House Convenes

The. Yeah. The. Invite the member staff press and guess in the galleries to stand and be lead in prayer. By representative less warren and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance to be lead by representative langing. Please pray with me. Their law become tea this morning with humble hearts praising you for your goodness never ceases to keep coming after us. You tell us in your word that this is the lord has made lettuce rejoice and be glad in it bothering rejoice and ask for your guidance our days her numbered in our time to serve in this chamber is even shorter give us wisdom that we can use to serve our constitutes well for the time that we are here make us ever mind for that we are brothers and sisters in you lesson protect this state in our nation we pray for arkansas best days to be in front of us may your spirit be with us now in the matchless name of jesus we pray amen. Members please indicate your presence by pushing your yellow present button prepare the machine madam clark. Cast of development and clerk with one hundred members president the chairs these are coral are there no need representative jeffrey wardlaw moves we dispensed the reading of the previous states journal without objection so ordered are there reports from select committees are the reports from standing committees is there any unfinished business are there any executive communicat. The. Morning hour has ended madam clerk please read house bill one thousand one. The. House will one thousand one by representative eaves to reduce the income tax leaving on individual stress estates and corporations to transfer surplus finds to the arkansas reserve fine set of site into declaring emergency reps and be used to recounts to explain the bill. Good morning members bring to you house bill one thousand one it is our income tax cut bill that we were talked about and read about a pretty simple bill similar what we did last time this bill will take the state's top individual income tax rate from four point four percent to three point nine. And it will also take the state's top corporate income tax rate from four point eight to four point three and this is retroactive to january first twenty twenty four. This will benefit every single taxpayer that makes twenty five thousand dollars or more the estimated cost is going to be an ongoing three hundred and twenty two million dollar reduction in general revenue and as I mentioned before twenty five thousand dollars a more you're going to see a benefit that's over one point one million our cans and which by the way is almost all arkansas taxpayers this bill will also transfer two hundred and ninety million dollars into the tax relief reserve fund this is the fund that we set up last session to help us responsibly reduce the state and contact rates and if you remember this phone is intended to act as a reserve account that can be used to backfield the RSA in case there's an economic downturn we are not paying for the tax reduction out of this fund once again arguments all healthy economy continues to generate huge surpluses which is a clear occasion that we are overcollecting the tax reduction will also improve our competitive standing with surrounding states and as a result continued to make us a more attractive place for investments by job creators with that I take any questions. Deen unappreciated a good vote reps available to explain the bill would anyone like to speak against the bill. Thank you mister speaker colleagues once again i'm appear speaking against the latest round of tax coats my sharing some of the implications of this eight tax cut since twenty fourteen costing our candidates over two billion dollars annually proponents argue that we have a large surplus but much of that has largely been due to temporary federal dollars dfnave reports our annual revenue is down five point five percent. And our newest budget only increased one point six seven while inflation is app three point three percent which means in effect we cut or certainly underfunded essential programs. Arkansas has the highest mortality maternal mortality rate in the nation the second highest team pregnancy and were third highest and infinite mortality we still have years long delays for services for those with disabilities many arcans and slack basic medical care they have limited or no access to mental health resources. The entire state is lacking and quality early child care and we have no idea about the cost of the education freedom accounts when offered to all our cans and students next year. Now is not the time to be underfunding the programs that deal with these problems. The other promise i've heard is that all our kansas benefit while that made technically be true the reality of arkansas regressive tax code is far from equitable households in the top five percent income group those making over two hundred thirty six thousand a year receive forty four percent of the cut those in the top twenty percent making over a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year gets seventy percent the top one percent those making over four hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year are benefiting twice as much as someone in the middle twenty percent and almost eight times more than the bottom twenty. Perhaps the most alarming thing to me is that twenty seven percent of our arkansas households the very families who most need are underfunded programs make under thirty five thousand dollars a year that means that due to the tax cuts and acted over the last ten years these one and four families make less in one year than the top one percent save an annual taxes. Are closed by asking each of you to please consider the long term effects of these tax cuts they disproportionately benefit the wealthy estimates and undermine our ability to invest in the programs and services that benefit all our kansas thank you for listening. Represent garner spoken against the bill anyone like speak for the bill representative ray you recognize speak for the bill. Thank you mr speaker college I am excited to vote for this historic bill and it is truly a historic tax cut for our state by reducing our personal income tax rate to three point nine percent on the personal side we will have the lowest income tax rate in the history of our state since the inception of our state income tax in nineteen twenty three which was one hundred and one years ago let me tell you why i'm voting for this historic bill first of all arkansas tax payers deserve to be able to keep more of their heart earned income by cutting the sentence tax to three point nine percent we are going to give workers arrays by letting them keep more of each and every paycheck that's especially important in our current economic climate because of the disastrous economic policies a president buying inflation is eating away at the paychecks of hard working our candidates and while lowering our tax burden will not get rid of inflation it will help our kansas cope with the damaging effects of it and don't forget president biden has pledged to let the the truck tax cuts expire at the end of twenty twenty five if he wins reelection which means hundreds of thousands if not well over a million arcans and will face a significant tax increase at the start of twenty twenty six if those tax cuts are not renewed so cutting our state income tax will again help our kansas cope with washington's reckless policies but in addition to easing the affordability crisis that are candidates are facing as representative of zero eves mentioned these tax cuts will continue to make our state more economically competitive when we enact these tax cuts we will leap frog seven different states in terms of competitiveness on the income tax. Mattress that's fifteen percent of the states in the country we are going to be passing by inacting this legislation when the dust settles of all the states that do levy and income tax we will have the seventh lowest rate in the entire country taking into consideration that a decade ago we had the highest income taxes of any state in the south east and one of the highest income taxes of any state in the country that is a remarkable feet it is a historic accomplishment and yes income tax is not the only measure of competitiveness there are lots of measures of competitiveness but it is a key component and we are going to continue to make progress on not just this component but all the many other components of competitiveness as well and we know that the tax cuts that we have enacted since dating back to twenty fifteen they are working our economy is growing unemployment is low and the revenues that are coming into this state remain strong and robust event as we've reduced our income tax from seven percent all the way down to four point four percent and we've done that while building up a historic amount of long term and catastrophic reserves an emergency fund for our state which is raised our bond rating and so we have done that we are doing this and we are doing it responsibly there's no reason to expect that won't continue as americans are moving out of high tax states like california illinois in new york arkansas is now a net inbound state for migration and almost every week we see a major job announcement in this day last week it was windsor doors before that I was at the tractor supply grand opening of their largest distribution center in america in mahmel arkansas five hundred new jobs a hundred and seventy five million dollar investment illa pack and little rock. Rather than camden westrack coffee and conway six hundred new jobs. To so seven hundred new jobs you can go on the eighty eight DC website and just read press release after press release week after week of strong economic news for our state that doesn't happen by accident these companies don't pick arkansas by accident they're doing it because we're in acting pro growth competitive economic policies that provide jobs for the citizens of our state. And the the detractors of these tax cuts try to make a few arguments but I think they fall flat this argument that we can't cut we can't cut provide tax relief to our citizens because there's this problem or that problem in society the truth is we can walk and chew gum at the same time there is there are always going to be societal problems and things that we have to address and many of the people in this room almost all of us are working on policies that alleviate those problems and make them better for our citizens. The second thing I would back on that point sorry I lost my transfer for a second for a while the argument that we heard along these lines was well we can't cut taxes because starting teacher pays too low we'll guess what now we have one of the heart highest starting teacher salaries in all of america thanks still learns act so the reality is we can solve problems we can solve problems and simultaneously reduced the tax burden on our citizens many of these problems we've solved or we are worried working towards solving in a bipartisan fashion there's no reason that we can't do two things at one time the the other argument that keeps getting advanced is that these tax cuts are somehow just for the rich as was mentioned before if you look at the fiscal impact statement on this bill it affects one point one million arkansas taxpayers. This is a broadbased tax cut that benefits everyone who makes twenty five thousand dollars or more per year which is basically anybody that has a tax liability I remember in twenty fourteen one our fort one of our former US senators was asked during a debate what is definition of the middle class was and he committed what at the time was a pretty serious gaff when he said that the middle class were those making two hundred thousand dollars a year or less as bad as that gaff was. I would submit the calling a tax cut for somebody that makes forty thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars or sixty thousand dollars a give away to the rich is a far worse ga. 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 but I would close on an aptimistic no I think there are there is no reason that anyone in this chamber there there's no reason that anyone this chamber could not cast a yes vote for this bill growing jab's letting taxpayers keep more of their hard earned money making our state more economically competitive these are issues that unite all of us every member of this chamber can defend this vote to their citizens to their constituents. You know it was president kennedy not a republican who was quoted as saying the income taxes quote exert far too heavy a drag on growth and reduced the financial incentives for personal effort investment and risk taking and just recently colorado who's cutting their income taxes their democrat governor said of the income taxi said quote I know some in the past have been skeptical of reducing our income tax rate but cutting the income tax rate is the most effective way to further our economic growth that's not me that's the democrat governor of colorado I think this is a bill we can all be proud to support precious good vote representative ray has spoken for the bill when he would like to speak against the bill. Anyone like this before the bill. You recognize it close for the bill well I don't know how much more I can add to what representative rates that thank you for that information my members I don't want to say this this is not a tax cut in a bubble this is something that we've been doing responsibly for over ten years and during that time low income earners and middle come earner specifically have been targeted to reduce that tax burden and i've been here in the same argument every time we cut taxes that it's it'll cause a cut in essential services and programs but the exact opposite has happened we've spent more and more on these programs government has been fully funded in has had significant surpluses as I said before every year for at least the past ten years even before the pandemic happened so cutting income taxes is not having the effect that opponents of this measure would have you believed with that i'd appreciate a good vote in beefs his clothes for the bill the question for the house as a passion of house bill one thousand wine appears machine made a clear. Voting on the bill and the emergency clause as everyone voted. As everyone voted. Cast up the ballot madam clerk by vote of eighty six yas ten days and one present the bill and emergency clause have passed members in the east gallery we have interns with the AR internship program which is an internship program in ministered by the department of transformation and shared services they are coming by tss staff members brought. All the way jeremy may and wrote a clawson. The. Yeah. Okay. The. Yeah. The. This. Madam clerk please read house bill one thousand two house but one thousand two by representative shops to increase the homes their property tax credit as a required report concerning the homestare property text and credit and the balance of the property text relief trust me. Some shelter recognized to explain the bill. Thank you mister speaker. This. Good morning colleagues I present to you today house bill one thousand two simply put this bill proposes two thanks. One to increase the homestead tax credit from its current rate of four hundred and twenty five dollars to the new rate of five hundred dollars. This bill also proposes that a yearly report be initiated on or before january thirtieth of each year this report would include the balance. Are the revenue tax relief fund which is what funds. The homestair tax credit and it will also include recommendations on if the fund if the balance of the fund will support an increase and if so how much. The. I believe this is a good bill. And it will put money back in the pockets of hard working or cancels at this time I would attempt. Represent roses explain the bill. So shorts has explained the bill. The. Trying to do too many things that once here when he went like speaking it's the bill. What did when like to speak for the bill representative later many recognize speak for the b. Thank you mr speaker I want to give you a chance to check your breath after that less than I really want to speak for the last bill but I was speak for both of them found able to this is a great bill that the this reduction are are improvement at this refine is great for elderly arcans I don't know I didn't look at that but I don't know if any other states do this where if they knew where if you haven't do so it's it really helps our seniors and I appreciate that also want to say real quick I know in the paper tomorrow that we'll see all item about the negative things that were just said about our state and you know some of those are true we are fiftieth and a lot of things but is you all know where most of you know I have a talk tenth older so I hope one of these things makes the paper tomorrow as well and it it relates to the the tax production you know where the number one state in starting teacher salary if you take into account the cost of living because we're the number two lowest cost of living state in the nation were the number one state I believe number one are number two that people want to retire to and I read an article in the paper the other day that said the bottom thirty percent of our kensings will not participate in this tax reduction that's true because the bottom thirty percent of our kansas don't pay that tax at all but that article was a negative article against the bill so we're not paying this will be careful about what you read and the we're doing good in our console and we have I have a lot of things in my top ten folders you want one of those immediate call. Ladyman has spoken for four of the bill would anyone like speak against the bill. Would anyone like to speak for the bill representative short. You recognize this to close. Thank you mr speaker. First I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to thank chairman landing five for his hard work and leadership on this issue. For many years thank you sir this time i'm close for my bill not appreciate a good vote. Question before the house is passed house bill one thousand two prepared the machine made a clark. As everyone voted as everyone voted cast up the ballot madam clerk by vote of ninety eight yays zero nay and one present the bill has passed. Representative meeks for what purpose motion please let your motion after the announced the treating of the bills transferring the bills place in the counters on the desk members amending their own bills to the owner members members were drawing their own bills finalizing resolutions rating communications and in the room any committee reports I move we are turning tell ten o'clock tomorrow morning that's a proper motion not debatable all in favor say are any opposed motion passes or any announcements. Represent bought for a purpose announcement direct me I just need to remind everybody that serving a solutions is on thursday night in that wall if you come and serve you'll get a thousand dollars for your local food banks reps even for what purpose announcement that's who your announced house revenue and tax will meet fifteen minutes upon a german of this chamber room one fifty one representative shultz from what purpose you recognize house management will meet at one o'clock in believe it's one thirty eight where we always meet. Any other announcements also understand that today is representative gonzalez birthday. Read the bills made clerk has resolution one thousand five that objection read the resolution a second time house resolution one thousand five house management telstra resolution one thousand six that objection read the resolution second time house resolution one thousand six house management senator one. That objective rebuild second time revenue attacks that objection read the bill a second time ten ability calendar senate bill three objections built second part about revenue and ta. No other business desk will remain open as needed for the reading of the bills and upon completion the items name to the adjourned resolution the house