Arkansas Privatization Act

The act governs privatization projects undertaken by local political subdivisions, establishing the procedure a subdivision must follow to shift a public facility or service into private hands. It requires public notice of an intention to enter such a project and gives voters a petition-and-election route to approve or block it, with rules for certifying and withdrawing signatures, while exempting these projects from the public bidding laws that would otherwise apply. It also sets the financing framework — authorizing bond issues that do not create government debt, treating a project as an industrial facility rather than a public utility, imposing additional agreement and reporting requirements on longer-maturing bonds, and allowing subdivisions to contract with one another and hold joint interests in a project.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.