House Rules

after the. Presentation on the House for there's some changes that the member has requested so the the bill back in our committee. Thank you so much Mister chair thank you Committee I'm obviously went much better in this committee than it did on the house floor but I appreciate the opportunity to come back thanks to a representative Wardlaw for that motion to expunge it to come back and amend I'm I have to explain the amendment first but really that is kind of the primary change in wind coming out just to kind of tighten it up I'm in the first section we are adding some language and to clarify that and the expense would have to be and would not exist in the absence of the campaign so that section mirrors another section in co but I think in this instance it's better just to go ahead and and stick it in there while we're talking about and campaign funds in in particular this section to you actually is deleted in its entirety this section on elected officials and carryover funds I think there were enough concerns and most of the concerns were around current office holders utilizing those funds and for child care and so I'm just narrowly tailored it to candidates to campaign funds and not really and you know identically mirrors the at the Commission ruling of twenty eighteen to keep that a little bit cleaner and a little bit more specifics those that's the amendment which really is my presentation for the bill as amended I would appreciate a great but in the end and I remember you heard the explanation of the amendment and without objection will consider the amendment adopted to the bill do you want IT. Without going on. So that that's the that's the Senate the presentation of the bill as well yeah I mean again just to clarify I'm. Now just narrowly tailoring it to include candidates only campaign funds only and then adding that provision in there and that you know it can only be used if the child care expense would not exist in the absence of the campaign I know that and Mr Sloan had recommended that language and that representative ray ray some of those similar concerns on the floor I talked to him about this he said he was happy to work with me that he and it hasn't seen this version of the bill but in my discussions with him I know that he's that guy that seems like it's a lot better and so I think that that would kind of eliminate that confusion and those concerns about elected officials and that but continue to keep and the allowable expenses for candidates in alignment with the ethics commission ruling in twenty eighteen okay in the language that I believe that representative ray was questioning that said something about and I don't have the bill in front of me just the amendment about the house and Senate reimbursement is that part of section two that was taken out that's right and and that was really and I got a little bit stones on the floor about that but that's just to say and that if candidate or if elected officials are using these funds and we need a reimbursement that that we would need a corresponding House or Senate rule to to make those allowable and that just again because of the confusion in the concerns around elected officials to these using the finds that part has just been stricken. All right members you for examination are there any questions. Max NO questions we have no one signed up to speak for or against the bill what. Who's that all right we have a motion do pass as amended all those in favor signify by saying aye. Posed Is have a convention committee I appreciate the second chance. All right members removed to. Representative Dalby as your amendment ready yet you got it okay you wanna go into the house bill eighteen twenty five. Members your being at a passed out an amendment. Take a look at it should be pretty simple. You. Dalby you're recognized to present your Amendment first thank you Mr chair the amendment simply I'm Page one line twenty six delete the words and the person. All right members with you have a question represent Wardlaw on the amendment you're recognized I'll wait to the bill okay I members without objection will consider the amendment to house bill eighteen twenty five adopted so representative you can present your bill now thank you Mr chair this bill comes to us today out of a ruling from the Arkansas Supreme Court a couple weeks ago Mr Sloan from the. Ethics commission brought this to me to address the concerns that the Supreme Court has and so what this bill does is makes it clear that on the campaign signs and literature requirement of who's paid for by that there is someone responsible for that and with the amendment it now is the candidate would be responsible to see that that gets printed on the bottom of the signs a campaign signs and literature and be happy to answer any questions thank you Dalby Richmond Wardlaw you have a question. You're recognized thank you Mr. President already I just had a campaign last cycle and I have an opponent that had signs that did not have this listed what can you refresh our memory I remember this going to state agencies a few years ago what is the penalty for that. Well you follows file a complaint with the ethics commission the commission reviews it and then under their rules and regulations that they promulgated from when we pass this law five years ago I think it was Ingraham's here but I would think that it would be probably a minimum fine or something like that but you'd have to ask him I don't know they promulgate regulations you're the thank you. Thank you Richard Wardlaw member any other questions. Not seeing all the questions we have no one signed up to speak for against the bill what are the pleasure of the committee The motion to pass all those as amended yes the meat motion do pass as amended all those in favor signify by saying aye. Those guys have a congratulations representive thank you Mr chairman thank you Committee. Are moving to House Bill sixteen seventy five. Representative eleven. Welcome to rules if you introduce yourself will get started. Members this also has an amendment. That's that's a fairly large amendment so give me a minute or two to take a look at it and then we'll have representative Evans explained Amendment. Thank you Mr chair of representive eleven District forty three. I representive you wanna go just because about your amendment bill about that really so this is actually Amendment number two to the original draft this amendment is is just cleaning up some language that was inadvertently put into the first amendment and it in moved some things in the wrong section of code and Mr Sloan it out to make want to make sure we have that corrected so we had to do the second amendment. Under president that's committee this morning. Our members you've heard the amendment are there any questions on the amendment saying none without objection will adopt the amendment to house bill sixteen seventy five the representative having you can present your bill thank you Mr. Members of sixteen seventy five seeks to modernize and made more efficient the transparency and the reporting of our campaign accounts as elected officials you know that we're we're always campaigning never stops there's never a time were not out supposed to doing the work of the people that doesn't start stop just when we're in session the intent of this bill is really to do two things one eliminates the unnecessary and outdated transfer into a separate account or shell account this call carryover funds you as you know are you have to go in the secretary of state's their their their website and you you take that lump sum of money that you have in your campaign you move it over here you have expenses during that time and then once your campaign starts back up you take that same same money and then you move it back into another account I think under some of the the Code you're actually supposed to have separate bank accounts with your local bank and what this does is it eliminates that unnecessary and outdated transferring to a separate account I believe your donors contributed your campaign to help elect you and provide you financing to serve and pay your official expenses while you're in office they wanted you to be able to represent them in your full official capacity not just during a window of a primary or a window of the General. also due to changes in some previous law this rule is this removes the maximum amount that you can have in your campaign account because under the current law you're now allowed to campaign was in the house and raise funds for two years in advance under the old code you only could have in your account the maximum amount of what your salary was as an elected representative so that removes that cap at BLR do some research on this before we started putting the draft together. This was a quote they found they did not find anything in any surrounding states that requires transfers into some separate account most of all the surrounding states around us allow the continuation of the existing campaign fund for successful candidates and provides provisions for unsuccessful campaigns are to generally dissolver dissolution of their campaign fund account of the term carryover funds is mentioned nowhere in any states that the L. R. did research on motion rounding states do have the same provisions that we have for how you dissolve that account in the event that your campaign was unsuccessful want to make sure that we understand that there are no rules that are being changed with this bill maximum contribution stay the same no contributions received thirty days before session until thirty days after session you still have to file your monthly see any reports just like you've always done no rules are being changed we are not eliminating carryover funds all this bill simply does is eliminates the category so that you're not having to move in transfer money from one side or the other you just keep that same amount of money and and keep paying expenses as you generally would hello I want to personally thank both secretary of state's office and also or ethics commission as they provided valuable insight to this Mr Sloan went above and beyond helping with the language of this to make sure that it meets all ethics rules even taking the bill down and breaking it down word for word to put a great amount of time to this I want to make sure that we thank them for that simply this is just to eliminate the need of taking those same campaign funds that you haven't transferring them online into a shell account in the back again an arbitrary date I believe this provides more transparency hi to the actual reporting of the contributions and expenses that you have as an elected official and for the investment that you're donors have made into each of your campaigns. I'll be happy to take any questions thank you representive Graham would you mind coming on down with private couple questions I know I do. Be going introduce yourself for the record will be a start in the question Graham Sloan director the ethics commission Mike my question would be does this have any way or does it in any way affect of any of the decision to come out of the citizens commission that you know establish our salaries and things like that is or is there any effect on that at all no no no not to my knowledge I mean that there's nothing that I saw in there that would lead me to believe that all right what about you know when we have carryover funds there are times there are conferences that we attended you can use some of those office expenses our office I guess expense we would consider that to use that for the those issues with the still be. Allowed to do that this bill would And existing law. You had campaign funds before the election and then once elections are over yet carryover in surplus you could have used carryover funds to pay for officeholder expenses so as a member to go to a conference and and then that was missed school and then in this bill it pretty much you just have campaign funds and the and remaining campaign funds but he could use you can use those for either one of those for officeholder expenses so I think you would be able to to do that in the in the do you think you'd be able to do it or you know you can do it you would be able to help you be able to and then the I think the biggest change on this is just existing law once campaigns over you can keep an amount equal to the annual salary and that would be available for use in the future campaign so it's capped it that the annual salary and then this remove that cap and and so there you know the whatever you have left over you can key okay thank you Graham representative you back you're recognized. Thank you Mr chairman represented eleven was this go into effect if it was to pass. there was not emergency clause put on it so it would be on the the regular timespan once it was passed and signed by the governor okay so is sending its and August or whatever the ninety days is up or whatever. How would that affect us in that current ones. Current office holders carryover count can we. Make that a campaign account and by that point you would already of convert it back over to a campaign account from carryover are you would be able to do that okay thank you. Thank you Senate members any other questions. A representative Ferguson going push a button you're recognized. Hello thank you thank you Mr Hey a quick question just to. So it removes the cap. So if I raised fifty or sixty thousand dollars you Santa lap to keep it. You're allowed to keep that in that account and candor that is correct okay it in one follow up so. Then the rules. That affect. The old rules that affect carryover. So if I get sixty thousand dollars in my account. Then can I use some of those funds to give to a five oh one three C.. Yes. But not limited to any any former current Spence's that you would have all this does is eliminates the category of carryover inputs everything was leading carryover under campaign. The duty we have one last question so I guess sixty thousand dollars now thank you thirty thousand. To a nonprofit the survival into the sea and okay or thank you yes thank you Mr thank you representative members any other questions. Graham thank you for coming down we don't have anyone signed up to speak for or against the bill Graham thanks again we just close the bill is close and appreciated do pass motion all right members you for an explanation of the bill we're a little committee. Got a motion do pass as amended. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Posed. Reservation the eyes have it thank you committee. All right representative Christiansen. House bill seventeen sixty three. Good morning committee and thank you very much Mr chairman thank you. This is house bill seventeen sixty three as amended I believe you've been given amendment forms. If you have not we made a strategic a Levin tower change. Then we removed the portion that said to authorize out of state direct to consumer shipments. The objection that had been brought to us by our distiller partners our distributor partners we examined their Matt and determined that it was in the best interests or one to remove that from this bill and therefore the opposition is now poised to support the bill. So this is a small business bill Senate president hold on just one second members you've heard an explanation of the amendment are there any questions on the amendment acting on without objection without them in the house bill seventeen sixty three you can present your bill thank you Mr chairman. This is house bill seventeen sixty three to amend the law regarding Arkansas distilleries and to allow self distribution. Currently our micro distilleries are kept under a ceiling and they sell out of their tasting rooms they cannot without using one of the three legs of the stool which is the distributors be able to sell to a licensed retailers such as a liquor store down the street or in another county. By the way this does not affect anything in dry areas. With this we would raise the ceiling. To allow them to operate under ceiling does roughly two thirds less than the federal government ceiling so we're keeping it within Arkansas values and at the same time that would allow them to grow their business to the point that a distributor would wish to pick them up once they reach that ceiling they have to be used by distributor and therefore everybody is is poised to make a profit the marker distillers the distributors and the retailers all benefit from that partnership right now they're too small for most to distributors to pick them up so we're asking for a little bit of parity we have seen what is done for the micro brewers of few years ago when the ceiling was raised for them and they are allowed to do their sales to retailers we're asking for survival for these folks that have put millions of dollars in in personal investment into their into their facilities and their own viable taxpaying park of Arkansas business so this affects their growth. All right that it I think that's where we are right now I do have witnesses here from the micro distillers and stand Haitians of administrating is here as well. All right how many micro distillers are there in the state right now there are a handful of them they range from delta dirt which is a minority owned distillery two of fill Brendan's rock town here in Little Rock Ross Jones was postmaster distillery Danny Bradley's crystal ridge in hot springs in Martin Tennessee of fox trail over and in the Rogers area. They have formed a guild worked together to better their own businesses and. Be able to help in our area as you know committee COVID has changed the business climate around the world the model is totally different than what it was a year ago. And it literally almost turned out the lights for these folks because for a traffic stop to their door and so there's been a paradigm shift in buying habits so we need your we need your help all right thank you for that presentation members are there any questions. A no questions we do have several members signed up to speak of a apparently for the bill if we could get Mr Jones doesn't say whether you're for or against the bill of postmasters I'm assuming you're for the bill. Is for the bill. If you would when you get seated does that introduce yourself for the record and we'll let's begin with your testimony. My name's James Ross Jones postmaster distillery in Newport Arkansas and my crew is a good description and and survival is another good description right now we we're is very small business is my life in a and we're trying to stick to make our way in this in this industry as novices and just for numbers example last year we made about thirty thousand dollars and in sales over our counter of our product meanwhile we have sold through distributors ten thousand dollars worth of it because we're just not a big enough fish for them to want for a. And I understand that but nobody sells my product like I sell my product in given the opportunity to go out to the to the wholesale or I'm sorry the retail stores and to do just that that's all we're asking for if you make beer wine Arkansas you're allowed to that now so we are very close cousins to that and would like to have the same privilege Mr Jones do you do you do you all make the CD still at their on site or do you by the I guess as we aged okay we have products that are both the still on site and some that are rectified as there is the term all right thank you appreciate that members are in the question Mister Jones. Okay represented Ferguson you're recognized for a question where were you you'll be distributing it to retail liquor stores is that what you're writing today but not to grocery stores no no okay just licensed liquor sales okay thank you I thank you members any other questions acting on thank you for your testimony thank you very much and next on the list to speak for the bill is Danny Bradley. There if you would just introduce yourself for the record then you can begin your testimony. Thank you very much. One pusher pusher button there. Okay thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity to speak to you guys and to tell a little bit about our story and how that this would help us of my wife and I we are also a very small micro distillery we have made a very significant investment in downtown hot springs were our on site location is out in and in about three million dollars is what we have invested their and so under the current law just like to a representative Christiansen said we cannot sell our product to retail outside of our store front in less we go through a distributor we're just so small due to its a major risk that they take in taking us and allowing us the opportunity to go out and sell our product it also allows us to safeguard that we can grow at a pace that we could sustain so if we go through a distributor and they immediately go into the whole state of Arkansas and start selling to the every liquor store we possibly could and sustain that type of growth so by allowing us to go out and Insel our own product it would also give us the opportunity to add a little at a time if we could go out and sustain of ten liquor stores or ten restaurants then we could if we got we're able to support that and we could grow in and get to the point were to distributors would want our product and in go statewide with that so just wanted to let you know a little bit about how that that would help us if we also will start there you would be able to sell at your store you'll be able to sell to liquor stores retail liquor stores and then also you can sell to restaurants and then they would result to the public yes Sir we're we're ever hard liquor or whiskey is allowed to be sales so the previous question was about grocery stores. Currently it is illegal to sell hard liquor in grocery stores there by the that representative question that that's in your bill they can sell to restaurants. It says words allowed by law or as well perfect thank you thank you start interrupt you all know no no from that. Yes Sir okay thank you very much actually hang on just a member's or any questions. One minute single questions thank you we have one more Person I want to speak for the bill we have Phil Brandon rock town distillery. Okay I've. Yes Sir thank you for that I appreciate that all right members there is no one else on to speak for or against the bill president of Christians in would you like to close for your bill. Mr chairman committee I appreciate your consideration today this is important for these folks and I believe important for the state of Arkansas I do ask for a good in favor will vote thank you thank you representative of members you've heard the testimony on the amended bill where the wishes of the committee. We have a motion do pass as amended all those in favor say aye. Pose the ayes have it congratulations. This. All right members with one more bill without objection will take up Senate bill five five four representatives Johnson. you would to have a signature dish yourself we every bill we presented this morning has had an amendment or you can just go like this No amendment all right as is you're recognized to present your bill representative Lee Johnson district seventy five thank you Mr chair committee members the purpose of the purpose of this bill is to create a pathway for our beer and light wine wholesale is in Arkansas to sell and distribute a product is relatively new to the mark in the recent years these are ready to drink beverages that are not Malta for wine based so their spirits liquor based but there Low alcohol content beverages and there's currently no statute in place to give them this pathway to to sell and distribute it would be done and rules promulgated to the division of alcohol beverage control so um this pretty simple straightforward in its intent I know of no opposition and we have to try to answer any questions that you may has any thank you members are there any questions. Representative Wardlaw you're recognized. I can help it. I wooden this alcohol content this originated in this beverages are selling this mixed drink wouldn't it be a spirit to start with would it be like a whiskey or a little box or something in that nature yes the spirit base but it would be diluted the point there was law content Little Richard Dickerson therefore this would be starting on the road of move in our liquor base to the beer and wine industry which would then put it on the shelves of our retail stores and moving away from a liquor store model would not I can see why you'd be concerned about that but that's not what I think this is trying to do nor does I think I think it opens the door for that these are again prepared in the manufacture in designed to be local content and not designed to be hard liquor thank you thank representative members any other questions. Sing Sing NO questions we have one person signed up to speak up in favor of the bill Mr Pendergrass. When you come on down and introduce yourself you can begin your testimony. Hello I am asking your grass from Fort Smith Arkansas and a if there are no questions I would give my time and. Well played Mr Pendergrass. All right thank you members of any questions sing none was will of committee. We have a motion do pass on Senate bill five fifty four all in favor signify by saying aye. Does the ayes have it congratulations.