Senate Convenes
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Transcript
Bills discussed (2)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB1
Act 73
· 6 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “SB1 J. Dismang TO REDUCE THE INCOME TAX RATES FOR INDIVIDUALS,…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ARKANSAS SENATE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Senate Efficiency | Notification that SB1 is now Act 73 |
|
HB1001
Act 2
· 3 mentions in transcript
Matched: “adjournment subject to the reading of house bill 1001 across the desk and the clearing of the desk and until 9 a.…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ARKANSAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATION FOR … | Evans | Notification that HB1001 is now Act 2 |
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Unknown speaker
0:00
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker 3
2:00
I'm sending them a sign that we're... Can I put my sticky note on here?
Chair
Unverified
4:30
Senate will be called to order any requests for leave at this time. Senator Gilmore, you're recognized. Leave for Senator King. Thank you, Senator Gilmore. Any other requests for leave?
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
4:54
If not, Madam Secretary, please call the roll. Boyd, Bryant, Caldwell, Clark, Kroll, Davis, Dees, Dismay,
Dotson, English, Flippo, Flowers, Gilmore, Hammer, Hester, Hickey, Hill, Irvin, Blake Johnson, Mark Johnson, King, Letting, Love, McKee, Murdoch, Payton, Penzo, Petty, Rice, Scott, Simon, Stone, Sullivan, Tucker, Wallace. Thank you, Madam Secretary. If everyone in the chamber and in the galleries would please rise, we'll first be led in prayer
Chair
Unverified
5:22
by Senator Ben Gilmore, followed by the pledge of allegiance. Senator Gilmore, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam President. Please
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
5:33
pray with me. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for your many blessings. We thank you for your sovereignty in all things. We thank you, Lord, that we know that you've ordained government and that you have set those that are in this room here. And we trust your plan, trust your will, and we thank you for that. So we ask, Lord, that you would grant us wisdom, as it says in James, if we ask and not doubt, that you will grant us that wisdom. But Father, I also pray that you would help us to stay focused. And as your word says in Timothy, that we would fight the good fight and lay hold to that which is eternal. So Lord, that we not lose sight of what is important and
what you have for us. We thank you for everything that you're going to do. We thank you for the ability to stand here and to represent Arkansans. I pray that you'd bless the state, bless our governor, bless all of those in this room and in the house who are here to do your will and your purpose. And we thank
Speaker 20
6:25
you for all that you're going to do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Chair
Unverified
6:40
Thank you, Senator Gilmore. Ladies and gentlemen in the galleries, welcome to your Arkansas State Senate. It is our expectation that each of you will exercise proper decorum and govern yourselves accordingly during today's proceedings. Without objection, the rules will be suspended. The Senate will dispense with reading of the journal. The morning hour
has now begun. Are there any announcements or introductions at
this time? Senator Irvin, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Governor. Senators, again, this year we are the servers for Serving Up Solutions. We would love for you to help wait tables for us.
We have a sold-out event this year for the Hunger Caucus and for Serving Up Solutions, which is a fundraiser for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. If you serve, then you can earn a grant for your local food bank. So it's May the 21st that evening here in Little Rock at the Albert Pike Masonic Temple. I have a sign-up sheet. We just need to recruit more waiters for serving up solutions. So if you can come sign up for me, I really appreciate it.
Chair
Unverified
7:45
Thank you. Thank you, Senator Irvin. Any other announcements or introductions at this time? Madam Secretary, any items at the desk? No items at the desk. Any further business to come before the body in the morning hour? If not, the morning hour has expired. We'll now begin the business agenda,
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
8:07
beginning with Senate Bill 1. Senate Bill 1 by Senator Dismang et al. To reduce the income tax rates for individuals, trusts, states, and corporations.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
8:15
Senator Dismang, you're recognized. Thank you, Governor. members, this is a continuation of the income tax reduction that's really been taking place since 2013. This lowers the top rate from 3.9% to 3.7%. That will be retroactive because we are running a surplus. It's going to help eat into some of that surplus and so it'll be effective on January 1st, 2026. It also reduces the corporate income tax rate to 4.1% and that will be effective as of the next year start of next year with that i'd be happy to take any questions questions for
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
9:05
you're recognized thank you for uh
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
9:09
taking questions and my question is about sales tax what in the law, if anything, limits local sales tax?
And what is that rate now, if there is a minimum
Speaker 38
9:29
or a maximum? What's the maximum? I don't have any of
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
9:35
that type of information on sales tax with me. I
know that if a locality wants to increase their sales tax, that has to be done by election. We set parameters on when those elections can occur as far as dates, but I don't
have any of the specifics on that. So as far as you know, the state does not limit a local community, city, town, or county
from a certain amount of sales tax. Again, not my wheelhouse, but
I'm getting a point that it's 2%, something like 2% limit. 2% limit? Wait a
minute. Sales tax 2% limit? I
paid more than that down there in Jefferson County and up here in Pulaski County. I do not
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
10:29
Like, what's his name? And Senator Bryan, if he comes up there, he can explain that since he's spouting out 2%. I paid almost 12% and sales tax. But the other question I have for you, Senator Dismayne, is about making up the difference. Where's that going to come from? And I'm hearing from
individuals and organizations that say we need to spend more money for health care, for our education, public education, where, and then we increase those educational freedom accounts, if they continue to escalate, where's that money going to come from? Where would you think it would come from? Would we come back and try to raise taxes? No, ma'am, I don't believe
there's an appetite to raise taxes in either chamber.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
11:34
As a whole, I think there might be some. I don't know what you expect to do.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
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11:39
So due to conservative budgeting that we've had over the last several years and last couple of administrations, I think even going back into the Beebe administration, we have set the stage to be able to handle this. We do have savings in place in case there is a need. And in fact, if you look at this year's RSA, while the overall RSA increased at 3% for general revenue, There were actually two set-asides to address some of the concerns you have.
One was a continuation of a previous set-aside of $100 million for Medicaid in case it is needed in the future, and then also a $70 million set-aside for EFA accounts or the Freedom Accounts if that is needed in the future. And that is contemplated in this tax cut. We do not, you know, the tax cut does not go in excess of
those amounts. We have our RSA plus another $170 million, and that's contemplated in what we're able to do
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
12:32
here with the two-tenths. And so that $7 million that's set aside for EFA accounts in the future,
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
12:38
so is that going to be a stopping point when we reach that $7
million level? I think that would be a determination made by this chamber and also by the number of applicants and monies that are made available. I think there was a strong showing of support very recently for EFAs in this chamber. So I would assume that as long as this chamber and the other chamber sees fit, we'll continue to increase the amounts as needed and as requested by the people of Arkansas for educational freedom.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
13:10
Well, just for the record, I did not support the bill that provided
Senator Jonathan Dismang
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13:16
for more money for EFAs, but I did vote for the RSA, which had it in there. But, you know, what's the worst? I have to decide. But the other question I have for you is, are we contemplating what's happening at the federal level? Our deficit is just going crazy, and we depend on a lot of federal money for our programs and services that we as a state legislate for.
So is this really a good time for this with all the uncertainty and the increases in the federal deficit? Again, I worry about what we
do here in Arkansas. We have been very prudent for quite some time with our tax dollars. Again, we've
been having conservative budgets for a number of years that's led us to be able to get to the point that we're able to safely do this without having to worry about jeopardizing any of our essential programs in the state.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
14:20
Except that the people say they are underfunded. Thank
Chair
Unverified
14:27
you. Any other questions with regard to Senate Bill 1? Senator Dotson, you're recognized. Thank you,
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
14:34
Madam Chair. Senator, I seem to
recall in 2013 when we started cutting the income tax rate that the income tax rate basically provided about 50% roughly of the state's general revenue. Do you have any idea today what that percentage of the overall general budget or general revenue it might be?
I don't, but I'm hoping you do. Well, it's kind of maintained. It's still approximately 50%. I don't know the exact percentage, but even with this cut, it'll still be in that range of about half of the general revenue, even though we've reduced the rate by 45% or something like that? Absolutely.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
15:13
We've been taking into account inflation, making sure that our growth rate of state government is below that, which has allowed us to have room, again, without having to eliminate services in
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
15:22
the state. So all of this is completely out of the surplus that was unbudgeted amounts,
Speaker 56
15:28
so we can continue that sustainable path. Thank you. Any other questions on Senate Bill
Chair
Unverified
15:39
against Senate Bill 1. I see Senator Tucker and Senator Letting to speak against. We'll also ask for anyone
to speak for or on. Senator Tucker, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam President. Members, I know what
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
15:57
the votes are for this, and I'll be brief.
I just want to ask a couple of questions of the chamber. The first is, what are our highest priorities as a state? You know, what do we dream about? I understand why lowering taxes is a goal of people. I do. I want to pay lower taxes. But I think our highest priority as a state is to lead our peers or our region or our country in quality of life and in good-paying jobs, to lead our region in health and education outcomes, to be the safest place in America to raise a family. And we have a lot of work to do on those issues.
When we make a decision to cut taxes, that decision is not made in a vacuum. With all of our resources, it's a zero-sum decision, and it's especially so when it comes to money, because we're cutting $180 million from our revenue that we could spend on other items. Some of those items I mentioned, we have 3,000 kids in Arkansas whose parents are desperate for them to have an opportunity for early childhood education. We could provide all 3,000 of those spots and have a lot of that $180 million left over.
There are hospitals at risk of closing are becoming emergency-only facilities in all parts of the state. We've done a lot of great work on maternal health outcomes, but we have a lot more work to do. We lag our peers in how much we spend on traditional public school funding on a per-pupil basis. There are a lot of other issues and priorities that we could be spending this money on. And those are the ones that I think we should be dreaming about leading with. The other question is, who are we really helping with this?
If you make the median income in Arkansas at about $62,000 a year, then this tax cut is going to net you about $11. If you make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, then this tax cut is going to net you a couple hundred dollars. And is a couple hundred dollars really going to make a meaningful difference in your life if your family is fortunate enough to earn $200,000 a year? If we prioritize those other issues that I mentioned, we know who we would be helping. And those issues demand not only our attention, but our urgent attention.
As I mentioned, that wait list right now is 3,000 kids whose parents are desperate for them to have high-quality early childhood education. Next January, that list will probably be just as long, but it's going to be different kids. There's going to be a couple thousand kids whose opportunity is gone because they've aged out of the opportunity to have early childhood education. If we get to where we want to be with maternal health outcomes in 27 or 28, that will be wonderful. But it's not going to help that mom and that baby that had a tragic
health outcome in 2026. That's why these issues demand not only our attention, but our urgent attention. I'll be voting no today, but I'm not going to walk away from these other issues. Just as I know those who vote yes today won't walk away from those other issues. My point is that we have a lot of really important priorities as a state, and we have some really important work and conversations to do between now and January. So I hope we'll do that work together. Thank you.
Chair
Unverified
19:08
Anyone wish to speak for or on? If not, Senator Letting, you're recognized to speak against. Thank you, Madam President. Yeah, there were better odds
Senator Greg Leding
Unverified
19:23
that the sun would not rise today than this bill fail on this floor this morning. So as often when we come down here, these comments are more for the people who are watching. than anybody in this room. We don't want government to ever collect more money than it needs to or spend more money than it needs to,
but we should make all the investments that we need to. And we hear a lot about contemplating things and conservative budgeting, but to some people that just might sound like we're ignoring problems. If I've got a thousand bucks and after my most critical expenses, I'm lucky enough to have a hundred dollars left, but I know I've got a cavity and bald tires on my car, I do not have a surplus. I'm just choosing to ignore some very obvious problems. And I just hope that in the future, this legislature will choose to invest more meaningfully in Arkansas because as has been said this money could do a lot more to more meaningfully
help people than handing them back a few dollars and telling
Chair
Unverified
20:17
them good luck. Thank you. To speak for Senator McKee, you're recognized.
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
20:26
Thank you, Governor. Colleagues, I appreciate the back and forth on this. I think this is a really important issue. I don't think the people of my district elected me to go after my dreams in the Senate or in state government. And I don't think this is a question about priorities. I think this is a question about
how best to implement those priorities. So the question to me is, who best serves the people of Arkansas? Is it the churches? Is it the communities? Is it the neighbors that we represent? or is it the state? And so what is the best expenditure of that money? I believe it's putting it back in the hands of the people that produce it so that they can make those good decisions and help their neighbors. Thank you. Any
Speaker 15
21:12
other senator wish to speak against, for, or on Senate Bill 1?
Chair
Unverified
21:18
Seeing no other, Senator Disman, you're recognized to close. Thank
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
21:22
you. Again, members, I appreciate the conversation. I don't think anyone in this room thinks that I've shied away from difficult issues or
making sure that we embrace and take on issues that we need to be compassionate about. So with that, and just one example on the $65,000. I stated this at the beginning because it's really easy to lose sight that this has not been something that's happened overnight or a path that we've gone or we started down yesterday. That family, and it was out of my own curiosity yesterday,
but that family making $65,000 a year, Their effective tax rate has decreased by 45% since 2013. They have an extra $1,600 worth of money in their pocket because of the actions that we started taking back in 2013. I think that's significant. I think that's important. And again, so I don't want to lose sight that this isn't, we're not talking about this in a vacuum, it's that this is the only thing that's happened. This has been a continuation.
With that, I appreciate the conversation and the dialogue, and I appreciate a good
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
22:34
vote. Madam Secretary, please call the roll. We have a pair at the desk. Senator King, yay. Senator Letting, no. Boyd, yes. Bryant, aye. Caldwell, aye. Clark.
Crowell. Davis. Dees. Dismang. Dotson. English. Flippo. Flowers. Gilmore. Hammer. Hester. Hickey. Hill Irvin Blake Johnson
Speaker 79
23:24
Mark Johnson King Yes Letting No Love McKee Murdoch Peyton Pinzo Petty
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
23:50
Rice Scott Simon
Stone Sullivan Tucker Wallace Any senator wish to
Speaker 74
24:10
one please cast up the ballot by a vote of 29 yea, 6 nay. Senate Bill 1 passes. Please transmit to the House.
Speaker 26
24:24
That concludes our business agenda.
Any announcements? Senator Hickey, you're recognized. Members,
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
24:32
rev and tax will meet 15 minutes upon adjournment of the House. The only contingency would be, of course, that they pass the House version of the tax bill and transmit it to us. For some reason that didn't happen, then I'll cancel the meeting. But again, just everybody if you don't mind, stay around. 15 minutes upon adjournment of the house. Senator Hester, you're recognized.
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
24:57
Hey members, the logistics of today, I'd say the house doesn't come until 9.30. We're going to be able to adjourn subject to clearing of the desk and reading that house bill across. So once we adjourn here, we're done for the day. The only thing that will happen is we'll read the house bill 1001 across and clear anything else off the desk. I will like, as soon as we do adjourn, if the Republicans would meet down in the old Supreme Court room, I think we have a presentation for our fearless leader.
Speaker 15
25:33
Any other announcements? Seeing no other announcements, the Senate will stand an adjournment subject to the reading of House Bill 1001 across the desk and the clearing of the desk until 9 a.m. tomorrow, May 6th.
Agenda
Call to Order
Roll Call
Prayer
Pledge of Allegiance
Announcements
Items to be Read Across the Desk
BUSINESS AGENDA
SENATE BILLS FOR THIRD READING AND PASSAGE
SB1 J. Dismang TO REDUCE THE INCOME TAX RATES FOR INDIVIDUALS, TRUSTS, ESTATES, AND CORPORATIONS.
Vote
Announcements
Adjourn
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Speaker 3
Speaker 5
Chair
Unverified
Senator Ben Gilmore
Unverified
Speaker 20
Senator Missy Irvin Chair
Unverified
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
Speaker 38
Speaker 39
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 56
Speaker 28
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
Senator Greg Leding
Unverified
Senator Matt McKee
Unverified
Speaker 15
Speaker 79
Speaker 74
Speaker 26
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified