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Nelson ready to work with Beebe on initiated act Wednesday, Mar 5, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Former gas company executive Sheffield Nelson said Tuesday he would proceed with his own efforts to raise the state severance but was willing to work Gov. Mike Beebe to put a plan before voters this fall. Beebe said Monday his efforts to reach agreement with industry executives on a proposal that would pass the Legislature had reached a stalemate and that he would prepare his own tax hike proposal for the November general election. Nelson and Beebe propose separate initiated acts to raise the severance tax. They differ on how proceeds from a higher levy would be spent. The governor would allocate it all to highway improvements. Nelson wants the money spread among higher education, highways and local governments. Nelson said that if industry executive don't return to the table with Beebe, he'd be willing to work with the governor. "Once the companies are for sure not going to work with him together, I will call him and try to come up with something that will be mutually acceptable," Nelson said. Nelson's initiated act, the language of which was approved last month by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, would raise the tax from three-tenths of a cent per 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas to 7 percent of market value at the time of extraction. The governor has not said how much he would raise the tax. Nelson said Tuesday it was his understanding that if Beebe seeks to pass a tax hike by initiated act, the rate would be higher than what the governor would agree to through a compromise with industry officials. "I think if (the gas companies) are not caught up in their ivory tower mentality, they will be smart enough to come back to the table," Nelson said. "I think whatever the governor ends up proposing, we're going to pass." A spokesman for Chesapeake Energy Corp., the second-largest operator in the gas-laden Fayetteville Shale play, declined to comment Tuesday. A spokesman for Southwestern Energy Co., which declined to comment on Monday, could not be reached Tuesday. Beebe was traveling in eastern Arkansas on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment, according to spokesman Matt DeCample, who said Beebe has pretty much decided on a proposal and was just working on the language for the initiated act. "We'll put (the proposal) out there when it's ready and Nelson and others can decide how they feel about it and go from there," DeCample said. "The governor has said from the get-go that he wants the proceeds to go to highways." Putting an initiated act on the November ballot requires nearly 62,000 valid signatures of registered voters. The deadline for submitting the signatures to the secretary of state's office is July 7. The major issue is to increase the severance tax in Arkansas this year, Nelson said. "I will do whatever is necessary to ensure that's done," Nelson said. "I think the governor is very reasonable and the best thing I think for me at this stage would be just to say that we're going to sit down and talk." |
