|
|
| |
| Wed, Dec. 3, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| |
Legislature facing busy week with grocery tax, BMI debates Monday, Jan 29, 2007 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Legislators face a busy week, starting when they return today with a Senate committee considering Gov. Mike Beebe's proposal to cut the state sales tax on groceries in half. Lawmakers will debate legislation that would repeal the state-mandated body mass index testing at public schools, and a bill to restrict the shackling of female inmates who are giving birth. Also this week, lawmakers will consider a proposed "Stand Your Ground" act, which would remove the requirement that civilians try to retreat before using deadly force, as well as a measure to bar former legislators from lobbying the Legislature within one year after leaving office. House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, said he's not surprised that the session's fourth week could be its busiest so far. "This is the way pretty much every session has gone since I've been here," said Petrus, in his third two-year term in the House. "The first week is pretty ceremonial and then you have a couple weeks where things are kind of slow, and then all of a sudden it breaks out and things get busy." Today, the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee is scheduled to discuss Beebe's proposal to immediately reduce the 6 percent state sales on groceries to 3 percent. Senate Bill 185, filed by Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, has 29 co-sponsors in the 35-member Senate and 42 House sponsors. Glover said last week that at least seven members of the eight-member Senate panel support the bill. Tim Leathers, deputy director of the state Department of Finance and Administration, said a 3 percent reduction would only be on groceries, and would exclude cooked foods or items such as aluminum or toilet paper. Tobacco products also would be taxed at the full 6 percent state sales tax. "It will not be on everything you buy," he said, only those items eligible for purchase with federal food stamps. Should SB 185 get through the Senate committee and be approved by the full Senate, it could run into resistance in the House. Just four of the 20 members of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee are co-sponsors. Also, Petrus, who favors an earned income tax credit, is drafting a tax-reduction package that would cut taxes by about $120 million for low-wage earners, the elderly and manufacturers. The House speaker said he expects the legislation to be filed sometime this week. Petrus said he hopes lawmakers to vigorously debate his proposals along with Beebe's, but in the end, he said the goal is to cut taxes for low-income workers. "We're all on the same page. Whatever it looks like, smells like or what size it is, we're all adamant about getting something passed," Petrus said. Phasing out the tax on groceries was Beebe's No. 1 campaign promise during last year's governor's race. He defeated Republican Asa Hutchinson in the November general election. Hutchinson proposed eliminating the tax on groceries this year. Elsewhere, House Bill 1173, which would repeal a provision in a 2003 law that required schools to measure students' body mass and report the findings to parents, passed the House Education Committee last week and is on today's House calendar. Act 1220 of 2003 of was a key component of former Gov. Mike Huckabee's Healthy Arkansas Initiative. Along with measuring the body mass of students, the law created the Child Health Advisory Committee to develop a variety of school nutrition guidelines. The state Board of Education adopted the guidelines in 2005. Among them are rules prohibiting schools from rewarding students with food, requiring schools to offer healthier lunches and stock vending machines with low-fat and low-sugar snacks and drinks. HB 1173's sponsor, Rep. Keven Anderson, R-Rogers has said he likes most of the requirements in Act 1220. He said he opposes the BMI test because he has received numerous calls from parents opposing the requirement. He also said students with high BMIs are stigmatized and that school districts should be spending their time educating them and not weighing and measuring them. HB 1037 by Rep. Sharon Dobbins, D-North Little Rock, would write into law what is already state Department of Correction policy. Prison officials said it's unnecessary and limits the agency's flexibility. It would require the use of "soft restraints," such as cloth belt and loop fasteners, if any restraint is used. If an inmate is restrained, prison officials would be allowed to restrain only one arm or one leg and the inmate could make the choice. Any restraint would have to be removed whenever medical personnel requested it. The bill passed the House Jan. 12 and is expected to be considered by the State Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs this week. The "Stand Your Ground Law," HB 1027 by Rep. Mike Burris, D. Malvern, is on the calendar of the House Judiciary Committee. The bill would eliminate language in the state's existing self-defense law that requires a person to retreat, if possible, before using deadly force to defend a person. The measure would permit the use of deadly force against a person forcibly entering a dwelling or occupiable structure, unless the person is a lawful resident of the structure and is not violating a protective order or no-contact order. It also would permit the use of deadly force against a person who is removing a person from a dwelling or occupiable structure against his or her will, unless the person being removed is a child, grandchild or other person in the legal custody of the person doing the removing. "This is a bill that protects people's rights," he said. A similar measure sponsored by Sen. Jerry Taylor, D-Pine Bluff, stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. SB 16, which would prohibit a member of the General Assembly from registering as a lobbyist within one year of the expiration of his or her term of office, is before the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. Twenty-six states have laws banning legislators from becoming lobbyists for periods ranging from six months to two years after they leave office, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Congress has a one-year limit, but pending legislation would increase the federal limit to two years. |
