Revenue & Taxation- House
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Bills discussed (46)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1303
Act 546
· 4 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…rd McGrew SPECIAL ORDER OF BUSINESS Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1303 Jean TO CREATE THE SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL INCENTIVE ACT;…”
|
TO CREATE THE SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL INCENTIVE ACT; AND TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT … | Jean | Notification that HB1303 is now Act 546 |
|
HB1485
· 3 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…list of the bills we're gonna hear HB 1303 HB 1540. SB 219. HB 1485. HB 1538 and HB 1716. Um, and with that we're going to star…”
|
TO CREATE A SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR SALES TO CERTAIN ORGANIZATIONS THAT SUPPORT … | K. Brown | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1538
· 3 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…he bills we're gonna hear HB 1303 HB 1540. SB 219. HB 1485. HB 1538 and HB 1716. Um, and with that we're going to start with HB…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE NET OPERATING LOSS INCOME TAX DEDUCTION; AND TO INCREASE … | Ray | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1540
· 3 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “Um, here's a list of the bills we're gonna hear HB 1303 HB 1540. SB 219. HB 1485. HB 1538 and HB 1716. Um, and with that we…”
|
TO AMEND THE INCOME TAX CREDIT AND THE INCOME TAX DEDUCTION RELATED TO MAINTAINING, SUPPORTING, … | J. Mayberry | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1716
Act 498
· 3 mentions in agenda, transcript, chapter
Matched: “…TER Page 2 of 4 A SALE OR OTHER TRANSFER OF REAL PROPERTY. HB1716 Cavenaugh TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ASSESSMENT AND CO…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF TAXES BY THE SECRETARY OF … | Cavenaugh | Notification that HB1716 is now Act 498 |
|
HB1018
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…NABLE AVIATION FUEL. REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1018 Hudson TO CREATE THE STRONG FAMILIES ACT; AND TO CREATE AN…”
|
TO CREATE THE STRONG FAMILIES ACT; AND TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR EMPLOYERS … | Hudson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1076
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ROVIDE PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES. HB1076 Hudson TO CREATE THE CARING FOR CAREGIVERS ACT; AND TO PROV…”
|
TO CREATE THE CARING FOR CAREGIVERS ACT; AND TO PROVIDE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR … | Hudson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1116
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…FOR EXPENSES INCURRED IN CARING FOR CERTAIN FAMILY MEMBERS. HB1116 Ray TO CREATE THE REMOTE AND MOBILE WORK MODERNIZATION AND…”
|
TO CREATE THE REMOTE AND MOBILE WORK MODERNIZATION AND COMPETITIVENESS ACT; AND TO PROVIDE INCOME … | Ray | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1190
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ED TO CERTAIN REMOTE AND MOBILE EMPLOYEES AND NONRESIDENTS. HB1190 Vaught TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX EXEMPTION FOR TEACHERS. HB13…”
|
TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX EXEMPTION FOR TEACHERS. | Vaught | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1366
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…1190 Vaught TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX EXEMPTION FOR TEACHERS. HB1366 Ennett TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR QUALIFIED STORM S…”
|
TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR QUALIFIED STORM SHELTERS. | Ennett | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1388
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…O CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR QUALIFIED STORM SHELTERS. HB1388 Vaught TO EXEMPT CERTAIN STORAGE SERVICES FROM SALES TAX; A…”
|
TO EXEMPT CERTAIN STORAGE SERVICES FROM SALES TAX; AND TO EXEMPT THE SERVICE OF FURNISHING … | Vaught | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1500
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…TO CERTAIN ORGANIZATIONS THAT SUPPORT VETERANS' FACILITIES. HB1500 Beaty Jr. TO ENHANCE ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS BY REPEALING…”
|
TO ENHANCE ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS BY REPEALING THE THROWBACK RULE. | Beaty Jr. | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1501
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…E ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS BY REPEALING THE THROWBACK RULE. HB1501 Beaty Jr. TO ADOPT FEDERAL INCOME TAX LAW REGARDING DEPRECI…”
|
TO ADOPT FEDERAL INCOME TAX LAW REGARDING DEPRECIATION AND THE EXPENSING OF PROPERTY; AND TO … | Beaty Jr. | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1636
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…SUPPORTING, AND CARING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY. HB1636 Ray TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS SOFT DRINK TAX ACT, AS AFFIRMED B…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS SOFT DRINK TAX ACT, AS AFFIRMED BY REFERRED ACT 1 OF … | Ray | Recommended for study in the Interim by the … |
|
HB1657
Act 709
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…X BASED ON SALES TAX COLLECTIONS FROM SALES OF SOFT DRINKS. HB1657 Beck TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS WOOD ENERGY PRODUCTS AND FOREST…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS WOOD ENERGY PRODUCTS AND FOREST MAINTENANCE INCOME TAX CREDIT. | Beck | Notification that HB1657 is now Act 709 |
|
HB1658
Act 550
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…D ENERGY PRODUCTS AND FOREST MAINTENANCE INCOME TAX CREDIT. HB1658 Nazarenko TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE PAYMENT OF PROPER…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE PAYMENT OF PROPERTY TAXES; AND TO DEFINE "DEPLOYMENT" FOR … | Nazarenko | Notification that HB1658 is now Act 550 |
|
HB1665
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…N TO THE ASSESSMENT OF PENALTIES RELATED TO PROPERTY TAXES. HB1665 Wardlaw TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE INSURANCE PREMIUM T…”
|
TO REPEAL THE CREDIT ALLOWED AGAINST THE INSURANCE PREMIUM TAX FOR ACCIDENT AND HEALTH COMPREHENSIVE … | Wardlaw | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1670
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ED ON THE SALARY AND WAGES OF THE EMPLOYEES OF THE INSURER. HB1670 L. Johnson TO CREATE THE PRECEPTOR TAX INCENTIVE PROGRAM; A…”
|
TO CREATE THE PRECEPTOR TAX INCENTIVE PROGRAM; AND TO PROVIDE INCENTIVES FOR CERTAIN MEDICAL OR … | L. Johnson | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1671
Act 1007
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1671 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE GROSS RECEIPTS T…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE GROSS RECEIPTS TAX; AND TO CREATE A GENERAL SALES … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1671 is now Act 1007 |
|
HB1674
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…X EXEMPTION FOR SALES TO QUALIFIED NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS. HB1674 L. Johnson TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR CONTRIBUTIONS…”
|
TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO CERTAIN RURAL HOSPITAL ORGANIZATIONS; AND TO … | L. Johnson | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1687
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…58; AND TO EXEMPT GROCERIES FROM STATE SALES AND USE TAXES. HB1687 K. Moore TO PROVIDE THAT A WATER AUTHORITY IS EXEMPT FROM A…”
|
TO PROVIDE THAT A WATER AUTHORITY IS EXEMPT FROM ALL EXCISE TAXES. | K. Moore | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1691
Act 497
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1691 Torres TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN PROPERTY TO BE EXEMPT FROM TA…”
|
TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN PROPERTY TO BE EXEMPT FROM TAXATION; AND TO PROVIDE THAT CERTAIN … | Torres | Notification that HB1691 is now Act 497 |
|
HB1698
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1698 Torres TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE INCOME TAX TREATMENT…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE INCOME TAX TREATMENT OF EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS FOR AN EMPLOYEE'S … | Torres | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1699
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1699 McCullough TO ADD FIREARM SAFETY DEVICES AND FIREARM STORAG…”
|
TO ADD FIREARM SAFETY DEVICES AND FIREARM STORAGE DEVICES TO THE SALES TAX HOLIDAY; AND … | McCullough | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1702
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ICES TO THE SALES TAX HOLIDAY; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. HB1702 Wooldridge TO AMEND THE SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR CE…”
|
TO AMEND THE SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR CERTAIN MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT USED IN … | Wooldridge | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1708
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…FOR MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT USED IN CLOSED- LOOP RECYCLING. HB1708 Underwood THE KEEP THE BONUS, AXE THE TAX: THE NO-TAX BONUS…”
|
THE KEEP THE BONUS, AXE THE TAX: THE NO-TAX BONUS ACT. | Underwood | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1715
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…IAL PRIVILEGE TAX ACT OF 2017; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. HB1715 Lundstrum TO LIMIT THE INCREASE IN THE ASSESSED VALUE OF RE…”
|
TO LIMIT THE INCREASE IN THE ASSESSED VALUE OF REAL PROPERTY AFTER A SALE OR … | Lundstrum | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1732
Act 878
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…E ASSESSMENT OF SALES AND USE TAX IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES. HB1732 Vaught TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF THE INCOME TAX DEDUCTION A…”
|
TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF THE INCOME TAX DEDUCTION ALLOWED FOR A TEACHER'S CLASSROOM INVESTMENT. | Vaught | Notification that HB1732 is now Act 878 |
|
SB219
Act 380
· 2 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “SB219 J. Dismang TO REPEAL THE SUNSET PROVISION OF THE ARKANSAS M…”
|
TO REPEAL THE SUNSET PROVISION OF THE ARKANSAS MEDICAL MARIJUANA SPECIAL PRIVILEGE TAX ACT OF … | J. Dismang | Notification that SB219 is now Act 380 |
|
HB1015
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LASSROOM INVESTMENT. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1015 D. Garner TO AMEND THE INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX LAWS; AND TO C…”
|
TO AMEND THE INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX LAWS; AND TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR … | D. Garner | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1019
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AND TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN. HB1019 D. Garner TO CREATE THE AFFORDABLE CHILDCARE ACT OF 2025; T…”
|
TO CREATE THE AFFORDABLE CHILDCARE ACT OF 2025; TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR … | D. Garner | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1021
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…COME TAX CREDIT FOR EMPLOYER-OPERATED CHILDCARE FACILITIES. HB1021 D. Garner TO CREATE THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION WORKFORCE…”
|
TO CREATE THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION WORKFORCE QUALITY INCENTIVE ACT; AND TO CREATE AN INCOME … | D. Garner | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1026
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E TAX CREDIT FOR CERTAIN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION WORKERS. HB1026 A. Collins TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS PROMISE ACT; AND TO CREAT…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS PROMISE ACT; AND TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR TUITION … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1063
Act 875
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…IGIBLE STUDENT AT A PUBLIC INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION. HB1063 J. Mayberry TO AMEND THE ACHIEVING A BETTER LIFE EXPERIENCE…”
|
TO AMEND THE ACHIEVING A BETTER LIFE EXPERIENCE PROGRAM ACT; AND TO AMEND THE DEFINITIONS … | J. Mayberry | Notification that HB1063 is now Act 875 |
|
HB1065
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…O CHANGE DISABILITY ONSET AGE FROM TWENTY-SIX TO FORTY-SIX. HB1065 Ray TO CREATE THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT OF 2025. HB1066 R…”
|
TO CREATE THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT OF 2025. | Ray | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1066
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…. HB1065 Ray TO CREATE THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT OF 2025. HB1066 Ray TO INCREASE THE STANDARD DEDUCTION. HB1216 Long TO CREA…”
|
TO INCREASE THE STANDARD DEDUCTION. | Ray | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1072
Act 876
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LICENSED CHILDCARE PROVIDERS; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. HB1072 C. Cooper TO CLARIFY THE REQUIREMENTS FOR ESTABLISHING ELIG…”
|
TO CLARIFY THE REQUIREMENTS FOR ESTABLISHING ELIGIBILITY FOR THE PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION FOR DISABLED VETERANS, … | C. Cooper | Notification that HB1072 is now Act 876 |
|
HB1203
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…VETERANS, SURVIVING SPOUSES, AND MINOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN. HB1203 Underwood TO PROTECT ARKANSAS TAXPAYERS FROM A TAX TO COLLE…”
|
TO PROTECT ARKANSAS TAXPAYERS FROM A TAX TO COLLECT TAXES. | Underwood | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1216
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ACT OF 2025. HB1066 Ray TO INCREASE THE STANDARD DEDUCTION. HB1216 Long TO CREATE THE FREE MARKET ZONES ACT; AND TO EXEMPT A B…”
|
TO CREATE THE FREE MARKET ZONES ACT; AND TO EXEMPT A BUSINESS LOCATED IN AN … | Long | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1404
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TO PROTECT ARKANSAS TAXPAYERS FROM A TAX TO COLLECT TAXES. HB1404 C. Cooper TO CREATE A TAX CREDIT FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO A PRE…”
|
TO CREATE A TAX CREDIT FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO A PREGNANCY RESOURCE CENTER. | C. Cooper | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1435
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TE FRANCHISE TAX, AND THE ELECTIVE PASS-THROUGH ENTITY TAX. HB1435 Achor TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING INCOME TAX CREDITS FOR CH…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING INCOME TAX CREDITS FOR CHILD CARE; TO AMEND THE INCOME … | Achor | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1438
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CREDIT FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO A PREGNANCY HELP ORGANIZATION. HB1438 Cavenaugh TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR TAXPAYERS SIXT…”
|
TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR TAXPAYERS SIXTY-FIVE AND OLDER IN AN AMOUNT EQUAL … | Cavenaugh | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1464
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…QUAL TO THE TAXPAYER'S PROPERTY TAX PAYMENT ON A HOMESTEAD. HB1464 Vaught TO CREATE A SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR PARTS FO…”
|
TO CREATE A SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR PARTS FOR AND REPAIR OF AGRICULTURAL … | Vaught | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1469
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RTS FOR AND REPAIR OF AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT AND MACHINERY. HB1469 Beaty Jr. TO CREATE THE BROADBAND EXPANSION AND EFFICIENCY…”
|
TO CREATE THE BROADBAND EXPANSION AND EFFICIENCY ACT; AND TO CREATE A SALES AND USE … | Beaty Jr. | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1472
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…of 4 USED IN PRODUCING BROADBAND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES. HB1472 Beaty Jr. TO CREATE A SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR PARTS…”
|
TO CREATE A SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR PARTS PURCHASED TO REPAIR AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT … | Beaty Jr. | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1685
Act 1008
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “HB1685 Underwood TO CREATE THE GROCERY TAX RELIEF ACT; TO AMEND TH…”
|
TO CREATE THE GROCERY TAX RELIEF ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE SALES AND … | Underwood | Notification that HB1685 is now Act 1008 |
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Um, here's a list of the bills we're gonna hear HB 1303 HB 1540. SB 219. HB 1485. HB 1538 and HB 1716. Um, and with that we're going to start with HB 3 1303 um representative Jane, if you will introduce yourself for the record and you'll be recognized and I believe you have an amendment we need to get.
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
0:42
First, yes, ma'am, if, if y'all pass out the amendment. Uh, Lane Jean, state representative district 99 and,
and with me is Mr. Michael Newton.
Speaker 8
0:51
I'll let him introduce himself. Michael Newton, uh, Natural State Renewables. And we'll wait for
the amendment to get passed. Passing out the amendment.
And then Representative Jean will, um, speak to his amendment and then we'll adopt it. If you so choose.
Representing your recognize to present your amendment. Thank
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
1:45
you, Madam Chair, members of this is a moment that When we filed
the bill, uh, DFNA was still reviewing stuff. This is a lot of technical corrections that what I would have asked that we put
this in the bill, then we can talk about the bill. And I
make a motion we adopt the amendment. Members, we have a motion to adopt the amendment. Do we have any questions about the amendment? See no questions. We have a motion to adopt all in favor, say I opposed. Congratulations, amendment is
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
2:16
adopted if you'd like to present your bill as amended. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the committee, uh, this is the House Bill 1303. This is a sustainable aviation fuel, uh, bill that is designed to be built in South Arkansas, matter of fact, uh, Michael's gonna talk about that more in a minute. They have a 500 acre option on some land south of Camden, Arkansas, and what, what sustainable aviation fuel is is.
is you take tree tops uh the, the kind of the pop wood and the, the, the tops of the trees and you turn them into uh biofuel for, for diesel fuel and it's it's jet fuel, it's not high octane, uh, gas fuel, and it's a process that uh uh is going to take probably 4 or 5 years to build this facility. Uh, they're looking at $2 billion plus and the good news with the help of uh gearing and uh uh Jim Hudson. We
have worked this bill where is no fiscal impact to the state of Arkansas. So that, that's, that's the, that's the good thing, uh, we're gonna use round wood that is harvested in the woods of Southern Arkansas is uh UAMA did a study for UA UAM, but Forest Street did a study, uh, for, uh, uh, natural state renewables. They say we have 3 to 4 times as
much pulpwood, round wood that they're gonna need for this project. So we are, we are full of uh uh Roundwood in South Arkansas right now you can't give it away, you can't get a dollar a ton for it. People just take it to the mills to get it off the land. This is going to help that market for landowners and, and also help our forests, clean it up, uh, they're gonna do a, do a great service to uh to the industry. Uh, highlight to the bill, uh, it will bring at least 2
billion, maybe $3 billion and in the capital improvements in project also there's gonna create somewhere starting off probably about 100 new jobs to 200 jobs and the average salary is $100,000 per job, uh, the construction of this facility is estimated to have 1500 employees billed uh this facility. South of Camden. It strengthens our forest industry benefits our loggers, our sawmills, and our
landowners, uh, we have partnered with UAM, uh, on training and also we use training at Southern Arkansas Tech, which is up in Camden, uh, to help, uh, employ people in South Arkansas. It's uh insured in a long term economic benefit for our state and uh it protects Arkansas by utilizing and we are a Forestry state by using our natural resources and with that, uh, I'll turn it over to to Mr.
uh Newton, and he can get in his words
Michael Newton
Unverified
5:28
and we'll get to questions after he gets through with his opening statement. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the committee. My name is Michael Newton. I'm an executive vice president at Natural State Renewables. Um, I do want to say thank you to Representative Jean, uh, Senator Stone, and the 64 sponsors of the bill. Um, just a little bit of background on uh Natural state renewables and our relationship with Arkansas, uh, I am a, uh, grew up in Star
City, uh, my family still has farmland in Arkansas. I live in in Shreveport right now, uh, but we have uh the company I have worked for for the last 15 years, Martin Resource Management or Martin Midstream on say the smackover refinery across all, uh, where we employ over 200 people, uh, at that refinery. back in the the late 2018-2019, we were taking a look, we had some excess equipment that wasn't being utilized, so I
tried to partner with Risland and uh the soybean uh producers in the state to figure out how to make renewable diesel, that didn't work out, but we still knew that long term there would be some kind of need for uh renewable fuels production. Uh, and, uh, after talking to some of the uh Forester industry, uh, we, we found out you could take a lot of the uh war that used to go to the pulp and paper mills and uh we're going to take that, uh, convert
that into jet fuel and so right now, uh, we were taking a look at building a about a $3 billion facility, uh, we, we have an option right now uh to to do that at a 500 acre site in Camden, uh. this, we've also been looking in the North Louisiana area and the and around Haynesville because uh both the timber and the um the geology and the North Louisiana, South Arkansas area are very helpful uh to, to do, to do this project. Um
As Representative Jean said, you know, we're going to create over 200 permanent jobs for this with an average of $100,000 salary a year while we're building it, we'll have over 1500 people on site. So as we've been talking to all the timber producers in the area, the Anthony Timberlands, the Py Latch Deltics, the Weyerhausers, you know, they all talk about how this is very helpful for them and all the landowners in the area because right now there's a lot of sawdust. There's a lot of bark, uh,
there's a lot of pulp and paper wood, round wood that can be used economically for anything and we're going to create a market for that, uh, that's both uh paying them at or above market price for uh that wood plus, uh, you know, creating jobs for logging industry and uh and other areas, so I'm happy to answer anything about the, the plant, anything else that, that may be helpful for, for you on this
project. Thank you. Um, I have a
Michael Newton
Unverified
8:32
question. What type of jobs will you be providing that's a really good question. So it's going to be a combination of, of many different jobs. Most of them are technical in nature, so we will hire, uh, we'll have lots of operators to help run the plant, um, I forgot to mention a while ago, part of the plan we will have our own power generation, so we'll have a biomass boiler. Um, it's so we'll need operators for that. We'll need technical jobs such as chemists and engineers in the area, uh, we'll
need welders and maintenance people for uh help to maintain the unit and then um. You know, we'll need logistics people, crane operators, etc. to help us run the unloading operations and the moving the wood about the facility.
And most of these employees actually be from the area from South Arkansas yes ma'am. So other than the
Michael Newton
Unverified
9:23
construction, uh, we're assuming with the construction we'll get as many people from the areas we can, but we will have to bring in outside construction help, but all the
full-time jobs will be from the area. We'll partner with the University of. system and then any, any local universities to help us uh on engineering uh UA Monticello has been very helpful so far in this project, and we know that SAU and some of the other technical uh campuses have, have offered to help us as well on the operator training. And where is your market for this product? That's a great question. So uh right now, you know, a lot, there are 3 other projects in the US similar to
ours, um, and you know, with the uh the change that's going on in DC. A lot of those projects are, are questionable right now, but for us, uh, we have found the market to be in the UK and Europe, where they have a mandate of 10% of their jet fuel by the year 2030 has to be sustainable. And of that after 2027, all the incremental growth cannot come from soybean oil or ethanol derived sustainable aviation fuel, so you're gonna need
something produced from uh from from wood or, or other renewable sources that can meet those demands, so and uh we we are working on contracts right now, uh, with a lot of the larger cargo cargo airlines and other international airlines, uh, and they seem to be willing. to pay a market price without any kind of government incentives that would help us to secure final investment decision on
this project. OK, thank you. Uh, members, are there any questions? Representative McCurry
Representative Rick McClure
Unverified
11:09
recognized. Right. Um, you mentioned that you have a location that you're considering 500 acres, uh, did I understand you correctly to say he was always so considering a location in Louisiana. Yes, sir. So
Michael Newton
Unverified
11:23
we are taking a look at a lot of different uh or two different areas right now, our preference is, uh, near Camden in South Arkansas, we have roots in South Arkansas. Uh, the owner of the company, uh, is a UFA graduate.
His family's from Smackover. And so, you know, we, we prefer there, uh, the Louisiana has primacy right now for CO2 sequestration permits. They also have some other um ways to get permitting done faster. And so that is our alternative location, but our preferences here in in Camden. Well
Representative Rick McClure
Unverified
12:00
that's Has Louisiana offered you an incentive package like this? Not yet. Thank you.
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
12:11
Representative McGrew, you recognized. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Representative Jean, uh, I see where this is on the physical impact is revenue neutral, and I absolutely understand that there's a positive cost benefit, be great for down there in Camden and there and great for the state of Arkansas. My question is also these tax credits are sellable. So is it at what point in time are they sellable because the, the The cost effect doesn't come till a little lighter, so.
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
12:49
the state doesn't require 80%, they'll be, they'll be available to sell then. For 3 years. Thank you. Representative Ra you recognize her question. Thank
Speaker 89
13:04
you, Madam Chair. Representative Jane, I, I didn't, I couldn't hear the last response to that question before I ask my question, can you repeat what you said on Representative McGree's,
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
13:15
yes, they will be available for the state for 3 years at 80% and then to be able to sell anywhere after that. For up to 3
Speaker 89
13:23
years can you explain how the selling of the tax credits works like. Oh, you won't get up
here. I'm not a tax credit guru. Introduce yourself for the record, please. Thank
Speaker 51
13:41
you, Madam Chair, members of the committee, Paul Gehring,
DFA, uh, so what I understand the question is, is that how the credits can be monetized under the legislation in terms of selling the credits, so the department of commerce will have to certify the project as a positive cost benefit analysis. The machinery and equipment that qualifies as sustainable aviation fuel equipment and machinery, they will certify that those expenditures were made and that those expenditures qualify for a 3 Income tax credit. Now once those credits are
awarded to the taxpayer, um, and whatever amount that they are provided for, they can be they can be monetized or sold to a third party at the rate of $10 million per year. Now, if the, the taxpayer. Also has an obligation under the legislation to Where the state has the right of first refusal that we can, the state can purchase the credits for 80% of the face value of those 10 million per year. Um, so What the plan would be is that
the state would continue to buy those credits as long as those sellable credits are available because the state has the right of first refusal. Now if, if the state does not buy the credits and does not elect its first refusal, then the taxpayer can sell those 10 million credits per year to a third party and uh and I just read the amendments, my understanding that under the amendment the credits when they're in the hands of a third party would be able to redeem them for a 3-year period. Uh, so they would expire in the
hands of a third party after 3 years after they purchased them, but while the credits are in the hands of the of the taxpayer of the owner of the project, they would have an indefinite carry forward period, but 10 million would be sold to the
Speaker 89
15:34
state at 80% of the face value. I guess I, I guess I don't understand this well enough. Why, why would the state buy the
Speaker 51
15:41
credits. The, the incentive for the state to buy the credits is that the state would redeem $10 million in credits per year and
pay $8 million for those credits. So there is an 80 20% discount on the cost of the credits, which is just like how the process works for our recycling credits for the for the steel mills. If the credits were sold to a third party, that third party would be able to redeem them on the third party's income tax return for the full value. So instead of the third party paying the state $10 million in income tax either through their
Speaker 56
16:20
estimated quarterly payments or a payment with their return instead of getting that dollar payment, they would just redeem
Speaker 89
16:29
the credit and attach it to their return. OK, alright. Thank you. That was. My original question. I'm sorry I got off on that tangent. My, um, I have a few questions for Mr. Newton. um, so For somebody that's just now learning about sustainable aviation fuel. Um, what is the status of your company now? Where are you headquartered? How
Michael Newton
Unverified
16:51
many employees do you have? What locations? Can you just give me a thumbnail sketch of that, of course, so the, the high level is, is that uh our company started inside of Martin Midstream, which is, you know, about 1600 employees, uh, our CEO Reuben Martin, uh bought that. company out from Martin midstream and it's, it's own independent company. It's headquartered in Texas, uh, right now, uh, we have 5
employees, one in Crossett, Arkansas, uh, 3 in Louisiana and then uh one in Texas. So right now we have spent about $15 million of development cost and the uh on the project, we are at the stage to where uh we make, we will have our next cost estimate in April on determining whether or not that we're moving forward with the project, uh, to get the final investment decision at that point. We'll spend about another
30 to $40 million on the project. We have secured the option to buy 500 acres south of Camden, uh, that's uh it's about $3.5 million cost on that. Uh, that option expires in July. And so, uh, right now we will make the final investment decision, probably sometime late this year, early next year, um, and happy to answer any, any other questions about that, OK,
Speaker 89
18:23
thank you for that background. So I, I'm assuming it's more expensive to manufacture sustain, whatever, you know, sustainable aviation fuel than it is. Traditional aviation
Michael Newton
Unverified
18:34
fuel. Is that correct? So if you take a look at uh on just on the marginal cost of taking uh the, the wood and converting it to uh jet fuel and all the operating costs associated with that. It's about even when it comes to um
versus conventional jet fuel, which is made from crude oil, uh, what the, the initial costs uh that that makes it uncompetitive at first is the capital. costs the $3 billion to to put the plant in, uh, but we do have uh a lot of European and UK airlines, uh, who both have mandates from a statutory standpoint, uh, that they have to meet this demand and so uh that's the areas that we're focusing on, so uh we're not
Speaker 65
19:25
depending upon any uh US government incentives at this point to to make the the
Speaker 89
19:30
economics work on the project, so, so it's just government mandates
from Europe that make this product. They created demand for this product. Am I missing something? Because otherwise, so
Michael Newton
Unverified
19:40
it, it is a combination. So right now if the European and UK mandates weren't there, uh, what we would do is we would still make the fuel, uh, we would sell it into California and we would generate
rens which are generated, you know, like uh you generate when you make ethanol that's blended into gasoline and other things, uh, we would generate those rends and then we would sell the fuel to California and uh get the CFS credit, so that would be our backup for if the European or the UK
Speaker 89
20:12
mandates went away. OK, uh, and I see there's other people in the queue so I'll ask one more question and then get at the back of the
line, but is, is, is your business model to, to, to make sustainable aviation
fuel. Is it profitable without these sorts of tax
Speaker 63
20:32
credits from the state. Uh, the, the business is profitable without the
Michael Newton
Unverified
20:37
tax credits from the state. It's just as we're taking a look at here, there's another plant and uh northeast Louisiana, uh, that's gotten a lot of credits and we're considering a site and in north central Louisiana that would still uh pull from the same timber. Market, we would just build it
Speaker 68
20:58
and, and right across the border in in North
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
21:14
Louisiana. OK, I'll hop out of the queue. Thank you. Represented McCurry recognized. Me McGru, sorry. OK, thank you. Uh, just one more tax on the curriculum, this might be for DF and A. The, the impact to the state is when they start buying the the building materials, the construction, the tax on that tax on the
employees, that doesn't happen until we start building the project. When are the tax credits applied? Are they applied before that impact, after that impact,
Speaker 76
21:47
or when will they be applied? Paul Geering with DFA. So the um following the construction of the
Speaker 51
21:54
project. There will be a certification process that would go through the Department of Energy and
Environment to certify the the qualified expenditures for machinery equipment that were used in the sustainable aviation fuel production process. Once the the expenditures are certified by energy and Environment, Energy environment will essentially provide a tax credit to the company, a tax credit certificate to the company. And then the company at that point. During a fiscal year will notify DFA that they plan to begin
redeeming $10 million per year, or at least for that first year, um, of the um That will be sold to the state that the state will purchase for 80% of the face value of the credit, so the, the credits will not begin to be purchased until the project is essentially completed and E&E has done their work to certify the expenditures and issue the credit. So just depending upon the time frame for the project to be completed and the purchases of the equipment to be made and
certified, that's, that would be the timeline for. When the credits would first start to see an impact to the state for the purchase of the credits. Now there will be a period of time that while the company is building the facility and hiring employees and there will be construction companies that are going to be hiring workers to build the facility. The state would obviously see the economic impact of those
jobs being created, uh, through the construction, um, the. s of materials, but when we start seeing the revenue impact from the tax credits is after the certification process at Energy and Environment, and then usually that would be within about a year of the certification process would be the first payment of the $8
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
23:52
million. OK, thank you. And one of the question in the that that answers what I thank you, but I don't understand the buyback of the state's 80% because they're
still giving the company the $10 million so it's effectively still costing the state $10 million. What's the purpose of the
Speaker 51
24:14
state buying them back at 80%. Yes, sir. So the, the purpose of the state's ability to purchase the credits at 80% of the discount is that the company could arguably sell those credits. to a third party. Now there is a degree of the credits will be discounted because of the time value of money if you buy the credits, um, today and, and you don't have the ability to to
claim them on your returns. You're going to pay less than $10 million on the open market for for the credits with the ability to have a commitment in the incentive agreement for the state of Arkansas to buy the credits. The company knows that that revenue stream, every fiscal year that 10 million credits. will be for the project will be sellable to the state, so they know that the state will buy those credits at $8 million a year or at least have the right of first refusal and having the 80% value of the credit is our
purchase price. There's an incentive for the state of Arkansas to to buy the credits because we know if the credits were sold to a third party, they would cost $10 million to the state. They may not cost $10 million to the to the buyer of the credits, but for the state when those credits are taken on return, they're, there's no discount. out when it's taken on on the return of a
taxpayer that buys the credits. Thank you very much. Yes sir. Um Are there other industries that
we do similar incentives to, I think earlier you mentioned this was similar to something we've done for the steel industry.
Speaker 51
25:43
This is something that we've done in the past. Yes, yes, ma'am, definitely the steel industry has the same mechanism that the right of first refusal of a fixed amount of credits that is purchased per year. I believe also the the pellet mill legislation that was from 2 sessions ago also had the same mechanism where there was an amount of credits that could be redeemed per year to the state at that discounted rate, um,
those are the two industries that I'm aware of that have this process. OK, so this isn't something new. It's something
Speaker 89
26:16
that It's been done in the past. That's why I'm OK. Thank you. um Representative Ray,
you recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, Mr. Geering. So the last time this committee met we had a bill dealing with IDs for farmers and you told us that that was gonna cost somewhere on the order of $400,000 in new staff to administer an ID card
for farmers. I'm looking at the resources required to implement this tax credit program, and it looks like there basically are none. So how is it how, help me square that. How does it cost $400,000 to print ID cards for farmers, but there's basically no cost to administer this seemingly really complicated
Speaker 51
26:57
tax credit program. There is a, there are a programming costs to in order to create a new tax credit within our system. uh now the fiscal impact in DFA's document
contemplates what DFA anticipates. Our agency would have a requirement to do work. Uh, we, we don't have, um, uh, we don't speak to the the the the mechanisms that are going to go into place and the work that's going to be required at the Department of Commerce to Enter into the incentive agreement or also the certification process at Energy and Environment to do their review of the expenditures and provide what
is the final amount of credits that are authorized. So once energy and environment Determines exactly the amount of credits that are earned, DFA will be notified. DFA will account for those credits, um. In our system as well as when those credits are purchased or transferred to a third party or redeemed on a tax return, but we do not in our fiscal impact reflect a need to add any personnel to do the job duties that are required under this legislation. What
Speaker 89
28:08
about at commerce? Will it, will it
increase costs for them to administer? I, I don't, I can't speak to
Speaker 51
28:16
if commerce, I know that they have um their team of economic developers that work on these projects, but I, I could not
Speaker 89
28:23
speak to if they have any additional costs. this sheet only reflects cost to
DFNA. That is correct. This sheet doesn't reflect cost elsewhere in state government. That's, that's correct. OK. That context, I think would be helpful to note on these sorts of things. Um So I have a question for
Representative Jane, um, The bill says, I think
on page 3. I'll have to employ 75 or more full-time employees. Is that right? That's our bare minimum, OK. I guess, um, from a philosophical standpoint, you know. There's
a lot of companies in the state that employ 75 or more employees. You know, why don't, why don't
we extend all of those companies a tax credit.
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
29:14
You know, if, if, if we do do a lot of tax credits throughout the state and I, I'm not opposed to any other manufacturing. I, I think my record for supporting manufacturing is pretty solid in my 15 years in legislature. You're asking somebody, if you got a bill, you want to do it and
Speaker 89
29:31
there's no fiscal impact. I'll support it. Well, that wasn't where I was going with that
Speaker 90
29:39
question. I've tried to hit you off. So
Speaker 89
29:47
the these employees, the one thing I'm Curious about it says we'll employ 75 or more new full-time permanent employees. But then if you go up on that same page 3 to line 9. It says the full-time permanent employees have to have been filled for 26 consecutive weeks. I mean, just because they've been, I mean, what happens if permanent means forever.
So these people aren't going to be employed forever. So what if they're I mean, what if they're laid off? Are there
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
30:25
any clawback measures or anything like that. If this is not profitable to the
Speaker 51
30:33
state. this company gets nothing. Yes, so also that, that I agree 100% um with Representative Jean. If there's not a positive cost benefit analysis, um, then the project would not be be certified as eligible for the credits and also during the
period of time in the incentive agreement, the company's progress and maintenance of those employees at those salary levels is required and if those those levels are not met, then there is a formula that's provided in the incentive agreement in order to claw back the incentive.
Speaker 89
31:04
that were granted to the company, so that would be handled in the agreement itself, correct.
OK. So Representative Jane, I, um, It says on here. Again, on page 3 line 34, will
employ 75 or more new. New full-time permanent employees. But then up on line 7, it says they may authorize the counting of existing employees. I guess as part of that 75. So my question would be, They're not all, they're not, it's not 75
new employees if they're getting to count existing employees toward that total, is it? Well, what I'm I'm thinking, you know, they've got 5 people employed right now.
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
31:51
Existing would be one of the members come up and run the plant that's the 5 that, that would be the existing because they, they don't have the 5 people now working for them. And, and by the way, the Martin part of this, their family ran the uh oil refinery and smack over for years and years. Uh, so they have a background in refining oil to fuel diesel, uh, but, but this, this, that's who the Martin family is, but I would think that would read as.
Speaker 89
32:22
You only got 5 employees. So if one of them came up, they would be existing in Michael, if you've got something what about employees from Louisiana if, if there was somebody that lived in Louisiana and
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
32:35
commuted, would they count toward that total?
Well, I'm sure they would. I think you'd, I think anywhere you look with a big river steel, whether it be over in Northwest Arkansas you you count total employees, uh, I, I don't think they're gonna look at their birth certificates, see where
they're born, uh, but this, this just total that's what we have to deal with when we're on the border and we're not living in central Arkansas, we have to, we
Speaker 89
33:02
have to, we have workers from all over. OK, I was just, I mean, obviously I know companies draw from other states if they're close to a border. My question was just specifically if they
Speaker 51
33:11
would count toward the total for the incentive, so we got that precludes that I'd be happy to comment, Representative Ray, and I think primarily and I don't want to speak for commerce, but what we're interested in really is the, the, the job being
performed in the state of Arkansas and the income tax from those individual employees also being paid in the state of Arkansas. So if you are a Louisiana resident, you're driving. To Arkansas to work and that's where your permanent job is, even though you might file a non-resident return, you're deriving your income in the state of Arkansas, and that's what's really important for purposes of arriving at a positive cost benefit analysis is those permanent employees as
Speaker 95
33:49
defined by the bill, um, we, Arkansas receiving the, the
Speaker 89
33:55
benefit of the, the income for that for that employee. OK. All
Representative Ry
Unverified
34:03
right, I'll hop back out of the queue if there's other people there. Representative Ry, you're recognized. Thank, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, can we back up just a little bit. There's two figures that have been out here. One is a 30% tax credit and and
Speaker 51
34:17
the other one is 80%. Could you explain that one more time, please? Yes, sir. So Representative Rye, what you have is when the facility spins or invests in the aviation fuel,
machinery and equipment that's going to do the processes to uh create the the fuel, uh, the Department of Energy and Environment. They build the plant, they will go out and do a review of the machinery that was purchased and all the machinery that qualifies for the credit, the company gets a 30% tax credit based upon that investment in the machinery. So when the company gets the tax credit certificate. They have um
The state of Arkansas has the ability to buy $10 million limit of $10 million a year back from the company and the state of Arkansas instead of buying those credits for $10 million they pay $8 million or 80% of the
Speaker 56
35:09
face value per year. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Maddox you recognized. Thank
Representative John Maddox
Unverified
35:17
you, Madam Chair, and Representative Ray touched on this a little bit. I'm just not that familiar. Could you walk me through the clawback provision, how that works, how it's worked in the
past, like how you monitor it and if you can give an example of where their actual was a clawback. I'm
Speaker 51
35:35
just not that familiar, but can you talk about that a little bit? Certainly, and of course I don't, I'm not sure if anyone from commerce is here, but so what will occur is that under this uh build the company and commerce if this bill were to be enacted, would negotiate an incentive agreement that would provide um with the goal of providing a positive cost-benefit to the state, um, and specify the
amount of the credits that would be authorized under the incentive agreement. Sometimes the incentive agreement could potentially state that yes, you might be entitled to. The full 30% of your investment, but in order to have a positive cost benefit, you might only, you might get the full 30%, but only a certain portion are subject to being sold back to the state, um, so whatever the terms of the incitement agreement or contractual and will control. They have to be the terms of the incentive
agreement has have to be in line with all the requirements of the law and there are metrics and formulas that are in place. the clawback. So if this, this company is, is uh every single year is is reviewed. The employee totals meet their requirements. There's no need for a clawback to be triggered. However, if there's some issue that the the employee headcount metrics are not being met. There are specific formulas in the incentive agreement that
will provide for how, what portion of those, those credits would
Representative Rick McClure
Unverified
37:14
be, um, have to be returned back to the state. Yes, sir. Representative McCurry recognize. Representative Jean working with the AEDC. They have benchmarks for uh companies that are coming in, growing, that type of thing for these type of incentives and it's, it's a little bit complicated, depends on the district. It depends also, uh, unemployment rates come into
Um, meaning, uh, the average wage, the product, the impact of the product, the total wage, wage, every dollar the payroll is then compounded economic impact throughout the community. So AEDC takes all of these little pieces of information and at this point as I'm reviewing this, I don't see anything out of the normal from other packages we've looked at. Do you see anything out of the normal on this particular package, you
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
38:00
know, we went before we went to DF. we went to the Department of Commerce. They're very aware of
they support this project and I'll be the first to tell you I'm not the most technical person in this room, but, but I have seen nothing that's out of
Speaker 105
38:16
ordinary what we've done in the past. I, I agree and and I
Speaker 89
38:25
like the project. Thank you, sir. Uh, Representative Ray, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I, I appreciate Representative McClure's observations on the incentive process, I guess my question is, is there anyone from commerce here to answer questions about this bill.
I don't see him. I think that's pretty important. I mean, they're, they're they're the ones that are gonna be drawing up the incentive agreement.
They're the ones that are going to be administering it. DFNA can't tell us what the cost of commerce are going to be commerce, I assume, would
be in a better position to answer that, but there's
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
39:03
no one here from commerce. Well, commerce does this on a regular basis, checks. Employment status for a variety
Speaker 89
39:11
of tax credits. That's fine, but that doesn't mean they don't have to answer questions about it. I mean, OK. Um, I mean, this is, this is on a special order. I assume commerce looked at the Agenda or knew this was happening today. Well, I don't answer for commerce, OK. Well, if anyone from commerce is watching the live stream, I do have some questions. It would be nice
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
39:37
if they would send someone over Representative Ray, for anybody
Speaker 89
39:42
that needs to, I'll have commerce over next week and answer any of these questions. They're going to answer the questions before we vote or next week. Well, I'd like to vote on
it today. OK, I'm gonna make that motion. OK. All right, um, I guess Last question, I'll jump back out of the queue. Representative Jane,
what, what groups or organizations have endorsed this bill.
Are there any, are there any taxpayer organizations that
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
40:17
have gone to any endorsement. This just for jobs for South Arkansas and help the timber market down there, uh, I, I wasn't looking for any endorsements. This is a jobs bill and
uh I'm sure there would be some, but I haven't asked for any. OK, thank you. Representative and you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chairman. This
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
40:44
is for DFA to start with. This is not abnormal. I mean, we've done this for Big River Steel. We did it for New Corp. We did it for many other companies, maybe not in this manner, but To secure economic development for the state and more employees and better salaries, you have to do these type
Speaker 51
41:06
of things, correct? I agree, Representative Wootten, so certainly the the structure of the tax credit as provided um in
This bill, as well as the AEDC's role, Energy and Environment's role, and DFA is all very similar and modeled upon the recycling credits for the steel manufacturers that have that have been in the in
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
41:30
the Arkansas code for, for several decades this question, if money is poor,
Representative Jane, uh, that part of the state is depressed, is it not? Have they not lost the industry? Have
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
41:42
they not lost. The population and see that it's
declining and the the reason it's declining mainly is the loss of industry. We've lost a major paper mill in Camden over the last 15 years, uh, you know, I'm, I'm fortunate in Magnolia Columbia County. I have the only paper, uh, lumber mill and plywood mill in one county state of Arkansas. They've dismantled the mill across it, uh, it's a shadow of what it used to be, so we, we've lost a lot of timber business in South Arkansas. And this will just help pick it
up and you know we're trying to to to do things to help all of the state of Arkansas and uh so I don't, I don't see where, where this bill is what different we've done for the steel mills, what we did for the pellet mill, uh, a couple of sessions ago. I think it's a jobs bill and, and, and I, I don't see, I don't see the downside in it. We're not impacting the revenue for the state of Arkansas and none of these. things happen unless this thing is profitable and it's confirmed
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
42:48
by the Department of Commerce. Thank you,
Mr. Newton. A question for you. Yes, sir. Did you not make the comment that it possibly would be 200 employees that a salaries of $100,000 average. Yes sir, that's correct. So the, the, the concern about 75 employees and 5 here and 5 there is really relevant to the fact that we stand the possibility of having to uh uh a
minimum of 200 new jobs in South Arkansas where you have a depressed economy already and You, you
agree with what you said. I
Michael Newton
Unverified
43:29
mean, that is correct. Yes, that's that's jobs. There'll be many more indirect jobs, you know, we'll, we'll have the loggers and truckers and, and, uh, you know, any kind of expansion for all the restaurants and everyone else around there who would service
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
43:44
our plant. So is it not true that ever plant like yours, uh,
and you mentioned it, but has ancillary uh uh uh
people and companies that benefit from the fact that you're there in South Arkansas.
Michael Newton
Unverified
43:59
Yes, sir, that, that's correct. And even some of our timber producers that we've been negotiating feedstock agreements for offered to be here today, uh, just to testify how much it would help the, the timber industry, so, you know, we, we feel very confident that it's, it's not only a benefit for new jobs, but existing industries as well.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
44:23
And is it not true that what they're doing with the uh tree tops is a use
of a byproduct that heretofore has not been utilized. That's correct. Is
it, is it true that the airlines in Europe and other parts of the world
will have access to sustainable fuel that they can use in a viable way. And how
will you get that fuel to them.
Michael Newton
Unverified
44:54
Yes, sir. So the, the way we would get the fuel to them is that we would make it here in, in South Arkansas. We were transported by rail to a terminal that, that uh our, our company, not natural state renewables, but Martin Midstream that owns the the refinery and smackover, we would transport that to a terminal in Beaumont and then put it on a ship to
Speaker 65
45:12
take over uh for use in in Europe and the UK. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Representative Lun. you're recognized.
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
45:25
Just a couple of quick questions, um. I'm a little bit concerned that we're building an industry on EU mandates. Can you give me some comfort on that? I, just because they've gone crazy over there doesn't mean maybe we should go crazy too,
Michael Newton
Unverified
45:42
so help me on that process. Just give me the overview that's a good question. So right now, uh, the EU mandates help encourage use of this, but even before when we talked to the large cargo airlines of FedExes, the DHLs,
uh, the UPS's of the world, uh, they have customers who have certain sustainability requirements and uh for, for their own use and they want to make sure that the fuel that they packages get transported on uh our uh our carbon neutral. And so when, when that happens, they are willing to pay up to 25 to $30 a gallon for these types of fuels to certify that their project or that their package delivered is
carbon neutral and not used uh from some kind of food source as a feedstock, and so that's where even If those mandates go away, there's still a niche of uh of demand out there and so we have airlines that are willing to sign up for a take or pay contract regardless of what the mandates are for 10 to 20 year I'll take agreement. So whenever we get this financed, you know,
it's a $3 billion project, so you're not gonna have uh the, any kind of uh bank or uh equity financing without solid contracts from creditworthy partners, so this isn't a bet on the com type project. This is something that will be papered up all across the board to where the feed stocks will be secure. The Altake agreements will be secured by uh take or pay agreement, and so, uh, that this should we should reach to.
the final investment decision, uh, that is, is could be contracted up and just high level, you know, you're gonna need about 2 to 300 plants our size in order to meet the The long term sustainability goal goals, a lot of these companies and so while we, you know, while we're not here for regulations or anything on that. That's the free market is deciding that they value the carbon sequestration, and that can really only be done in
places that have both the materials and the sequestration abilities and so that really only exists in the US in South Arkansas, North Louisiana, and in South Texas, right on the Louisiana-Texas border, so uh these projects will, will be done and, and, and I think they will be done in in
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
48:25
this area. OK, thank you. This helps. This is for DFNA. Has there ever been, um, any look back or retrospective audit or
review of some of these packages and we've seen where there's been good or
Speaker 51
48:41
bad has has anybody done a look back on some of this representative Lindstrom, there is a process. Where the legislative audit does an audit of incentives, um, to provide the cost-benefit analysis, and they do a very in-depth review of projects in conjunction with commerce with with DFA to look at all the projects they um legislative audit produced a report that was presented, I believe, in
December of, of all the projects that they reviewed, I'd be happy to send you a copy of that. I would like to see that. Yes, ma'am. So there is a very in-depth substantial review. of projects um that uh in order so the General Assembly knows what incentives that are being offered in the law
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
49:26
are what's the return coming back and how effective those incentives are. OK, thank you. And
Speaker 51
49:31
overall, were they effective or win, lose, what's, what's our goal is in the legislative audit report, they do provide the essentially what
the score is in terms of how um because if a score of a project is really just 1 to 1 for $1 that we give in incentives, we're only getting $1 back to the state, um, you know, we're wanting to have our goal is to have a higher score than that, that $1 incentive comes back with, with, you know, a higher number than a dollar being returned, uh, so they, they do have a very good breakdown in their report of the projects that they reviewed and
to identify those, those scores that they they gave to each type
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
50:14
of. in their annual report. OK, thank you. Is like
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
50:23
I'll look forward to reading it. Yes, ma'am. It's very helpful. Representative Whier recognize. On the, um, thank you, Madam Chairman, on the, uh, back on the fuel again, um, is
this equivalent to 80 and 90 octane aviation fuel or is it just applied to jet fuel.
Michael Newton
Unverified
50:37
It's, it's the equivalent of a jet A fuel that you would use in a
commercial airline and there's no type of modifications or anything else required for the, for the airline to use this, they can use a 50/50 blend of conventional. fuel with this jet fuel and meet all the
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
50:59
requirements of the FAA and uh ASTM for fuel methods.
Will this not augment uh this inventory and supply of jet fuel, as I understand it, the airline industry is not on, on,
on a take or pay contract basis, they're on the allocation basis relative to how much demand they had the past year relative to what they'll be. uh refine the next year so that the companies will know. What the supply is going to be, but is it not a
Michael Newton
Unverified
51:34
limited supply today. There is a limited supply today, um, and just, I come from the refining industry and so what happens is, is that the uh there are certain units inside the refinery that can make the
choice of making gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, and so those are uh tweaked, those conditions are tweaked based on the market conditions and so um I think the conventional refiners will, will adjust. And then the uh the airlines will, will secure their supply of renewable fuels needed to to meet either their mandates or their own
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
52:09
internal uh standards, but we could reach a point where um
because of the way they tweak the supply each year. They look
at and they look at the contracts that you have with them and then they base it on supply and you've got to tell them how much demand you think
Michael Newton
Unverified
52:28
you will have. Is that correct? Yes, sir, that's the, that's the way it works for a lot of airlines, for our contracts, we will have a take or pay for the uh the amount that they'll adjust will be uh based on the uh supplies that they haven't secured via take or Pay. So but for ours in order to get our project financed, they understand that
Speaker 89
52:50
they'll have to commit to a certain amount of volumes. Thank you, ma'am Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Newton. Thank you. All right, next in the queue is Representative Rye. You're recognized for a
Representative Ry
Unverified
52:59
question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representatively, you've been around this stuff for a long time. Let me ask you this, and I don't think we've mentioned it, up to this point. Is this, will this be declared a super project? No. No. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 89
53:23
OK. Um, I guess, uh, all right, so I'm next in the queue, so I'll go ahead with my question. Um. Mr. Newton, you did I understand you correctly when you, when at the beginning when I, when you were describing the, I think I asked you about the profitability of your industry. Um, did I understand you correctly saying that the primary barrier to Viability or profitability is the, the upfront capital investment because it's quite significant. Is that, did I understand that correctly? That's correct. OK. So,
Representative Jane to that point is, is this credit permanent? Will it exist? Will companies that meet the requirements in here, will they continue to receive the credit forever or is the credit just for a defined period of years while the company gets off the ground.
Speaker 77
54:10
Representative Ray, I believe in the bill that the project will have to be commenced, I believe, by December
Speaker 51
54:15
of 27. So if there was not a project that that was commenced by that time. I'll have to go back and just look at the bill, but I believe that's the, that's the
deadline is that now the General Assembly could come back in a future session and decide to extend that date for if there are additional projects, but for practical purposes, you would no longer be eligible for this credit
Speaker 89
54:39
unless the project was commenced by that deadline. OK,
so that raises another question in my mind, which is if this is such a great idea, why does it expire in 2020? For projects that begin before 2027. I mean, it seems like um if we want to attract aviation
sustainable aviation fuel companies to the state, we would want to attract all
of them, or is this just written for one specific. Instance
Speaker 51
55:04
that I represented Ray, the the steel incentives are structured in the exact same way and I wasn't my question, certainly, but I was just going to explain and and possibly the the reason for that would be is that um the ability for the state to be able to come back and consider the value of these projects, um, as they are and the value of the incentive to
see if they need to be to be tweaked, uh, it allows the General Assembly that power to to really reconsider whether or not The,
Speaker 89
55:36
the, the incentive is worth the states um uh benefit that they're providing to the
taxpayer. So you, you answered my question by stating that the there is a cutoff for projects, but that wasn't what my question
was. My question was about how long the credits the company will continue to receive the credits. Will they receive them
into perpetuity or um is there some sort of representative Jane, is there some sort of
Speaker 51
56:06
Duration under which they will qualify. Representative Ray, I'm sorry, I misunderstood your question. That's OK, so now that I understand the question, so when the credits are authorized. Um, to the company and energy environment certifies the amount of the credit. The company has a legal obligation under the law to sell. They sellable credits to the state of Arkansas at a maximum limit of $10 million a year, uh,
at the 80% discount. Um, now, the credits that would be claimed on the taxpayer's return. Those are indefinite credits. They, they do not expire, but if the credits are sold
Speaker 56
56:42
to a third party under the amendment that was passed out this morning, the third party would
Speaker 89
56:50
have a 3 year period to redeem the credits. OK, so my last question on this point is just to Representative Jane, if, if the barrier to this type of industry is the upfront capital costs. Why wouldn't we just
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
57:04
put a duration on the amount of time they could receive the credits. Well, you know, what we scratched this bill was to make sure that this had no impact on the state of Arkansas. So up, up front, it has no impact on it and the duration, I, I don't think we ever even thought about extended it any farther. We worked with DFNA to get this bill crafted so it doesn't hurt the taxpayers, the state of Arkansas upfront and uh but if you, if you want
Speaker 89
57:35
to add that to the bill. I'll, I'll look into it. Well, I think we should have that conversation because and we could bring another bill
Representative Rick McClure
Unverified
57:49
back to do it. OK, all right, thank you. McCurry, you recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, Representative Jean, I'm gonna put my economic development hat on here. I have not spoken to AEDC. But I'm just trying to figure the regional impact, so. Once I get up to 200 employees
at average wage 100,000. That's a lot of payroll dollars in your area. There's an impact fee once you put $1 in the economy locally, how many times it circulates. I'm gonna count that as 3. That's just me and my thinking. There's a ripple effect into the trucking, the transportation, oil, gas, tires, all that kind of stuff. I put 30 million there. We've talked about the forestry part of it yet. So I, I'm considering this is about $100 million impact to South Arkansas. So is it, would that
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
58:38
be a good deal for South Arkansas? I mean, uh, this, I've told you this is the area that is lost. Paper mills has lost lumber mills. Mills have been dismantled and fordice all over and you know, people don't realize it, but timber is the number one force me to agriculture product in Arkansas. It's not rice, it's not soybeans, it's temper and this will help this area and,
and people understand timber, we're in the timber basket. It will provide a lot of jobs and we've done everything we can. Not to hurt the state financially, so you know, and I, I think we've got to be a little bit more statewide in our, our, our hoping everybody does good and, and, and try to build up the whole state and this is, yes, this is a South Arkansas jobs, but South Arkansans are, are, are residents too, and we
need this is just the best, best I could do and I, we work with DFNA so this would not take an impact on the state. That was very key to me as budget chair and uh this bill does that and the Department of Commerce will only provide this stuff when this company becomes uh
Representative Rick McClure
Unverified
59:57
profitable. How far off was I on AEDC's expectations of the annual economic impact, regional impact. Well, you've done a
Speaker 49
1:00:03
lot of economic development work locally. You, you know more about it than I do.
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
1:00:12
Representative Eve you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Madam Chair. Um. My question really is not
about the tax credits, it's about the, the fuel itself. It's this, um, an FAA approved, I mean straight drop in for jet
Michael Newton
Unverified
1:00:27
A. It functions the same way. Yes, sir, right now it's approved up to a 50/50 blend. Uh, there have been tests with it, uh, where both united and Virgin Airlines have done and Delta have done a test in this one engine to where they
used 100% of the fuel and it's uh operated without any issues. They actually say it burns a little cleaner. because
Speaker 142
1:00:50
it is all synthetic, uh, so that's, it's, so when you say fifty-fifty jet A and
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
1:00:56
then this sustainable fuel or alternative fuel. Yes, sir. OK, and it's, it's refined to the degree that jet A would be is there the possibility of refining it less as
Speaker 63
1:01:05
a drop-in replacement to just diesel. Uh, yeah, so you, so the process that we're using,
Michael Newton
Unverified
1:01:11
um, I'll give a high level overview
and this may be too much, but basically, you bring the trees in, uh, you chip. them up, dry them out into what this looks like gunpowder or coffee grinds. Uh, you take that into a gasification reactor which will break the hydrogen and carbon into separate molecules. You'll then build that back up, uh, using the Fisher tropes process into a uh wax, and then you'll take that into a hydroreer similar to what you would use in uh a regular
refinery, and then at that point, you decide whether or not you make gasoline. Jet fuel, diesel, or lobes with it. So as the, as the operator of the facility, we can make any of
Speaker 143
1:01:57
those 4 different products if, if we desire. That's exactly how I
Speaker 144
1:02:02
thought you made it. Um And I would say this
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
1:02:06
based on what Representative Jean said, I mean, the largest export Arkansas has is aerospace products, aviation related parts and components. So I think this
jet A product would fit right into that. So thank you for
the information. Members, are there any other questions? The Department of Commerce is sending someone over. Is what I was told. Hallelujah. Oh, I didn't see her come in. I'm sorry. Is there someone?
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
1:02:48
Can you speak for the Department of Commerce? Jim Hudson was at the Department of Commerce forever and I come to the table of yourself for the record.
It's been a minute. Jim Hudson, Secretary of
Speaker 148
1:03:02
DFA, it's been a minute, but um I I think I still remember the tax incentive process pretty well and I'm
Speaker 150
1:03:08
sorry I had to step out earlier for for a meeting with the governor. What, what exactly were you information you're looking for that we can help you
with related to commerce, representative Ray has a question about the cost to the uh Department of Commerce for administration of
Speaker 89
1:03:28
this incentive. Well, when I asked Mr. Geering earlier about the cost of implementation, um, he said there, there was no cost to administer the tax credit on behalf of DFNA because commerce is doing it. But and so What he was essentially saying was that the cost on this sheet only reflect DFNA's costs.
Um, so I guess my question is to commerce,
Speaker 150
1:03:56
what will be the cost to administer. These tax credits. You know, it would be my expectation. I can, I can visit with Secretary McDonald as well that they should be able to incorporate this. We're talking about one project. Um, they don't do the detailed work of looking at all the invoices that actually gets done both at energy and environment under this bill and then DFA will audit it as well. So they, their workload will be
relatively minimal in terms of, you know, doing the project, you know, evaluating it, conducting the cost benefit analysis and preparing the paperwork. I would not expect they'd have a need for additional staff to be able to do that, but I'll, I'll let the chief of
Speaker 153
1:04:39
staff tell me if I'm wrong. Alison Hatfield, chief of staff for commerce, and I, I agree
Speaker 89
1:04:45
with Secretary Hudson. Yes, sir. OK, so there won't be the department won't come back and say we need additional positions to do
Speaker 89
1:04:57
that. OK, so I guess from a, from a top level. standpoint I mean, help me understand. The Department of Commerce's aims in terms of attracting Business to our state because You know For many years, everybody said, oh we need a, we need an auto plant. If we
could just get an auto plant. Boy, we'd be rolling in it. Um Nobody talks about an auto plan anymore, um,
sustainable aviation fuel helped me understand there's a million different categories of companies that we could attract to
the state. Why, why do, why do we need a tax credit for this specific seemingly very narrow category. And for those that just Mr.
O'Neill, since you just came in, if you will recognize your or introduce yourself for the record and you can answer any questions you feel
Jay Robertson
Unverified
1:05:54
you need to answer. Hi, Clint O'Neill, executive director, AEDC. Thank you for having me this
morning. Uh, sorry, I just ran in and a little out of breath. I need to get in better shape. Um, I, I would say the ideal project for us is one that raises the per capita income of Arkansans, one where Companies utilize the resources that we have available, whether that's raw materials or just a great fit for communities. When it comes to real estate, workforce, uh, taking advantage of the great business cost of
Arkansas, but for us, projects that come in have a high capital investment are very attractive to us. It's excellent for communities. The multiplier effect of A construction project like that and the property taxes that a company that a community would receive are, are just such great economic benefits, uh, jobs and jobs that pay higher than the, the average per capita income for the county and for the state are incredibly attractive, so, you know, I am a bill like this
that would lead to a project that hits the sweet spot
Speaker 89
1:07:06
in those categories would, would be attractive. So, um, you probably weren't able to hear. one of my earlier questions, um, so I'll, I'll just repeat a few of them. So on page 3 of the bill, it says the the anyone who receives this tax credit has to employ a minimum of 75 or more new. Full-time permanent employees, so there's 33 conditions there
new full time and permanent, I guess one of my questions is, you know, it says they must be new, but then up on line 7 of the same page, it says, well, it may count existing employees toward that total. So if you can count existing employees, what's the point in saying that they must be new. Another question would be, Um You know, on the permanent aspect, you know, no employee is permanent, um, you know, so what
happens if a company like this that receives the tax credit on the, on the precondition that they're going to create permanent jobs and then they You have to have layoffs or something. What happens in that instance? Do they continue to receive the tax credit or
is uh is the agency gonna revoke it? So the,
Jay Robertson
Unverified
1:08:24
the definition of permanent for the purposes of of projects like this would be the term of the agreement. So if it's set up under a 10-year term
or a 15-year term, the company would be held responsible to retain those positions for the life of the agreement, um, when it comes to new versus retained positions. I believe the, the language, the intention is that these would be. New full-time jobs. However, there's a carve out exemption in rare cases where um The AEDC executive director and the secretary of DFNA can
jointly agree to say this is a rare circumstance in which it would be worth it to classify retained positions as new positions. So again, that's, that's, that's rare. Uh it has happened on all of our incentive programs, uh, to date once within the Sanders administration and that would be in uh again in in rare circumstances. OK.
Speaker 89
1:09:28
And I, I appreciate you mentioning the
term of the agreement, um, one of the questions that I asked
previously was, you know, a company that qualifies under this once they uh qualify to receive the credit. Do they just receive the credit in perpetuity, or is there a is there a defined period of time in which they received the credit and then it goes away. Why don't you let
Speaker 150
1:09:58
me take that one, Representative Ray. I think there, there was some confusion, the part of the conversation I heard, there's a difference between the utilization period.
For an already issued credit. And then the time period under which credits are generated based on the capital investment by the company. The issuance of credits is not in perpetuity. It is going to be a defined period in the incentive agreement between ADC and the company. That says this is what we think it's going to take in terms of the period to build your plant. You've got to complete it within that time period. Here's the cap x value for that.
And it'll be that that sets the the cap. For the amount of tax credits that you can get as specified in in statute as well. You can't get any more than what's in the incentive agreement. You may actually get less depending upon what's in the statute. So it's not a question of the company will continue to generate the right to receive future credits in perpetuity. That's just not how it works. It's capped to the actual capital investment period. OK, thank you for answering the question.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:11:15
Thank you. And Representative, you're recognized. Thank you. Since the auto industry has been brought up into the discussion. Isn't it a fact
that we lost some of the auto industries that we're going to locate this is for commerce, economic development. Is it not a fact that some of the auto industries that we lost was because the incentives were greater in the other states.
Jay Robertson
Unverified
1:11:48
I would say that that is true to a certain extent. There are um Every project's a little different. Uh, there, there are some projects that we've worked in the automotive industry where we simply did not have the real estate requirement. I think about the 4 blue oval project that went to the Memphis mega site, uh, the Memphis mega site is 3500 acres with all utilities extended. We were not able to compete for a project like that just due to lack of having sites. Um, but if you look at the three
primary categories that all companies are looking at real estate, including all infrastructure workforce, and a range of business costs. I, I think they all stack up in in a little different ways when companies do their multi-state location analysis, but there have been times where, you know, maybe a, a company's more comfortable with the workforce in one state or another, the real estate or the business call. So I, I would say that's a factor, but I don't know that I could point to one
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:12:49
project that was head to head, apples to apples, and we lost only because of incentives. But it was a
factor. Yes sir, always is on As, as an example, The Toyota truck plant, it was gonna be located in West Memphis and ended up in San Antonio was a market condition. Because People in Texas buy more pickup trucks than any other
state in the nation. Is that not a fact?
Jay Robertson
Unverified
1:13:20
Yes sir. We, we believe that the, the two projects, I believe around 2005 and 2007 where Toyota located projects in Texas and then in Mississippi, both of those projects evaluated Arkansas as a part of that, but for the one that went to San Antonio, uh, to build trucks do believe that the the customer demand, the market was certainly a factor
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:13:42
in that location decision. Do you, do you feel that Arkansas because of the production of steel in northeast
Arkansas is a more advantageous today for the automobile industry than we were 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Yes sir, absolutely. So the northeast part of the state has, we've given an incentives to big river steel and others, no core and others up there to locate in the northeast part of the state and what we're talking. about today is South Arkansas, which would you agree is depressed that they've lost industry, that people are
unemployed, that they're having a hard time making ends meet. Would you not agree that South Arkansas deserves some action and, and representative Jean and DFA and commerce, see the need to locate such a plan as this in South West Arkansas. Every region of
Jay Robertson
Unverified
1:14:43
the state is incredibly valuable to us and any time that we could locate a facility and help facilitate that, especially in parts of the
state that have lost population and lost jobs, uh, are, are incredibly special opportunities to us, and yes sir, we want to uh be, be leaders in, in recruiting
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:15:05
industry to South Arkansas and all parts of the state.s a, a risk
to any new venture. Or to any new plan that there's an economic risk.
So let me rephrase that. Is any investment a surety? No, sir, there, there's always a risk.
Jay Robertson
Unverified
1:15:37
So any, any, any business is a gamble. Well, I think we, we've, we've made very good strides as a state to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and to put in protections so that we're not providing funds that we can't recoup as a part of due diligence, we always want to, um, Increase our confidence that if
we provide any upfront funds, we're working with an entity that's has the ability to pay back those funds, uh, so I think that we could strike, strike a good balance of being aggressive
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:16:07
and pro-business but protecting ourselves as a state. You had that
exactly the way I wanted you to. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:16:19
Chair. Thank you. Thank you. um. Is this
on, yes sir. Just a quick question on, and I'm not
sure who can answer this, but we do static scoring and we do dynamic scoring now. Has anybody scored this dynamically, I would think if we're gonna spend, if you're gonna come to the state and spend $2 billion thank you. There's probably been some due diligence on what this, the amount of tax dollars and investment is going to bring back to the state maybe somebody
Speaker 150
1:16:49
could answer that. Yes, ma'am, and I think that's actually you're bringing up a very important point to just kind of for us to get focused on what the bill is doing. The the bill is authorizing an
incentive, you know, on the books. It is not awarding an incentive to to any company. It is not approving sighting of a plant anywhere. It is just approving for DFA and, and, and primarily for commerce to be able to enter into an incentive agreement, if they decide to build a plant here and more importantly, if the cost benefit analysis, which is a dynamic scoring, uh, their econometric models that they use at AEDC
their dynamic scoring models that take into account the inputs in terms of the values that are near. to the state and then also the outputs in terms of the tax credits. So it will be dynamically scored, but that scoring will not occur until somebody comes to ADC and says we want to do a project. Here's the promised capital investment. Here's the promised payroll. They run the numbers and the numbers justify us making the investment back to them. So that will, that will be yet to be determined, Representative
Lundstrom, thank you. Senator McGrew, you're
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
1:18:07
recognized. A little bit of a clarification that in the beginning, I didn't understand how, how and when the track credits was going to be, so now I'm understanding under the agreement that you make, commerce is gonna make sure that those tax credits don't uh aren't dispensed until the work until it is a positive uh response to the state and also
isn't it uh the greatest an easy assumption that if this company is successful, the impacts of of the positive impacts on the state of Arkansas. could go on for years after those tax credits have been used. Is that correct? That's correct.
Representative Ry
Unverified
1:18:49
Thank you. Representative Ry recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Paul, maybe you can help me with this one. you know, we brought up the part about the $400,000 that it was going to take to implement this with the farmers, but then
now we're talking about a different situation with a, OK, now. We need to know the difference between the two functions, I think. Uh, when you look at A new implementation of some type of a workload that has to go in on something that we were talking about the other day with the farmers. You, you got that, but this It's totally different because these folks do this all the time. Is, is that the reason that there's no impact, I think also the the
Speaker 51
1:19:35
For purposes of our personnel needs, um. You give the farming card as an example. There was testimony that there were 37,000 potential eligible applications that DFA would would have to process, verify, and then provide produce a card back to the farmer, that would require personnel. Um, under this bill, there is a process that would occur over at the Department of Commerce to evaluate the project enter it in um an incentive agreement only
after there was a Positive cost benefit analysis performed um that was DFA could be consulted on that positive cost benefit analysis and then also energy and environment once the project was um essentially completed and the capital expenditure was um there on the ground in the state of Arkansas. Energy and environment would then review and verify that the Machinery and equipment that was purchased by the company for
this investment actually qualifies for the credit once the that review by energy and environment is completed, then a tax credit certificate would be generated and put on the books of DFA so that we could keep track of the credit. As well as the process to buy back the $10 million in credits per year. That process in our view would not require DFA to add any additional personnel. We would add
Speaker 56
1:21:00
those duties to our existing job duties within the Office of Tax Credits.
Thank you, Paul and thank you, Mr.
Speaker 165
1:21:10
Chairman of Eon or recognized. Thank you,
Representative James Eaton
Unverified
1:21:12
Madam Chair. Representative Jean, would you, uh, Would you say that the timber industry is struggling right now. Uh, yes,
Speaker 3
1:21:21
most definitely, and it seems like that margin is very thin for those folks. And especially for what this product is gonna be the, the, the popwood business which this would
Representative James Eaton
Unverified
1:21:30
fall into, which leads me to is this. The resource that Mr. Newton is
going to use is almost an isn't a very valuable resource. So it seems to me and the people in my area would love to have an outlet for their Almost unused product, so it's an additional fiber and along with that, I missed the first few minutes, Mr. Newton. I apologize on that. Is your plant going
Speaker 65
1:21:58
to use sludge or any part of that? Uh. I'm not familiar with sludge, so, but I,
Michael Newton
Unverified
1:22:04
I do not think so. OK, so just, just kind of a high
level overview, we, we will use the tops, the, the thinnings, uh, we will use sawdust, bark, all those kind of things that we'll, we'll buy about 3.5 million tons a year. And so when you're, you know, going back to uh Representative McClure's question earlier about the total number of value, you know, we're going to spend somewhere between 5, I mean $50 million to $100 million a year just in wood that is currently not going to the forestry industry, that they're just
cutting and letting rot or having to pay somebody to take away, so in our minds, there's at least $50 to $100 million of value without any ancillary dollars just to the state of Arkansas because all the Almost all the forestry
Speaker 65
1:22:52
that we're considering for this project is in Arkansas. And
Representative James Eaton
Unverified
1:22:57
follow up. And if I were in a part of that, my point, another point I had there was that will really help the longer side of it because they aren't really They aren't getting anything at all out of that, the byproduct
they're gonna bring you right now. So it does
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:23:14
lay there, so it does multiple things. That's
Michael Newton
Unverified
1:23:17
correct. And then when we've talked to the, the timber industry, they also said it's going to help all the truckers that have to bounce back and forth between the uh agriculture on the uh soybeans and rice side to go haul, those things during the, the uh harvest season, it gives these truckers a lot more uh steady work because we're, we're gonna be taking And, uh, material every day.
Representative James Eaton
Unverified
1:23:41
And another point I just wanted to make was you're gonna help a lot of people that are struggling more than just to up
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
1:23:52
to 200 that you're employing here. Yes, sir, by far. Lungstrom, you're recognized. Just a quick question, what is this going to cost on infrastructure to the area, how is that going to be handled? Water, sewer,
Speaker 63
1:24:04
electric, all that process. Yeah, right, so right now we're going through uh all those cost
Michael Newton
Unverified
1:24:12
estimates and so for us, um, we are our 500 acre site has rail infrastructure already. It sits between two major highways, so we will be adding an overpass over the rail, uh, siding, uh, over the, the railroad track to keep any kind of um any kind of back up there for any trucks that are waiting to enter the plant. Uh, all the roads and infrastructure on the plant site, we're going to be building ourselves. Uh, we have lots of staging area to keep uh
any kind of nuisance off the road, um, and so all the infrastructure that we can imagine, uh, is, is going to be done, uh, on our own site, including the power right now there's a 30 megawatt line that goes across the site, but we're gonna have our own Power Island. There, which is basically our own biomass boilers to generate our own power. So from the infrastructure standpoint, I don't see a lot of taxation upon the existing systems. OK, thank you.
Uh, members seeing no other uh members. In the queue for questions, um, I'm gonna go and see, I don't see anybody signed up to speak against or for the bill. So I'm gonna ask, is there anybody in
the audience would like to speak against the bill or for the
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
1:25:34
bill? Saying none, Representative Jean, would you like to close for your bill? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank
you, Madam Chair. Um, once again natural state is putting up the money to buy this land. You've
heard them, they're going to take care of their own infrastructure needs. Uh, any of these tax credits will not happen until they're profitable. Uh, it's a good deal, it's a good investment, $2 billion in South Arkansas in a depressed area, minimum of 2 billion and uh you know, providing 100 to 200 jobs at $100,000. I would appreciate a good vote on this and
I'm closed and I make a motion that we do pass as amended.
All right, members, we have a motion on
the floor for due passes amended. Any discussion on the motion? Representative, right, you're recognized.
Speaker 89
1:26:28
Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, colleagues, I know I've asked a lot of questions that probably come across as critical of the bill, so I just wanna Provide a little context for Why I had that posture. First of all, I'm thrilled that there are companies that are interested in coming to our state. I'm thrilled that there are people
like Mr. Newton that want to invest in our state. I think that is absolutely fantastic. Um, you know, So, I'm not, I, I think all of that is great news. It's good for South Arkansas. I, I believe wholeheartedly that things that are good for one part of the state are good for other areas of the state. Um I'm just frustrated with. Making tax policy in a way that is specifically designed just to
benefit one single company. I am fully committed to doing everything that I can to build the most pro-growth, pro-business, most economically competitive state in the country. And doing that in a way that lowers taxes for every company in our state, um, you know, I think I'm afraid that at the end of this session, we're gonna go home to our districts and our constituents are going to ask us what did we do to lower taxes for them. And the only thing I'm going to be able to say is, well, are you a data center?
Or are you a sustainable aviation fuel company or are you a packaging company because if, if, if there, if the answer to those questions are yes, then sure, we did something to help you, but in a broad-based way, what did we do to lower the taxes for all, all businesses in our state or for um all individuals in our state, um. You know, we're we're about a month from the end of session. And I'm just being honest here. I don't feel like Uh, I don't feel like we've done
a lot to benefit the taxpayers of the state, um, to really improve our business climate overall. So, um, that, that's just the context for why I
was asking those questions that I asked, so I just wanted to
Representative Les Warren
Unverified
1:28:43
share that with the committee. Representative Warren, you're recognized. Michael, I would just like to say I was born in Camden, uh, grew up 18 miles south and smack over for the last 40+ years.
I've watched population decline down there. I'd like to personally say thank you for considering doing this uh in South Arkansas. I think it could be something that would be Great for that area. I, I still love South Arkansas. I want to see something good happened down there to revive it. So thank you for considering doing this and I hope that it goes extremely well and we have a lot of success down there. Thank you. Thank you very much. Representative Wootton, you're
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:29:26
recognized. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I just want to follow up on what Representative Warren, uh, made
the comment and then share with you that uh that is a depressed part of the state. They have difficulty down there and uh the forest industry is in uh uh difficult situation today, but uh in addition, we, we have incentives for anybody that
wants to come in this state. I, I don't know why. were hung up or watch or vice chairman Ray is hung up on favoring one industry and the governor with tax cuts, the governor has decided to defray any action in this session on tax cuts that we'll handle that and on top of that, We've got the recessionary in front of us, perhaps, but uh in the conversation with Secretary Hudson this morning. They're
gonna redo the forecast and if it's, it holds true to what it we we've been told thus far that we're gonna have the money for some type of tax cut and, and so uh I mean, this, this is situation here where we can help a section of the state that is suffering, that is hurting and we were talking about tax cuts. And that's fine, and I hope we can and we probably will be able to. So injecting that text
question into it and injecting the fact of the question as it relates to helping just this industry. That's that, that, that, that's doesn't need to be. I don't, we, we don't need to talk about that. This company has stated and DFA and the Commerce Department and energy and environment have gone through and looked at it. This is a viable situation and we need to take advantage of it
because we know that fuels are moving this way. So we need to take advantage of having one. They, they insular value. Truckers Auto supply, truck supplies, diesel fuel. It just goes on and on, and I guarantee you there'll be some other industry that won't locate down there because it's close to them and not only that, they're building their own power plant.
So this is, this is a win-win situation. For Arkansas, and sure enough for Southwest Arkansas, Camden, Magnolia, Cross it, Eudora, Dermont, Lake Village. They'll all benefit from it.
So I, I'm, I'm voting yes. Thank you.
Representative Ry
Unverified
1:32:25
recognized. just kind of echo when what Mr. Wotton is saying here. You know, you got 200 jobs, up
to 200 jobs. And it's got a compound and an effect. I mean, you pay someone $100,000 a year, they're gonna go to the grocery store, they're gonna buy automobiles. They're going to do a lot of things.
But I can't say anything but good coming out of this. Thank you. OK, members, seeing no others to speak. On the emotion, we have a motion do pass all in favor say aye. A poll say nay. Congratulations representative Jean. Your bill has passed.
Speaker 174
1:33:04
Thank you all for coming, Chairman, Madam Chairman, members of
the committee, thank you very much. With that, members, we're gonna go to HB 1540 representative Mayberry, if you'll go down, introduce yourself for the record and you'll be recognized. And she has a handout that we'll be giving out members. Uh, just as a reminder, this is one that does show a physical impact, so we won't be able to take a vote, but we will be able to hear and debate it.
Representative Mayberry, if you'll recognize yourself and your guest and then you'll
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:33:56
be um able to present your bill. Sure, State Representative Julie Mayberry. Hi, I'm Katie Sursa and
Speaker 177
1:34:07
say where you're from and I am with Achieve
Community Alliance. Thank you ladies, you're recognized.
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:34:13
OK. I'm, I'm giving you a handout because I, I like visuals and I felt like this might help explain the, the, the
true purpose of this bill. So as it stands now in Arkansas tax code, there is a um deduction for someone raising a child with a, a disability. It is a $500 tax deduction and you can see my hand. writing at the top. It's been there since 1991 at $500. I also want to point out on that form that there's no medical
professional that has to sign this form. It's just the person saying yes. I, I have this person and I help take care of them, OK? There's, there's no um verification that any of this information is true and I do believe that they would be You know, no way of knowing for sure, but there could be some fraud with that. If you look at the next page. The next one is actually the
certificate for individuals with developmental disabilities. This one is a tax credit. Also for $500. This one, if you'll notice at the bottom, it does require a doctor's signature. Um, or, uh, licensed psychological examiner, licensed psychologist and, and what have you, um, this one was established, um, this I, I see trying to figure it out. AR 1000
DD is the, the second form I'm looking at. If you notice on this, it was established in 1977. $500. It's been $500 since 1977. So when you put that into the inflation calculator that actually shows up as $200727.20. Well, I've been in this legislature long enough to know that if I come to you and say we need to bring this up to today's
dollars, y'all are just gonna go,
well, there's just not enough money for that. I understand that. So what my bill proposes to do is first of all,
eliminate that deduction because I do believe there, there might be some fraud and I don't think that the deduction really helps people as much as the tax credit does. I want to simplify things for people. I don't want them to have to fill out two different forms. I'd love to give them one form that
stays around and that's what this other form is. Now, I want to point out one other thing on that tax credit form is that we are going to change the definition to meet the federal definition of a developmental disability. If you look at that AR 1000 DD you'll notice that there's boxes that you can check. The people with developmental disabilities don't always fit in one of those boxes.
And the federal definition, if you look at the very next page. Helps give us a better definition so that someone doesn't fall through the cracks, and that's what I'm trying to do. Using, using those check boxes, it's just not really an adequate way. There are some people who just do not fit into one of those boxes, but clearly they have a developmental disability. So that's the other part of this bill. Then
The last part of this bill that I hope to be able to solve, um, and it might require another bill or at least a rule change by the Game and Fish commission and how this whole idea came up to being was Katie Cera reached out to me and maybe September saying that. Over at UCP that they hold a fishing derby every year and they can't get their clients to have a discounted game and fish commission license. So I'm gonna
let you hear her story and why this
Speaker 181
1:38:40
bill might actually help that situation as well. Thank you, Julie, and thank you, uh, honors of the committee, um, so hi, I'm, I'm Katie Sursa, like I said, I am with the Chief Community Alliance, um, we just renamed from United Cerebral Palsy, so it's the same company, just renamed um to better reflect the people that we do serve because we serve a much broader definition than just cerebral palsy. Um, we currently serve over 300 clients statewide. We are a statewide
company and we employ over 750 people um in a statewide. Now we do. have a fishing derby here in central Arkansas, and we have had this fishing derby year over year for the last, I believe 7 or 8 years, um, and it is in conjunction with the Game and Fish commission. They have generously um helped us through this every single year and every single year for all 65 of our clients that are here in central Arkansas, we purchased a 3-day license, uh, which is $6 for our
people, which, so that, so that they are licensed and legal to go fish. Uh, because we do use city resources and we want to make sure that we're honoring um laws and and regulations of the state, um, however, every single one of them should qualify for a developmental disability, disability license through the game and fish based on the definitions that are currently established. The problem with that is that the documentation in order to prove that they are eligible for this isn't something that our people can
provide. Even though they do have the disability, the documentation is limited, so that the four kinds of documentation. I can think off the top of my head, um, is, oh, thank you. is a yes, yeah, so you have the, the Arkansas Game and Fish handout, um, but the first one is the Social Security award letter, which means that you are approved for Social Security income, um, a veterans Administration letter as if you were a disabled vet, uh, a railroad retirement board letter
or a photocopy of the Medicare card. Now Medicare obviously is age-based, so not all of our clients will qualify for that as a matter of fact, um, due to the diagnoses and the medical of a lot of our clients, uh, most of our clients are below the age of what you would be considered for Medicare. Um, now, that is to say that 99% of our people do qualify for Medicaid, um, they also have many other sorts of documentation that they could provide. We approached the Game and Fish Commission, um through
the representative that I work with for our fishing derby about 2 years ago to try to work on this and we we presented it to him and he was like, oh yeah, absolutely, we can, we can. on this. Um, now I come at this from an organizational standpoint because of the fishing derby, but I also, uh, in transparency, I have a daughter with Down syndrome, um, she is 11, and I hope to be able to get her fishing and hunting one day. Her dad is a huge hunting enthusiast and would love to take her, um, and, and
we would love to do so on the uh uh using the, the structure of which she can apply for and should be able to be eligible for. Um, however, Because she is under guardianship of me and my husband, she doesn't have an approved and I don't think we'll ever have an approved Social Security letter because in order to qualify for Social Security income even after age 18, you have to meet an income and assets approval letter. So basically saying that you have to be under a certain threshold, um, I believe assets are still
around 2500 for that, and then the income um is, is very, very low as well, um, so even after. she is over 18, uh, if she is not completely independent and completely, you know, on her own guardianship if she stays under our guardianship, which she probably will, she wouldn't qualify, um, even though she has one of the check boxes definition of the previous form. Um, so that is how I got
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:42:38
thrown into this mix. But yeah, so what, what I, I
hope to accomplish with this bill, first of all, we're
simplifying things by only having one form. Um, we're getting rid of a form that there's possibly some fraud on. We're helping to raise that tax credit from $500 to $1000 and members if and you can see there's a fiscal impact of $10 million if that's too much when you all start analyzing things, maybe 750 is the happy point. I'd like to raise it some, I
think, you know, it's been around since 1977. I think it's time to raise that, that amount, um, and then. The other thing that I'd like to do is allow um and this again, possibly through um rules with game and fish or even another bill that I have ready to go, um, allow people to use that tax credit form as a way to apply for the fishing license, the, all the game and fish licenses,
the hunting license, the combo license, that that could be because it meets that federal definition. Um, because apparently that's important because they're, they're using federal um markers on that and by using that federal definition, I think that we could get a little closer to maybe getting the game and fish commission on to make sure that we're really providing those licenses
for the people who need them, and I'd be happy to take questions. Thank you, Representative McAlinden, you're recognized. Thank you, Chairman. Hey, thank
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:44:15
you so much for bringing this. I have a quick question for you. So can you clarify your organization?
Speaker 181
1:44:22
Does it pay for all of the passes for the, the children who come, is that what I'm understanding? That's correct, and we, they're actually adults, um, we bring our adult day habilitation center and we open it up to anybody on our waiver program as well, um, so it's grown every year. It used to be about 45 people, um, and now last year I believe we had 65 plus vol. ers and we do front the entire cost of that, and we would
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:44:46
continue to do so. So, um, you said it's $6 a person for the 3 day, yes ma'am
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:44:52
and then if they qualify, will that go to 0? No. It, it, the, the game and fish commission, it's a 3 year license. This is just the fishing wine, but it's a 3-year license for $10.50 and that's what you would qualify
Speaker 181
1:45:05
for, yeah, yeah, it would still be, I mean it would be an increased expenditure, but it initially but it would be something that we wouldn't have to pay for every single year and it would
make them eligible to hunt or to fish, excuse me, you're completely year round so we um we actually had a partnership with Bass Pro where they provided a fishing. goals for our people and they donated 15 fishing poles and tackle boxes, uh, which are great and we can use them on the 3 days when we have the, the fishing derby, but then we would love for that to be like a library that they could check that out and then go fishing on the weekend because we have already purchased their fishing license for them, um, I also in
in this whole two-year process, um, we've collaborated with the other providers in the state like Easter Seals Access Pathfinder, Friendship, um, I have. Personally called them and their directors to speak with them to see what their um tendency to to take advantage of this, uh, this license would be, um, and they are 100% on board as well, so I mean they don't host fishing derbies that I know of, but I do know that they have clients that would love to get out and do the hunting and fishing, um, and so,
yeah, they, we're all on board as one community. OK, thank you. Appreciate it. Members, any other questions? Seeing
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:46:33
none, Representative Maybury, you're recognized close for your bill. Members, uh, I realize you can't take the vote today, um, but wanted to get this information out there. Please share with me any feedback, um, I would love to see this bill go all the way through again if, if $1000 is, is too much when you start
looking at, at all the bills that you're looking at because I know everybody who comes down to the end of this table that's a fantastic idea,
um, but I'm, I'm willing to that back if I have to. I would just like to be able to move it above the, the 500
that it's been at since 1977. So
thank you representative. Um, I don't have anybody that signed up to speak for against the bill. I forgot to ask, but I appreciate, appreciate y'all coming, appreciate you presenting. Thank you for being here. Um, representatives, uh, if you
will present SB 219 and members, this is
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
1:47:36
one that we can vote on. OK If you only introduce yourself for the record, please. Thank you, Madam Chairman. This is representative Les Eaves. You are recognized you. This is uh Senate Bill 219. It's regarding the 4% privilege tax that we apply to medical marijuana in previous sessions we've had to
extend the sunset date, but became kind of tedious,
so we're just removing the sunset date on that portion of it and uh the effect is on the money that we get from the privilege tax, um. That goes to the food insecurity fund and out of that fund we pay for the summer EBT program. We pay for the uh free and reduced lunch copays and for the free breakfast uh during school if, if the child asks for it that we
just voted through uh a few weeks ago, uh, and that's all it does ultimately nothing changes, just
removing the sunset date. Members, are there any questions? Seeing
none, I don't see anybody signed up to speak for or against the bill. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak for or against the bill. So you no representative Eves you recognize the clothes for your bill. Thank you,
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
1:48:49
members. I'm closed for my bill and I'd like to make a motion to pass.
Members, we have a motion to pass any discussion on the motion?
Seeing none, all in favor say aye. A poll say nay. Congratulations your bill has passed. OK, members, um, next up on is um HB 1485, but I don't see representative Brown. Oh, there she is, Representative Brown, as you snuck in on me, um, if you'll go down to the end of the table and members on representative Brown should be able to present, but we won't be
able to take a vote on this one because it does have a physical impact, uh, DFNA will tell you that it's undetermined, but they do believe. it to be minimal, but there is a fiscal impact. Representative you'll introduce yourself for the record,
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:49:44
please. Representative Carolyn Brown, District 67. I have a handout if I could. I hope I have enough for everybody. Can I? bring these up. They'll come and get that from you, please.
The, um, may I begin? Uh, this bill is to allow a sales and use tax exemption for uh 501c3 organizations that support veterans, um, facilities. It's not the best word, but that's the best word I can come up with right now that are uh under the auspices of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs. Um, they must be a
registered 501c3, and they must exclusively support one of our Arkansas veterans facilities like the, the home or uh one of those cemeteries, um. And I don't like to speak for for Secretary Aitor, but he's not here and I know that he would like to expand um. They are encouraged other Others to get involved in supporting veterans facilities,
but so the reason I wrote this legislation the way I did was to accommodate any other 501c3s said registered to support veterans facilities. Uh, I will tell you, uh, personally, I have been a member of the Arkansas Veterans Cemetery Foundation in North Little Rock that supports the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery there. um, I've been a member of that organization since 2010 and. And speaking with our treasurer, he said we spent $3000 on sales
tax last year, so it's not a huge amount. We have another 501c3 that was established for the cemetery in um Birdeye, um, I don't know what their expenditures were, they work a lot with the reeds across America. Um, so this is At the present time, this legislation would would benefit the two cemeteries because there aren't any other 501c3s that have been established yet.
And I'd be welcome to answer any questions. What, what we do. If you've got this little handout, um, if we base at at the cemetery, the activities that we support is we purchase all the flags for the avenue of flags as you enter the cemetery. We purchase all the little flags that we, uh, place at on all the grave sites which are over. Over 8000 at this point. We're, we're almost about maxed out in capacity at the state cemetery
in North Little Rock and I had hoped to talk to Secretary Aor and see if there are any grants in process to expand the cemetery, but right now we are placing flags and wreaths at over 8000, um, grave sites, um, we do that with the help of the community, Boy Scouts and volunteers that um That come out to assist with that. Um, the department, Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs
did build us a facility a few years ago to store all of our reason flags, we do not purchase brand new every time. We are very frugal with our money and uh very careful about that. So we, we made a large purchase of reeds last year and don't anticipate having to purchase very many more. I know we um we had a board meeting the other day and I learned that we need to purchase bows, so I mean we're not, we're not the last of the big spenders but uh this would be uh really nice for us because
our um our contributions to the foundation from individuals has fallen off considerably since COVID and I'm available for questions. Members, are there
any questions for Representative Brown? Representative Eaton or recognize not tax
Representative James Eaton
Unverified
1:54:12
exempt now. Can you explain why they're paying taxes? Income tax exempt. They are income
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:54:16
tax exempt, but this is asking for a sales and use tax exemption. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions, members?
Seeing none. I don't see anybody signing up to speak for or against the bill. I'm gonna ask, is there anybody here to speak for against the bill? See that Representative Brown,
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified
1:54:43
you're recognized clothes for your bill. think that this would be a very nice thing for the state of Arkansas to do for our um 40 501c3s that support our veterans facilities and I would certainly appreciate a good vote. Thank you. Thank
you for presenting to us. We appreciate it. Thank you,
Speaker 89
1:55:01
thank you. Um, Representative Ray, I'll present my bill if you want a chair. All right, committee, Representative Kavanaugh is going to
be presenting House Bill 1716. Thank you members. Um, House
Bill 1716 is just uh clarification on an issue that Secretary Hudson and myself have been working on for about a year now, I would guess when it came to our attention about a um exemption on a manufacturer that had been granted. Um, this really just takes current case law and the current policies with the current um DFNA. Department and puts it in statute, um, and this way in the future, it
wouldn't be up to another secretary or someone else to change this. So it's really just taking case law and current procedure and putting in a statute. And basically it's saying that if someone has gone through the process, whether it's administratively or it's through the appeals system and they're awarded this exemption that exemption will stay in place until either we repeal the law or through a rule change that ALC approves that it gets changed. So unless that statute revolving
around that exemption is changed through the legislative process, then it stays, and that's really all this does. There is no physical impact. So with that, I take questions. I was just about
Speaker 89
1:56:47
to say, this is a bill that does not have a fiscal impact according to the green sheet in
front of you, so this is one that we could take a motion on uh and a vote on. So with that being said, you've heard an explanation of the bill or their questions from committee members.
OK, seeing no questions, is there anyone signed up to speak for or against this bill? OK. Anyone in the audience? All right, seeing none, um, Representative Kavanaugh, would you like to close
for your bill? I appreciate this. This is just something that I think provides clarification also for the tax holders but also for the department. So it's just a good bill that provides clarification going forward for what the policy is for the state and with that, I would make a motion to pass. Committee Representative
Speaker 89
1:57:40
Kavanaugh has made a motion to pass. Is there any discussion on the motion? OK, seeing none, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed no. All right, the bill is passed. And I believe that's the last bill on the agenda for the day. OK, so that being said, we are adjourned.
Agenda
HB1303 Jean TO CREATE THE SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL INCENTIVE ACT; TO CREATE INCOME TAX CREDITS RELATED TO SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL; AND TO CREATE A SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION ON UTILITIES USED TO PRODUCE SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL.
REGULAR AGENDA
HB1018 Hudson TO CREATE THE STRONG FAMILIES ACT; AND TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR EMPLOYERS THAT PROVIDE PAID FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE FOR CERTAIN EMPLOYEES.
HB1076 Hudson TO CREATE THE CARING FOR CAREGIVERS ACT; AND TO PROVIDE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR EXPENSES INCURRED IN CARING FOR CERTAIN FAMILY MEMBERS.
HB1116 Ray TO CREATE THE REMOTE AND MOBILE WORK MODERNIZATION AND COMPETITIVENESS ACT; AND TO PROVIDE INCOME TAX AND WITHHOLDING EXEMPTIONS RELATED TO CERTAIN REMOTE AND MOBILE EMPLOYEES AND NONRESIDENTS.
HB1190 Vaught TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX EXEMPTION FOR TEACHERS.
HB1366 Ennett TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR QUALIFIED STORM SHELTERS.
HB1388 Vaught TO EXEMPT CERTAIN STORAGE SERVICES FROM SALES TAX; AND TO EXEMPT THE SERVICE OF FURNISHING ACCOMMODATIONS BY A TOURIST CAMP OR A TOURIST COURT FROM SALES TAX, AS AFFIRMED BY REFERRED ACT 19 OF 1958.
HB1485 K. Brown TO CREATE A SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR SALES TO CERTAIN ORGANIZATIONS THAT SUPPORT VETERANS' FACILITIES.
HB1500 Beaty Jr. TO ENHANCE ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS BY REPEALING THE THROWBACK RULE.
HB1501 Beaty Jr. TO ADOPT FEDERAL INCOME TAX LAW REGARDING DEPRECIATION AND THE EXPENSING OF PROPERTY; AND TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT ALLOWED FOR THE EXPENSING OF CERTAIN DEPRECIABLE BUSINESS ASSETS TO THE AMOUNT ALLOWED UNDER FEDERAL LAW.
HB1538 Ray TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE NET OPERATING LOSS INCOME TAX DEDUCTION; AND TO INCREASE THE CARRY-FORWARD PERIOD FOR THE NET OPERATING LOSS INCOME TAX DEDUCTION.
HB1540 J. Mayberry TO AMEND THE INCOME TAX CREDIT AND THE INCOME TAX DEDUCTION RELATED TO MAINTAINING, SUPPORTING, AND CARING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY.
HB1636 Ray TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS SOFT DRINK TAX ACT, AS AFFIRMED BY REFERRED ACT 1 OF 1994; AND TO PHASE OUT THE SOFT DRINK TAX BASED ON SALES TAX COLLECTIONS FROM SALES OF SOFT DRINKS.
HB1657 Beck TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS WOOD ENERGY PRODUCTS AND FOREST MAINTENANCE INCOME TAX CREDIT.
HB1658 Nazarenko TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE PAYMENT OF PROPERTY TAXES; AND TO DEFINE "DEPLOYMENT" FOR PURPOSES OF THE EXCEPTION TO THE ASSESSMENT OF PENALTIES RELATED TO PROPERTY TAXES.
HB1665 Wardlaw TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE INSURANCE PREMIUM TAX; AND TO REPEAL THE CREDIT ALLOWED AGAINST THE INSURANCE PREMIUM TAX BASED ON THE SALARY AND WAGES OF THE EMPLOYEES OF THE INSURER.
HB1670 L. Johnson TO CREATE THE PRECEPTOR TAX INCENTIVE PROGRAM; AND TO PROVIDE INCENTIVES FOR CERTAIN MEDICAL OR COUNSELING PROFESSIONALS TO TRAIN CERTAIN STUDENTS WHO ARE LEARNING TO BECOME MEDICAL OR COUNSELING PROFESSIONALS.
HB1671 L. Johnson TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE GROSS RECEIPTS TAX; AND TO CREATE A GENERAL SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR SALES TO QUALIFIED NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS.
HB1674 L. Johnson TO CREATE AN INCOME TAX CREDIT FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO CERTAIN RURAL HOSPITAL ORGANIZATIONS; AND TO CREATE THE HELPING ENHANCE ACCESS TO RURAL TREATMENT (HEART) ACT.
HB1685 Underwood TO CREATE THE GROCERY TAX RELIEF ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE SALES AND USE TAXES LEVIED ON FOOD AND FOOD INGREDIENTS, AS AFFIRMED BY REFERRED ACT 19 OF 1958; AND TO EXEMPT GROCERIES FROM STATE SALES AND USE TAXES.
HB1687 K. Moore TO PROVIDE THAT A WATER AUTHORITY IS EXEMPT FROM ALL EXCISE TAXES.
HB1691 Torres TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN PROPERTY TO BE EXEMPT FROM TAXATION; AND TO PROVIDE THAT CERTAIN MOTOR VEHICLES USED EXCLUSIVELY FOR PUBLIC CHARITY ARE EXEMPT FROM PERSONAL PROPERTY TAX.
HB1698 Torres TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE INCOME TAX TREATMENT OF EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS TO A HEALTHCARE SHARING MINISTRY OR OTHER MEDICAL COST-SHARING PROGRAM.
HB1699 McCullough TO ADD FIREARM SAFETY DEVICES AND FIREARM STORAGE DEVICES TO THE SALES TAX HOLIDAY; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
HB1702 Wooldridge TO AMEND THE SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR CERTAIN MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT USED IN MANUFACTURING; AND TO PROVIDE A SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTION FOR MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT USED IN CLOSED-LOOP RECYCLING.
HB1708 Underwood THE KEEP THE BONUS, AXE THE TAX: THE NO-TAX BONUS ACT.
SB219 J. Dismang TO REPEAL THE SUNSET PROVISION OF THE ARKANSAS MEDICAL MARIJUANA SPECIAL PRIVILEGE TAX ACT OF 2017; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
HB1715 Lundstrum TO LIMIT THE INCREASE IN THE ASSESSED VALUE OF REAL PROPERTY AFTER A SALE OR OTHER TRANSFER OF REAL PROPERTY.
HB1716 Cavenaugh TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF TAXES BY THE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION; AND TO PROHIBIT THE ASSESSMENT OF SALES AND USE TAX IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES.
HB1732 Vaught TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF THE INCOME TAX DEDUCTION ALLOWED FOR A TEACHER'S CLASSROOM INVESTMENT.
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — REVENUE & TAXATION- HOUSE, Mar 13, 2025 | Agenda | 4 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Frances Cavenaugh Chair
Unverified
Representative Lane Jean
Unverified
Speaker 8
Speaker 6
Michael Newton
Unverified
Representative Rick McClure
Unverified
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
Speaker 38
Speaker 89
Speaker 51
Speaker 56
Speaker 65
Speaker 63
Speaker 68
Speaker 76
Speaker 90
Speaker 95
Representative Ry
Unverified
Representative John Maddox
Unverified
Speaker 105
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
Speaker 77
Speaker 49
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
Speaker 142
Speaker 143
Speaker 144
Speaker 148
Speaker 150
Speaker 153
Jay Robertson
Unverified
Speaker 165
Representative James Eaton
Unverified
Speaker 3
Representative Les Warren
Unverified
Speaker 174
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 177
Speaker 181
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
Representative Matt Brown
Unverified