Gov. Sarah Sanders on Thursday (Jan. 16) clarified her positions on eliminating the grocery tax, higher education changes, phone free schools, and health care – subjects she touted in her Tuesday State of the State speech to state lawmakers.
In a sit-down interview in her capitol office, Sanders said her effort to eliminate the remaining 1/8th of a cent sales tax on groceries can be done legislatively and without a constitutional amendment. The tax has been on the books since her father led an amendment campaign to establish the conservation tax, which provides about $10 million annually to Parks & Tourism, the Game & Fish Commission, and the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission.
“I think we can legally zero out that tax, the grocery tax, on a state level,” said Sanders. “We feel pretty confident in the funding streams that exist… for that $10 million that it will not impact any of those programs.”
Sanders emphasized her desire to eliminate the remaining tax on groceries only applied to the state sales tax, not local taxes, which are a maze of more than 400 city sales taxes and 74 county sales taxes that contribute about $280 million to local government funding.
She referred further details on the elimination of the tax without a constitutional amendment change to the Department of Finance & Administration, which is working on an analysis.
EDUCATION
A briefly mentioned, but controversial, piece of Sanders’ Access Arkansas higher education overhaul involves the firing of professors, even tenured teachers, who promote “indoctrination,” which is undefined. She said her office hears on a “regular basis” from students and parents who have concerns about teachings in college courses. Sanders said higher education officials need to spend more time preparing students for jobs, not political activism.
“At the end of the day, Arkansas is spending roughly a billion dollars on higher education and we want the focus of our higher education programs and instructional time to prepare students for the workforce and not prepare them for or push political activism on them. Does that mean you shouldn’t teach hard topics? Absolutely not. You most certainly should. But what we want is, and I think what frankly our people are demanding is, that our focus and our time is spent on preparing those students for a modern workforce. That’s what we want to see from our institutions of higher education,” she said.
Sanders also underscored her desire for the focus of her higher education reforms to be viewed beyond this one area. She said she wants institutions of higher ed to be more aligned with the needs of employers and to spend their money more efficiently. She did not foresee more funding being steered broadly towards higher education until different results are achieved.
“We will look at future years down the line, but right now, I want us to use the money that we’re already spending and make sure it’s actually being used more effectively to address the needs of our state,” said Sanders.
“We have to make adjustments and then if we determine a year or two down the road that we need to invest more money, then we will look at it at that time. Right now, I feel like we can adjust to incentivize other things like our associates’ degrees, our non-credentialed degrees, working for students to get credit while they’re in high school. There are a lot of other things that we need to do before we start adding money and that’s fixing the system as it is,” she added.
Sanders also indicated she’s open to an affirmative action bill for colleges and government that would be in line with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, championed legislation last session, but it stalled in the Arkansas House. Sullivan is working on a new bill for the 2025 session.
“I haven’t seen his final language to weigh in. What I can tell you is I would be supportive of legislation that brings Arkansas in line with the Supreme Court’s decision, but what his specific bill looks like, I’m not going to weigh in until I see it,” said Sanders.
HEALTH CARE
In the health care arena, Sanders said there are still many conversations happening with lawmakers and stakeholders and she anticipates discussions with officials in the incoming Trump administration after next week’s inauguration. Sanders wants to explore waivers, such as a broad work requirement for able-bodied people on Medicaid, with the new Trump administration.
“I have more confidence because it’s a new administration that I think will be more supportive of things like work requirements. They’ve already publicly stated that and I think have a greater willingness to work with states to make changes,” she said.
Sanders said she did not have plans to terminate Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion program, ARHome.
“I don’t think we’re in a place where you can, at this point, do away with the expansion. I mean we’re too far down the road. I think what we have to look for, again, are how do we maintain access and care for those who need it and how do we pay for that program? And so long-term solvency, that’s why I’m a big fan of things like work requirements, because it makes a big difference and allows our state to pay for and care for people who are unable to do so otherwise,” she said.
The governor plans to have a robust agenda for tackling Arkansas’ worst in the nation maternal health standing. She said she is discussing legislation with a number of state lawmakers and expects to see bills filed soon.
“I would expect over the next week or so, we will have specific bill sponsors that will roll out and announce who will carry it out. Have we figured out how we’re going to spend an extra $13 million? That’s part of what I think will make that determination through the session,” said Sanders. “Working with legislators, I know that we have certain priority programs. We want to expand the midwife and doula programs. We’ve got four different pilot programs that we’re running in our county health offices in high target areas. So seeing how those do and whether or not we expand each one of those or certain pieces of it, I think those are things that we’ll know over the course of the next couple months.”
She said she still is not supportive of legislation for Arkansas to provide Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers for one year after giving birth, despite bipartisan support from bills already filed. Sanders argues that coverage for that duration and circumstance already exists and would be duplicative to provide.
“I’m supportive of people having coverage. I’m not supportive of paying twice for that coverage,” she said. “Certainly, we want people to have the access, but if it already exists, we shouldn’t create a new program to put on top of it. We should make sure people have access to the one that’s already there, and we’re working to do that and that’s what one of the pilot programs is addressing as well.”
Finally, Sanders hinted there will be legislation forthcoming to give state and local economic officials more tools. Though she declined to provide details, she offered this clue.
“I think that [incentive bill] is something that will come over the next few weeks. But I think there’s still details to be ironed out on what it exactly looks like. I do think that there will be some things that are specific and will help on the economic development front,” said Sanders.
This story was originally published by our content partners Talk Business and Politics.
