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Maybe two severance tax hikes before voters this year, Beebe suggests Friday, Feb 1, 2008 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Beebe suggested Thursday that he might try to get his own severance tax hike proposal on the November general election ballot if an agreement can't be reached with the natural gas industry. "If we can't reach an agreement, we'll probably have one," Beebe told reporters after a speech to the Mississippi Delta Grassroots Caucus at the Clinton presidential library. The governor said he did not like the proposed initiated amendment former gas company executive Sheffield Nelson has put forth, which would raise the severance tax to 7 percent of the market value of natural gas at the time of extraction and earmark the bulk of the addition revenue to higher education. Beebe wants the money to go to improve highways. The state attorney general's office is reviewing the popular name and ballot title of Nelson's proposed initiated amendment. Certification by the attorney general is prerequisite to Nelson trying to collect the nearly 62,000 signatures necessary to get the measure on the Nov. 4 general election ballot. Beebe, who admitted to Delta officials during his speech that it would be difficult to get the Legislature to approve a severance tax hike because a three-fourths vote is needed, said he has been talking with gas industry officials. "While I'm working with the industry and while I'm ever optimistic, I'd rather lose everything than succumb to something that's unfair," he said, adding that he will only support a tax hike that is comparable to the way gas extraction is taxed in Texas and Oklahoma. Both states tax the market value of natural gas, and both allow a number of exemptions, such as for higher risk wells and mature wells that do not produce as much gas. Beebe said his proposal would be in the form of an initiated act. Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said later Thursday the governor is looking at all options. "Everything is on the table at this time," DeCample said. During his speech to the Delta Grassroots Caucus, the governor said he supports efforts to get the federal government to pour more money into the economically depressed Delta region, but added that Arkansas also must do its part. He spoke after Lee Powell, executive director of the caucus, told about 150 attendees there is a push in Washington to raise funding for the Delta Regional Authority from $12 million annually to $30 million. Beebe said Arkansas must do all it can to help the region because "it is improper and inappropriate for the federal government to do everything." The governor said the Legislature last year took some steps to help the region with its expansion of pre-kindergarten programs and cutting the state sales tax on groceries from 6 percent to 3 percent. Beebe also said research is now being done on ways to economically produce ethanol using agricultural byproducts. The governor specifically mentioned an initiative by Rep. Robert Moore, D-Arkansas City, to develop ecotourism in the region, which would stress the state's Southern history, agriculture and blues music, among other things. Moore said after the governor's speech that he has a bill in interim study and it will be discussed by the Senate and House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Committees in late April. The committee will meet one day in Arkansas City and the next day in Lake Village, Moore said, so lawmakers can get a hands-on look at the region and it's potential for ecotourism. |
