Tax Cut, Budget And Private Option On Agenda This Week

Capitol action will be plentiful during a short week as lawmakers and Gov. Asa Hutchinson return Tuesday for the state’s legislative session.

Hutchinson is scheduled to release his budget for 2015-2016 early in the week, have his tax cut proposal head to a state Senate committee Wednesday and deliver a key speech on the private option and health care reform Thursday.

The legislative calendar will also be full with regular meetings.

On this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics, which airs Sundays at 9 a.m. on KATV Ch. 7, our political roundtable discussed what to expect from Gov. Hutchinson’s highly-anticipated speech later in the week.

Hutchinson is set to deliver the speech on Thursday at 10 a.m. at UAMS’ Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute.

Will Hutchinson embrace the private option or at least the funding stream from the Affordable Care Act? If so, what provisions will he insist be tied to the plan? Will there be a request for new waivers? Will the speech be general or offer specifics?

Political Animals Club President Rex Nelson, KATV’s Elicia Dover and Talk Business & Politics contributor Frank Scott offered their commentary in a discussion with host Roby Brock.

The following is a breakdown of the week ahead in Little Rock.

TUESDAY
Four House committees are scheduled to meet Tuesday, with two committees (Education and Public Health, Welfare and Labor) hearing bills.

The Public Health committee is supposed to hear House Bill 1076, sponsored by State Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley.

The bill would require doctors and other personnel to be in the room when an abortion procedure is done and would seek to regulate the use of certain drugs used to induce an abortion.

The bill would also require a doctor or “a person acting on behalf of the physician who induces the abortion shall make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the patient returns 12 to 18 days for a follow-up visit.”

A similar bill, sponsored by State Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, is expected to be heard Wednesday in the Senate Public Health committee.

Also, the House Education Committee is expected to take up two bills. One bill, House Bill 1044, sponsored by State Rep. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette, will seek to teach cursive handwriting in the state’s elementary schools.

Another bill, House Bill 1077, sponsored by State Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, would seek to amend state law involving concealed handguns in a university, college or community college building.

WEDNESDAY
The Senate Revenue and Taxation committee could discuss the Hutchinson tax cut proposal at a 10 a.m. hearing.

Senate Bill 6, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy and House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, would cut taxes for the middle class.

On Wednesday, Hutchinson released information about the proposal.

Under the proposal, people who make over $35,100 would see their tax rate go from 7% to 6%, while people who make between $21,000 and $35,099 would see their rate go from 6% to 5%.

The plan would also have protections for lower-income residents, Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said in a statement Wednesday.

“In addition, beginning tax year 2015, taxpayers having taxable income of less than $21,000 will have tax rates reduced by one-tenth of one percent on all income between $4,300 and $20,999. The plan also retains the reduced tax rates previously enacted by Act 1459 of 2013 for those low-income taxpayers making less than $21,000,” Davis said in the statement. “Beginning tax year 2016, taxpayers having taxable income in excess of $75,000 will pay tax on that portion of their income of $35,100 and above at the rate of 6.9 percent. The Governor’s plan incorporates portions of the tax relief previously provided by Act 1459 for those taxpayers making more than $75,000 by retaining the top tax rate of 6.9 percent.”

The proposal also has a “cliff effect” for people who make between $75,000 and $80,000, with a bracket adjustment between $40 and $440, Davis said in the statement.

The plan is expected to reduce the state’s general revenues by $2 million for fiscal year 2015 and $50 million for fiscal year 2016. However, Davis said in the statement that the reduction in FY 2016 was partly offset by a delay of portions of the 2013 law. That would reduce the $50 million number to around $34 million in FY 2016.

THURSDAY
Gov. Hutchinson is on the agenda for a University of Arkansas board of trustees meeting, which is being held at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Hutchinson is slated to speak at 10 a.m. on the day he’s promised to deliver a major health care policy speech. Hutchinson was in Washington, D.C. last week with Senate Majority Leader Jim Hendren, Public Health Committee Chairman Rep. Kelley Linck, DHS director John Selig and the state’s new surgeon general, Greg Bledsoe.