Governor Asa Hutchinson, having completed his two-week computer-coding tour across the state, has leaked enough information on a called special session to set state tongues to wagging.
The first special session call of the Hutchinson regime will begin Tuesday, May 26, the day after Memorial Day.
While the session is expected to last a week, the bulk of the session will be spent, no doubt, explaining to lawmakers and the public how Lockheed Martin, a major defense contractor, needs Arkansas' help in a taxpayer-financed bond issue to possibly land a U.S. Department of Defense contract.
And there is absolutely NO assurance that Lockheed Martin will actually get the government contract to require such a dose of government welfare for corporate interests.
To put it rather plainly, there are a lot of "ifs" to be answered.
Lockheed Martin is a publicly traded company which closed at $190.61 a share a week ago. The stock (ticker symbol LMT) has traded as high in the past 52 weeks as $207.06 per share and as low over the same 52 weeks as $156.23. The company has revenues in the neighborhood of $60.29 billion and 112,000 employees around the world.
So why does Lockheed Martin need Arkansas' help in using Amendment 82 to the state's Constitution that allows for public financing of big bond issues for economic development?
They don't really.
But, many say, Arkansas does need this new plant.
Lockheed Martin already has a defense funded operations plant in the same East Camden Industrial Park straddling the Ouachita/Calhoun County line in Southeast Arkansas.
The new project as planned, if Lockheed Martin -- and that is a big IF -- were to be awarded an upcoming government contract, is to build 55,000 new military-grade vehicles for the U.S. and other countries' military forces.
Why just this past week, Lockheed Martin received a $174 million Foreign Military Sales contract for Army Tactical Missile System production for the U.S. Army and the United Arab Emirates.
ATACMS is the U.S. Army's only tactical long-range precision-strike surface-to-surface weapon system.
Production to meet its most recent contract will be conducted at Lockheed Martin's award-winning facility in Camden, Ark., according to the PR newswire.
Wow.
It didn't take the Legislature dosing out an Amendment 82 Act to snag this contract, now did it?
The press statement continues: Lockheed Martin has produced more than 3,700 ATACMS missiles, with more than 20 years of on-time deliveries. The company's Camden Operations has received more than 60 awards over the last decade, including the 2012 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the Shingo Silver Medallion Award for Operation Excellence, as well as being named one of America's "Top 10 Plants" by Industry Week magazine.
But still Arkansas state leaders want in on this new line of military-grade vehicles to be manufactured.
This is the "if" that the state of Arkansas is hoping for. "If" such a government contract were awarded to Lockheed Martin for these new defense vehicles, then the state would be funding this new plant.
The economic impact of the project is being heavily touted by the Hutchinson folks as well as the former head of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Grant Tennille, under the administration of former Gov. Mike Beebe.
There will be pie charts, Power Point presentations and lots of arm twisting to help the economic future of the state with this big bond issue.
Hopefully a few level-headed lawmakers may get to ask some good, sensible questions.
It is big money with an upside of stimulating the economic status of the state that is at stake under Amendment 82's provisions.
But it is still "If and only IF" Lockheed Martin is awarded the contract.
MAYLON RICE, AN AWARD-WINNING COLUMNIST, HAS WRITTEN BOTH NEWS AND COLUMNS FOR SEVERAL NWA PUBLICATIONS AND HAS BEEN WRITING FOR THE ENTERPRISE-LEADER FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
Editorial on 05/20/2015