Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Senate Approves Measure On Finance Reform

MIKE ROSS

STATE SENATOR, DISTRICT 3

The Arkansas Senate approved legislation last week reforming state campaign finance laws.

Also, a major highway bill was amended and a Senate bill to repeal the state sales tax on groceries was defeated by a House committee.

Senate Bill 182, to change ethics and campaign finance laws, was passed by the Senate on a 34 to 0 vote and sent to the House. It would limit individual contributions to political action committees (PACs) to $5,000 a year. Current law has no limits. PACs would have to file quarterly reports identifying the names of contributors of more than $500 to the PAC.

SB 182 requires elected officials to publicly disclose the market value of any gifts they receive worth more than $100 and the identity of the person who provided the gift. If their dependent children receive gifts worth more than $250, the official must disclose the market value and the source of the gift.

Lobbyists would have to report any expenses of more than $40 made on behalf of elected officials. Foreign citizens could not make campaign contributions to candidates for office in Arkansas. Elected officials would be prohibited from campaigning from an office furnished or maintained with public funds.

Committees that spend money to influence ballot questions, such as initiated acts and proposed constitutional amendments, would be required to file reports of expenditures.

As under current law, candidates would have to report the names of individuals who contribute more than $50 to their campaigns.

Also last week the House Committee on Revenue and Taxation defeated SB 6 to remove the state sales tax on food and raise the sales tax by half a cent on non-grocery items. Tax analysts say the bill would provide tax relief to Arkansas families at every income level, while shifting some of the sales tax burden to businesses.

The Senate had overwhelmingly approved SB 6. In the House committee, however, only seven members voted for it and 13 voted against it.

Representatives of the business community spoke against it, saying it would raise their taxes. Speaking for the bill were groups representing senior citizens, teachers and churches.

One of this session's highway proposals, House Bill 1548, was amended to include a gasoline tax increase of three cents a gallon, to be phased in over three years. The bill also would phase in a three-cent increase in diesel fuel taxes.

An important provision of the amended bill is that the fuel tax increases would go into effect regardless of the outcome of a statewide vote on a bond issue for highways. Another part of the governor's highway package is HB 1500, which would let voters determine a proposed bond issue of $575 million for highway improvements.

Also last week competing bills were filed to deregulate the electric power industry. One measure, SB 585, is backed by investor-owned utilities and municipal electric systems. The other, SB 661, is backed by electric cooperatives, because it would restrict municipal systems from annexing areas now within the cooperatives's franchise.

The bills outline regulations for a competitive environment, in which consumers can choose to buy from among numerous generators of power. Transmission lines, which are a lucrative source of income, would be operated by an entity that would not discriminate against any producers of electric power.