Arkansas
Arkansas tax cut proposals sail through committees on first day of special session • Arkansas Advocate

Two committees of Arkansas lawmakers approved measures to decrease income taxes and increase the homestead tax credit on Monday, the first day of the Legislature’s second special session in nine months.
Both the House and Senate Revenue and Tax committees passed, with no dissent, identical bills that seek to cut the top corporate income tax rate from 4.8% to 4.3% and the top individual income tax rate from 4.4% to 3.9%, retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year.
These cuts would reduce the state’s general revenue by a cumulative $483.5 million in fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1, and by $322.2 million each fiscal year afterward, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration’s fiscal impact report on Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1001.
The committees also passed Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 1002, which propose increasing the homestead property tax credit from $425 to $500. Lawmakers previously increased the tax credit from $375 to $425 during the 2023 legislative session.
Both SB1 and HB1001 have emergency clauses, meaning they would go into effect immediately upon Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ signature. If they become law, corporate income tax rates will have decreased by 2.8% and individual income tax rates by 1% since April of last year.
The Arkansas special session tax cuts explained
In April 2023, state lawmakers approved more than $100 million in cuts to the top individual and corporate tax rates. During September’s special session, legislators lowered the top individual and top corporate income tax rates from 4.7% to 4.4% and from 5.1% to 4.8%, respectively. They also created a one-time, non-refundable $150 tax credit for those earning up to about $90,000.
The tax cut bills will require $290 million in general revenue to be set aside in a reserve fund on July 2 in case the money is needed to make up for the decrease in state general revenue due to the tax cuts.
No one spoke for or against the homestead tax credit increase before either committee, and the Senate committee passed the proposal with no debate.
The credit is available to property owners on the property that is their primary residence, reducing their real property tax liability, which is paid at the county level.
The homestead bills propose that on or before Jan. 30 of each year, the state’s chief fiscal officer will report the balance of the Property Tax Relief Trust Fund, whether the fund could support an increase of the homestead property tax credit, and if so, how much of an increase the fund could support.
The trust fund had $255.6 million in it at the end of the 2023 calendar year, Paul Gehring, the finance department’s assistant commissioner of revenue policy and legal, told the House committee Monday.
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Tax cut discussion
Democratic lawmakers have criticized the proposed income tax cuts for primarily affecting wealthy Arkansans. Republicans, who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature, have said the cuts will keep money in the pockets of working people.
Nicholas Horton, founder and CEO of the conservative group Opportunity Arkansas, spoke in favor of the tax cuts before the House committee. Horton said the government “takes more than it needs,” echoing Rep. Les Eaves, R-Searcy, the House sponsor of both bills.
“Arkansas can’t continue to see $700, $800, $900 million surpluses and not think that we’re over-collecting from our citizens,” Eaves said.
Sen. Tyler Dees, R-Siloam Springs, said he hoped lower taxes would give people more resources to band together during disasters, such as the tornadoes that swept through his Northwest Arkansas district in May.
High death rates, unchanging poverty level puts Arkansas among worst states for child well-being
“What I’ve seen in the last three weeks is the speed of the private industries and individual citizens to give directly to those impacted instantly,” Dees said. “…I believe the best impact that we can have for those in need is to give dollars back to individual citizens so they can give back to their community.”
Keesa Smith-Brantley, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said private entities do help people in difficult times, but not uniformly throughout the state, leaving some regions “severely neglected.”
Smith-Brantley spoke against the tax cut bills before both committees. She referenced the latest KIDS COUNT Data Book, released earlier this month, which shows that most areas of child well-being in Arkansas have been getting worse.
Arkansas’ position at 45th in overall child well-being is down two slots from its ranking the last two years, and the state has ranked as one of the country’s 10 worst states for overall child well-being nine times in the last decade.
Cutting taxes reduces the state’s ability to fund initiatives that would improve child well-being, such as early childhood education and health care for pregnant and postpartum Arkansans, Smith-Brantley said.
In response to questions from senators, Smith-Brantley noted that some state agencies that serve children and families have received stagnant or less funding over time in the state budget. The Division of Youth Services within the Department of Human Services received a 0.01% funding increase in the state budget that passed during this year’s fiscal session, but “that amount of funding doesn’t actually keep up with inflation,” she said.
“I know that you care about the children of our state and you want them to thrive, and to do so, some of the critical areas in our state need investment,” she told the Senate committee.

Arkansas
Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello has funny apology on ESPN at super regional vs Arkansas

Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello only talked for a short time when being interviewed during his team’s Super Regional showdown against Arkansas, but he got a big laugh.
Vitello spoke with ESPN broadcaster Tom Hart and the broadcast crew before the fourth inning of the Vols’ Game 1 at Arkansas. The interview did not start immediately after the commercial break, for which Vitello apologized.
“Sorry for the delay,” Vitello said. “I have a small bladder.”
Vitello also commented on pitcher Marcus Phillips’ outing. Phillips has allowed one run. He got out of trouble in the bottom of the third by stranding three Arkansas runners with a double play ball.
“A couple of two-strike mistakes,” Vitello said. “A couple of pitch out mistakes. I don’t know if you guys can see that from the camera angle. A couple pitch outs that were mislocated and a couple two-strike pitches that weren’t located.”
Sam Hutchens covers sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at Shutchens@gannett.com or reach him on X at @Sam_Hutchens_
Arkansas
‘Devil in the Ozarks’ fugitive captured after 12-day Arkansas manhunt

Ex-Arkansas police chief imprisoned for murder escapes prison
Grant Hardin, a former Gateway, Arkansas, police chief serving time for murder and rape, escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock on May 25.
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A former Arkansas police chief who escaped from a prison where he was serving decades-long sentences for murder and rape was captured June 6 after a 12-day manhunt involving federal, state and local law enforcement.
Grant Hardin, known as the “Devil in the Ozarks,” was caught around 3 p.m. local time just a mile and a half from the prison he escaped nearly two weeks earlier, according to Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion. Hardin, 56, was thought to have fled the state.
Tracking dogs picked up Hardin’s scent west of the prison near Moccasin Creek in Izard County, according to Champion. Photos of Hardin’s arrest show him wearing a sullied shirt. His face appears thinner than in earlier mugshots.
“Thanks to the great work of local, state and federal law enforcement Arkansans can breathe a sigh of relief and I can confirm that violent criminal Grant Hardin is back in custody,” said Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “I am grateful for all law enforcement who contributed to his capture and give special thanks to the Trump administration and Secretary Kristi Noem, who sent a team from Border Patrol that was instrumental in tracking and apprehending Hardin.”
Arkansas law enforcement authorities and U.S. Border Patrol agents participated in the arrest, according to Champion.
“This was a great joint operation by a number of agencies, and I’m so thankful for their tireless efforts,” said Dexter Payne, director of the Arkansas Division of Correction. “The Arkansas State Police, U.S. Marshals, FBI, Border Patrol, Game and Fish, all the state and local agencies, along with the dedication of our Department employees, all played an indispensable role and I express my extreme gratitude.”
Hardin had gained notoriety as the subject of the 2023 documentary “Devil in the Ozarks’’ about his 1997 rape of a school teacher and 2017 murder of a water department worker.
Hardin fled the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock, Arkansas, through a secure entryway on May 25 wearing a fake law enforcement uniform. His disguise caused a corrections officer to open a gate and let him walk out of the medium-security facility.
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The escape followed the May 16 jailbreak of 10 inmates in New Orleans – several of them charged with murder – which drew national attention and caused consternation in area communities.
Hardin was regarded as no less dangerous a fugitive. In 2017 he was convicted of killing James Appleton, an employee of the northwest Arkansas town of Gateway whose brother-in-law, Andrew Tillman, was the mayor. Tillman told investigators they were talking on the phone when Appleton was shot to death in his pickup truck.
A DNA test conducted following the murder connected Hardin to an unresolved 1997 rape in Rogers, Arkansas, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case. The teacher was attacked at gunpoint after leaving her classroom to go to a restroom near the teacher’s lounge, according to the affidavit.
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Where did Hardin work in law enforcement?
Hardin’s combined convictions, including two counts of rape, added up to 80 years in prison sentences.
“He’s a sociopath,’’ former Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith told Arkansas ABC affiliate KHBS/KHOG. “Prison’s not full of people who are all bad. It’s full of a lot of people who just do bad things. Grant’s different.’’
Hardin had an erratic career in Arkansas law enforcement starting in 1990, working for police departments in Fayetteville, Huntsville and Eureka Springs before briefly serving as Gateway’s police chief in 2016.
He was fired from the Fayetteville job after less than a year because of subpar performance and failure to accept constructive criticism, according to KHBS/KHOG. In Huntsville, where he worked from April 1993 to October 1996, the former police chief told the TV station Hardin used excessive force and made poor decisions.
Escaping from prison, for which he now faces charges, may be just the latest one.
Contributing: N’dea Yancey-Bragg, Michael Loria and James Powel, USA TODAY
Arkansas
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