The severance tax special session -- Confirmed

I'm on my way to Conway to tape a segment on the severance tax for Arkansas Week tonight. I'll be away from the blog until mid-morning, but it looks as though the governor will make an announcement at some point today that a special session will be held beginning on Monday, March 31.

Update: The governor is holding a news conference at 10:15 to announce the special session and to discuss flood damage in the state. I'm on the road and will update once I get to a computer.

Update II: The governor has 80 commitments in the House and 30 in the Senate. The call will be limited to the severance tax (click here to read the bill), and with a consensus, the governor will allow the Legislature to (1) repeal 2007 changes to the minimum age to marry law and to (2) extend a deadline involving the Pulaski schools' desegregation litigation from June to November. Specifically, Act 395 of 2007 required school districts to meet a reimbursement benchmark by being declared unitary or at least partially unitary by Judge Bill Wilson's federal district court no later than June 14, 2008 (see text beginning on p. 4, line 15 of Act 395). We'll extend that to November if we can get a consensus.