Tax Cut Bills Tabled In House Committee

Three tax cut bills that passed the full Senate were on trial in a House committee today, but that’s as far as they got.

SB 274, SB 275 and SB 276 were all expected to be considered in the House Revenue and Tax Committee this morning.

SB 274 by Sen. Gilbert Baker (R-Conway) would raise the threshold for the application of the used car tax from $2,500 to $5,000. It would have a revenue impact of roughly $7.4 million per year.

When he presented the bill and it was time for a committee vote, the bill was tabled on a voice vote initiated by Rep. Uvalde Lindsey (D-Fayetteville). A majority of the 20-member committee, which consists of 12 Republicans, favored the vote.

That caused two other sponsors to delay their efforts to pass a manufacturing tax break and the Governor’s half-cent grocery tax reduction – both of which have passed the full Senate.

Clearly, the discussion did not go as planned.

In an afternoon interview on KARN Newsradio’s Dave Elswick show, Sen. Baker suggested that a promised vote by freshman Rep. Stephen Meeks (R-Greenbrier) was withdrawn.

"He went with the Democratic Speaker and tabled the bill," Baker said. "Today, it wasn’t there and I don’t know why that is."

When told of Baker’s remarks, Meeks replied via his Twitter account that he was one of two votes in the committee voting against tabling the legislation.  House Republicans said that with the just-released revenue report for February, Speaker Robert Moore (D-Arkansas City) had asked for more review of tax cut bills and spending priorities.

House Revenue and Tax Committee chairman Rep. Davy Carter (R-Cabot) later said, "Anybody who thinks Representatives in the House Revenue and Tax Committee don’t want tax reform is wrong." He added that his committee has expressed an interest in tax relief that is "appropriate, broad-based and long-term."

"We are looking at a lot of tax cut measures and the bottom line is we want more," Carter said.

The action highlights a rift we’ve reported on earlier this week. House and Senate leaders, particularly Republican legislators, are split on advancing tax cuts between the two chambers.

Yesterday, HB 1369 by Rep. Matthew Shepherd (R-El Dorado), which would create a state sales tax holiday for back-to-school shopping, could not clear a Senate tax panel. Next week, Rep. Ed Garner (R-Maumelle) plans to run his capital gains tax elimination bill in the Senate Revenue and Tax Committee.