight for us they feed us and nowadays with all the world economy they don't only feed our state they feed our world so this bill goes in
and cuts the energy sales tax off of AG structures cuts it off mostly poultry farmers dairies cattle holoculture and aquaculture and we sure appreciate a a good vote and answer any questions committee may have committee are there any questions representative if
Speaker 15
1:35
there are no questions I would like to make a motion to proper
time okay is there any questions from the committee all right is there anybody in
the audience that would like to speak against the bill mr. leathers you're
Speaker 20
1:59
recognized please introduce yourself at the end of the table mr. chairman as we've been here before we'll be here several times as we go through this process we just want to make sure the committee is aware of the balanced budget and that the balanced budget as it sits now from the governor
administration does not have any room for any tax exemptions to fund the programs that are out there and the impact on this one is 13 million dollars for fiscal year 14 and then fiscal year 15 it's 25 million dollars as it gets the entire year tax exempt I want to make those comments and ask you to keep the balanced budget in mind as you vote on these because you're going to have a a lot of worthy tax exemptions out there and obviously we can't afford them all
I just want to make sure I've got the the
Speaker 20
2:53
numbers right on the impacts yeah I'm sorry I was handed the wrong sheet is a it's a for me in the first year three nine eight and a little
over ten the second I apologize no no that that's fine that's the
Speaker 24
3:07
numbers are exactly what I was expecting thank you
Speaker 21
3:10
comments remain the same numbers are different yes sir I totally understand
Speaker 25
3:15
representative Lee you're recognized for a question mr. leathers could you remind me exactly what tax cuts the governor did put into his suggested
Speaker 28
3:22
budget the governor has no tax cuts in the budget from general revenue there
Speaker 20
3:30
he has proposed that we eliminate the rest of the food tax and doing that if general revenue becomes available because of deductions that are off the top of general revenue that we pay there's a list of them the major one of those being the desegregation money if that goes away that would trigger the
food tax once we get to a certain general revenue level with those going the way okay thank you
Speaker 31
3:59
and and so basically you're you're gonna be here
Speaker 25
4:01
every time we suggest any tax cut and give us the same statement that the governor's against it yes ma'am okay thank you thank you mr.
Chair
Unverified
4:11
chairman representative Hutchinson you're recognized for a question thank you mr. chair I
Representative John K. Hutchison
Unverified
4:14
don't know if this would be for for him or they can answer this I don't know I guess I'm going nasty all right yes representative Hudson this is
is this a producers only bill is this a producers I mean only farmers that that actually produce something that did it direct it would only
Speaker 20
4:37
be for commercial farming operations if that's what you're I just wondered if it's I don't think we have any technical issues with the bill at all the sponsors done a good job in terms of the technical issues and how it would work and we have experience with
Chair
Unverified
4:54
manufacturers so our only concerns are purely budgetary with the with the bill
thank you sir any other questions from the representative meek sure
I can ask for a question thank you mr. this is kind of a follow-up representative Lee well
Chair
Unverified
5:12
what's the current surplus projections for the year do we have that number they're
Speaker 20
5:17
the same as they were when we went in it was we had a hundred million that we were projecting this year and again that's been in the budget to supplement general revenue
okay but that number is still holding steady at
Speaker 20
5:28
100 million yes now you know that makes change at some point as time time goes
on as as you know we're we always get antsy and filing season for sure they're way behind on refunds because the federal government kind of messed that process up this year with not getting their laws ready all right thank you Thank
you, Mr. Chairman. Are there any other questions for Mr. Leathers? Tim, I just wanted to say with the committee, I just appreciate separately but related the work you and your staff did last week to really help me understand some numbers and some fiscal impact studies across a variety of tax bills.
So I just wanted to publicly thank you and your staff for all the extra work and the help you gave me and others here in the House of Representatives last week on that stuff. So thank you very much. we appreciate that representative Wardlow thank you
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
6:22
mr. chairman I'd also want to thank these guys for working with us on these bills they've been really good about meeting with us and talking with us and helping us get the language right so thank you guys is there
anybody that would like to speak for the bill mr.
Speaker 8
6:37
chairman my name is gene far I would like to speak for 1039
all right please tell us who you're with and you recognize speak
for the bill mr. chairman I'm here with Jeff Ward love to talk about bill 1039 I'm a poultry grower from Lincoln Arkansas I have five poultry houses for large broilers there are about 3,000 3,200 registered poultry farms in the state the census of agriculture says there's about 6,000 so to be registered you have to have over
2,500 birds so there's a little bit over 3,000 producers in Arkansas that grow chickens turkeys and egg-laying birds under contract with integrators in most cases the integrator supplies the chickens to feed the grower supplies the housing heat the propane or natural gas that it takes the ventilation to ventilate the buildings and all of this cost us a lot of money that we're in In many cases, we're unable, if something happens like a large price hike, we are unable to absorb all of that cost sometimes.
In my particular case, I built my houses 12 years ago, and propane was $0.47 a gallon when I built them. In 2008, propane went up as high as $2 a gallon. A typical broiler house burns about 5,000 gallons of propane a year. in my particular case 25,000 gallons for five houses and so that means my cost of gas went up from 12,500 approximately to 50,000 so those type of price swings
especially when we have to pay tax on top of them it would actually has put a lot of producers out of business we realize there's a lot of needs in the state for tax revenue but we are a group who's pretty much we are manufacturers that would manufacture food and we need some help when we run into things that cause prices to get clear out of where they should be I'm worried about our electricity down the road we have enjoyed relatively
stable of electric prices for years I pay around 10 cents per kilowatt hour but with the EPA's actions trying to reduce the amount of coal being burned we're burning natural gas to produce electricity which is great right now while it's cheap but one of these days the price of a natural gas will come back around and cause us a lot of pain a lot of high prices and a lot more taxes that we use to ventilate our poultry houses with that I thank you all right
thank you very much mr. fire representative Bell you recognized
for a question thank you very much as a poultry grower myself I appreciate what you're doing and I've tried to generally keep a low profile on this is at the end of the day clearly it would benefit my family but I wanted to ask over the last six years as I've charted my income and expenses from my farm I've seen a 36%
increase in costs and a 4% increase in income is that typical of what you're seeing in other farms as
well yes sir it certainly is thank you that's I was
just curious if that was typical results thank you very much mr. fire representative Hutchinson you're recognized
Representative John K. Hutchison
Unverified
10:27
for a question thank you mr. chair don't think it's just chicken farmers okay my question is that I support this bill but did I hear you say
that the USDA said there's six thousand something and there's actually three thousands on the census
of agriculture showed I think in 2007 there was a little over 6,000 poultry farms of people growing poultry in Arkansas but the numbers I quoted was from ANRC any poultry farm over 2,500 is required to register each year so that was a 3,200 and 30 or whatever that number is exactly poultry farms over that size in Arkansas this would be typically the
size farms that we think about thank you thank you very much Thank You mr. far I see representative
Representative Douglas House
Unverified
11:20
house you recognize for a question Thank You mr. chairman mr. far I noticed in this bill and I think if I'd mentioned to mr. Ward law early on about separate meeting of the facilities and I don't know if it was changed in response to my question or concern or if somebody else's but I'm glad to see
Speaker 61
11:36
that are you a member of the Arkansas Poultry Federation no sir I'm
not I have served on the board of the Poultry Federation years ago I worked for Campbell's soup company and served on that board back then perhaps this more open-ended question be better
Representative Douglas House
Unverified
11:51
what would be the best way to publicize the part in this bill that seems to indicate that you can't run your house off you can't run your wiring through the chicken house in order to serve your residents that I have to be separately metered and to be entitled for the for the exemption what would be the best
Speaker 63
12:09
way to publicize that I couldn't tell you
the best way but with on the State Board of Arkansas Farm Bureau and I'm sure we would try to publicize the rules representative house may have
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
12:22
mr. chairman yes you recognize mr. John Tice and myself met one afternoon a couple weeks ago and talked about what you're talking about in response to your question to me and they will actually certify these meters with a certificate that they can give to the seller of the electricity and the seller of the
propane and natural gas and that will certify these meters as meeting the requirements of the bill wonderful thank you so
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
12:53
much yes sir representative Thompson you're recognized for a question thank you mr. chair to mr. Hutchison
representative it just comments about there being 6,000 on the books and actually just being 3200 out there all those
Speaker 68
13:05
years I worked in the field of agriculture toward
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
13:11
the end of my career pilgrims pride went out of
business in Arkansas and in my part of the world there were over 500 poultry houses vacated almost immediately
and then now as you drive through the countryside you see older poultry houses that don't meet the standards for
today's production that are scattered throughout the state that people are using the store around bales of hay for other reasons so I think that's a probably a big number on the other
being 3,200 actually in production but there
very well could be 6,000 out
there thank you sir thank you representative Alexander you're
recognized for a question thank you mr. chair mr. fror you mentioned the rather dramatic drop in the number of poultry operations around the state during the recession Arkansas has actually done better than a lot of states so I assume that our experience here is not unique that other poultry producing states have seen similar losses and my question is has
the poultry federation done any calculations of the impact of these closings on the cost of poultry products to the consumer are you aware of any studies
like that no sir I'm not aware of any studies but to the first part of your statement there because of pilgrims pride pulling out of southern Arkansas we have probably as a state seen more losses of poultry farms than about any other state around because pilgrims had a big footprint in Arkansas
I think they had a plant around Clinton and maybe down around El Dorado that were shut down leaving a lot of growers with empty houses I could ask
yes you recognize I mean obviously if this passes it will put more money in the pockets of the poultry producers but other than that I'm curious if you see any other impacts on the business I mean the flexibility that additional money would give you how do you see the producers taking advantage of that is
there any kind of a multiplier effect the there would be a multiplier effect because we hire a lot of people we have a lot of equipment we're out in our poultry houses we're constantly replacing things that we pay taxes on it's it's necessary or needed because we hire a lot of people we spend a lot on motors fan belts so on and so forth it's simply needed to help keep a lot of producers in business there might be producers like me who had another job in
town before they built their chicken houses and are a little better off financially but our young producers have a very tough time getting started and making it in this business because it is so tough thank you representative Hutchinson you recognize
for a question thank you mr. chair I got
Representative John K. Hutchison
Unverified
16:25
to get something clear in my head here are you gonna be
a dip are you gonna be able to have more than it'll take more than one meter to do this right yes sir
would take the meter on each each facility each facility cool thank
you thank you thank you mr. far is there anyone that would like to speak against the bill for the bill seeing
no additional people that would like to speak for against representative Wardlow would you like to close for your bill yes sir thank
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
17:00
you mr. chairman I'm closed I just appreciate a good vote committee thank you representative Thompson you
recognize for a motion motion do pass all right we have a proper motion do pass in front of the
committee all those in favor any opposed the motion passes represent award law you've passed your bill thank you mr. chairman and thank
you committee all right you're now recognized to present SB 5 Thank
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
17:41
you, Mr. Chairman. I got with me today the head of the Arkansas Forestry Commission, and I'll let him introduce
himself. Thank you. You recognize the introduce yourself. Please state your
Speaker 90
17:52
name and who you're with. I'm Joe Fox, the state forester, otherwise the director of the Arkansas Forestry Commission. All
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
18:01
right, here we go. We'll go SB5 now. now we're changed gears a little bit and raised a little bit of funds SB 5 is a safety bill any way you look at it that's what it is a safety bill what this bill does is raises a timber assessment fee five cents on every acre that's
assessed as timber and where that money is going to go is to the Arkansas Forestry Commission it's going to raise somewhere around seven hundred thousand dollars a year and I'll let mr. Joe go into where he's going to
Speaker 94
18:37
use this money so that we don't have any confusion you recognize mr. Fox thank you SB 5 does raise another nickel it's the first raise in the forest land fire protection tax in 20 years the tax is currently 15 cents per acre on on timberland only the
the money would be used for our firefighting efforts the Forestry commission is in charge of really protecting 18.9 million acres of forest land in the state the federal government land is protected by federal entities we help them they also help us on private lands but we're charged with protecting all the private land in the state from fire and from other things we do quite a bit of things just pointing out last year was unusual fire
season June was the second worst June we've experienced we had other very bad months 34,000 acres were consumed by fire over 2,100 fires last year the interesting part is we keep a record of homes and outbuildings that are threatened last year over 2,300 structures were threatened 1300 of those were homes and if you assign a guesstimate but a very conservative
guesstimate we figure that's a hundred and thirty million dollars worth of homes and outbuildings that were saved from fire this year by the Forestry Commission and our work but also by our partners we cannot do our job without partners like rural volunteer fire departments like the US Forest Service like timber industry and and their dozers we are the incident commanders we organize the people at the fire whether it's volunteer fire departments or
whether it's whoever whomever we fly over the fires with detection we have the single-engine air tanker program which normally works those structures by and we have a air attack which is really an air traffic controller above the fire Communicating with the incident commander on the ground. We do all these things With a very very tight budget our basic unit of fighting fire is bulldozer
Sometimes with a fire plow on the back sometimes with just a blade on the front and a winch we have a hundred and four Bulldozer units as a truck and the and the dozer scattered around the state 19 of those are 15 years old or older in our current budget and our proposed budget we have enough room to replace one bulldozer unit a year and if 15 years is the life of a dozer and that's arguable but if that's it then we
should be replacing seven units a year and this money would if we had the 700,000 that's about three units for us and that's where we would use it if we had it this year it's going to be two years before the money would come to the Forestry Commission it comes through the county assessors comes through as does ad valorem tax so it would be October of 2015 before any these monies reach us if
you give us a due pass today and we
Speaker 96
22:08
would use it for firefighting efforts needed at that time so that's that's our story thank you mr. Fox representative Bell
your work can ask for a question mr. Fox
appreciate your testimony a few years ago there were a lot of private crews operating in the state and I know we've seen a dramatic decline in the number of private crews
available I was curious if you had some numbers or some testimony that you could provide to the committee regarding that decline and how that's affected your ability to respond as well well it has
Speaker 94
22:49
in South Arkansas alone in the last 20 years we did a count of private dozers international paper was the largest landowner in the state 20 years ago and they own I think zero acres today land ownership has changed and the model of the business model has changed but there
are 74 less bulldozer units and those are all private units in Arkansas today than there were 20 years ago one thing I did leave out is we also work with volunteer fire departments and there's over a thousand in the state and we are training those guys to help us and they make up some of the difference in the loss
be fair to say that 10 years ago a
portion of this cost was being borne by the timber landowners that is now being paid by the taxpayer quite fair yes sir thank you representative meeks
Chair
Unverified
23:49
you're recognized for a question thank you mr.
chairman first off I just want to say thank you for the work that you do during this last fire season I had numerous of those wildfires within five miles of my house so I got to see your crews firsthand battling some of these fires and we appreciate the work they do the two questions I have the
first one that I have is especially based on last year do you know how much you talked about this this what you've saved but the loss to trees buildings Do we have any estimate of what the total cost of the fire season was this
Speaker 94
24:29
last year in the state or a rough estimate? I don't have the total cost. So to trees, a pine plantation is worth easily just the planting and getting it ready to grow it all is $300 an acre.
So one acre of pine plantation that burns up is at least $300 an acre. And many, many times, if it's 8 years old or 12 years old, much more than that. I do have the numbers of the homes and outbuildings lost. And we lost 38 homes last year and 116 outbuildings. And the total is just a little bit over $4 million. Okay, so we had
$4 million in losses, and this tax is expected to bring in $700,000.
The average, and this may be a hard number to come up with, but just ballpark it for me. The average landowner that's going to be affected by this tax, how much acreage would you say they have, and how much more a year do you think this is going to cost the average landowner? Do you have any? Representative Meeks,
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
25:39
I want to give you a few numbers. On 40 acres of land, it costs the
landowner $2. Okay. And you can kind of take that and go above that.
Okay. So I guess the point that I'm getting at here is this is an extremely cheap insurance policy, $0.20 to insure an acre versus the $300 that you've got invested in, though. And I guess my question would be, would you agree? Yes. And I'd like to
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
26:03
tell you that most of the timber companies in the state, I'd say 99% are totally in agreeance
with paying this $0.05 increase. And we have a lot of those guys here today if we need to hear from them.
All right. Thank you. thank you mr. chairman are there any other questions from the committee representative
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
26:26
Thompson you mentioned the the fire issues they all happen at
the same time it seems like a minute I know when when I call it the case of fire I don't know I'm sure what the name y'all used on it but there were
nine volunteer fire departments from Conway County that went across the river and the smoke was actually
coming in tomorrow there were 11 fire departments there all together when when you have to respond to multiple fires throughout the state the training that y'all provide in representative makes district there
Greenbrier. Will this money help better prepare for those multiple deployments, I guess would be the term? Absolutely. So
Speaker 94
27:14
we had probably the biggest year that I can remember, and I've got 40 years in timber industry and forestry in this state, for lightning fires. That day, the case of fire was really a group of fires. There were five lightning strikes. And we And we called out, or someone called out, I think we called out 11 fire departments.
We had three Forest Service bulldozers. We had four Deltic timber bulldozers. We had seven state bulldozers. We had two U.S. Forest Service hand tool crews, and the fire lasted three days. And it's an incredible deal, but because of the training, those fire departments were ready to help. Normally, we deploy the fire departments around the homes, and, of course, that day also we had the National Guard Blackhawks with two of our single-engine air tankers.
It was all hands on deck and had another big fire down at Whelan Springs Which I've shown some of you the video of jumping the highway was the same day as the case of fire The biggest day of fire we had this year or this past year. I think we had 43 fires in one day in August Thank you, sir. I totally agree actually, I wish we
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
28:43
could do more but motion at the proper time
Speaker 15
28:47
on this one also representative Alexander you're
Chair
Unverified
28:51
recognized for a question I was just gonna ask for a motion at the proper
Representative Douglas House
Unverified
29:00
time a representative house you recognize for a question thank you mr. chairman mr. Fox this money that's being raised by this tax will this filter down to the volunteer fire departments or do you expect to expend it all for equipment training
Speaker 94
29:16
at your agency level it will it will to be precise we would use it for our agency but that will offset some other money that would filter down to
the to the volunteer fire department we work so closely together that when we're strong we can keep them strong all right thank
you very much seeing no more questions is there anyone that wants to speak against this bill for this bill all right representative Wardlow before I ask you to close one thing I just wanted to mention is on each member's desk is
a letter and I want to thank representative Bell and representative Wardlow for the for the good work
they've done one of the things that I think this committee has been wonderful about so far and will continue to be moving forward is responsible tax and revenue management and I think where we're headed today is a great example of that I know mr. Leathers got up and talked a little bit about the tax reduction associated with House Bill 1039 obviously this bill is going to move us a little bit in the other direction and and the idea of good tax policy is
something I think that's important to all of us and I wanted to let the members know that you know in addition to that letter if they have any further questions they're welcome to talk to me now we're in the future and I'd also like to make sure that anyone in the audience or the press that wants a copy of the letter gets a chance to get it and if you don't have it come see me and I'll get you one with that representative Ward lot would you like to close for your bill mr. chairman I'm closed I sure appreciate a
Speaker 88
30:51
good vote all right thank you I've got several people that
wanted to make a motion on this the first one to ask me was representative rent motion do pass mr. chairman thank you
representative Warren we've got a motion do pass in front of the committee all in favor any opposed representative Wardlow your bill is passed thank you mr. chairman I think committee all right without objection next we're going to here HB 1654 representative Lee you're recognized to present your bill
Speaker 25
31:37
thank you mr. chairman may I invite Christian Olson up here yes land commissioner's
office thank you yes of course mr. Olson please introduce yourself and who you're
Speaker 120
31:51
with thank you thank you mr. chairman I'm Christian
Speaker 25
31:58
at the land commissioner's office representative Lee you recognize present your bill basically good morning members basically what this does is brings us up to modern times previously the land commissioner's office could only receive
what was called a cashier's check there are many different ways that we pay things now
Speaker 119
32:13
and so that's all it does is clean up the language as you can see I'm on line 27 28 thank
you members of the committee are there any questions for representative Lee seeing none is that representative Alexander you're recognized for a question motion at
the proper time thank you is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak against the bill for the bill seeing
none representative Lee are you closed for your bill yes sir representative Alexander you're recognized for a motion thank you mr. chair I move to pass we have a motion do pass in front of the committee all in favor any opposed representative Lee your bill passes thank
you thank you committee members next we're going to hear HB 1692 is representative Jett in the room
We're going to wait for a minute
for Representative Jett. Representative Jett, you're recognized to present House Bill 1692.
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
33:45
thank you mr. chairman committee if you don't care I'd like to pick up mr. Jack Critcher join the table with me please municipal
league yes mr. Richards if you'd please introduce yourself and tell us who you're with the service chairman
Jack Critcher with the Arkansas municipal league you recognize representative jet thank
Chair
Unverified
34:08
mr. chairman members just this bill is coming from the initial leak and what this bill is it has to do with severance gas
turn back funds to the municipalities basically what we're saying is this money back from the severance turn back money back to the towns it gives the mayor's of the towns more flexibilities to use your money the money they receive from the service to turn back money has to go into an asphalt fund and what we're asking for to do is to let the mayor's have more flexibilities to spend the money in their towns as they see fit and mr. Jack Critchard is going to explain it the municipal each side of it
you recognize mr. Critcher thank you mr. chairman yeah as representative Jett said the amount the money that we're talking about is about three dollars per capita so in a town of a thousand people you're talking about three thousand dollars a year and what this would do is grant them some flexibility let's say that they have money in the street fund and all of a sudden you know a sewer pump goes out or you know have a roof leaking or something they don't have general money in the general fund to make that repair it would allow them to
Speaker 131
35:21
use available money in the street fund to to do that thank you are
there any questions from the committee representative meeks you RECOGNIZE FOR A QUESTION? YEAH, I HAVE A QUESTION.
YOU KNOW, WHEN THE NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY WAS MORE ACTIVE IN THE STATE THAN THEY ARE NOW, THERE WAS A LOT OF CONCERNS ON THE CONDITIONS OF ROADS, AND A LOT OF THE PURPOSE FOR THIS WAS TO MAKE SURE THAT THOSE ROADS WERE TAKEN CARE OF AND REPAIRED. AND IN SPEAKING WITH YOU, YOU SAID THAT YOU BELIEVE THIS WILL
BE MORE OF A HELP FOR THE SMALLER CITIES. What assurances does this committee have that, you know, I'm with you on what you're saying there, but are there any assurances that you can give this committee that if we give them that flexibility that that money is not going to be used and abused? And as someone who sat on the cities and counties subdivision of audit, I've seen my share of how that happens.
and the cities and counties aren't going to be coming back to this body in, you know, two years saying we don't have money for our roads because they're spending this money on other things instead of what
it was intended for us. Yeah, I appreciate that. That's an excellent question, and I think my answer would be that as far as cities are concerned, and I don't think any of the larger, you know, the little rocks out there, I don't think this is an issue, but your smaller communities, it would be a benefit, And I think that the answer would be that if they're not fixing, if they're using this small amount of money somewhere other than the roads when the need, when the roads are the primary need in that community, I'm sure that the folks in town will let the mayor and the council know about that and they will respond accordingly.
How much for a small-sized town, you know, I come from a city of about $10,000, about how much money are we talking about here with the severance turned back? That would be $30,000
Speaker 131
37:21
a year for $10,000. Okay, so we're talking about $30,000 a year for a city of that size. All right.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. And, Mr. Meeks, I might
Chair
Unverified
37:30
also add, I mean, there's still accountability because there's still going to be hauled in front of the audit committee also. so I mean regardless if they start spending money on anything outside the norm that Todd is gonna pick up I mean you're still gonna see these folks thank
you representative Alexander you recognize
for a question thank you mr. chair the money that you received that goes into the asphalt fund how is it determined which roads you the city would be
responsible for taking care of Well, Representative Alexander, it's actually, it's required that it be spent on streets, you know, anything that is eligible for street fund expenditure currently.
Speaker 137
38:20
And so, you know, it doesn't have to be spent for asphalt
Speaker 131
38:24
or whatever. And I might add one other thing. You have some, you know, communities that have, maybe you have
Town A and Town B that the same size geographically but one may have a lot more street needs maybe more streets than the other yet the money is per capita so they get the same amount of money
Speaker 52
38:44
so that you know it's all about flexibility okay but I guess
my question was you know if town a gets gets a certain amount of money and 15
miles away there's a need to prepare a road where does town A's responsibility begin and
Speaker 52
39:06
end well I'm not sure not sure I understand well I think what I'm trying to verify is this if the
money is not spent on roads okay the location that's affected is the town that made the decision not to spend it on roads is that correct well yeah
Speaker 52
39:26
it would it would be each city you know they would they
would determine where that money whether it's going to be spent 100% on streets in the city limits as it currently is is mandated to be spent or if you know there's there's a greater need elsewhere for some of that money so so again that you know the city can the governing body the local governing body would would make that
determination for the roads within their jurisdiction yes sir yes sir absolutely all right that's what I thought I appreciate representative Jett
bringing this bill I think we've seen a trend in our country for far too long of someone outside the local community dictating how money is spent and it seems to me if I understand this correctly if they overspend the fund and they end up with bad road the people who are affected are the people in that community and I'm sure they can voice their displeasure if if necessary to the people making those decisions so I have faith in the mayors and the people at
the local level to make the best decision for their community and I
Chair
Unverified
40:45
I support the bill thank you sir and represent Alexander I'd also add to you and I appreciate your comments I'd also add to that that it's all about priorities and letting the city the city local the local city government make their own own priorities and then have the flexibility inside those priorities to to enact what we're trying to ask for this seeing no more questions
is there anyone in the audience excuse me representative house you're recognized
Representative Douglas House
Unverified
41:11
for a question Thank You mr. chairman I agree with with the representative Alexander's comments I happen to live in a county that just dropped 20 million dollars to decorate a bridge and I have a lot of confidence and faith in mayor Grubbs of course but not always in all communities are the monies wisely spent much to my chagrin this bill apparently lets the counties do with this money as
they please as I read it funds dispersed to the county aid fund pursuant to section 2 is all lined out about am I misunderstanding something mr. chairman may
that's an excellent question and if you look and I'm sorry I don't have the bill in front of me but in that section that you're referring to representative house in 2007 there was some one-time money I I forget the exact amount. Turnback, it was an increase in turnback to cities and counties.
I think it was $16 million or whatever it was. But anyway, that was a one-time money, and that's what this is referring to. That money was allocated through this section, and that's no longer relevant because, you know, the money's already been distributed. And so that's just cleanup language there. If you look at the title of the bill, it talks about technical correction. that's part of the technical correction in this bill thank you yes sir thank you seeing no additional questions is there anyone in the audience that wants to
speak against this bill for this bill seeing none representative jet are you closed for your bill
Chair
Unverified
42:56
I just like to add members last year I had a mayor come to audit got called in front of audit had the City Hall leaking run run computers and papers and stuff he had money in his asphalt fund no money in general revenue funds and he took money out of his street funds to fix to repair the roof gentlemen 70 years old he come to audit shaking like a leaf thought he was
going to jail and this all we're asking is just give flexibility to these mayors to help problems like that and that I'm closed and I would make a motion for do pass all right
we have a motion do pass in front of the committee all those in favor any opposed representative jet you've passed your bill thank you members without objection I'd like to get a motion to adjourn all right thank you
Agenda
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative Charlie Collins Chair
Unverified
Gene Far
Unverified
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Speaker 15
Speaker 20
Speaker 24
Speaker 21
Speaker 25
Speaker 28
Speaker 31
Chair
Unverified
Representative John K. Hutchison
Unverified
Representative Stephen Meeks Chair
Unverified
Speaker 8
Representative Randy Alexander Chair
Unverified
Representative Nate Bell Chair
Unverified
Representative Douglas House
Unverified
Speaker 61
Speaker 63
Representative Tommy Thompson
Unverified
Speaker 68
Speaker 90
Speaker 94
Speaker 96
Speaker 101
Speaker 88
Speaker 120
Speaker 119
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
Speaker 131
Speaker 137
Speaker 52