The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK—Arkansas lawmakers will return to the Capitol on March 31 and consider raising the state’s severance tax on natural gas extraction to eventually raise $100 million annually for the state’s roads.

Gov. Mike Beebe on Friday set the session date, saying he has commitments from more than enough lawmakers to guarantee passage of the first severance tax hike in more than 50 years. The proposed tax comes amid frenzied drilling in the state’s Fayetteville Shale natural gas formation.

“We do not want to hurt a wonderful industry and economic boon to our state that’s providing jobs and resources,” Beebe said at a news conference. “But we do want them to pay for posterity and fairness and equity, a severance tax that is designed to pay for a nonrenewing, finite resource that our children and grandchildren won’t have the benefit of.”

Lawmakers may also be asked to fix the state’s flawed marriage-age law and further encourage two Pulaski County school districts to emerge from federal monitoring of their desegregation efforts, Beebe said

The governor’s proposed tax increase would eventually raise $100 million annually for state highways—if 75 percent of the legislators agree. Beebe said 80 House members and 31 senators were committed to the increase; he needed a commitment from 75 representatives and 27 senators.

“It’s pretty overwhelming and it’s pretty bipartisan,” said Beebe, a Democrat, who announced the session shortly before he toured areas damaged by this week’s storms and flooding. “It’s amazing that the support has come from every corner and every region of the state.”

Beebe said he wanted the session to last three days. He planned to issue the formal call summoning lawmakers back to the Capitol early next week, his office said.

“I don’t like to go through what I’ve been through as a senator, where you have a special session and you don’t have the votes and you end up spending 20, 30, 40 days and in many instances not even resolve it,” said Beebe, who served 20 years as a state senator.

Beebe said raising the tax was the best way to provide additional money for state highways without raising taxes on gasoline or diesel—especially because fuel prices are already high. He said the $100 million won’t be enough for highways but is “a step in the right direction.”

State highways are expected to need $16 billion more than will be available over the next 10 years.

Beebe said he also might want legislators to fix a typographical error in a marriage-age law that inadvertently allows children of any age to marry if they have their parents’ permission. And legislators might be asked to provide further incentives for the North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts to carry out desegregation without federal intervention.

Little Rock’s schools emerged from federal monitoring last year, and legislators approved incentives for North Little Rock and Pulaski County to also seek “unitary status.” Beebe said legislators may be asked to extend the incentives beyond a current June deadline.

Beebe said he was not polling members on support for either measure and would only include them on the call for a session if they are not controversial.

“My attitude is if it’s something that would prolong the session by debate and parliamentary maneuvering, even if it would have a majority, we don’t want to include it,” Beebe said. “If it’s controversial to the point that it would significantly lengthen the special session, then I wouldn’t want to include it.”

The severance tax proposal would raise the rate to a base of 5 percent—with exemptions built in to keep companies from having to pay the full rate on certain new wells or those that are expensive to run. If the Legislature approves Beebe’s proposal, the tax would bring in an estimated $57 million next year and about $100 million annually by 2012.

The current rate, three-tenths of 1 cent per 1,000 cubic feet of gas extracted, brings in about $660,000 annually and hasn’t been changed since 1957.

House Speaker Benny Petrus, who had initially been undecided about Beebe’s proposal, relented Thursday and said he would back the tax hike. The hike also has the backing of Senate President Jack Critcher, D-Batesville.

“It looks like we’re ready to roll,” said Petrus, D-Stuttgart.

The Arkansas Republican Party had come out against Beebe’s proposal, saying the Democratic governor’s tax hike would hurt business. But several Republican lawmakers had announced in recent days they were supporting the increase.

“It’s disappointing, but we’ll move on from this battle and there will be others to face,” Arkansas GOP Chairman Dennis Milligan said.

Sen. Bob Johnson, D-Bigelow, who will serve as Senate president in the 2009 session, had been a vocal opponent of the tax hike but said he was not going to organize any opposition to Beebe’s measure.

The severance tax issue will mark the first special session Beebe has called since taking office in January 2007. The last special session was held in April 2006 and was called by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee to consider bills to address the long-running Lake View school-funding case.

Thirty-one items, including a workplace smoking ban and an increase in the state’s minimum wage, were included on the call for that five-day session.

Petrus said Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro, was working on a bill that would repeal the botched marriage-age law enacted last year and would reinstate 17 as the marriage age for boys and 16 for girls. Rep. Will Bond, D-Jacksonville, is drafting legislation extending the deadline for North Little Rock and Pulaski County schools to seek unitary status.

Petrus said he hoped to recommend to Beebe by Wednesday whether those items could be considered in the special session.