Capitol Notebook: Tax Cut Becomes Law, Session End Date Set

The legislature ended for the week with the signing of a tax cut bill, a rare Friday session and a possible clue as to when the legislative session may end this year.

During a morning press conference at the Capitol, Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law Senate Bill 6.

The bill, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe and House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, was geared toward middle class taxpayers making between $21,000 and $75,000 a year.

Under the law, the tax rate for people making between $35,100 and $75,000 a year would go from 7% to 6% while people making $21,000 to $35,099 would see their tax rate go from 6% to 5% percent.

The bill sets the exemption rate at 40%.

An adjournment date for this year’s session may also be in sight.

House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, turned in House Concurrent Resolution 1004 Friday.

The resolution, if approved, would recess the General Assembly on April 10.

From there, legislators would reconvene at noon May 8 for “considering vetoes, correcting errors and oversights, completing its work on proposed constitutional amendments and considering the need for further extension of the regular session of the Ninetieth General Assembly.”

The resolution has to be approved by the House and Senate to take effect.

Also on Friday, the state’s Democratic Party chairman responded to the passage of bills Thursday centering around the Private Option.

In a statement, Vince Insalaco said the bill will help the demands of people who may need the help.

“We commend the legislature for, once again, passing the Private Option and sending it to Gov. Hutchinson’s desk. We especially thank those Republican legislators who while they campaigned adamantly against the private option realized just how wrong they were to do so,” Insalaco said. “Republicans like Laurie Rushing and John Cooper campaigned against the Private Option and played to the fears of their constituents – using this issue to help defeat their Democratic Opponent who was honest and helpful with their constituents. We are glad and commend these Republicans who finally came to see what we knew to be true: that the private option makes good fiscal sense, keeps our rural hospitals open, and continues the private insurance coverage that over 200,000 Arkansans rely on – that health insurance is a good thing both morally and economically.”

“We are grateful that these Republicans finally recognized the benefit of affordable health care made possible through the Affordable Health Care Act and the Republican legislators who changed their minds and voted to support the Affordable Health Care Act through the Private Option.”

FLOOR ACTION
HB 1163
The House voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill protecting government employees from possible retribution. Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, spoke about House Bill 1163.

Bell said he had been contacted by a public employee who told him about being afraid of retribution involving a Freedom of Information Act request.

The bill would protect similar people in those types of circumstances, Bell said on the floor.

Under the bill, it would be illegal for “any public employers to discipline, to threaten to discipline, to reprimand either orally in writing, to place any notation in a public employee’s personnel file disciplining or reprimanding the public employee, or to otherwise discriminate against a public employee because the public employee exercised the right to communicate with an elected public official or exercised a right or privilege under the Freedom of Information Act of 1967.”

Bell told legislators that the bill has support from public employee groups around the state.

The bill, which passed by a 91-0 margin and now heads to the Senate, was approved Wednesday by the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committee.

HB 1150
A bill that would amend state election law by determining which party is the majority party in the state failed Friday.

The House voted 46-19, with six voting present, against House Bill 1150. The bill was five votes short of passage.

Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, said there was nothing in state law to deal with a possible quirk in the law.

Under current law, the majority party is the party that controls four out of the seven constitutional offices in the state.

However, Mayberry said there was nothing in the law that would have taken into account if a third-party candidate were to win a statewide office.

Mayberry said her law would have taken care of the concern.

“If no political party’s elected candidates under subdivision (17) (A) of this section constitute a majority of the constitutional offices, ‘majority party’ means the political party that received the greatest total number of votes for all of its candidates for the constitutional offices of this state in the last preceding general election,” the law read.

NEW BILLS
A person wanting to buy a lottery ticket may have a new avenue to do so if a bill filed Friday morning is approved by the legislature.

Rep. Chris Richey, D-Helena/West Helena, filed House Bill 1280.

The bill, which would amend current law, would allow people to use debit cards to buy tickets.

“A retailer may choose whether to accept debit cards as a form of payment for tickets,” the bill read. “A retailer that chooses to accept debit cards as a form of payment for tickets is responsible for any costs, fees or charge backs that may be incurred with debit card sales.”

Also, a retailer shall not charge a fee for the customer to use the debit card, the bill noted.

A bill would also create an exemption to protect the identity and contact information of children under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

Rep. David Whitaker, D-Fayetteville, filed House Bill 1284.

Under the bill, the “name, age, address, email address, phone number and other contact information of a person under the age of 18” would be exempt under the 1967 law.

Currently, records involving juvenile court and adoption cases as well as most child abuse records are exempt under the law.