Tax increase request, lottery bill highlights of first day of legislative session

Chairmanships, lottery bill movement and encouragement to raise the cigarette tax were highlights of the first day (Jan. 12) of the 87th Arkansas General Assembly.

Roby Brock, our content partner at Talkbusiness.net, has launched his “Political Buzz” to keep track of daily developments during the session. His first day posts include:

• House Bill 1002, the lottery bill, was assigned to the House Rules committee by Speaker Robbie Wills. The bill will likely be assigned to the State Agencies committee in the State Senate.

The House Rules committee is one of a handful of committees hand-selected by Speaker Wills.  In short, this means that Wills’ appointees will be in command of the debate on the lottery proposal, including newly-minted chairman Rep. Robert Moore, who is also seeking to succeed Wills as speaker in the next session.

• Also, Speaker Wills gave a speech at noon, calling on members of the House to “commit to do something.” Wills also said that health care would be a major priority for the legislature.  He discussed his support for rural health funding, a northwest Arkansas campus for UAMS, and trauma center funding for a statewide network.



“Let’s make a courageous decision and raise the cigarette tax,” he emphasized. “We can do it and it’s the right thing to do.”

• Wills also released his list of chairman and vice-chair appointments for the House. Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, was named chair of the Joint Budget committee on personnel.

Prominent chairmanship appointments are:


Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development – Rep. Roy Ragland


Education – Rep. Bill Abernathy


Energy – Rep. Lance Reynolds


Insurance & Commerce – Rep. Eddie Hawkins


Judiciary – Rep. Steve Harrelson


Public Health – Rep. Gregg Reep


Revenue & Tax – Rep. John Lowery


Rules – Rep. Robert Moore


State Agencies – Rep. Rick Saunders


Transportation – Rep. Bill Sample

Also, House Speaker Wills has his own Web site with information about session happenings.

 

Yet another good Web site (www.underthedome.com) with which to track legislative happenings is managed by Rep. Steve Harrelson, D-Texarkana. It’s from Harrelson’s Web site we get this cool picture.