Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development- House
Video
Transcript
1 document
Bills discussed (6)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1315
Act 418
· 6 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “up to do so. We're going to start with House Bill 1315 and Representative”
|
TO CREATE A STATE MEAT INSPECTION PROGRAM; TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS … | Vaught | Notification that HB1315 is now Act 418 |
|
HB1248
Act 265
· 4 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “…bill passes. Thank you. Moving right down to the next bill, House Bill 1248. Representative Bentley, you're welcome to join us at the e…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING CONSOLIDATION OF CERTAIN LEVEE DISTRICTS AND BOARDS. | Bentley | Notification that HB1248 is now Act 265 |
|
HB1249
Act 266
· 2 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “we'll move on to the next one, 1249. House Bill 1249 is to allow for a dissolvement of a levy board. So if there…”
|
TO CREATE A PROCEDURE FOR THE DISSOLUTION OR ABOLITION OF A LEVEE DISTRICT. | Bentley | Notification that HB1249 is now Act 266 |
|
HB1250
Act 267
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EDURE FOR THE DISSOLUTION OR ABOLITION OF A LEVEE DISTRICT. HB1250 Bentley TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ASSESSMENTS IN CERTAIN…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ASSESSMENTS IN CERTAIN LEVEE OR DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS. | Bentley | Notification that HB1250 is now Act 267 |
|
HB1251
Act 359
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…SSMENTS IN CERTAIN LEVEE OR DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS. HB1251 Bentley TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT AN…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT AND PROTECTION DISTRICT REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR COLLECTION OF … | Bentley | Notification that HB1251 is now Act 359 |
|
HB1268
Act 390
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…REMENTS FOR COLLECTION OF ASSESSMENTS BY COUNTY COLLECTORS. HB1268 Vaught TO CLARIFY THE EXEMPTION TO LICENSURE BY THE VETERIN…”
|
TO CLARIFY THE EXEMPTION TO LICENSURE BY THE VETERINARY MEDICAL EXAMINING BOARD FOR CHIROPRACTORS PERFORMING … | Vaught | Notification that HB1268 is now Act 390 |
Machine transcript
May contain errors. Verify important quotations against the official video.
About transcript accuracy
- Source
- Whisper
- Model
- ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin RTX5060
- Processing date
- October 6, 2026
Michelle Shope
Unverified
0:00
Chair sees a quorum. Again, if you're wishing to speak for or against a bill, make sure that you get signed
up to do so. We're going to start with House Bill 1315 and Representative
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
0:26
Eubanks is going to present. Thank you, Madam Chair. Almost
about a year ago, we had a pandemic hit our
country will hit the hit the world and it result in a resulted in a lot of the changes in how we do business and I think everybody remembers that initially it started with a shortage of toilet paper which I never did understand but there was also other products that the supply chain it started affecting the Availability of different products, and some of those were in grocery stores and the meat supply.
I mean, you'd go to, I know when I went to our local grocery store, turned out all the hamburger might be gone, steaks, and people were starting to stockpile those products because they were afraid, number one, that there was going to be a short supply. But then as COVID became more widespread, there actually were some issues with the packing houses and the processing plants, both for beef, pork, and chicken.
So Representative Vaught met with people and came up with this bill that would allow state meat inspection so that it would benefit not only our local farmers, it would allow them to possibly sell directly to restaurants, stores, and directly to consumers. But also it would help alleviate the shortage that was taking place at the time.
This is something that we feel like is very important because we really don't know what the future is going to bring and we could most certainly deal with these sort of supply chain issues in the future. I don't know if any of you have tried to get a beef processed right now, but the waiting period at local slaughterhouses just for individual processing is out months. I had gotten one scheduled last spring, and I think it was October before we were able
to get it in. So I think this bill will help deal with the inspection issues that we need in order for these products to be sold to grocery stores, restaurants, private consumers, that sort of thing. It will help our farmers. It will help the general public and our supply chain. So if you have any questions, Representative Bult will try to answer them.
Speaker 5
3:27
Representative Aves. I'll go ahead and ask Representative Eubanks. Is there a cost of setting
Speaker 8
3:36
this up, and if there is, can they use some of the federal programs
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
3:42
like the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program? Well, last summer the CARES Act Steering Committee provided $10.4 million for this grant program, so the funding is available. Thank you. And I believe there's other folks here that are willing to testify
Speaker 6
3:57
on this bill. It's really not that complicated.
Representative, do you want to add something to Representative Abe's
Jessica Burkham
Unverified
4:07
question? Yes, Madam Chair. My name is Jessica Burkham. I'm representing the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation, and just to piggyback off of what Representative Eubanks said, sir, we did provide 10.4, you all provided $10.4 million under the CARES Act for the meat processing grant program, but in terms of CFAP money, no, that goes strictly to producers.
We've worked with Secretary Ward and the governor with Representative Vought, Chairman Vought, and put a $750,000 price tag on this that would allow for eight employees at the Department of Agriculture to set this program up and to stair-step it up to where we need to be. Representative Lynch, you're recognized. There was a shock on
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
4:56
both ends of the spectrum of this thing. If any of you sold any cattle during this period of time,
you know that this stopper in the middle of the supply chain has driven the price up at the retail level, but it's driven it down at the wholesale level. So
we need to get this thing fixed. Are there any other questions? Jessica, would you want to add anything else to
Jessica Burkham
Unverified
5:26
what representative Eubanks presented? No, ma'am. I will be up here when our producer, Michael,
Michelle Shope
Unverified
5:31
testifies. Thank you. All right. So, we have several signed up to speak.
Ms. Michelle Shope, you're up first. State your name and who you're
Speaker 21
5:58
with. My name is Michelle Shope. I am the Food Sourcing and Logistics Director
Speaker 22
6:02
for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, and thank you, Madam Chair and Committee, for the opportunity to speak to you today about House Bill 1315.
The Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is the state association for hunger relief organizations, the statewide voice for them, and Arkansans suffering from food insecurity. Can anybody hear me okay? Pull it down
Speaker 25
6:31
a little harder. Be a little harder with it. Make some
Speaker 22
6:38
noise. Sorry. So according to Feeding America's 2018 Map the Meal Gap, 17.3 of the people in our state are food insecure.
That is over 521,000 of our friends, neighbors, and constituents that are not always sure where they'll get their next meal, and that includes one in four children. Because these statistics are always about the past, let me paint a picture for you. Those statistics are from 2018, and in response to that need, the Alliance Network distributed more than 65 million pounds of food in 2019.
In 2020, that distribution reached over 95 million
Speaker 22
7:28
in our state? And that distribution isn't just, oh, in Little Rock or over here where you don't know people. It's in every county of our state, all 75. Once I had a man tell me that he didn't know anyone that was hungry.
I asked him, are you sure? I said, how many people would you tell if you didn't have any food at home? He merely said, that's a good point. I wouldn't tell anybody. So you may be wondering what all this has to do with House Bill 1315. My department within the Alliance is responsible for helping food banks access food. One of the ways we do this is a program called the Arkansas Beef Project.
Now, this program has been difficult to build, but every time we felt like quitting, we would remember a phone call we received from an Arkansas State Senator. He was upset. After visiting with one of his constituents, she explained to him, an elderly lady, how she split her pills to save money, took half the recommended dose to be able to afford hamburger meat once a month.
Reminding ourselves of that always spurred us on to keep working to get this project going. And today we work with the beef industry. Many of our friends are here today. And we receive donations of live animals and have recently started purchasing cattle to have processed into ground beef. You know, something a family can make a meal out of. You see, Proteins and fresh produce are the two items hardest for families to afford at the grocery store and the most in demand at food pantries.
With my recent cattle purchase, I began to call USDA-certified processors in the state to secure an appointment for processing. They were booked through 2022. HB 1315 is a good thing for Arkansas. We made a great start with CARES Act dollars to help build capacity of some Arkansas producers and processors. Let's not stop halfway. The economic development benefits of this bill are easily seen and more will be pointed out later today.
It helps producers. It helps processors. It helps meet demand for local products. It keeps revenue and tax dollars in our state. And it helps the underserved. It helps us all. And that, my friends, is no bull. Thank you for
Michelle Shope
Unverified
10:22
coming. Does anybody have any questions? Thank you for your testimony. I think it's Ms. Beth. Is it Salvo?
DeSalvo? Yes, ma'am. Please state your name and who
Speaker 34
10:43
you're with. And would Phillip like to come up with you? That's
Beth Desalvo
Unverified
11:00
okay. So my name is Beth DeSalvo.
My husband Phillip and I run and operate Big D Ranch in Center Ridge, Arkansas. all. Our story is more personable. We've been managing and running Big D Ranch pretty much our whole lives, Phillip has, and me 20 plus years, I guess, since we've been married. About eight years ago, we went out on a limb and decided that once I came home from working a regular job and working on the farm full time, both of us do now, that I would venture
out into selling beef at the farmer's markets. It has been a very rewarding experience for me and for Phillip, but the things that I've noticed during this whole thing is this. Watching my mother 40 years ago, she had, if you did not raise beef, you had one option at having beef on your table. You went to the grocery store and you bought it, unless your neighbor might have had some that they would give you or you raised it.
Those were your options. Consumers have options these days, and we need to have those options available to them. Someone may not necessarily care for our taste of beef, but my neighbor's beef, they may. And we all need to have the availability to take that beef, have it processed, and be able to sell it at the market to our neighbors, to restaurants, to whoever wants that beef. There's no need for there to be a shortage of beef. The other thing is, yes, we can take beef and sell beef to our neighbors,
holes, halves, and quarters that do not have to be USDA inspected. How many people in this room, in this building, have the capability to store a whole beef? Most of the people I sell beef to, they purchase beef for the week, maybe two weeks out. They don't have the capacity to hold that much food. And we need to be able to continue to offer them week after week after week what they need. An Arkansas-grown product that they can be proud to have on their plates
and that we can be proud to provide for them. And this bill will allow that, not just for us to continue that, but for many other producers in the state to have the same opportunities we've had. I'd just
Speaker 40
13:30
like to piggyback off that a little bit. Just over the last few days
Speaker 42
13:34
and a few of the Zoom meetings and stuff that I've been associated with, some alarming statistics have been out there that I've kind of come to the forefront of. Like she mentioned, you know, we ranch in northeastern part of Conway County, been there for five generations.
Not that we haven't had our downfalls from time to time, but there's struggles within the organizations that you have to achieve and move forward. So some statistics that I've seen is, you know, there's 26,000 of us beef cattle producers in the state of Arkansas. And if you correlate that into 1.7 million head in the state of Arkansas, well, let's put some of that in perspective. We've got one processing facility with 540,000 head of cattle.
You take our neighbor to the north, they've got one processing facility for every 40,000 head of cattle. We've got room here, guys, ladies. another thing that would help us just on our avenue like best said we've been doing this for 10 years but we're kind of we've hit a wall hit a ceiling per se you know there's so many more marketing opportunities that we could that we could get involved with but there there's a lack of capability within our state to achieve these some other things that kind of come to the
forefront is how many farmers out here in today's world have 40 head cow herds, which is a large population of them. I've seen an ag economist yesterday project that this year the average net income to that is $42 per unit. That's $1,600 a year that that farmer making profit. But we're fixing to lose some of these cattle producers. And I know from experience, we're netting somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to $500 per head that we're doing here.
That's a whole lot bigger incentive to keep people in the cattle business, which I believe there will be other people here to speak on this, but I believe beef cattle production is like the fifth overall ag income for the state of Arkansas. Pretty big numbers here. Thank
you. Does anybody have any questions? Seeing no questions, thank y'all for being here.
Michelle Shope
Unverified
15:55
Ms. Tamika, do you want to come to
Michael Lee
Unverified
16:11
You're recognized. Okay. Well, my name is Michael Lee. I am owner and operator of Flying Sea Ranch along with my stepfather, mother, wife, and our three girls. We run a cow-calf operation there in Faulkner County, Conway to be specific. We emphasize and farm-to-table direct marketing to the consumer. In my off time, my volunteer time, I am Arkansas Farm Bureau's Beef
division chair and the current area 7 vp for arkansas cattlemen's association uh i'm just i'm just going to put it out there and just be as straight honest as i can be because that's just me in my operation pre-pandemic we were planning kill dates processing dates for our animals two to four months out that's that's reasonable you can you can deal with that overnight when this pandemic hit in the spring of last year it automatically went from two to three months to 12 months, and now it's 24 months. Okay, so I'm already booked through 2021 and 2022,
and we're talking about 2023. This is extremely frustrating for a producer as myself and the DeSalvos. It becomes almost impossible to manage an operation like that because these animals are not even born. So that is very frustrating and I really believe HB 1315 will build off of the CARES Fund Act 10.4 billion that went to 33 plants to upgrade their facilities for the purpose
of inspectors. So I think there's a lot of work that has been done and I commend Chairman Vaught and everybody in this committee for doing that. 83 co-sponsors, that's very impressive. But here's the thing. This is a win-win across the board. Consumers, producers, local communities. And if Michelle's testimony from the Hunger Alliance didn't pull at your heartstrings, then you ain't alive. I'm sorry. There should not be one person in this state go hungry, period.
And if we can be a part of helping that, the beef industry, me, us, that's going to be a beautiful thing to witness people. And I'm going to end with this. I was talking to a consumer, and this gentleman knew nothing about our industry, which is another thing that's pretty neat about selling beef is you can educate the consumers, because we all know people do not know this industry as they should. But he gave me an analogy about our situation. And I was talking to this gentleman specifically on the state inspection program.
He said, young man, it looks like you all hit a roadblock. And I was like, yes, sir, we did. He said, well, you've got three options. I was like, okay, give me the options. He said, you can plow through that and let the pieces fall where they may. I was like, man, I don't like that one. That's just too complicated, too much conflict. He said, well, two, you can go around it and run away from the problem. I said, no. Well, he said three is you can stop, you can get out, and you can look at the roadblock, and you can bring people together,
work together, bring a solution to the table, and that's what you're seeing today. Arkansas Cattlemen's Farm Bureau, Hunger Alliance, every person in this building is coming to the table, not with another problem, but with a solution. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we're going to get this thing pushed through and keep people from going hungry. Thank you for that, Michelle. That really was special. I had to change my testimony after I heard that because that really spoke to my heart. But anyways, with that being said, thank you again, Chairman Vaughton and committee.
I look forward to any questions if you have them. Does anybody have any questions? Seeing none, thank you
Speaker 56
20:23
for your testimony. Are you ready to close for your bill? Yes, ma'am. I'm closed, and I
make motion to pass. Are there any discussion on the motion? Seeing no discussion, what is the will of the committee? Those in favor say aye.
Michelle Shope
Unverified
20:35
Aye. Those opposed, by nay. And your bill passes. Thank you. Moving right down to the next bill, House Bill 1248. Representative Bentley, you're welcome to join us at the end of the table. Chairman, if it's okay,
Speaker 58
21:01
I'd like Representative Hillman to join me at the table. Yes.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
21:09
Well, Representative Hillman's coming. I know that we've all been pretty much overwhelmed with the pandemic the past year, but in 2019, we had another
big emergency that hit especially hard in my district and across our state with the floodings that we had. Especially in yale county we had a the uh levy was over went over the top and wiped out our levy there so after the great devastation that we saw the governor put forth the levy task force and the levy task force group had a number of folks county judges mayors my county judge mark thone is here my oem director there uh jeff gilke here is with us today from yale county to see some mr john tell me your
last name john forget jeff phillips sorry jeff's another county judge we've got and mark whitmore us here in case we have any questions but we had the levy task force came together represent hillman and i senator stubblefield and senator rapert were uh the legislators that were on there and the four of us around a group there to come forth with whatever statues we needed to pass here in this session to help the levy situation further across the state so i'm bringing to you four levy bills that came out of our task force and us working together on this to come forward very simple bills uh non-controversial they've been through the association of counties have
worked very hard with us to make sure that the county judges were on board, the assessors were on board, county clerks were on board, so everybody get engaged and get involved and get our dates right. We had some levies that were filed under two different acts, 121 and 123. We had a lot of different things going on, so we worked together to consolidate to make things simpler and easier. This is by no means an end to the levy situation in our state. It's just another good step in the right direction. We definitely still need some more funding for levies in our state. we still need to do a lot more but this i think is a very good step in the right direction i just
don't want to be everybody think we've solved our levy problem after we pass these bills today by no means that we solved it but it's definitely a step
we need to make so we'll start with house bill 1248 very simple bill that would allow levy districts that are continuous so they're levy districts but they all attach their levies all attached together so one levy would go out would affect the levy that are attached to so if these levy
districts would like to combine we have a simple formula for them to do so for them to come before the uh degree on it come together become to the county clerk to the county court and make it happen so actually uh in our districts
representative barry and i with some of ours already happened in pope and conway county and also in yale county we've had a situation where in the same county wanted to combine labor districts so very simple bill if anybody has any questions on that bill on 1248 be happy to take those are there any questions seeing
no questions or anybody in the audience to speak for the bill uh i
Michelle Shope
Unverified
23:52
think i have john bailey signed up to speak for the bill yes state your name
John Bailey
Unverified
23:58
and who you're with please my name is john bailey i'm with the arkansas farm bureau I'm speaking for the bill. If anything, the 2019 flood showed us is how little information we had and knew about our levy districts. And I think with this particular bill, it puts us in the right direction. I would absolutely agree with Representative Bentley that this is the start. This certainly isn't the finish. But I think what House Bill 1248 will do is get that information to us.
We'll now have a lot more information so that we can make more decisive decisions and be more familiar where the needs are with our levy districts. Please don't get me wrong. There are a lot of levy districts out there that are the models for how levy districts should be run. And looking at this bill, it doesn't appear to interfere with any of those. So once again, I'm just encouraging the committee to support this bill. Does anybody have any questions?
Michelle Shope
Unverified
25:05
Is there anybody else that's signed up to speak for the bill, against the bill? Would you
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
25:13
like to close for your bill? Yeah. I think Representative Himmler would like to make a motion
Speaker 73
25:19
maybe when he gets done. Yes, I will. But right now, we had this task force meeting, the first
Representative David Hillman
Unverified
25:25
meeting we had. There were, I don't know, 20-some of us on this task force. And I asked the GIS coordinator, I said, can you tell me how many levy districts are in Arkansas?
And he said, no, I cannot. And I said, so we don't know what we don't know. And as we have gotten into this, we've found out a lot more stuff we don't know. But this, like Mary said, will be something to send us in the right direction. And with that, Madam Chairman, could I make a motion to pass? You're recognized, yes.
Michelle Shope
Unverified
25:58
So we have a motion on the table. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, what's the will of the committee? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, no.
Your bill is passed. You're welcome to move to the next
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
26:12
bill. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, committee. I appreciate that. So
we'll move on to the next one, 1249. House Bill 1249 is to allow for a dissolvement of a levy board. So if there comes to a point where the levy board is inactive for some reason, maybe the farmers decide they don't want it, maybe another levy board would like to take over that levy. So just different situations across the state, and this is just a formula and a way for them to make that happen.
So if you guys want to read through that, if there's any questions, they're
a very simple thing. Mark Whitmore is here if we have anything we want to get into the details of it. But I think it's a very straightforward bill and allows for that levy board to be dissolved if the levy board
members choose for it to be. Are there any questions? Does anybody want... Oh, Representative Lynch are
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
27:04
recognized. Well, Mayor, you may not be able to answer this question, but does that mean that a levy board can choose to disregard their responsibility for the levy in their district?
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
27:13
I'll let Mark come here and answer some questions. If they owe some money, whatever, but we also have, we'll see in another bill, and I'm sorry I can't do them all together, but there's a way for the county judge to come in to appoint people onto that board. But those members can't do the office if they want to.
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
27:26
So it's still the county judge's responsibility to make sure there's a levy board in place? Yes. Are
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
27:36
there any other questions? Mark, did you want to add anything to that? Am I correct? Because I don't want to say anything in an error. So, yeah, it would be better to have Mark answer questions on that.
so state your name for the record please
Speaker 82
27:49
and who you're with sure mark whitmore with association of arkansas counties the purpose of this bill is when the levy board has made the determination that the levy is no more no longer feasible and just like a corporation has to dissolve there are current there's two ways to create a levy under chapter 121 and chapter 123 and what this bill is take some of the better parts of these two different chapters because right now the law is
it's spotty there's gaps and this helps fill those gaps in so when the levy board has needs to dissolve they have a proper procedure just like a corporation that needs to dissolve there are instances like represent bitley says where you don't have a quorum or enough board members and they either need to consolidate like the last bill or they need to increase their assessments but This is where the board themselves decide that they're not feasible anymore, and they do need a procedure to resolve. This takes the better parts of Chapter 121 and 123
and kind of cross-pollinates them to where they have enough. They don't have
gaps in the law anymore. Does
Speaker 84
28:58
that answer your question, Representative Lynch? Not completely. So here, we had the Indian
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
29:04
bio-levy rupture three years ago, and it flooded Humnook, Arkansas, right? Nobody knew who was responsible for the maintenance
of that bio in local government. I mean, we all were down there. Nobody knew who to point the finger at, so the Arkansas Office of Emergency Management was down there.
The county judge called the governor, and we started getting some things to happen to plug that hole. Sure. But I'd hate to see that situation again when there's a levy that needs to be maintained that's not being maintained because there's not a local body that's responsible for seeing that that maintenance
Speaker 82
29:45
happens. Well, you're actually talking about the next bill. The next bill, over the last dozen years, we've had legislation from 2009, 2011, and on.
Senator English, Senator Rapert, Manny Fite, Representative. Anyway, over the years, the next bill is to determine whether there's a board that's not functioning, a board that's not providing reports or transparency, things like that. The bill that we're talking about right now is where there's a hump of dirt out there and there's no functioning. There's a board that has decided that they don't need to maintain the levy anymore. They're going to walk away just based upon the cost of getting a levy certified.
It's not feasible anymore. That's what this is just talking about, like a nonprofit corporation that wants to dissolve. Levy board is in the same kind of scenario. That's what this bill is talking about. I think the next bill is going to be more interested in what you're talking about. I appreciate
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
30:40
it, Representative Lynch. We tried to divide it up just a little bit. If I put all this together in one bill, I think it's been too much. So we tried to
divide it up a little bit. So I appreciate your leanings, and we'll get to the next bill, and really we should answer a lot
of those questions. Representative Jett, you're recognized for a question.
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
30:56
Thank you, Madam Chair. What about the landowners? I mean, how is the landowners going to be notified that the levy board is going to be dismissed or defunded or whatever you want to call it? So like you have somebody who lives out in California but owns 1,500 acres inside of a levy district. She's been paying on this for the last 20 years of her life. Sure. only to think that they got tens of thousands of dollars invested in a levy board only to find out the levy board's defunct now and not operational.
Speaker 83
31:28
Who do you want to tell these folks? Yeah, this process, both 21 and 23 of these chapters are current law, some of them. And what we're doing
Speaker 82
31:38
is making sure that there is notice. If you'll notice on page 2 where they file a petition in county court and they give notice in the newspaper, just like you do in other places in the law. So they have to have a meeting notice and provide notice that they're meeting. And so that's what this is hoping to provide. The current law has got gaps in it. So this is to help provide proper procedures and notices.
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
32:01
But I'm not pushing back on you, Mark, a little bit, but I'm just trying to figure this out for the landowner's sake. You know, right now there's going to be a push to do away with filing stuff in the newspapers once again, I think. But say, like, somebody just don't, you know, most landowners don't live around a farm anymore. You know, most of these folks have moved out to the city or whatever, and they don't know. I mean, are you guys going to try to reach out to these folks and put something in the mail? Or are they just on their own to just find out that they're buying ground or bought ground where they thought they had a levy board that's supposed to protect them,
only to find out two years after the fact that they spend thousands of dollars in a levy board project that they don't have anybody there to
Speaker 97
32:41
protect them anymore? and you're the legislature you can make them do whatever you want to but at
Speaker 82
32:46
this point there's gaps where they don't get notice and we're trying to make sure if you look at chapter 123 and chapter 121 there's different gaps that we're trying to cross-pollinate the good the part that existing laws have and allow allow some notice i mean you are welcome to construct what notice you would
desire but what we're doing is trying to provide notice where right now it doesn't exist well I mean, it's not a canny function. What we're trying to do is actually get it to where there's more transparency. No, I get it. And
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
33:16
I'm not trying to be argumentative with you, but at the end of the day, it's going to be hard for this community, or it'll be hard for me, I'll speak for myself, to do away with the levy board and only be getting calls from my constituents or people that owns ground in my district,
only to find out that their levy board's been done away with and there's been no mechanism in this bill to tell these
Speaker 83
33:43
folks. It'd be fine if we could post it on a county website, if that helps. But
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
33:48
do you see what I'm saying? I mean, do you disagree with
Speaker 82
33:52
what I'm saying? Oh, what I think you're saying, which is just the truth, is that these laws were created in
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
33:59
the 1930s and 40s. But that's not the fault of these landowners. Well, I
Speaker 82
34:03
know. I'm just telling you what these laws had was what we're trying to make sure that the gaps are filled.
Y'all are welcome as legislators to dictate what notice you want to have. That's not a... Representative Jed, if I
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
34:14
can say this really does give more transparency to the landowner. At some point, you're going to have to be accountable to yourself to make sure that you're finding out what's going on with your levy board. So when we get done with the next bill, again, I had
to keep saying that, but we're going to make sure there's transparency, there's going to be reports filed, there's going to be, you'll be able to see reports sent to ANRC and to the county court to review. So actually, right now, we don't have a lot of that. There's a lot of people
that aren't filing. So if you look at the next bill, we're going to make things more transparent and much more than they are now.
Speaker 82
34:42
So that's really the whole idea. Well, I agree with the option of Jet that notice in a newspaper is not wonderful notice, and everybody agrees with that. We're just trying to provide what the current law has in some chapters. And you are welcome to bolster the notice.
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
34:59
It doesn't matter to us. We don't operate levy boards. But I guess I get it. Landowners. But we're writing legislation to take away somebody's right or somebody's thought they had bought ground. My district, this ground is $5,000, $6,000 an acre,
Speaker 83
35:13
and this is all these folks have. More accurately, what you're doing is they can
Speaker 82
35:18
dissolve today. They could have dissolved last year. What we're trying to do is at least give a little bit more procedure to it. You're welcome to. I mean, I agree with you. I've noticed the newspaper is not wonderful. What we've tried to do is there's gaps in Chapter 123, and chapter 121, we've tried to take the good parts and cross-pollinate them. But if y'all could make it to where you provide some other notice, it's really of no concern to AAC or Mark or anything. Y'all are welcome to draft whatever you want as notice.
It's just we're trying to fill in the gap. So I'm not saying it's wonderful. It's just better than what you got today. Right now, there's not a whole lot of notice going on with dissolution. So we're
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
35:57
trying to help provide that. Well, it just seems, I mean, I'll just push back, buddy, And I'll just say it looks like to me you're taking away what little notice that
Speaker 88
36:06
there is for these people, these absentee landowners. It's the opposite. Right
Speaker 82
36:09
now, if you looked at the current law under 121 and 123, and these people have done this, there are entire holes about how much notice.
So what we've done is tried to take the good part under 121 and 123 and provide the kind of notice that the other one has. Because right now there's not a lot of notice. So we're trying to help you all on that. But I'm not married to it. If y'all want to make better notice, that's up to y'all. We're just trying to provide notice.
Representative David Hillman
Unverified
36:36
Right now, it's absent. Thank you, Madam Chair. Representative Jett, let me see if I can help a little bit. This bill was designed for non-functioning boards in order to dissolve those. And we don't know who they are or how many there are or where they are.
Most of them, the directors, have died or moved off. We don't know where they are. So if there is a need for a levy district and these non-functioning districts want to disorganize, then someone else will have the opportunity to step in and protect that land. These are not for the functioning board. I can't imagine any functioning board wanting to dissolve this out of nowhere.
Speaker 88
37:19
I'll give you an example. In Perry County, there were some drainage and levy districts
Speaker 82
37:24
that overlapped. So the one that was less viable dissolved and let the other one become more viable. But just to be clear, we're just trying to actually fill in the gaps. We're not buried to the notice, but we're at least given notice where right now it's not particularly solid. But you're right. There's boards that are saying that we're going to dissolve. They do have meeting notices, but we don't run levy boards.
Counties don't. Farmers do. So if they want better notice, they could come up here and ask for better notice, I
Michelle Shope
Unverified
38:00
guess. Representative Bentley, let's see if we can do this and see if it satisfies some of the questions, because you keep referring to House
Speaker 110
38:08
Bill 1250. Yeah. So can we... 1251. I'm going to do 1250, I'm
going to do last. Okay, so 1251, will you do... What about this? how about if you just
Michelle Shope
Unverified
38:18
pull down 1249 do 1251 right now and then pull back up 1249 sure at the
end is that okay with you that's perfectly fine with me all right is that okay with the committee okay then that's what we'll do we'll let you
pull that down we'll go to the one where you've got all the questions coming from sure and then we'll let you pull
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
38:37
that back up at the end that's that's perfectly fine with me so if you guys will pull up 1251 it's the longest one that we've got it It really just, you know, some of these laws were from 1937. That's true. You know, from 57. We're
talking for a very long time. We went through and tried to find every statute that had to deal with levies.
And I'm serious. The next one's 1937. So what we tried to do was bring it up to date, get it to where we could actually see what's
going on now, create more transparency. And actually, you know, a lot of people were not doing any reports. People that were on landowners had no idea how much money the levy board had or what they were holding. So this made reports a timely manner for no matter if they were charted under 121 or 123, the filings all the same time, the same date. We'll have some more people come up and explain from Let Mark Go and Farm Bureau talk some more about this.
But we tried to do it in a transparent manner. So if they don't file their report when it's due in a timely manner to the county clerk, to the county judge, and it's going to go to ANRC, then they're not going to get their money that's been assessed from the assessor. So this makes it where they're going to, if they don't assess, they're not going to get their money. So we'll try to put a little meat into this or some teeth into it so they would actually have to report. So the landowners that are putting the money in will be able to see a report and say, this is how much money is in there, this is what we're doing it. They have to report what they're doing for improvements, what needs to be done.
They're going to have to do an assessment of their levy, what needs to be fixed in our levy, what needs to be done and what are we doing to fix it, how much money is coming in, where is it going, who's paying what, what are the salaries of the board members. So all those things will have to be reported, which in some labor districts have not been done for a very long time. So we're trying to put a little teeth in it to make the report due. And I think we need some more explanations before we take questions. If you want to talk some Mark and David and maybe John from Farm Bureau, and then we can take some more
Speaker 82
40:21
questions just for you guys to see what we've tried to do here. If I can, way back in 2009, up by Representative Jett's area,
there was a huge flood that crossed basically up near Pocahontas, where for weeks the river crossed over top there. I had a breach and a levy. Right after Katrina and during that time period, Senator Robert Thompson filed a bill. The first two, three pages of this is to do exactly what Representative Hillman was talking about, is try to figure out where these levies are, have them file a report. They were usually formed at the county clerk's office through a report.
and then basically to have them verify the people that are the member of the board, how often they meet, contact information for the board members. Well, then in 2011, the latter part of the bill, Senator Jane Inglis, we had a problem the tax collector often collects for some of these boards. And so the constituents were calling in going, how's my assessment done and who's my board members and things like that? So we created what they call the Transparency Act to where these boards that use the collector have to file an annual report.
And what we're doing is we're trying to enhance those. And like Representative Bentley said, this last 100-year flood with the Arkansas River, the 500-year flood, I'd call it, people were not filing their reports. So we figured out, rather than fining them or doing things like that, the treasurer's going to sit on their money. and they're not going to receive the money that was collected for the assessment unless they file the report. And the report is going to have the financial information, very transparent,
like Representative Bentley said, that they'll be doing April the 1st. You could actually file the same report, both the county clerk and the county treasurer. A&RC will get a copy. ADAM, Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, will get a copy. So over the last dozen years, you know, between the collectors and the assessors and the treasurers and ANRC and Adam and this task force that these two representatives are on, we're trying to improve that reporting requirement, that transparency. So if you're a board member, you're going to learn an awful lot more about that.
You're going to learn who the members are and the viability of the board and what the assessments are and their financial status and their bank statements and their contracts. So this is an effort, again, it's not county government. It's people, landowners that have a board that will access the people, your constituents, more information. Matter of fact, Senator English had the FOI, her civil improvement district, and they refused to respond back in 2011. So this right here requires them to file these reports or the treasurer will not disperse the money to them,
the ones that the collector clapped for. So this has been well vetted in terms of all the different groups. I'm not aware of any opposition. I know the Farm Bureau is in favor of it. But we can answer any questions y'all might have. I know it's pretty voluminous. I think Eddie Jones and others have figured out we're smarter to get an April report because people go to their tax lawyer, tax accountant about that time instead of March. So we've got some tweaks in here.
And I actually got him, Alan King, who represents 250 or so of these improvement districts, was very instrumental both at the task force and in
Speaker 83
43:52
working on this bill. So as we sit here today, I'm not aware of
any complaints about this bill. I have a question. Okay. Representative Jack keeps talking about the notice. Why can't the notice go
Speaker 83
44:06
out with the assessment? Okay. Well, if you're
switching bills on me. I'm sorry. Well, I don't know how to address that. his question without asking it about here.
Here's what I would... Okay, well... I don't know how. I can withdraw the question. I was just trying to see if there was a way that that notice could go out then. I
Speaker 117
44:26
guess part of the interesting thing where this bill helps is that part of the report
Speaker 82
44:31
is when is your annual meeting and who are your board members? And the way the assessment works, which is not my occupation or anything, but you get an assessment, you got the opportunity to go wouldn't be an agreed person it's not a county assessment it's to the board and then of course they set the rates but i think i don't want to talk on a different bill but this report makes
the data the annual meeting who the board members all that very succinct up until a few years ago that wasn't even available and unfortunately a lot of people weren't filing reports and unfortunately after the 500 year flood at the arkansas river a lot of finger pointing went on How come you're not getting the reports? Why didn't ANRC get the reports? How come Adam doesn't? So what we're hoping to do is we're making a world in which if you don't file your report, it's so unfortunate that your board is not going to receive the assessment that the collectors collect for you.
That's the best way we know how to get compliance and transparency. Are
Speaker 118
45:29
there any questions? Could I add something here? i think mark was about four
Representative David Hillman
Unverified
45:35
years ago i've got a levy board in my district and uh and i i called the the president of the board up and asked for some information and he said well i'm not going to give it to you and i said you're not going to do what he said i'm not going to give it to you
and you can't make me and so i went to mark talked to him about it went to anrc and talked to them about, you know what their answer to me was? He doesn't have to give you that report. And so that kind of got my interest in this to start with. And then I asked to serve on this task force, and I found out that there were a lot of other districts that had that same attitude. And so this is the reason we need this legislation. And we've got one very good levy board
that was supportive of that, but they have since come around and are supportive of this bill now. Any questions?
Michelle Shope
Unverified
46:37
Seeing no questions, is there anyone that wants to speak for the bill? Against the bill? For the bill? State your
Speaker 122
46:50
name and who you're with for the record, please. John
Speaker 123
46:53
Bailey with Arkansas Farm Bureau. One thing I do
John Bailey
Unverified
46:56
want to point out with this particular bill we feel like it gives the necessary teeth in order to maintain these levy districts.
As we were going back in 2019, when we were traveling around the state or at least up and down the Arkansas River, kind of seeing the damage that was going on, what we were finding was is that a lot of these levy districts simply, the best I can describe is they got bored. You know, they would be active, but like a lot of weather, you know, with the 500-year flood doesn't happen very often. So a lot of these levy districts start thinking, well, why are we even meeting if nothing's going to happen? And so what resulted was is that the maintenance wasn't maintained, operation of it wasn't maintained,
and so that's where you have failures happening. And so we feel this bill right here kind of gives the teeth and the incentive for folks to understand the importance of being able to maintain these levies over long periods of time, not just five-year windows, but 20-year windows as well. So, thank you. Would you like to close for
Speaker 53
48:00
your bill? Thank you, Chairman. I think this bill,
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
48:06
you know, again, I will repeat, does this fix all the levy problems in the state of Arkansas?
By no means does it do that. But it's going to at least allow us to see, find out more, where are the levy boards, where even are the levies. A lot of people don't even know where all the levies are. So this is going to, I think, a great step in the right direction. It's going to allow much more transparency, as Representative Hillman was saying that we have not had in the past. It's going to allow our county judges to appoint people onto the board. And I'm going to refer to the bill that we talked about before, 1249. If we allow to dissolve a board, we can put a better board in there. So this is going to allow us to do that. There's a lot of steps in there, a lot of places I think is going to be a lot more transparent.
It's going to give our county judge an opportunity to put some administrators in there and handle things if the board is not doing it. So I'm open to things we want to add in the future, but I think this is a great step in the right direction. Let's see how this does moving forward. Let's get some transparency out there. We'll let ANRC be more engaged where they actually know what's going on, where they haven't in the past even been able to look at the reports that were sent out there. So I think it's going to allow us all to work together and get some more things moving forward. But I think it's a great bill, a good step in the right direction, good support, like I said, from all of our judges, our assessors,
across the board, from Farm Bureau and everybody. So with that, I would appreciate a good
vote. So we're looking at House Bill 1251. what is the will of the committee? Motion
Michelle Shope
Unverified
49:27
do pass. Isn't there any discussion among the motion? What's the will of the committee? Those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed nay. Your bill passes.
Speaker 32
49:35
Which bill do you want to go to now? House bill 1249. Okay so
we're going to go back up to house bill 1249. As of right
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
49:46
now there's not a way I mean levy boards can dissolve without us even
know about it okay so this makes a concerted way that we know whether where they were established under a 121 or 123 we have a way for them to dissolve if it needs to be if they're not a functioning board they can dissolve and we can put somebody in there that's going to do a better job with 1251 that you just passed so to allow the county judge to put some people in there to do a good job 1251 is going to now get a report out there so the landowners will know how much money is collected what needs to be fixed who's engaged what's their phone numbers how do we contact them So I think it's going to be an avenue for landowners to be much more engaged and for some transparency to be out there.
And we do need a way for levy boards that overlap, for levy boards that are not active, for them to be able to dissolve. And it's got a good – there's going to have to be a notice in the paper. There's going to have to be a notice about the court, what's going to go on court. So there's going to be things in the paper as well about that. So I think it's really much more transparent and a clear path
Michelle Shope
Unverified
50:43
forward for a levy board to dissolve. Any questions? Anybody speak for the bill? against the bill what's the will of the committee motion do pass is there any discussion on the
motion all those in favor say aye those opposed nay your bill passes thank you
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
51:03
chairman thank you committee one last bill house bill 1250. so as we talked about earlier some of these bills some of this legislature some of the statute has been since 1937. well back in 1937 there was a way for them to assess a value of 25 cents per acre or also we can do millage. So there's two ways for a levy board to assess value from their landowners,
either through millage or through this, what we had before was like 25 cents, you know, only 20, couldn't exceed 25 cents per acre. Well, we all know that we can't do a blessed thing with 25 cents per acre as far as maintaining the levy, getting any mowing done, doing any repairs at all. So this bill would say that they could not exceed $2.50 per acre. And I'm going to remind you that $0.25 was back in 1937. I'm not giving them the ability to increase that much. We're just saying that they cannot go above that amount. So that's pretty much it in a nutshell, all we're doing with this bill.
Are there any questions? Seeing no questions, is there anybody that
Michelle Shope
Unverified
52:05
wants to speak for the bill, against the bill? Would you like to close for your
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
52:11
bill? I think I've explained it pretty much. I'd appreciate
Michelle Shope
Unverified
52:14
a good vote. Thank you all. What's the will of the committee? Motion do pass. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed, no. Your bill passes. Congratulations. Thank you
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
52:27
all, committee. I appreciate your support. And I would like to just introduce my county judge over there, Mark Thone over there,
my OEM director, Jeff Gilkey, there from my county. And I'm going to tell you that during the flood, they were just outstanding. Did a tremendous job. But can I tell you, they met every day, just worked night and day on that. And now they're working night and day on this pandemic, doing a phenomenal job, doing some drive-through vaccines. And I cannot tell you, gentlemen, how much I appreciate the hard work you've
done. And thanks for being here today. Thank you. We have one more bill, House Bill 1268, Representative Wing.
Representative Carlton Wing
Unverified
53:11
you're recognized sir thank you madam chair this is house bill 1268 the title says a lot of it the act to clarify the exemption to licensure by the veterinary medical examining board for chiropractors
performing chiropractic upon animals and basically what this is you'll notice it's a very simple bill on 927 of the only page that it is it says the equivalent thereof allowing for other associations to allow for certification for these boards.
We kind of inadvertently created a monopoly, and so what we're doing here is creating an opportunity for other organizations to get involved. There is no known opposition to the bill. Everybody
Speaker 8
54:02
seems to be in favor. You're recognized. What other organizations do, or I guess I should say, offer chiropractic
Representative Carlton Wing
Unverified
54:08
training for horses? Well, there's the AVCA and the IVCA, American and International. Those are two of them. And we have both of those in Arkansas?
Speaker 131
54:19
Yes. Yes, we do. Any other questions? Anybody to speak for,
Michelle Shope
Unverified
54:24
against? No one signed up. What's the will of the committee? I'll go ahead and motion do pass. Motion do pass. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed by no, your bill passes. And with
Speaker 134
54:39
that, we're adjourned. Hey, we got through all of that.
Speaker 136
54:51
We got through every bit of that. Yeah. I
Speaker 139
54:56
do too. Cuz I can't write on it. Thank you.
Agenda
REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT- HOUSE, Feb 3, 2021 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Michelle Shope
Unverified
Representative DeAnn Vaught Chair
Unverified
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
Speaker 5
Speaker 8
Speaker 6
Jessica Burkham
Unverified
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
Speaker 21
Speaker 22
Speaker 25
Speaker 34
Beth Desalvo
Unverified
Speaker 40
Speaker 42
Speaker 45
Michael Lee
Unverified
Speaker 56
Speaker 58
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
John Bailey
Unverified
Speaker 73
Representative David Hillman
Unverified
Speaker 82
Speaker 84
Representative Joe Jett
Unverified
Speaker 83
Speaker 97
Speaker 88
Speaker 110
Speaker 117
Speaker 118
Speaker 122
Speaker 123
Speaker 53
Speaker 32
Representative Carlton Wing
Unverified
Speaker 131
Speaker 134
Speaker 136
Speaker 139