Constitution of Arkansas (2025 publisher edition) — Amendment 82: [OBLIGATION BONDS FOR ECONOMIC

Publisher edition notice: This collection preserves the complete constitutional appendix of the Secretary of State’s 2025 Election Laws and Constitution compilation: its preamble, twenty original articles, schedule and 104 published amendments, including annotations and explicit repealed notices. Repealed notices remain historical publisher context. Later amendments have not been independently verified.

Amendment 82

AMEND. 82. [OBLIGATION BONDS FOR ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT] .
Effective Dates.
Ark. Const. Amend. 82, § 2: Jan. 1, 2005.
§ 1. Issuance of general obligation bonds.
(a) In order for the State of Arkansas to effectively compete for large economic development
projects, the Arkansas General Assembly, meeting in special or regular session, may authorize
729 Amend. 82, § 1 OBLIGATION BONDS

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the Arkansas Development Finance Authority to issue general obligation bonds to finance
infrastructure or other needs to attract large economic development projects.
(b) Infrastructure needs may include, but are not limited to:
(1) Land acquisition;
(2) Site preparation;
(3) Road and highway improvements;
(4) Rail spur, railroad, and railport construction;
(5) Water service;
(6) Wastewater treatment;
(7) Employee training which may include equipment for such purpose;
(8) Environmental mitigation or reclamation; and
(9) Training and research facilities and the necessary equipment therefore.
(c) The General Assembly may authorize the issuance of bonds bearing the full faith and credit
of the State of Arkansas if the prospective employer planning an economic development project
is eligible under criteria established by law.
(d) The bonds shall be paid for in full by general or special revenues appropriated by the
General Assembly until the bonds have been retired and all obligations associated with the
issuance of the bonds have been met.
(e) Bonds may be issued under this amendment pursuant to an act of the General Assembly
without voter approval. [As amended by Const. Amend. 90; Const. Amend. 97.]
Publisher’s Notes. This amendment was proposed by
H.J.R. 1028 during the 2003 Regular Session and adopted
at the November 2004 general election by a vote of 612,277
for and 349,518 against.
Ark. Const. Amend. 90, which amended subsection (d),
was proposed by H.J.R. 1007 during the 2009 Regular
Session and was adopted at the 2010 general election by a
vote of 431,724 for and 260,735 against.
Before the amendment, subsection (d) read: “In order for
the General Assembly to authorize the issuance of bonds
bearing the full faith and credit of the State of Arkansas,
the prospective employer must be planning an economic
development project that will invest more than five hun-
dred million dollars ($500,000,000) in capital expenditures
and plan on hiring over five hundred (500) new employees.”
Ark. Const. Amend. 97, which amended this amendment,
was proposed by S.J.R. 16 during the 2015 Regular Session
and adopted at the November 2016 general election by a
vote of 689,980 for and 366,020 against. The amendment
deleted former (b) and redesignated former (c) through (f)
as (b) through (e), inserted “railroad, and railport” in (b)(4),
redesignated part of former (b)(4) as (b)(5), and redesig-
nated the remaining subdivisions accordingly, and inserted
“or reclamation” in (b)(8).
Ark. Const. Amend. 97 was effective thirty days after the
election pursuant to § 7-9-119.
Amend. 97, § 1, provided: “INTENT. The intent of this
amendment to the Arkansas Constitution is to encourage
job creation, job expansion, and economic development.”
The bracketed heading was added by the Publisher.