Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development- House

All right, Representative Steel. Ready to present your bill, please introduce yourself. Mm up here Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tray Steel, uh, District 2 State Representative. Hey, I have, uh, in front of you here, Bill, that's a pretty simple and straightforward bill. It requires surveyors to make uh contact with the poultry farmer before entering the farm and uh they also had to follow the biosecurity protocols that are required at the time of entry. Uh, the reason for this bill is to protect our, uh, poultry farmers from the spread of devastating avian influenza, and, uh, you know, other uh diseases that could lead to catastrophic flock loss. So, you know, with that, I will take any questions and I will also start right quick with um You know this is there's no really no opposition to this. This is some common sense legislation that that we need to, we need to pass. All right, committee, any questions? No questions. All right, representative, ready to close for you Bill? I'm ready to close my bill and, and, and in this. Anybody in the would speak for or against, we didn't have anybody sign up. All right, now you can talk. All right, thank you, Mr. Chair. I will close with this as we did define uh a commercial poultry operation. We don't want backyard chicken farmers to be able to, to potentially uh kick surveyors off the property so it does define it as uh commercial poultry operation and building of 5000 square feet or more. So thank you for that. Uh, I would ask for a good vote. All right, what's commission do pass. All right. All in favor say aye. Toast. Congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee. Uh I'm a Great hand out there man. Nothing to Right leg. OK No, you just Being up stuff. Representative Lynch, you recognized to present your bill. All right, Roger Lynch, District 60, uh, the bill you have before you, first, we need to approve an amendment, uh, added to co-sponsor. And and redacted the last three lines of the original bill. Now that everybody's had a chance to review the amendment, are there any questions for Mr. Lynch? The motion to pass all in favor say aye. All opposed. All right, so we, we passed this bill last session. It was, you know, it's a bill to Uh, put some structure around how the eggs are retailed and if we, uh, created a little, a bit of an anomaly that we didn't expect and basically what was happening, I had one cracked egg in a cart and you had to throw the whole carton away. You couldn't repackages. So this takes care of that. Representative Lynch is open for questions. Does the committee have any questions? Saying none, you recognized to clothes for your bill, the bill, uh, would like to see a do pass. Having a Du pass motion, all in favor say aye. All opposed. Congratulations, Mr. Chair. As amended. I All right, let's start with HB 1372. Thank you, Chair. If I've given some lights, I'd like to speak about all of them, and then I will present each one individually, but they all go together as a packet and I just think for the committee and for brevity, it might be uh easier for me to just to kind of explain them as a package. Is that OK? OK. Thank you, Chair. Um, So, I don't know if you all recall, but last session, we actually passed these bills out of this committee, pass them on the floor, pass them out of the Senate. They are Senate committee, um, unanimously then they, uh, unfortunately, uh, died on the Senate floor. It was the end of session. I think there was some confusion about them. I failed to prepare my Senate sponsor properly, um, and, and, and so that's on me and it was the end of session and there was a lot of other things going on and so, um, at higher priorities, but uh I'm coming back early in the session with these pieces so that We can do it again, um, and so that's just kind of the history of the bill, but now I'll kind of explain what these are. Uh, for those who don't know, uh, right to Start is a pro entrepreneurship group that works, uh, with government, state government, city governments, um, to try to foster entrepreneurship in, in, in the areas that they work and one of the areas that they identified is Arkansas as a place to help improve, um, entrepreneurship. So really there's, there's two bills though right here, uh, two types of bills. I have the ment bills to awarding of 5% to new businesses and then I have reporting bills, uh, on the reporting bills, it just simply saying that we would like the legislature and the governor's office to receive a report about how much, uh, business, how much, you know, funds and grants and things are going to new businesses, which we've defined as a business in the 1st 5 years. It's just, it's good for us to get a good kind of barometer on how our entrepreneurs doing in Arkansas, how is the state uh impact that. So once again, it's just reporting, nothing, nothing else. Required. The other is the encouragement of funds and and those are, I think this first bill is to encourage the use of 5% of those funds going to new businesses. Now, the reason why it's encouraged, not required, is because obviously getting that number might be hard, especially if you're maybe a department only has one grant that year, but I think a lot of us who have been on ALC and peer and Budget, well, a lot of times we see the same names over and over again. And when you talk to some entrepreneurs, they'll talk about the fact that because sometimes they're not able to receive government contracts or feel like they're able to compete that they don't even apply anyways. But for some entrepreneurs when they are able to get a contract or a grant or things like that from from the state. It's, it's game changing. There was an individual who, uh, when this, when these policies were adapted in Indiana with a lawn care company was able to get a contract to do a graveyard landscaping, because of that, he was able to go to a bank and receive a loan because he had something that showed that he was, you know, reputable because of that, he's able to grow his business now, he mows the fields for NFL teams. I mean, that's how much his business has grown just by having that. That lucky that lucky break, I would say, uh, but I don't think it needs to be luck. I think Arkansas, we want to foster entrepreneurship. I mean. We've seen businesses like Walmart and Tyson grow from being small operations being large operations, and I think we can have more of those types of companies here in Arkansas, but I think the state can uh get reports to show how we're doing and, and helping that, but at the same time I'm also just encouraging uh some of our divisions to uh give deference to to uh new and, and new businesses that are early within the 1st 5 years. So that's kind of the gist of what these are. Uh, like I said, they're encouragements, they're not requirements, so I mean they ADC could tell us to go. Pound sand, but I think it is good for us to say, let's give some people some shots or at least look at it. If we can hit that 5% ideally, that'd be wonderful. If not, that's OK, but we as a legislature are saying we would like to see uh see some of those people get put in the hopper, um, so that's the overall general gist of it, this first bill, uh, HB 1372, um, an act to encourage the award of Economic development funds to new businesses and business established with the previous 5 years. Um, like I said, it's an encouragement. 5%, but nothing's required and so that's essentially what this bill is. All right, questions by the committee. Ja. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. How much are we spending on it now? I don't know. That's, that's what how, how much is 5% of the budget dollar wise? Uh, I don't have that number in front of me. OK, um, Department of Commerce in support of this. They're not here. They didn't comment on it last year at all. They seemed neutral on it. I haven't heard from them since. OK, thank you. Representative. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. So I was trying to. ears. Um, Do you My, my worry, of course I, I believe in entrepreneurship, and I, we've talked about this before and I supported it before. My problem is if it's less than 5 years, is there a more like do businesses of entrepreneurship make it past 5 years, the percentage of them, do you know that percent? Like I'd hate to give money to somebody and then not make it. Yeah. Out of your one is typically the worst year for entrepreneurs and so that's why I made it year 5. Probably if they're in that 4 or 5, they, they've probably gotten over the worst hump of it. Um, now granted, you know, they could find one that's only been operation 2 and like I said, they, if let's say you know this is if we're hoping that rewarding funds are like a, like an ADC program or something like that, um, the hope would be that and they still are qualified people. It's not, hey, we're choosing this one over anyone else. It is, these are two qualified people. We like. this and that and and agency can say, you know what though, I just feel more comfortable with this person. We've got a great relationship with them. We've seen their work. We're not gonna take the risk. They can do that, um. There's nothing that prevents them from doing that. But if they have to and they're all the same and they go, you know, You know, let's, let's give this one a shot, um, because everything else is all equal and that's just what we're, we're saying we would like to see that encouragement, um. So. Can I have a follow up? Thank you, Mr. Chair. My next question would be, would a young farmer trying to get into agriculture, whether it be through flower gardening or whatever it might be small. Would they be able to apply for these funds just like somebody who was doing craft beer, say. Uh, if the whatever grant or ADC that they're, as long as they're meeting the current qualifications, yes, they, they could. It doesn't change any qualifications for any existing grant programs or ADC or or anything like that. It's just saying it's encouragement of 5%. So if they for some reason don't qualify, this doesn't suddenly give them a way to get into that program. So thank you, thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Any other questions by the committee? Anybody Yeah So how, how do we ensure the states awarding these monies to the best provider when there's that potential for preferential treatment to these certain organizations. Well, like I said, I mean, we are essentially saying that you still have to meet the current qualifications that are in place. We're not removing anything. It's just an encouragement of these are qualified if you've got, let's say you've got a grant and you've got Uh, 2 qualified applicants. They both have to be qualified. Um, if for some reason that one that's uh a new business is not qualified, then it should not be considered compared to the one that maybe has been a vendor for us for the last 20 years, um, but, um, but if it's all things equal and, and they are qualified and they can meet everything and the state feels comfortable that they can execute and use that money properly, uh, you know, I hope that that is a consideration that we would like to see, see that go into. I mean, I understand, you know, we've got vendors who are around here that we use a lot, um, but you know, to me. I would say it, it always irks me when people say, you know, we've been getting this for 20 years and if we don't get it, we're going to go out of business, the government's job is not to keep. your business up and running, um, and I, and I sometimes do think if we can grow these smaller businesses by being a helping hand, we should do it, but once again, it's an encouragement. It's not a requirement. They can tell us to go pound sand, uh, if they want to, but I do think it's, it's proper for us to try to help develop our entrepreneurship, uh, ecosystem in Arkansas and so I think this is a great way to do it. Representative. With the uh encouragement language and and with the other two as well, and you can kind of address this for, for all of them. Was there a discussion on whether or not this should be a resolution, since there's really not any um Any, anything other than just encouragement rather than an actual bill. Well, you know, my track record of resolutions to this session isn't great, uh, but, uh, no, I, I presented this and um. And, and as, as an entire package and the way they got drafted, they, they put in bills and, and I, I'd asked that question, and I just think having something in statue of encouragement would just be very long lasting because of course the resolution is only for that current general assembly. This will be in statute for much longer than that, so that's kind of why too I think it's good because the feelings of the 95th are not necessarily the feelings of the 96, and I don't think we want to run a resolution about this every 2 years, so does that answer your question? Yeah, I just was curious about what that discussion was like because it's This feels resolution, and these bills I originally drafted two years ago. So some of these, I'm, I'm really pulling back from memory so about how because I do, but I do remember that because the encouragement language is typically how we do resolutions, all right. Uh, Representative Cozart. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Pilton, you may have, you may have mentioned this, but did, did you have an idea of overall impact that this would be. Or could be. Uh, I, I've got no, no data to say what type of impact that would be, uh, like I said, because it's an encouragement, uh. You know, things could actually remain exactly the same way and there'd be, there are no impact and of course then there's not increasing the amount of funds that any of these apartments are getting or any of these grant programs are getting, uh, it, it's still the same, it's just, you know, let's say. There's, you know, like I said, you're. I'm trying to think of the fund that would this would fall into like a specific one, all, you know, we're still delivering the same amount. It's just saying, hey, there's a vendor we would like you to have this into consideration of how much you're doing, but Um But listen, if the, if the committee would like me to pull down these encouragement ones and, and run them as resolutions. I, I can do that or if you would like that, I mean, I can, I can try to get that data if you want me to get that's what I'm I'm just trying to find out the impact and is there a limit on how much that could pull, these could pull out. There's no limit on the money that could actually be funded out of these, right? Well, uh, the fund's already established. Uh, it doesn't change the amount of there so it just, that's all that's there though, yeah, yeah, OK, that's what I'm asking. I can't get any larger than that. OK, that's good sir sorry Representative Cozart, I was confused by the question. That was just my question. Thank you. Uh, Representative Perrier. Representative Richmond. I'll go ahead and say this, but I believe you just, you just explained it that the funds are already established and that this is just 5% of the established funds. Therefore, you really don't have a physical impact because that money is going to be spent. Correct. Anyway. All right, thank you. And whether once again I like to hear it, whether they hit the 5% or not, does not affect the amount of funds, does not, no one is punished. Nothing. It's just like I said, it's just the encouragement. The hope is that, you know, we can. Incentivize entrepreneurs to actually go and apply for some of these programs because what you hear a lot of them they'll say is, you know, it always goes to the same big guys and we never get involved. There's a, you know, and it's not on this one, but I think another one about contracts, but you know, if the, they say. The same three marketing firms time and time again, but I'm a little marketing firm out of Lowanoak trying to make my way and I could go after this small group, um. But a lot of times they'll say they just don't apply because they don't feel like there's, you know, a path for them and so. Yeah, we can encourage AC to actually give these people a look and say, hey, it'd be great that we hit our 5% goal, that'd be fantastic. But if they don't, once again. Nothing happens. No, no reign of terror from the general assembly occurs that it's una agency, so representative Perrier. Unger. Thank you Mr. Chair. Representative full disclosure, I'm a little bit nervous about the awarding part of this, but I do have a question with the reporting. which I You know, I'm interested in. Could the different reporting bills be rolled into a single bill, and I like the idea of the reporting because it does give you some sort of metric of how we're doing. Could these be bundled into one thing. Yeah, actually it's, it's interesting you bring that up. I have this very similar conversation with Representative Wing earlier today. Uh, why did, why were they not? I mean. When I Create this language with the drafter, they, they put it out, I think just because it. I think putting all. But yeah, I mean, just put it simply in each bill so it's, it's very to the exact category instead of one large one, but, um, I personally, I mean, I would have really prefer to just do one big one so I'm not having to present 6 different times for convenience for me. All right. Any other questions, committee? saying that he wanted it from the audience like speak for or against the bill. Representative Pilkin, you ready to clothes for your bill? I'm closing my bill. Thank you. Thank you for the questions. I appreciate it. It's good to see. Motion to pass. All those in favor say aye. opposed All right. I think this next one will go a little quicker. Hopefully, uh. Sorry, I pull it up real quick. 733. This is the same one, but it's with workforce development grants, so just different department but same just encouragement. Same as everything else. Any questions from the committee? He went all like speak for or against the bill. No. Representative Pil, are you ready to I'm close to my bell. Yes, thank you, chairman. Motion to pass. All in favor say aye. paused Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. All right, HB 1374. Yes, uh, this is the one and and a concerning report by the director of ADC concerning contracts awarded business and operational advice. Once again, this is just the reporting. This is the first reporting bill, and it's from ADC that we just asked the ADC visor report and because we already have an office of entrepreneurship, I imagine that report would probably be compiled by that office, so all right, any questions? Me? In one of the audience like Spe for or against the bill. You have a question? Real quick Representative Pilkington. Fiscal impact at all. I mean, they're not gonna have to hire anybody new for this report goes under the existing organization. They, they can do with the information they have. All right. Any other questions? All right, Representative Pilkin, you're ready to close for your bill? I'm closing my bill. Thank you. All right. What's the will of the committee? Do pass. All right, all those in favor say aye. Pod. All right, congratulations. All right, HB 1374. Um, this is a similar bill. It's, it's reporting, but this is not from ADC. This is actually from the secretary of the Department of Commerce, which often deals with. What was that? said the wrong number. Oh, which one? Yeah? 75. I'm sorry, I got lost in the shuffle and so did you, um, sorry, yeah, yeah, this is, this is the same as the ADC report, but it's the Secretary of Commerce report, so same bill, just another report, so. Any questions by the committee. No questions. They want in the audience like speak for or against the bill. All right, Pil, you're clothes for your bill? I'm closed for my bill. All right, what's the will of the committee? I do pass all those in favor say aye. Pa Alright, 1376. Uh, thank you, committee. I appreciate the, the vote. Uh, this one is to encourage state agencies to award portion of state contracts to Arkansas business, so the other one was grant funding. This is on state contracts. So, but once again, no one's getting preferential treatment. It's just an encouragement that uh we try to hit that 5%, but if we don't, no issue. And once again, they have to be qualified for it to begin with, so. No one, no one's getting a leg up over a more qualified vendor. Questions by the committee. Anyone in the audience likespe far or against the bill. No, Representative Pilker, you're ready clothes for your bill? I'm closing my bill. Thank you. Thank you. What's the will of the committee? Do pass. All those in favor say aye, opposed? Eyes have it. HB 1377. Thank you. HB 1377 to require a report concerning economic development funding, um. This is once again, it's a, it's a 5% not required, just an encouragement, uh, but for those, um, Um Sorry, sorry guys, I, I pulled up the wrong one. I'm even getting confused. Uh, this is, sorry, an act require the, the report concerning economic development funds. So, um, once again, it's just another report we're acquiring on when we give out economic development funds through ADC that uh that report comes back to us and we can see, you know, how many went to entrepreneurs and they did not, so very similar to the other reports. Questions from the committee. No questions. Anyone in the audience, uh, have one, all right. Um Representative, can you go down to uh. page. Let me see what page it is. On page 2 before it said less than 5 years. This one says. Uh, that provides services to Arkansas. Oh this one, OK. I thought it was just for brand new businesses. I take it back. I'm sorry. I withdraw my question. Thank you. All right. Anyone in the audience likes be for or against the bill. All right, Representative, you're ready to close your close my bell. Thank you. Thank you. What's the will of the committee? who passed. All those in favor say aye, opposed. Congratulations. Thank you, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for the discussion. All right. Representative Cooper, are you ready? You introduce yourself. Present your bill. of Cameron Cooper District 57. Maybe you have a HB 1385. This is a Very simple bill if you look at it, it's just one page. I love these one-page bills. I'm sure y'all do as well. This is a constituent driven bill. It requires notification to members of the General Assembly. When the oil and gas commission is holding a public hearing for a permit or a project in our districts. I modeled this idea after what the Department of Transportation does, y'all are familiar with the letters we get from the Department of Transportation when there's a highway project in our district. They send us a letter detailing the project and where they're having a public hearing, the date and time of the public hearing, they ask us to share that information with our constituents. So that's the idea that I have, uh, for this bill. This bill would require the oil and gas commission to do the same thing. You may be asking why do I want to do this? Well, there's a reason for this. I mentioned this is a constituent driven bill. Last year, the oil and gas commission permitted a wastewater disposal well in my district. My district lies in the Fayetteville Shale and this particular well it's for the disposal of production water from the natural gas wells. What made this an issue from our constituents is that it's located in a moratorium area for this type of well. If you remember a decade or more ago, uh there were several earthquakes in north central Arkansas. And it was thought that they could be tied to these wells, so the more moratorium was put in place. If I understand correctly from the oil and gas commission, this was an administrative moratorium. It just meant that the director wouldn't automatically grant permits for these disposal wells. It require for there to be a public hearing before the oil and gas commission. So it wasn't a full moratorium, it was just an administrative moratorium. Even greater concern to my constituents in this area, there is a recognized geo geologic fault line very near the location of this well. A fault line that was tied to earthquakes back in the 1980s. The oil and gas commission held a public hearing and they granted the permit. And while the commission did post the legally required notice of a public hearing in the newspaper, my constituents in the area didn't know anything about it until the permit had been granted and the construction had began on the well. Had they known there was a public hearing, they would have attended the hearing and strongly voiced their opposition. As I mentioned, the hearing was posted in the newspaper as legally required, but we know newspaper readership continues to decline across the state and across the nation. And really who's looking at classified ads, looking This bill will just provide another avenue for our constituents to be informed. When we as members of the General Assembly received notice of a public hearing, we can easily share that information with our constituents to ensure that they know about the hearing. And have an opportunity to attend or enter a public comment. This bill is about transparency and good government and ensuring that the people are well informed of the issues that may directly impact them and their property. I did speak with the director of the oil and gas commission, uh, they We're not supportive or opposed to it, they just wanted clarification on, uh, what kind of notifications we wanted. The The bill specifically states that it would be a notification. For a project or a permit that is. Uh, located in, in our in the member's district. So they had a question about some public hearings they have to do on uh. Uh, uh, Uh, fees or or fines that they have to do on infractions and, and it wouldn't cover things like that cause that wouldn't be tied to a, a, a permit or a project. Uh, in our district that's tied to hope I explained that good. Open to any questions. Representative Volt, thank you, Mr. Chair. So I. You spoke to the newspaper and the classified, so are they gonna email is email gonna be sufficient? They're gonna email people and let them know if. Or are you wanting them to handwrite something or we're we're not, we're not, I'm not trying to change the, uh, the required posting in a newspaper. I'm not trying to change that at all. I'm just asking if they notify members of the General Assembly in addition, and um. Uh, an email would be sufficient. I think they can work that out, um, I, I personally think it would be a good idea to send us a letter like the, the Department of Transportation does. But an email you said would be sufficient, if not, right, in writing, yeah, I know that's why I don't check my mailbox here very often, as you might notice. So that's why I'm asking. So those letters from the Department of Transportation come to my home address, so I don't. You, you may have that set up differently. I don't know. Thank you, Mr. Chair. In, in writing, I mean it's. Email considered in writing. I, I don't know the answer to that, so. No, it's not. All right, any other questions by the committee? Anyone in the audience wished to speak for or against this bill. Huh? I'm Cooper, you're ready to close. All right, what's the will of the committee? To pass, all those in favor say aye. Pos Congratulations. All right. That is the end of the list. Does anyone have anything else they wish to bring before the committee while we're here? No? All right. adjourned. Thank you. Yes, sir. Representative, I won't need.