On the second day of the 2023 Regular Session, the House and Senate convened for a Joint Session. During the session, all constitutional officers took the oath of office. Upon swearing-in, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave an address outlining her legislative priorities. The priorities mentioned include tax cuts, improving literacy, and improving public safety. More [...]
Members of the 94th General Assembly took the oath of office Monday morning. After swearing-in, the House elected Matthew J. Shepherd of El Dorado as the Speaker for the 94th General Assembly. He becomes the first person in state history to be elected Speaker for a third term. After an address to the House, Speaker [...]
Returning House members and newly elected members are now preparing for the upcoming session. The 2023 Regular Session will begin on January 9 at noon. The pre-filing period for bills and resolutions began on November 15. So far, 16 bills have been filed in the House and 3 have been filed in the Senate. You [...]
Thank you Senator Jonathan Dismang for this excellent explanation. Here is some information about what we did durning Special Session, specifically how they will impact low and middle income earners. We created an individual income tax credit of $150 per payer ($300/couple) for the 2022 tax year. This is only available to Arkansas residents and [...]
Legislation to accelerate tax cuts and legislation to fund school safety measures have now been signed into law. On Thursday morning, the House passed SB2 with a vote of 94-0. This legislation sets aside $50 million from the revenue surplus for the purpose of funding a school safety grant program. The grants will help districts [...]
With a vote of 81-14, the House passed HB1002. HB1002 accelerates the implementation of income and corporate tax cuts which were scheduled to become effective incrementally over the next three years. If enacted, the top income tax rate would drop from 5.5% to 4.9%. HB1002 would make the reduction retroactive to January 1, 2022. Corporate [...]
On the first day of the special session, committees advanced two pieces of legislation. The Joint Budget Committee advanced SB2. This sets aside $50 million from the revenue surplus for the purpose of funding a school safety grant program. The grants will help districts fund the recommendations of the School Safety Commission. The House Revenue [...]
The Governor is calling the General Assembly into an Extraordinary Session next week to address the use of surplus funds to provide tax relief and funding for school safety measures. The Arkansas School Safety Commission was reinstated in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Members of the original commission created in March [...]
Many have ask what the action means that was taken by ALC Thursday. Here is an explanation of it. To clarify further this is not in place of the Legislature looking at raising Minimum Teacher Salary during General Session. The Education Committee is doing their Adequacy Study at this time and will make a recommendation [...]
The House began the 4th week of the 2021 Regular Session on Monday. This morning, the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced HB1112. This bill eliminates the option for individuals to complete a sworn statement in order to cast a provisional ballot if they did not have the required photo identification. With a [...]
