Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development- House

The like they usually do with our bills and amended it so. They are moved lease see out of bills what I understand so I appreciate a motion sensor. Representative lance you're recognized. Hi wait that a motion on the table all those in favor say aye. Those narrow graduations representative Gonzalez you have passed my concurrent Amendment and with that without objection will move house bill eighteen twenty three to be the next item on the agenda you're recognized please identify yourself for the record and you may continue representative Justin Gonzales House Bill eighteen twenty three I'm just going to ask if you all would would send us to and I'm study form in place. Are there any questions. There anyone in the office and not in the office in the audience that would like to speak against an ISP for an ISP. Sorry I'm getting a list. So it miss Hearst are you against it going to an ISP okay all right so is that okay a five and then Eirik meals are you against it going to an I. S. P. R. at so what is the will of the committee motion do pass by representative McNair during discussion on the motion all those in favor say aye. Oppose nine congratulations we will send this to ISP thank you pleasure doing business will. Senate bill six thirteen. Senator Sturch. Is the secretary or someone from his office here could someone said at the end of the table with you. And I figure you know what it is right. Representative berry could you assist him at the end of the table. Thank you I would appreciate that very much let's help out our Senator here who I do believe is still in session. So. So this would be helpful to our Senator colleagues so state your name for the record and you may proceed. Of course I'm Stan Berry and I have the honor to have wish ward here with me today all right entities yourself secretary and you may begin yes ma'am was for from the Arkansas department agriculture appreciate that Sir and this is a a bill to to clean up some for your legislation for the state of Arkansas so just some quick points of what this bills Senate bill six thirteen does is that it really right now across the state of Arkansas there are four pots of money were or funding to state fairs comes from others you're basically three sources from general revenue one from developing enhancement fund for construction funds what what Senator Sturch and represents labor trying to do with this is to consolidate the general revenue sources where they can and then to to the the more sensitive pieces of it to make it a more equitable distribution of funding to county it to county fairs across the state right now the county and district fairs or are required to pay a four and a half percent admission surcharge fee so this would eliminate better mission surcharge fee it would also eliminate a two dollar per head on horses collected in the state so what is it eliminates two fees to to fairs and and on poor sales it also eliminates the premium point system which is how County district fairs or awarded funding to pay for premium points awards at at the shares so it eliminates that takes away all the a lot of the burdensome administrative headache that's required there and will make it easier for counties in district fairs are the recipients of the funding to to make the decision for that they need to do to make we we saw this of course certainly highlighted last year during covid county fairs needed funding the funding that they were receiving was restricted so this would take away the the red tape really associate with it it would make it easier for the department to administer the funds but on the other side the. The oversight piece of it the recipients will still be required to maintain the list of expenditures of the funds submit an annual financial report and be subject to legislative audit but be happy to answer any questions anyone might have represented Fortner you're recognized. Thank you madam chairman of. This restructuring will this effect the coupon the. Help me with the word for the the people that enter things in the fair especially the children in the livestock they get X. amount of. Dollars. Will this affect them and in the best way adversely it will not affect them adversely so basically this will will allow the recipients of funding to basically receive more money it's it's using the same part of money but taken out consolidating and taking away the the bureaucratic Anisur portions of it so it'll it'll be up to the county fairs to say I need I need to pay a lot bill or I want to designate so much for your for of wards as part of a livestock show it will be a local based decision on how they want to administer the funding without the state saying how the hell they have to do it you're recognized for a follow thank you How to the fair board that what kind of feedback have you got from them on this so we hi personally I haven't gotten a lot of a a lot of feedback on the bill itself but but every year we spend we probably spend four thousand hours just from department personnel tracking down fair personnel trying to track down records it's a it's an outdated system we see that and the recipients see that as well we we've seen fairs and basically try to game the system in order to get just a few more dollars you know you know we're going to submit more your cans of green beans as opposed to something else just to try to get more points to get more funding this eliminates all that eliminates the requirement for them to send back a portion of the funding back to the state under mission surcharge fee just simplifies it as as much as we possibly can. And. What will the payment's be based on the size of the fair. So so what this would do uses a historical average and so basically over the next two years so all the all the recipients would see an increase in funding all the county fairs would would get additional funding because of this streamlining but it will be based off the store go average to so certainly there or counties and and different fares that have larger fairs and more participation and it have historically received more points and and more money because of that so we're we're gonna use a historical average as a starting point or or there's not going to be a a broad. Change so someone was getting ten thousand dollars no next year they're not going to get three thousand dollars or twenty thousand dollars but they would see him about because we're taking out all of the. Red tape associated with thank you I think it's a good bill anything that'll help will get more money is is good with me. And it Coleman you're recognized for a question. Thank you thank you partial answer the the builder on page two of your talking vested equitable distribution of this money and so does that mean that if you have a ten percent increase in the total money that each historically there's only a ten percent increase or had you divide that equitable distribution. So we do we do have a a break down an estimated breakdown of what sort of impact that would have number I'll be happy to to share that or or or answer specific questions if there was a particular recipient you had mine but what it basically is pulling those funds together and then based off that number by pulling it together and and adding the surcharge that mission surcharge the back yet so instead of you know at that and let me make a point about the mission surcharge fee you know there were there were about twenty four counties that were not paying emissions surcharge for the another county is that were range anywhere from a dollar and three cents to seven thousand dollars it was pretty broad despair this discrepancies on how that was being administered and he was sending the money back so this levels it for everybody using a sort wherever's the the funding that's there would that additional funds would within B.. On an equitable basis with the marks of recipients. One of the following okay is this is this is separate but of in there you this that there's I think you can base six left out feel districts and in going through here there's just three listed the that I saw this marked out what happened to the other three. And if so will Page eleven line five inches or six livestock show districts of the state and then other portions of the bill. We're we're striking out there just. Three. There's not name their. So so that's a that's another discrepancy we found and and the Arkansas law some somewhere name someone not named so what this would be what would allow answer certainly want to may want to answer these questions better than I can but so there is a significant discrepancies in law what was named what wasn't name and this would give the money to the counties and they can be counties in determining we want to live structure we want to let the counties decide what they want to do with the funding. Please state your name for the record and you may answer the question James Sturch state senator district nineteen what was the question. Mary state representative Coleman. Thank you Senator Sturch. I mentioned it over on page eleven it says that there's authorized six livestock show districts of the state but then going through the. The bill there's just three that are listed and I was asking what happened to the others of the three and I think it was. You can add to it but I think. No I think that's right with livestock shows district fairs some are actually named in legislation and told what counties participate where it is and then some or not they were just part of livestock and poultry as premium points and and so Secretary ward was right when he said that since on the discrepancies so the best way that we found to do it was just clean it up and allow at the local level to be decided thank you. Representative Smith you're recognized for a question. Thank you madam chair it's good to see Senator Sturch back down here on our end of the building that's good and the back let me tell you. in a always good to see secretary ward my question is for Secretary ward have you gotten any feedback and if so what. Type of feedback have you gotten from the Northeast Arkansas District Fair board and a do they like these changes that are coming. I have not heard from them directly serve but I would imagine all the recipients all the counties that are recipients of funding would like to because it's it is a streamlined process and it gives it gives them the control to say we want to we want a big district fair we want to livestock show or we want so much for your your awards at live section is it really they get to make the decisions but but I have not heard directly from any of them follows you're recognized well you know we always have a great fair up between two per town and farmville curve out there at the Nettleton Baptist church or we gonna. Still locate there this coming. Their season. That will that will be up to them and and that's really part of part of what Senator Sturch is bill tries to do is it's their decisions they they get to decide what they want they want to do and how they want to one final you're right you're recognized Senator Sturch can you land on our fair board and have them stay right where they are. The representative man I can tell you this last several years that I've been the legislature I've attended the fair managers convention that they have H. January and that's kinda where this idea came from was how convoluted the equation formula had got over the years and basically how much the fan district had changed where we haven't given any new money and several years to fair so you know my I guess. Inspiration was trying to find an effective way in a more efficient way to spend the money we currently give and allow that local station making to you know happened so you know with regard to northeast district of southeast district or north central you know that's why I thought the counties that make up those districts instead of us as legislators having to choose between counties we they represent both counties an instance to where you know we you get put in a very bad position you know every time we look at bills that have you know a specific county in a specific place let that be at the local fair decision among fair board. Are there any other questions. Saying no other questions there's no one signed up to speak for against is there anyone in the audience would like to speak for the bill against the bill. Senator Sturch would you like to close for your bill thank you ma'am chair and I do apologize for being late I know there's no such thing as a perfect bill have been here long enough to find that out the Secretary warden I've worked several weeks on this to try to make it as near perfect as possible so you know it's a you know one of those things where I can honestly say at the end of the day we've cut you know to taxes and fees we've got a lot of government bureaucracy at the state level we've allowed local decision making happen and we've maintained that every fair this state will still receive funds and hopefully then in the future have set up a way that they can all have an increase in fund so with that I appreciate a good vote. Representative Fortner you're recognized I have a motion do pass from representative for Fortner is there any discussion on the motion. All those in favor say aye. Does no congratulations your bill has passed and with that we're adjourned.