Arkansas

Several tax rates in Arkansas will drop Friday due to new laws that go into effect on July 1, the beginning of fiscal 2012. The tax bills were included in the 602 measures passed by the General Assembly in 2011.

DALLAS - The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a voter-approved constitutional amendment that eliminated the interest cap on state and local bonds.

DALLAS — The Arkansas Trucking Association has withdrawn its support for a proposed increase of the state diesel tax to support $1.1 billion of bonds for interstate highway projects.

An attorney seeking to overturn a state constitutional amendment that removed the interest rate cap on Arkansas state and municipal bonds said the measure should never have been put on the November 2010 ballot.

WASHINGTON — A Little Rock issuer is appealing an Internal Revenue Service ruling alleging that $3 million of its enterprise zone bonds are taxable because it violated an employment requirement.

DALLAS — Little Rock voters will be asked in September to approve an increase in the sales tax to generate $511 million over eight years under a plan outlined to city’s Board of Directors on Tuesday by Mayor Mark Stodola.

Revenue collections in the first 11 months of fiscal 2011 total $5.1 billion, an increase of almost $200 million from the same period last year, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said last week.

The University of Arkansas will renovate six residential facilities and rebuild a fire-damaged fraternity house with $28.2 million of bonds approved last month by UA trustees.

Pulaski County Special School District trustees voted unanimously last week to seek approval from the Arkansas Board of Education for $104 million of general obligation bonds.

DALLAS — Arkansas’ $4.6 billion fiscal 2012 budget unveiled by the Joint Budget Committee on Monday increases appropriations for public education and penitentiaries, but keeps other state spending at or below fiscal 2011 levels.

The Arkansas Senate approved a ­measure last week that would allow the governor to put a 5-cent per gallon ­increase in state gasoline taxes on a statewide ­ballot.

The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board will hear April 15 a request from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for a $132.3 million revenue bond package to finance projects at the main campus.

Trustees of the Central Arkansas Library System last week approved a plan to set an election on a proposed $32 million revenue bond issue.

The Arkanas Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs last week endorsed a bill that would allow cities and counties to issue bonds for development districts, with the debt supported by state sales tax revenue generated within the districts.

The Arkansas Senate last week approved a measure that would give the governor the authority to call a statewide election on up to $500 million of revenue bonds to repay federal loans for unemployment benefits.

DALLAS — The Arkansas House on Friday passed a bill calling for a statewide vote on a diesel-fuel tax hike to fund $1.1 billion of bonds for highway efforts.

The Internal Revenue Service and a Little Rock issuer are fighting over whether the IRS can declare bonds taxable after previously signing a closing agreement to settle a tax dispute over them.

Arkansas voters would be asked to decide on $2.8 billion of state bonds for highway projects under a proposal to be introduced next week by House Speaker Robert Moore Jr.

DALLAS — Arkansas had the largest January revenue collection in its history last month, but the flow of money still fell short of expectations as the state continued its uneven recovery from the 18-month recession that ended in June 2009.

The Internal Revenue Service has opened an audit of $3 million of bonds issued by an authority in Little Rock almost four years after it entered into a closing agreement with the agency that preserved the bonds’ tax-exempt status.