Legislative Update: 88th General Assembly by Jack A. McNulty
T
he Regular session of the Arkansas 88th General Assembly began on the cold, snowy day of January 10, 2011, and lasted until April 27, 2011. It is said to have been the most bipartisan General Assembly which has ever convened in Arkansas with 20 Democrats and 15 Republicans in the Senate and 54 Democrats and 44 Republicans (with 2 vacancies) in the House of Representatives. Less than 30% of the House had served in more than one regular session. The Lieutenant Governor, who presided each day over the Senate, had never served in a public office. Tea Party paranoia was running rampant. Even those who had observed the workings of the General Assembly for many years didn’t know what to expect under all of these foreign circumstances. From January 10, 2011, through March 7, 2011 (the deadline for filing bills), 2,235 bills were introduced. About 56% (1,242) of them were enacted. The number of bills introduced was less than the number introduced in previous recent sessions as were the number of bills enacted and the percentage of bills introduced which were enacted. The purpose of this article is to identify and summarize a number of new acts which may be of interest to legal practitioners. It is not the purpose to analyze and discuss those new acts in detail, but rather to identify them so that the reader may review and analyze those of interest. Of the hundreds of issues which were addressed, three received the most attention and were most widely publicized—corrections, tax cuts and congressional redistricting. Corrections The Public Safety Improvement Act (Act 570) is a comprehensive attempt to address the problems of prison funding and overcrowding. According to the preamble, the intent of the Act is to implement comprehensive measures designed to reduce recidivism, hold offenders accountable, and contain correction costs. Examples of some of the 14
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many issues addressed in this massive Bill (164 pages) are the thresholds for various theft offenses, probation, parole, early discharge, home detention, drug courts, incentive funding for reducing commitments to the Department of Corrections and record keeping requirements. Tax Cuts Initially, a number of bills passed in the House but were not addressed in the Senate and a number of bills passed in the Senate but were not addressed in the House. As the session progressed, an agreement was reached to pass four basic tax cut bills: •Reduction in Grocery Sales Tax (Act 755): The sales tax on groceries has been reduced by the legislature in every session since 2007 when it was 6 percent. This session, the tax was lowered by one half of a percent to 1.5 percent.
•Reduction in Sales Tax on Natural Gas and Electricity Used Directly in the Manufacturing Process (Act 754): Beginning in 2007, the sales tax on natural gas and electricity used directly in the manufacturing process has gradually been reduced on an annual basis with a cap on the total amount of refunds. This process was continued this session with the percentage of the tax being reduced to 2.625% on July 1, 2011. •Sales Tax Holiday (Act 757): At least one bill with the concept of declaring a sales tax holiday on certain items in preparation for the beginning of the school year has been introduced in each regular session of the General Assembly for years. This session the idea was embraced in the form of Act 757 which creates a sales tax holiday on the first Saturday and Sunday in August for such items as school instructional materials and art supplies.