Senate OKs bingo, legislator-expense bills
Posted on Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The Arkansas Senate passed a bill Monday that would implement the state’s new constitutional amendment to allow for raffles and bingo games run by certain nonprofit groups.
It also approved a bill to increase certain payments to lawmakers by half.
But the Senate rejected a bill designed to strengthen the state’s graduated driver’s license law, which lacks provisions other states have used to reduce teen traffic fatalities.
The bingo and raffle bill, House Bill 1426 by Rep. Shirley Walters, R-Greenwood, cleared the 35-member Senate 24-9. The bill, which implements Amendment 84 approved by voters in November, goes back to the House, which will consider four amendments the Senate adopted.
The bill sets the rules for the games, establishes a licensing mechanism and gives the state Department of Finance and Administration the authority to regulate them.
Nonprofit groups, including charities and religious groups, would need to be in existence in the state for at least five years in order to be licensed to conduct the games. Proceeds over the cost of conducting the games would be used only for charitable, religious or philanthropic purposes.
The organizations holding the games would be prohibited from hiring agents to run them. The groups could not pay employees from the proceeds. Bingo sessions would have to end within five hours, and organizations could not hold more than two sessions a week.
The maximum prize per bingo game could be $ 1, 000, and the total in prizes that could be offered per session is $ 7, 500. The bill would place a $ 50, 000 annual limit on the value of the prizes if they are purchased and a $ 100, 000 annual limit on the value of the prizes if they are donated.
The legislative expenses bill cleared the Senate 33-0. It’s SB 785 by Sen. Shawn Womack, R-Mountain Home. It would increase legislators’ office expense allowances by 50 percent up to $ 14, 400 a year. Stipends to the House speakerdesignate, the Senate president pro-tempore designate and committee chairmen would increase by 50 percent to $ 3, 600 a year.
The bill, which goes to the House, also would increase by 50 percent to $ 10, 200 a year the extra money that legislators who live within 50 miles of the Capitol receive. This money is in lieu of per diem and mileage payments. Legislators who live farther away get $ 130 a day and 48. 5 cents a mile. Per diem payments are nontaxable and meant to compensate for meals and hotel costs.
The amounts haven’t been raised since 1997. The increases would be retroactive to March 1. Womack estimated that the bill would increase legislative expenses by about $ 850, 000 a year.
The bill designed to strengthen the state’s graduated driver’s license law, SB 196 by Sen. Jimmy Jeffress, D-Crossett, failed to pass the Senate. The vote was 15-6, with 18 favorable votes the number needed for approval.
Under the bill teens wouldn’t be able to get a learner’s permit until age 15 (up from the current age of 14 ). Nor could they drive with more than one passenger unless an adult is present. Driving while using a cell phone to talk or text message would be prohibited, as would be driving late at night except under certain circumstances.
The state has had a graduated driver’s license law in some form since 2001. Arkansas’ graduated driver’s license has three levels: a learner’s license, an intermediate license and regular license. Arkansans aren’t eligible for a regular license until they are 18 years old.
Jeffress said the bill would save teenage drivers’ lives.
But Womack said he opposes removing 14-year-olds’ learner’s permit privileges because that provision would take away a year of positive driving experience from teenagers.
Jeffress said “a gangly 14-yearold” would benefit from a year of maturity before he gets a learner’s permit.
In other action, the Senate: Sent to the House SB 440 by Sen. Jim Hill, D-Nashville, which would create an economic development incentive fund for Gov. Mike Beebe. The Economic Development Incentive Quick Action Closing Fund is something Beebe has proposed. He wants $ 50 million of the state’s surplus set aside for the fund. The bill would allow the fund to be used by the state Department of Economic Development for investment incentives to compete with other states to attract new business and retain existing businesses in the state with the governor’s approval and review by the Legislative Council.
Sent to the House SB 15 by Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, which would phase out the state’s sales tax on mini-warehouse and selfstorage rental services. The Legislature enacted the tax in a special session in 2004 as part of a tax increase package totaling about $ 380 million a year to bolster state support for the public schools. The bill would reduce the state’s 6 percent sales tax by 1. 5 percent in each of the next three fiscal years and then eliminate it, effective July 1, 2010. It would reduce state tax revenue by $ 799, 467 in the fiscal year starting July 1 and ultimately by $ 3. 49 million in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2010, according to the Department of Finance and Administration.
Sent to the House SB 398 by Sen. Mary Anne Salmon, D-North Little Rock, which would allow the state Vital Records Division to issue birth certificates to parents of stillborn babies. Stillbirth is defined as “an unintended, intrauterine fetal death occurring in this state after a gestational age of not less than 20 completed weeks.”
Sent to the governor HB ™6 by Rep. George Overbey, D-Lamar, which would bar adult-oriented businesses from setting up shop within 1, 000 feet of schools, childcare centers, parks, churches and other areas frequented by children. Part of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s legislative package, the bill would apply to businesses in a slew of categories, including adult bookstores and video stores, strip clubs, pornography theaters, nude model studios and any massage clinic that “offers adult services.”
Passed HB 1564 by Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-Hensley, which would prohibit registered sex offenders from knowingly living within 2, 000 feet of their victims. The bill would make that a crime punishable by up to six years in prison. The bill wouldn’t apply to offenders who bought the home where they live before the victim moved within the prohibited distance, although they could be subject to the restriction if they commit a subsequent offense against the victim. The bill goes back to the House to consider a Senateapproved amendment.
The House on Monday passed a bill that would increase the number of commissioners for central business improvement districts in cities and establish six-year terms. The bill is intended to give more people the opportunity to serve on the commissions, said sponsor Rep. Lindsley Smith, D-Fayetteville.
Under House Bill 2246, city councils would be required to appoint a minimum of five property owners, or officers or stockholders of corporations owning property in the central business improvement districts to the districts’ board of commissioners. Existing law requires the councils to appoint five of these people to the board.
The bill, which passed 66-16, would grant these districts the power to provide services to improve and operate themselves, including promotion and marketing, health and sanitation, security, recreation, aesthetic improvements, special event and festival management, and activities in support of business or residential recruitment, retention or management development.
The House also sent to the governor a bill that would regulate gift cards issued by retailers and financial institutions.
House Bill 1455 by Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville, is part of McDaniel’s legislative package.
The bill would require that retailers’ gift cards expire no sooner than two years from the date of purchase, and it would prohibit retailers from charging fees against a card’s value before that date. The House passed an earlier version of the bill last month. The version approved Monday clarifies the regulation of gift cards issued by state-chartered banks.
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