Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Assembly Gathers, 250 Bills Passed

from Senator Mike Ross

The 81st General assembly got off to a busy start last week with the introduction of more than 250 bills and the beginning of work on the governor's program.

The biggest news of the week was Gov. Mike Huckabee's announcement that he would drop his proposal for a rebate of $25 for each taxpayer. Instead, the governor threw his support behind a series of tax relief proposals sponsored by legislators.

One proposal would exempt used car sales from the state sales tax if the car being sold is 10 or more years old, or if it is valued at less than $2,000.

A reduction in state income taxes would result from another proposal to increase the standard deduction from $1,000 to $2,000 and allow married couples to claim a deduction of $4,000. Included in the bill is a provision to exempt from state income taxes families whose incomes are below the federal poverty level.

This provision would exempt a single taxpayer earning less than $7,800 a year and a family of four earning less thatn $15,597 a year.

Also, the governor endorsed a House bill that would change tax brackets according to the inflation rate. This would eliminate a form of tax increase known as "bracket creep."

Included in the tax relief package is a proposal to repeal the capital gains tax on the sale of personal residences. The governor is behind a House bill to increase the dependent credit from $20 to $25 per dependent, and to double the child care tax credit from 10 percent to 20 percent of the federal amount.

The governor proposes to repeal the sales tax on these services: credit report, lawn care and landscapaing, janitorial work, pool cleaning and debt collection.

Tourism development tax incentives are in the series of tax relief proposals. The governor said that the incentives would allow Arkansas to better compete for tourist dollars against neighboring states that have casinos and other forms of gambling.

The governor proposed major changes in education as well. One bill to create "open enrollment charter schools" would loosen current restrictions on the establishment of charter schools.

There have been experiments with charter schools in other states. A charter school is exempted from many regulations, but its organizers must submit a plan, known as a charter, outlining its educational goals.

Current law requires charter schools to obtain approval from the State Board of Education, the local school board, parents and teachers. The new bill would require approval only from the Department of Education. Some legislators are concerned that the new method of creating charter schools would open the door to public funding of private schools, but sponsors of the charter school legislation say this would not happen.

Another bill suppported by the governor would abolish the annual test required of home school students, which cost $35 each. Education officials estimate that 5,755 children in Arkansas are schooled at home.

The governor said he would push for moving more authority from the State Department of Education to local school boards. Also, he called for teaching character education in public schools. The state would `encourage,' but not force character education, he said.

The curriculum would not be religious, he said. It would include values on which everyone agrees, such as teaching respect and kindness for others, forgiveness, punctuality, generosity and attentiveness.