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Bills discussed (1)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
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HB1001
Act 2
· 5 mentions in transcript, chapter
Matched: “is the passage of house bill 1001. prepare the machine madam clerk everyone voted”
|
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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2:30
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Speaker 9
13:30
I invite the members, staff, press, and guests in the galleries to stand and be led in prayer by
Pastor Richard Hamlin, Senior Pastor of Faith Baptist Church of Cabot, to remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance to
Speaker 12
13:50
be led by Representative Bruce Cozart. Heavenly Father, you tell us very clearly, very plainly, that we are to be careful, to be anxious, not to worry about anything. God, this is one of the most difficult commands
for us to follow. In spite of this, God, we carry our burdens, our anxieties, wake us up in the night, sometimes rob us of our sleep, and we just walk around with them all the time. And I know in a body like this, there are many, many anxieties, many worries, and And so we just pray, God, that you would help us because we need your help to do this, to cast all our cares upon you, for you care for us.
Speaker 1
14:41
in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Members, please indicate your presence by pushing your
yellow present button. Prepare the machine, Madam Clerk.
As everyone indicated their presence. up the ballot, Madam Clerk. There are 97 members present. Chair sees a quorum. Are there any requests for leave? Representative Jay Richardson, for what purpose? Leave. You're recognized. Leave for Representative Springer. Is leave granted for Representative Joy Springer? So ordered. Representative John Milligan, for
what purpose? Leave. You're recognized. Leave for Representative Meeks. Is leave
granted for Representative Steven Meeks? So ordered. Representative Mike Hochul moves that we dispense of the reading of the previous day's journal. No objection. So ordered. Madam Clerk, any reports from select committees, reports from standing committees, any unfinished business? Madam Clerk, any executive communication from the governor? None. Members, if you would at this time, I would ask you to rise. I'd like to welcome our guests here to the house chamber today. In the back of the
room, we have with us Corporal Matt West, Arkansas State Police Regulatory Services, and Corporal Landon Mills, Game Warden, Arkansas Game and Fish. Gentlemen, thank you for your service to Arkansas. Thank you for being here
today. Thank you, gentlemen. Members serving as our doctor of the day today, we have Dr. Bala Simon,
Clinic of Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine. He is a local physician from here in
Little Rock. Guest today of Representative Ashley Hudson. Please give him a welcome applause. Serving alongside Dr. Simon today,
we have our nurse, Ms. Lee Fazio. Ms. Lee, thank you for being here. Thank you, members. You may be seated. Representative
Mark Perry, for what purpose? Point of personal privilege. You're recognized to come to the well.
Speaker 29
17:36
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, members, when
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
17:40
you hear words such as caring, compassionate, dedicated, thoughtful, reliable, skilled, professional, supportive, you can think of a lot of professions. But however, there's one profession that comes to mind, and it's nursing. As we celebrate National Nurses Week, I'd like to take an opportunity to recognize several people. Two of them are in our House chambers here.
We have Representative Garner and Representative Bentley, who are nurses. Of course, we have Ms. Fazio, who is our reliable nurse who takes care of us. But we have three guests with us in the East Gallery from UAMS. We have Tammy Jones, who's the Chief Nursing Officer. We have Sarah Rhodes, who's the Dean of the College of Nursing. We have Ava Coleman, who's actually a constituent of mine, who's the Assistant Director of Student Enrollment at UAMS of the College of Nursing.
Speaker 31
18:41
If y'all would, welcome them to the gallery.
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
18:56
On behalf of all the nurses in Arkansas, we appreciate what you do for the citizens of Arkansas. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you,
Representative Perry. Members, we'll now go to the red calendar.
Madam Clerk, please read House Bill 1001. House Bill
Speaker 36
19:16
1001 by Representative Eves to reduce the income tax rates for individuals, trusts, estates, and corporations. Representative Eves,
Chair
Unverified
19:23
you're recognized to explain the bill. Thank
you, Mr. Speaker. Colleagues, today we are hearing House Bill 1001. It's a pretty simple bill. It lowers the top personal income tax rate down to 3.7 and the corporate rate down to 4.1.
That's what it does. We could end it there, but I want to put what we're doing into a little bit of perspective. Over the past decade, Arkansas has returned billions of dollars to the taxpayers of Arkansas. We've lowered rates in every single income level, simplified the tax tables, and built a system where working families can keep more of what they earn. That's not a tax cut for the rich. That's real relief for the people of Arkansas. But it's important to remember this is a continuation of a proven policy.
It's not a new idea. it's the next step in a decades-long effort to lower the taxes for our citizens. The focus has always been from day one on working families. We started by cutting taxes for low-income Arkansans, eliminating taxes for tens of thousands in our state, and building a system where the lowest earners pay the least. This keeps Arkansas competitive. We all know we have neighboring states that have no income tax, but states all over the country are either eliminating or lowering their income tax rates.
So we either have to stay competitive or we're going to fall behind. And the success of this strategy is pretty clear. Arkansas is now recognized as one of the leading states in economic outlook. And maintaining that momentum matters. But the most important point is this. The 3.7% personal rate reaches ordinary families. This is broad-based tax relief for everyday working Arkansans. So if you earn $26,400 or more, this bill will affect you. That is relief for your
teachers, your nurses, truck drivers, factory workers, and small business owners, police officers, families just trying to keep up with inflation. This bill is about something simple and fundamental, letting working Arkansans keep more of what they earn. It strengthens the state's competitiveness, rewards hard work, and keeps us on a responsible, proven path of broad-based tax relief. Over the past decade, we've delivered meaningful across-the-board tax
relief, and today those reforms add up to nearly a billion dollars a year staying in the pockets of Arkansas families. This isn't concentrated at the top. This will reach more than one million Arkansans. So for the average taxpayer, that means real money back in their household budget. At least $800 to $1,000 every year or more is what we're seeing. That's for groceries, that's gas, school supplies, or savings for the future. That is real relief that people can feel.
So let's keep the momentum going. With that, I appreciate a good vote. Representative Eaves has
explained the bill. Would anyone like to speak against the bill? Representative Hudson, you're recognized to speak against the bill. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
22:57
Speaker. Today I rise in opposition to this bill.
And I want to be clear at the outset, this is not a political vote for me. Since my first term in 2021, I've supported nearly every single tax cut that has come before this body, even when it wasn't popular with my own party, because I believed it was the right thing to do for the people of Arkansas and of West Little Rock. So this is uncomfortable for me to speak against a tax cut, but I can't support this one. Because at some point, we have to be honest, not just about what this bill does, but also what it fails to do.
This legislation lowers the top individual income tax rate from 3.9% to 3.7% and the corporate rate from 4.3% to 4.1%, two-tenths of a percentage point. But what does that actually mean for the people that we represent? For many Arkansans, this tax cut will amount to about $50 a year. That $800 to $1,000 number that you just heard referenced is cumulative over all the tax cuts that we've had over the past decade. The biggest benefits that my
colleagues have referenced in committee yesterday and on the floor today are really reserved for the very highest wage earners in the state. For many of your constituents this tax cut amounts to just a few dollars a month, pennies a day for some districts very few families will see any benefit at all and yet we're told this is something we should celebrate the reality is these benefits don't scale evenly the richer you are the more you get the more squeezed you are by gas and groceries the less you get and when we cut
corporate tax rates as this bill does a significant share of those benefits go to large out-of-state corporations not the families in our districts who are struggling to make ends meet we have to recognize that this corporate tax cut isn't tax relief for arkansans but a giveaway of critically needed state revenue to corporations a whopping 95 of the corporate tax cut will go out of state shipping 25 million dollars of arkansans hard-earned tax money to home offices in places
like California, Texas, and New York. Let's talk about postpartum Medicaid. Our state is in the midst of an infant and maternal death crisis. We started the work to end this tragedy last year with healthy moms and healthy babies, and we could finish the job right now. Arkansas is the only state in the country that hasn't extended postpartum Medicaid coverage to struggling new moms. What would doing that cost? Roughly $2 million a year. $2 million. For reference, we could
take this step towards solving our state's infant and maternal death crisis 13 times over just with the corporate tax revenue in this bill. But we chose not to. Let's talk about food insecurity. We know what it costs to make a difference because we passed a bill last year to offer free school breakfast. We also know that right now, today, there are food deserts in every single county in our state, and we haven't devoted a single dime to tackling this problem.
And still tonight, one in four Arkansans will go to sleep hungry. These Arkansans will receive zero relief from this tax cut. We could do something to alleviate the hunger here at home, but we didn't do that. Additionally, because of changes in SNAP at the federal level, Arkansas immediately needs to pick up an additional $18 million tab just to cover SNAP administration costs and keep our program staffed. Next year, that administrative cost rises to $24
million. Next October, we may be on the hook for an additional $54 million tax or cost shift based Based on our most recent SNAP payment data, if we don't pay these bills, growing numbers of children and seniors will face hunger. We could face Arkansas's hunger crisis head-on, but we chose not to. Let's talk about education priorities in early childhood. We've allocated roughly $380 million for voucher programs, but when it comes to early
childhood education, when it comes to working families who just need access to childcare, Last week, we couldn't find $22 million to clear half of our early childhood education waitlist. It is not lost on me that over the last month in this room, we have complained about handouts to Arkansans trying to work and care for their children while funding corporate welfare for rich corporations and handouts to out-of-state billionaires who don't feel it when a gallon of gas gets more expensive.
We tell ourselves that these out-of-state billionaires and corporations are deserving. because they'll strengthen our economy and create jobs. But all of us know they already benefit from the low cost of living, low cost of real estate, and willing workforce that we have here. At the same time that we celebrate this tax cut, the consequences of failing to invest in Arkansas are playing out. Last week, the Little Rock School District had to cancel its summer pre-K programs because the Department of Education would not or could not confirm
whether school readiness assistance funding would be available. That decision left 1,300 working families scrambling to find summer childcare. Not next year, not hypothetically, right now. That's what underinvestment looks like. I believe Arkansas families also deserve incentives and investment. Colleagues, I would argue that a strategic investment in early childhood education would create jobs all over the state, empower parents in all of our legislative districts
to remain in or reenter the workforce, and meet the workforce needs of businesses in every county. It would be a relief and a stimulus package for young Arkansas families that far exceeds anything in these tax cuts. We could have helped working families. We chose not to. Let's talk about rural health care. Hospitals in Arkansas are struggling and closing. Just this year, we've lost labor and delivery units in Ouachita and Sebastian counties, an ER in Jacksonville,
and oncology and pediatric services in Fort Smith. As of today, there are only 31 hospitals in the entire state that provide labor and delivery services, forcing expecting moms to travel outside their home counties to reach care. For $25 million, Arkansas could stabilize rural hospitals and maternity care by funding emergency operating support for at-risk hospitals, providing incentives to keep obstetric services open, supporting rural provider recruitment programs, helping prevent closures, and ensuring women don't lose access to care close to home.
That same revenue we're kicking back to out-of-state corporations could directly sustain health care access in Arkansas communities that need it most. We could step in. We chose not to. Let's talk about agriculture. Our farmers are in crisis. In 2025, Arkansas led the nation in farm bankruptcies. These hardworking families need and deserve our help. Strategic support would cost tens of millions. not hundreds of millions. Using that same $25 million,
Arkansas could expand ag research and extension, on-farm water conservation programs, and targeted support for beginning farmers. Instead of sending most of those dollars out of state through corporate tax cuts, we could reinvest them directly into Arkansas producers and rural communities with immediate and tangible returns. We could help protect our rural economies. We chose not to. So let's be clear. I'm skeptical that as the cost of living crushes Arkansas families, that we have $25 million
to spare for out-of-state billionaires and corporations, but we don't have $2 million for postpartum moms, $18 million to cover our new SNAP costs and fight hunger for kids and seniors, $22 million for quality childcare, or targeted investments to keep hospitals and farmers afloat. Instead of addressing any of this, we are celebrating a tax cut that for many Arkansans amounts to pennies a day. While delivering the largest benefits to those at the very top and to corporations who are not based in our state.
That's not relief. That is not serious policy. What it is, is a soundbite. A line and a campaign mailer. Nothing more. And frankly, it is an insult to the people of Arkansas. Because if you go back home, if you sit at a kitchen table in your district, you won't find people asking for pennies a day. You'll find people asking why their hospitals are closing, why child care is out of reach, why groceries and gas cost more every week, why new moms are falling through the cracks.
They're asking why, when we clearly have the resources, we are choosing not to use them. That's the pattern. We could have invested in mothers, we chose not to. We could have fed hungry families, we chose not to. We could have supported child care, hospitals, and farmers, and we chose not to. Those were our choices, and today I'm making mine. I choose not to vote for this bill, and I respectfully ask for you to join me.
Representative Hudson has spoke against the bill. Would anyone like to speak for the bill? Representative Ray, you're recognized to speak for
Representative David Ray
Unverified
32:53
the bill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Colleagues, when we take the income tax rate to 3.7%, it will be the lowest our income tax rate has been in the last 103 years since we first enacted the income tax in this state
in 1928, and that is something to be proud of because by lowering taxes we are giving workers a pay raise, letting them keep more of each paycheck, putting their hard-earned tax dollars back in their pocket, not just a few at the top, like you just heard, for 1.1 million Arkansas taxpayers. You can look at the fiscal note and see that number. With With gas prices and grocery prices on the rise, putting money back in the pockets of
hardworking Arkansas families helps them deal with high costs and affordability. It also makes Arkansas more economically competitive with other states as we incentivize work and productivity as we continue seeking to attract high-quality, good-paying jobs to our state with the best possible business climate. If it
sounds like we've had this debate before, it's because we have. This is
the same debate that happens every time we take another step in this process
of lowering our income taxes to become more economically competitive. Yesterday, we heard a whole lot about fully funding this or fully funding that. It's a really convenient argument for the opposition to make because they never define what "fully funded" means. It's just some nebulous term that keeps getting thrown out there. I guarantee you, if we doubled the budget tomorrow, they would still find things that they say are not, quote, "fully funded." It's just a continuation of moving the goalposts.
It's a purposefully elusive target. The truth is, we've invested in tons of key priorities, whether it's highways and infrastructure, taking teacher pay from bottom five in the country to top five in the country, paid maternity leave for the first time ever, education spending at record levels, this past session, healthy moms, healthy babies, free breakfast for public school students, there is a long, long list. Does that mean we have solved every problem? No, of course not.
Everyone knows that. Every state in America has problems. And you know what? A lot of the states that are not cutting taxes like we're doing, they have just as many, if not more, problems than we have here in Arkansas. If you don't believe me, just look at Minnesota. Good grief. The idea that more spending is going to solve all of our problems is ridiculous. All of the things that we want to spend money on, many of the things that were just mentioned, by the way, I don't remember seeing a bunch of budget amendments to solve the problems that were just mentioned.
All of the things that we want to spend more money on, The only way we can do that is if we keep incentivizing work, keep attracting new movers and creating an environment where businesses, large and small, can continue to start, grow jobs, expand, hire new workers, and grow our tax base. Instead of saying we need to fully fund this or fully fund that, it would be a whole lot more honest if they just said exactly how much more they want working families to pay in taxes.
Because if you add up the cumulative total for a typical family in Arkansas, just take, for example, a husband and wife, both on a starting teacher salary, the cumulative total of all these savings in income tax cuts since 2013 is around $2,000 per year. And then you add up what we've done with the Homestead Tax Credit, adding $350 a year in savings, the grocery tax savings from eliminating that, And then you add on the savings from the Trump tax cuts,
which for a typical family is around $2,900. You're looking at over $5,000 in annual savings back into the pockets of families. So if you want families to pay more, just be honest and tell them how much more they need to be paying. Tell them you want them to pay $2,000 a year more. Tell them you want them to pay $4,000 a year more or $5,000 a year more. This is not some irresponsible or unsustainable tax cut. This is two-tenths of a percent. It is the latest measured and responsible step
in a long list of measured and responsible income tax reductions. And it is making our state more economically competitive while we continue to strike the right balance between economic growth and funding key priorities. So I'd encourage you to be a yes vote. Representative Ray has spoke
for the bill. Would anyone like to speak against the bill?
For the bill. Representative Eves, you're recognized to close for your bill. Representative Eves is
closed for the bill. Question before the House is
the passage of House Bill 1001. Prepare the machine, Madam Clerk.
Speaker 28
38:13
Has everyone voted? Has everyone voted? Cast up the ballot.
The vote of 79 yea, 17 nay, and 0 present. The bill is passed. Representative Milligan, for
what purpose motion I'll hear your motion concern
Speaker 58
38:31
at the house rule 33m I make I move that we stand adjourned till 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning it's a proper motion it's non-debatable
all those in favor say aye pose nay the ayes have it I have any committee announcements representative Vaught for what purpose announcement you're recognized girls
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
38:53
state committee will meet 15 minutes upon adjournment in big mac bay representative hawk for what purpose announcement you're recognized
Speaker 61
39:03
voice state uh meeting will be 15 minutes upon adjournment in big mac a representative lee
Speaker 60
39:08
johnson what purpose you're recognized uh joint
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
39:16
budget will meet tomorrow morning at a.m big mac thank you
any other committee announcements madam clerk read the bills oh representative Kavanaugh. Sorry, didn't see. What purpose? Announcement. You're recognized. Revantax
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
39:30
will meet at 1.30 p.m. in Big Mac B.
Revantax, 1.30 today, Big Mac B. Madam Clerk, read the
bills. Senate Bill 1. Without objection, read the bills a second time. Senate Bill 1. Revantax. Members, before we officially adjourn, I just want to make you aware, tomorrow, as Representative Milligan stated, the House will convene at 9.30 tomorrow morning. The purpose of that will be to take up the Senate bill.
by which they passed out today should pass out of our Revin Tax Committee this afternoon. We'll meet
at 9.30 tomorrow morning to take up that bill. Five minutes
upon adjournment of session tomorrow, we will have a full meeting of the House Caucus. So please, as you're kind of planning your schedule tomorrow, once we adjourn session tomorrow, sign he die, House Caucus will meet five minutes upon adjournment for that to take up one House caucus issue. Anything else? Seeing none, the desk will remain open as needed for the reading of the bills and upon completion
of the items named in the adjourned resolution. House will be adjourned until 9.30 tomorrow morning.
Agenda
Call to Order
Prayer
Pledge
Electronic Roll Call
HB1001 Eaves TO REDUCE THE INCOME TAX RATES FOR INDIVIDUALS, TRUSTS, ESTATES, AND CORPORATIONS.
Point of Personal Privilege
Motion to Adjourn
Announcements
Adjournment
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Speaker 1
Speaker 9
Representative Les D. Eaves Chair
Unverified
Speaker 12
Speaker 13
Speaker 29
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
Speaker 31
Speaker 36
Chair
Unverified
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
Representative David Ray
Unverified
Speaker 28
Speaker 58
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Speaker 61
Speaker 60
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified