City, County & Local Affairs Committee - Senate

April 10, 2025 ·10:00 AM ·Room 272 ·45:45

Video Transcript 1 document

Bills discussed (13)

Bill	Title	Sponsor	Status
HB1983 Act 1026 · 7 mentions in transcript, chapter Matched: “…e have uh If you want to come to the end of the table on uh House Bill 1983. And introduce yourself, tell us who you're with, and he ex…”	TO AMEND ACTS 1973, NO. 167, § 4, CONCERNING THE SALE OF CERTAIN PROPERTY TO …	Eubanks	Notification that HB1983 is now Act 1026
SB374 Act 751 · 6 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript Matched: “…ua Bryant CONCUR IN HOUSE AMENDMENT Number Sponsor Subtitle SB374 B. Davis TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CIVIL SERVICE SYST…”	TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM.	B. Davis	Notification that SB374 is now Act 751
HB1976 Act 883 · 3 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript Matched: “…PROFIT ORGANIZATION. REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1976 Nazarenko CONCERNING VERTIPORTS; AND TO CREATE THE OPEN ACC…”	CONCERNING VERTIPORTS; AND TO CREATE THE OPEN ACCESS TO PUBLIC-USE VERTIPORTS ACT.	Nazarenko	Notification that HB1976 is now Act 883
HB1686 · 2 mentions in agenda, chapter Matched: “…CTRIC GRID BY BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS AND DIGITAL ASSET MINING. HB1686 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CON…”	TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING LICENSES TO CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS.	Childress	Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB10 · 2 mentions in agenda, chapter Matched: “…RADIUS OF A MILITARY FACILITY; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. SB10 B. King TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS DATA CENTERS ACT OF 2023; AND…”	TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS DATA CENTERS ACT OF 2023; AND TO REGULATE THE IMPACT ON …	B. King	Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB399 · 2 mentions in chapter, agenda Matched: “SB399 G. Stubblefield TO CREATE THE ANTI-ATF COMMANDEERING ACT; A…”	TO CREATE THE ANTI-ATF COMMANDEERING ACT; AND TO PROHIBIT THE PROVISION OF MATERIAL AID AND …	G. Stubblefield	Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB518 · 2 mentions in agenda, chapter Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. SB518 Hester TO PROHIBIT A LOCAL GOVERNMENT FROM ENACTING REGULAT…”	TO PROHIBIT A LOCAL GOVERNMENT FROM ENACTING REGULATIONS IN A FLOOD-PRONE AREA THAT ARE MORE …	Hester	Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB523 Act 762 · 2 mentions in agenda, chapter Matched: “…Davis TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM. SB523 Irvin TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AND T…”	TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AND TO REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT THAT A PRIVATE …	Irvin	Notification that SB523 is now Act 762
SB531 · 2 mentions in chapter, agenda Matched: “SB531 K. Hammer TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPAL PLANNING; A…”	TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING MUNICIPAL PLANNING; AND TO ALLOW A MUNICIPALITY TO CONTRACT WITH …	K. Hammer	Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB588 · 2 mentions in chapter, agenda Matched: “SB588 C. Penzo TO ESTABLISH A WINERY PRIVATE CLUB PERMIT.”	TO ESTABLISH A WINERY PRIVATE CLUB PERMIT.	C. Penzo	Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB60 · 2 mentions in agenda, chapter Matched: “…THAT CONVEYS REAL PROPERTY OR AN INTEREST IN REAL PROPERTY. SB60 Hill TO PROHIBIT A DIGITAL ASSET MINING BUSINESS FROM BEING…”	TO PROHIBIT A DIGITAL ASSET MINING BUSINESS FROM BEING LOCATED WITHIN A THIRTY-MILE RADIUS OF …	Hill	Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB635 · 2 mentions in chapter, agenda Matched: “SB635 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; A…”	TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES; AND TO AUTHORIZE BOTTLE LOCKERS IN CERTAIN RESTAURANTS.	C. Penzo	Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment.
SB69 · 2 mentions in chapter, agenda Matched: “SB69 A. Clark CONCERNING THE RECORDATION AND FILING OF A DEED OR…”	CONCERNING THE RECORDATION AND FILING OF A DEED OR OTHER INSTRUMENT THAT CONVEYS REAL PROPERTY …	A. Clark	Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment.

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Jason Azarenko Unverified 0:05

You'll be recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee, uh, my name is Jason Azarenko, representative for House District 4, that's all Marion County and then parts of Baxter County. Uh thanks for letting me, uh, be here today to present uh House Bill. 1976 should remember it easier because this was the year I was born. It's pretty exciting. So, uh, if you've read over the bill, the Vertiport open access bill may have uh kind of caught you by surprise. You may be thinking of Jetsons or Total Recall, something like that when you're looking at it, but I want to uh kind of warn you this is closer than we may think. So, uh, as you read through the bill, there's some exciting things on here and uh one of the key things that I want to focus on is this, this is a fair market and an open competition uh bill. So this Fosters open competition. It makes sure that we don't allow any monopolies on the vertipos here in the state, and I'm going to get into some uh descriptions we'll go through some definitions on what a vertiport is because I may use some other words like uh vital or Evital, and I want to make sure everybody understands what that is before we really go any farther, so a vertiport to explain what a vertiport is, is if you think of an airport or a heliport, airport obviously dealing mostly with airplanes have a larger footprint, uh heliport. Generally smaller dealing with just helicopters, a vertiport similar to a heliport, but it's dealing with EVAs, so an EVA is an electronic vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. So think of helicopter, but electronically uh powered. It could be manned or it could be unmanned, so it doesn't necessarily have to be an unmanned drone, but it can be man and unmanned. These are still in conception. They're not 100% out there, but what they're, what they're looking at right now building is EVAs. that can be capable of carrying cargo as well as people. So the people's side of that, we'll talk about that a little bit. If we had a vertiport, say, in a place such as uh Fayetteville. You could look at that as a taxiway, you know, drive up, jump in this EV tall and then fly over to Bentonville, getting you out of those the traffic of the hills or anything like that. You could also go Fayetteville to Bentonville. You could go to Harrison to Fayetteville, skipping quite a bit of that, that uh that drive time and making it a lot easier. Also with cargo as well. Cargo can be moved. We know that some of our large larger corporations are already using drones to move some small items around, nothing big at this time, but that, that industry is kind of looking forward at at growth. Uh, some of those industry leaders, Hyundai is one of them that that is in this space kind of developing different EV tolls are working on that right now, which is exciting because when we look at Hyundai in the uh in the future, they've already agreed over $20 billion to be invested in the United States, so what this does and kind of back back to what this bill does. before we get too, you know, confused with anything there. What this bill does is it just restricts monopolization or restricts an agreement with cities and municipalities going into an agreement that would create a monopoly and which would then limit growth and then limit or increase costs for us as users, so, uh, when we, when we, uh, make sure that there's no monopolization. There's no commitments made to just one certain company. We allow multiple companies to come in and compete, and we know Competition drives the prices down, produces something better for our consumers, so. Uh, with that, uh, a couple things to other that I want to mention you can see in the bill, all FAA regulations have to be complied by. So if somebody just can't come in, build a vertiport and say, hey, here's my vertiport or here's the plan for the vertiport has to be done with FAA regulations. This bill doesn't create vertiports at all. This bill just sets the groundwork and makes sure that we have open access and that there's not going to be any any stifling of that growth. So really it's a growth oriented and it's a future. futuristic, obviously, but it is setting Arkansas up to be in that path to growth and there's a lot of opportunity there, so, uh I mentioned kind of a a good example that, you know, Harrison to Fayetteville or Fayetteville to uh Bentonville. When I look at that, I look at Arkansas could be on the leading edge. We have the possibility to be sitting there and being one of the first places where this could be tested. When I think of Harrison to Fayetteville. I think of area where those EV tolls could be going back and forth, uh, as their training and practicing, figuring out without going through the cities without going over densely populated areas, so I do see a great possibility again, futuristic, so this is in the future, and we do have to continue to look at that. Uh, I'll stop there, uh, happy to answer any questions because I'm sure there's some questions. I know we had some great discussion on the