I think it's a good idea to put the issue to the voting public. Let the people decide.

I dont buy this argument from lawmakers and business leaders that any severance tax increase will drive the natural gas drillers out of state. Where else can they go? They MUST drill for gas where it is found, namely across north central Arkansas. It's not like a shoe factory or TV assembly plant that can pick up and move to Mexico or Taiwan.

If you look at the story linked above and consider the amount of money we are giving away compared to neighboring states its a crime. Our relatively poor population could use millions a year for K-12 ed, help with paying for college, perhaps lower other taxes.

Better still, we could use the money to fix the roads, bridges and other infrastructure that the exploration companies are tearing up with thier heavy trucks. The Fayetteville Shale gas drilling project has been a decidedly mixed bag of boon.

1. The severance tax should be increased to match the highest levy in any neighboring state.
2. It is never a good idea to put taxation of any kind to popular vote, because demagogues and wealthy media buyers will usually bring about the wrong decision. Lawmakers should have the guts to do it themselves.
3. The severance tax is a drop in the bucket. this state needs to RAISE THE CORPORATE INCOME TAX !! But the idiotic constitutional restriction on such a measure will forever keep Arkansas poor and its people searching in vain for the money to provide basic needs like education.

We absolutely should increase it. We are losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually due to our absurdly low severance tax rate. If you look at any state surrounding us, they have rates many, many times higher than ours. It hasn't slowed exploration or production there, why do the politicos here think we would be any different, particularly given the vast potential held by the Fayetteville Shale deposits. It's just politics as usual in Arkansas. The current political bosses are no better than the ones we had under Huckabee.

There is no question that we should pass a higher severance tax, along with the Pickett resolution (attached) to protect landowners, as well as, our state's natural resources.
This industry is quickly establishing wells, leases, and pipeline right of ways on public and private lands throughout the shale area.
The exemptions they enjoy at the expense of citizens rights and the environment are unbelievable. Gas companies not only inject diesel fuel into the fracking liquid as a part of their drilling, but also injected benzine, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene into the liquid, which in turn contaminate drinking water, causing serious physical ailments.
The toxic chemicals employed for fracturing operations are added to alter the underground strata to allow methane to escape up the well pipe. 171 products used in Colorado wells were found to contain altogether 245 different chemicals, 92 percent of which have known adverse health effects. The lack of oversight goes back to an energy policy meeting convened by Vice President Dick Cheney, held
back from Congressional oversight, that recommended that Congress exempt
hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act. The exemption was
passed as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Halliburton, of which Cheney is a former CEO, created the fracking technique.
States, municipalities, and individual property owners will have to bear the burden of any clean-up, health risk and loss of property values associated with ground-water contamination caused by hydraulic fracturing. We should immediately pass regulations to protect our land and people.
The second attachment is from testimony given to congress in 2007 outlining the environmental harm documented thus far in states across the US from this industry.

Hi

I am so impressed with Governor Beebe's management of this issue. Whether you are for or against the tax, I think you have to give the Governor props
1. for the fact that he managed to negotiate the compromise so that the companies against which the tax will be levied agreed to the legislation
2. for the fact that he got his ducks in a row with the legislators before calling the special session so that there really has not been any circus or costly wasting of time haggling when the state congressmen were at the capitol.

I was also very impressed with the way he has communicated the nature and rationale for the tax. I listened to the Governor's radio address a couple of weeks ago in which he explained his reasoning and the benefits. When he finished, I felt like I understood.

Well done, sir.