The Arkansas Legislature wrapped up a three-day special session this week. The speedy, to-the-point session had two main goals; funding the Game and Fish Commission, and, once again, cutting taxes.
Last week, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on the legislature to convene for these two purposes. In a statement, she said the cuts will “provide further tax relief during this period of heightened inflation,” an economic situation she referred to as "Bidenomics."
Sanders truly believes there is value in tax cuts; since her campaign, she's promised an eventual phasing out of the state income tax, and Republican lawmakers seem eager to inch the state further toward that goal.
One of the champions for tax cuts was Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe. He called this conservative quest to ax the tax a “journey.”
“We previously have focused on lower income and middle income earners here in the state,” he said. “And this is driving down the top rate, and hopefully be able to recruit more companies and more individuals to the great state of Arkansas.
The cuts approved in this week’s session will lower Arkansas’ top individual income tax rate to 3.9% and the state’s top corporate income tax rate to 4.3%.
The brief debate about the tax cuts centered around this question: is this really the best way to spend money?
Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, admitted that cutting taxes is popular.
“Cutting taxes is easy,” he said. “It's great in an election year.”
He said there are better ways to make the money go farther for struggling families in Arkansas like funding social programs.
Hammering down on that argument in the house was Rep. Denise Garner, D-Fayetteville, who listed several other places where she wishes the money for tax cuts would go.
“We still have years-long delays for services for those with disabilities,” she said. “Many Arkansans lack basic access to medical care. They have limited or no access to mental health resources.”
She said these tax cuts are really just to help families already bringing in six figures a year, about 25% of families in the state.
“That means that due to the tax cuts enacted over the last 1o years these one in four families make less in one year than the top 1% save in annual taxes
Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle, said calling this a cut just for the rich is a “gaffe.”
“These are the same arguments that we hear each and every time we try to provide tax relief to any of our citizens for any reason.”
He said the cuts will affect over a million Arkansas, not just the wealthiest ones. This is true, but the cuts will have more of an impact on high-income earners.
“Arkansas taxpayers deserve to be able to keep more of their hard earned income,” he said.
The cuts passed by wide margins in both chambers with only a few Democrats raising their hands to vote no.
The second big objective of the session was to fund the Game and Fish Commission. The legislature previously ended the fiscal session back in May without providing funding for the commission. This was a huge blow to their budget,, as the legislature typically leaves over $100 million to them each year.
Commission Director Austin Booth said being short this money caused stress on his department.
“The 700 employees that we have would lose their job, lose their paycheck and their health insurance coverage,” he said.
The budget holes would have caused other strange repercussions; for example, the commission would have been forced to chemically euthanize as many as 9 million fish.
“We have people that live out on the hatcheries with the fish to keep 24/7 supervision of the fish out there,” he said. “With a lapse in appropriation, those people would be without a job, and also without a place to live.”
The decision not to fund the commission came after confusion over Booth's salary. In March, Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, put forward an amendment to the Game and Fish budget to change the cap on Booth's salary to $190,000. He currently makes a little over $150,000.
Some legislators thought this salary cap was ridiculous. When the bill was amended, Rep. Frances Cavenaugh, R-Walnut Ridge, said the raise for the director gave her “heartburn.”
“This ability to raise them to $190,000,” she said. “It's going to put them higher than nine current secretaries.”
But Booth wouldn't have actually gotten a raise under that budget. $190,000 was just the maximum amount he could have made. Now with the new budget, Booth will probably only get a few thousand dollars as a raise.
Other legislators said the Game and Fish Commission did not turn in their paperwork in time. But the budget was filed in time. It was submitted a week before the fiscal session started.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders capped off this week’s session on Wednesday, signing the tax cut bills into law.
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