# DFA Fiscal Impact Statement — HB 1444 (Act 548 of 2025) > *Verbatim extracts from the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration Fiscal Impact Statement for HB 1444 (as engrossed 2/27/2025), dated 3/2/2025. Retrieved 2026-06-04 from the Arkansas General Assembly document server.* ## Source metadata - **Author**: Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration - **Bill**: HB 1444 (→ Act 548 of 2025); Sponsors "Rep. Pilkington and Sen. Dismang" - **Dated**: 3/2/2025 (filed as supplement DFA1) ## Extract **Basic change (verbatim):** "HB1444 (as engrossed 2/27/2025) expands the sales and use tax exemption for data centers to include a 'qualified large data center'.... HB1444 also **reduces the qualified investment requirement for a qualified data center from $500 million to $100 million** and permits the inclusion of indirect compensation including compensation paid by the contractors of the qualified data center for purposes of the minimum payroll requirement." **Fiscal Impact (verbatim):** "**Revenue neutral.**" **Resources Required (verbatim):** "DFA does not currently have a process for sales and use tax exemption incentive programs. A department will have to be established.... A DFA Statewide Program Manager (GS13), a DFA Statewide Program Coordinator (GS11) and four tax auditors II (GS09) will be needed.... The total ongoing yearly cost for personnel is **$468,251.21**." Plus an estimated "$40,000" for AIRS programming. **Legal Analysis (verbatim, selected):** "HB1444 may benefit from an amendment to require that electricity be separately metered for each location of a large data center." And: a flagged audit-authority ambiguity ("strike page 7, lines 8-9"). ## Notes - **Tier 2** — primary public record (state agency fiscal analysis). - **Why it matters**: DFA scored a 5× reduction in the investment threshold plus a new electricity-tax exemption as "**Revenue neutral**" — a notable scoring posture for a measure that broadens a tax exemption. The note also documents that DFA had "no process" for the program and had to build one (a six-position office), and that DFA itself flagged the absence of a separate-metering requirement for large-data-center electricity — directly relevant to verifying the [[Act 548 (2025)]] electricity exemption in practice. - Cited by: [[Act 548 (2025)]].