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Session call includes anti-smoking bill, minimum wage hike Sunday, Apr 2, 2006 By Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau Banning smoking in workplaces, raising the state's minimum wage and tightening surveillance of sexual offenders are among the non-education lawmakers will take up when they convene a special session on education Monday. The issues are among the 31 items that Gov. Mike Huckabee listed in the special session call he issued Friday. The smoking ban is the governor's proposal. Lawmakers, a coalition of community and church groups and the state's business community agreed on a proposal to raise the minimum wage by $1.10 to $6.25 an hour. Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-East End, is sponsoring the sex offender proposals, including one that would amend the Sex Offender Registration Act of 1997 to allow electronic monitoring of those convicted of violent sex crimes and would include devices that make use of the Global Positioning System. Another would increase the mandatory minimum sentences for sexual offenders whose victims are younger than 12, including a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for third-time offenders. Huckabee proposed the "Clean Air Act" to ban smoking in workplaces, including restaurants. Of particular concern, the governor said, is addressing areas such as Texarkana, part of which is in Arkansas and part of which is in Texas. "There's a lot of concern because, while the Texas side has a law about smoking in restaurants, there is nothing about smoking in workplaces there," said state Rep. Steve Harrelson, D-Texarkana. There is also some evidence that the smoking ban in Texas-side restaurants drives some business to Arkansas eateries, he said. Harrelson supports the act, however. The proposal to raise the state minimum wage is intended to head off a petition drive for a constitutional amendment to raise the rate and tie annual increases to the consumer price index. Another proposal would limit protests at funerals. The bill is in direct response to protests held at the funerals of service personnel killed in Iraq, the Senate sponsor, Sen. Mary Anne Salmon, D-North Little Rock, said. A church in Kansas began protests at the funerals, saying the soldiers' deaths were God's punishment of America for tolerance of homosexuals. Under the proposed law, protesters would have to remain at least 300 feet from the site of a funeral and could not take place later than 30 minutes before a funeral nor earlier than 30 minutes after. The lead sponsor, Rep. Jeff Wood, D-North Little Rock, wants the bill to be effective but neither he nor other supporters of the bill want to give protesters a high-profile free speech issue to take to court, Salmon said. "We don't want to do anything unconstitutional, although it's amazing to me that disrupting some grieving family's funeral isn't the thing that's unconstitutional," Salmon said. To be constitutional, she said, the anti-protest rules would have to apply equally to everyone, including the family of the deceased even if the family wants to organize any type of protest. Other non-education proposals would: -Provide tax refunds for suppliers of biodiesel fuel, which is fuel derived from farm products or some farm and timber by-products. -Provide an exemption for the owners of some businesses who could be charged with unlawful receipt or possession of an explosive material under existing law. -Allow the state to stockpile vaccine at the state Department of Health and Human Services. -Allow the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock to issue bonds based on tobacco settlement proceeds to help build a cancer research center. |
