Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed state Department of Commerce chief of staff Jim Hudson as secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration, it was announced Monday.
The former secretary of the finance department, Larry Walther, also was sworn in Monday as state treasurer by state Supreme Court Justice Cody Hiland. Sanders announced her appointment of Walther on Thursday to fill the vacancy in the state treasurer’s office created by the July 26 death of Mark Lowery.
Sanders’ appointment of Hudson as secretary of the finance department is effective immediately, Sanders spokeswoman Alexa Henning said Monday morning.
Hudson’s salary at the Commerce Department is $147,973 a year and his salary at the finance agency will be $180,000 a year, said state Department of Transformation and Shared Services chief of staff Alex Johnston. As secretary of the finance department, Walther’s salary was $191,884.58 a year, according to the Arkansas Transparency website.
Sanders said in a news release that “Jim has devoted his career to serving the people and State of Arkansas.
“He has helped lead our state to record low unemployment and strong economic growth and has the experience we need to keep Arkansas’ finances strong,” the Republican governor said. “I’m honored that he has agreed to serve in my Cabinet and help us make Arkansas the best state in the country to live, work, and raise a family.”
Hudson said in the news release that it’s an honor to join Sanders’ Cabinet.
“She has assembled a great team, and I am excited to do my part to deliver on her vision to make state government lean and efficient and not a burden to our citizens,” he said. “State Treasurer Larry Walther is a friend and a mentor, and he leaves big shoes to fill. I look forward to building on his great accomplishments at DFA.”
Walther had served as the finance department secretary since 2015.
Hudson has served as chief of staff for the Commerce Department since January 2022 and was deputy director and general counsel for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission from January 2019-January 2022, according to a copy of his resume.
His resume shows he was executive pastor of adult discipleship at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock from October 2007-June 2018; vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for the technology consulting company Technisource Inc. in Little Rock from September 2001-October 2007; general counsel of the commercial staffing company Staffmark Inc. in Fayetteville from 2000-2001; a private attorney in Fayetteville from 1998-2000; and served in various human resource and legal positions at the telecommunications company ALLTEL Corp. of Little Rock from 1990-1998.
Hudson received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hendrix College in 1990, a law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H. Bowen School of Law in 1996, a master’s degree in leadership from John Brown University in 2010 and a master of divinity degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2018, according to his resume.
State Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said Monday he and Hudson have had a good relationship in Hudson’s role as chief of staff at the Commerce Department, and he anticipates that will continue.
Dismang, a co-chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, said the state Department of Finance and Administration secretary post is more of a people-leading position and Hudson has demonstrated an ability to do that.
The finance department has 2,261 employees across its different divisions and contains a significant portion of state services, department spokesman Scott Hardin said.
The department includes the functions of the taxing authority, state budget, accounting, motor vehicle administration, driver services and regulation of industries such as alcohol, tobacco, medical marijuana, casino gambling and live horse racing, he said. Additional divisions and services within the department include Child Support Enforcement, Assessment Coordination, Intergovernmental Services, Arkansas Scholarship Lottery and Information Services, he said.
Sanders’ appointment of Hudson as secretary of the finance department comes about two months after Hudson withdrew his application to be executive director of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, state government’s largest retirement system with about $20 billion in investments and more than 100,000 working and retired members.
On June 5, Hudson wrote in an email to system Human Resources Manager Vicky Fowler that after “Spending some time this weekend in prayerful reflection on the executive director position at ATRS, I truly believe this isn’t the right opportunity for me at this time.”
“Therefore, I am withdrawing from consideration for the opening,” Hudson wrote.
He wrote in his June 5 email to Fowler: “Please pass along to the trustees, my sincere appreciation for their consideration of me for the position and the time they took to interview me last Friday. I am certain that among the remaining candidates they will be able to find their next director.”
On June 8, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System trustees voted to hire then-state Department of Human Services chief of staff Mark White as the system’s executive director after interviewing several candidates for the post, including Hudson.
After Hiland swore in Walther as the state treasurer Monday morning, Walther said the state treasurer’s office has been through some difficult circumstances but “they have done a wonderful, wonderful job.
“I appreciate that work and I look forward to working with you,” he told the treasurer’s staff and others in brief remarks.
Walter said he doesn’t have any preconceived ideas about what he is going to do.
“I would like to walk around,” he said. “I do a lot of management by walking around. I would like to meet the team, talk to them. I would like to know some of your history, where you are from, and what your work history is, but also what you are doing, how you are doing it and how can I be of assistance to you.
“That’s what my job is, is to to make y’all better the best I can.”
Walther said he looks “forward tremendously” to the next year and a half of taking on the responsibility as state treasurer until 2025. A state treasurer will be elected in the 2024 elections to serve the final two years of Lowery’s four-year term as state treasurer. Lowery was elected as state treasurer in November 2022.
The state treasurer’s office has 27 employees, according to treasurer’s office spokeswoman Heather McKim.
The state treasurer is responsible for the state treasury’s investment portfolio of about $11 billion and serves on the state Board of Finance and the board of trustees for the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, the Arkansas State Highway Employees Retirement System and the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.
A new law — Act 411 became effective on Aug. 1 — requires the state treasurer and state and local government entities to divest certain investments with financial services providers on a list maintained by the state treasurer due to the use of environmental, social justice or governance-related metrics.
A five-member ESG oversight committee will compile a list of financial service providers that discriminate against energy, fossil fuel, firearms or ammunition companies or otherwise refuse to deal based on environmental, social justice and other governance-related factors under Act 411, and the state treasurer will be required to maintain a list of financial service providers as determined by the ESG oversight committee on the state treasurer’s website under the law.
The state treasurer is paid a salary of $98,564 a year.
With the help of rising interest rates and a larger investment portfolio, the Arkansas treasury’s interest earnings skyrocketed to $254.5 million in the fiscal 2023 year that ended June 30 — the highest amount since at least 2005. The next-highest since then was $116.9 million in fiscal 2019.
