Earlier today, the Tax Reform and Relief Legislative Task Force voted for a one-month delay on any decision to hire consultants to help analyze Arkansas’s tax code.
The first round of solicitations by the task force to hire a consulting group only garnered responses from two groups: PFM Group Consulting in Philadelphia and WC Mitchell & Associates in North LIttle Rock.
Apparently, these two consulting groups aren’t up to the task of making Arkansas’s tax code great again, so the task force will wait one more month to solicit more submissions.
State Sen. Jim Hendren, co-chair of the task force, said the submissions were “somewhat deficient” and that he wanted to give other groups another month to apply.
Hendren said:
I think the best thing right now is to cancel [the request for proposals] and be more active in soliciting more submitters so we get a bigger pool to pull from to make sure we get the best possible representation.
Task force members voted to pass a new request for proposals that would give consulting groups 30 more days to apply.
Hendren said:
What we envision is someone to be the expert counsel to this task force as we move forward and make recommendations. I think we’ll be able to find more applicants. We’ll talk to the states that we just heard about today who have been through this process…who they recommend to try to get half a dozen or a dozen submissions.
The task force is required by law to complete a preliminary report of the task force’s activities, actions, and recommendations by December 1.
Hendren said:
While that report is due in December, that report can say we’re still working and we’ll get back to you. I’d rather do that than press forward and not do the best job we possibly can.
The task force was created by the Arkansas legislature in the 2017 legislative session to examine ways to make the Natural State’s tax climate more competitive with surrounding states.
The task force is scheduled to meet again on August 31 and September 7.
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