Gov. Sanders announces ACCESS higher ed details, seeks to remove DEI metrics

by Steve Brawner (BRAWNERSTEVE@MAC.COM)

Gov. Sarah Sanders unveiled details of her Arkansas ACCESS higher education reform plan on Friday (Feb. 14). The roughly 110-page bill, sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, and Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, is expected to be filed Feb. 17.

The acronym ACCESS stands for acceleration, common sense, cost, eligibility, scholarships and standardization. Sanders said higher education reform is her top priority this legislative session. She said she wants to reduce the system’s complexity so both high school seniors and middle-aged moms can access a college education.

“We all see the same issues,” she said. “The system has become too complicated, too woke, and far too often doesn’t fully prepare students for the jobs of the future. ACCESS will fix that.”

Gov. Sanders announces ACCESS higher ed details, seeks to remove DEI metrics

Gov. Sarah Sanders on Friday (Feb. 14) unveiled details of her Arkansas ACCESS higher education reform plan during a press conference at the State Capitol.

Tax cut bills, Game & Fish appropriation clear House, Senate chambers

by Roby Brock (roby@talkbusiness.net)

Arkansas lawmakers overwhelmingly passed major tax relief and a lingering budget appropriation in the Senate and House chambers on Tuesday (June 18), the second day of a special session at the state capitol.

SB1, by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, would would reduce the top personal income tax rate from 4.4% to 3.9% and the top corporate tax rate from 4.8% to 4.3%. It also moves $290 million of the state’s $708.1 million estimated budget surplus to the Arkansas Reserve Fund Set-Aside fund. The measure passed with 28 votes, while 5 opposed it and two were excused from voting.

A House companion bill, HB1001 by Rep. Les Eaves, R-Searcy, cleared the House easily with 86 votes in favor to 10 opposed and four not voting or present.

Tax cut bills, Game & Fish appropriation clear House, Senate chambers

Tax relief measures, Game & Fish Commission budget advance in special session

by Roby Brock (roby@talkbusiness.net)

Arkansas lawmakers on Monday (June 17) advanced an appropriation bill for the Game & Fish Commission (G&FC) and complimentary tax cut bills to reduce the top personal and corporate income tax rates.

Gov. Sarah Sanders called a special session of the 94th Arkansas General Assembly for purposes of reducing taxes and passing the G&FC appropriation measure.

Senators on the Revenue and Tax Committee advanced SB1 and SB3. SB1, led by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, would reduce the top personal income tax rate from 4.4% to 3.9% and the top corporate tax rate from 4.8% to 4.3%.

Tax relief measures, Game & Fish Commission budget advance in special session

Arkansas Senate passes amended net metering after companion bill stalls on House floor

KUAR | By Wesley Brown / Arkansas Advocate

A thrice-amended bill that opponents say would upend the state’s burgeoning solar industry easily passed the Arkansas Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 295, sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R-Beebe), passed on a vote of 24-9 and was immediately sent to the House, where a twin bill awaits on the lower chamber’s floor that will likely face further revisions.

In speaking for SB 295 at the Senate well, Dismang told fellow senators that is not his intent to kill the state’s flourishing rooftop solar industry only three years after the Legislature passed the Solar Access Act of 2019. That law, largely negotiated and authored by former Public Service Commission (PSC) chair Ted Thomas, put the state’s existing 1:1 net metering policy in place.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-03-08/arkansas-senate-passes-amended-net-metering-after-companion-bill-stalls-on-house-floor

Julie McCarthy/NPR

Solar panels are seen on the roof of the Indian Habitat Center, a conference and office complex in the central part of Delhi.

Arkansas executive order further delays ARPA funds distribution

KUAR | By Antoinette Grajeda / Arkansas Advocate

An executive order from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders prompted the withdrawal Wednesday of more than a dozen requests for federal pandemic relief funds that had been pending for months on a legislative panel’s agenda.

The order issued Tuesday by Sanders abolished the ARPA Steering Committee and the Governor’s Infrastructure Planning Advisory Committee. The steering committee’s job had been to review funding requests under the American Rescue Plan Act and sending approved projects to legislators for consideration.

The governor’s order caused confusion about what action, if any, could be taken on ARPA-related items by the Joint Budget Committee’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review subcommittee during its Wednesday meeting.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-01-26/arkansas-executive-order-further-delays-arpa-funds-distribution

Arkansas Senate

Sen. Jonathan Dismang reviews documents during a January 2022 budget hearing. Dismang wanted to hold off on approving federal pandemic relief requests on Wednesday following an executive order that abolished the ARPA Steering Committee.

Economists predict ‘mild recession’ as Arkansas gears up for 2023 legislative session

KUAR | By Wesley Brown / Arkansas Advocate

A mild recession and a holiday spending hangover. That’s what economic forecasters predict for 2023 as lawmakers head to the state Capitol in January.

Rising interest rates and persistent inflation will push the economy into a downturn, experts say, and those economic clouds could also cause the 94th General Assembly to consider any robust spending programs in light of a possible nationwide slowdown.

As Gov. Asa Hutchinson winds down his administration, he recently reported to lawmakers that Arkansas’ budget coffers are overflowing with $2.78 billion of reserve funding.

https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2023-01-04/economists-predict-mild-recession-as-arkansas-gears-up-for-2023-legislative-session

Photo Courtesy Gov. Asa Hutchinson/Arkansasadvocate.Com

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (left) and Sen. Jonathan Dismang (R-Beebe) talk before Hutchinson presents his fiscal year 2024 state budget at the Nov. 10, 2022, meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee. The budget projects a surplus despite forecasts of a mild recession in 2023.

Budget chair says guardrails in place for accelerated tax cuts

by Roby Brock (roby@talkbusiness.net)

State Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, says he’s comfortable accelerating tax cuts the governor wants to speed up with a $1.6 billion surplus on hand and money in a state rainy day fund, but he’s hesitant to commit to new expenses, including teacher salaries until more data is collected.

Appearing on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics, Dismang said he also wants constituents to be reminded there have been other tax cuts for low- and middle-income Arkansans that have already taken place.

“We’re accelerating. We’ve already put, in fact, as far as January 1st, 2022, a low-income tax cut and a middle-income tax cut. When we combined the [tax] tables, those totaled roughly, if I remember correctly, about $150 million alone for all those individuals that were making less than $84,000 a year,” he said.

https://talkbusiness.net/2022/07/budget-chair-says-guardrails-in-place-for-accelerated-tax-cuts/

Bill to Curtail Scams on Seniors Unveiled

by Marine Glisovic

Arkansas lawmakers want to make it more difficult for scammers who target senior citizens.

A bill filed this week would create a reporting system that involves financial institutions and investigative authorities.

Co-sponsor of HB 1391, Rep. Carlton Wing, R-North Little Rock, said he was inspired to file the bill after his Sunday school teacher was duped.

Wing along with another co-sponsor of the bill, Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, R-Ark., held a press conference announcing the bill’s purpose on Wednesday (March 31).

https://talkbusiness.net/2021/03/bill-to-curtail-scams-on-seniors-unveiled/