Arkansas lawmakers adjourned from their special session on August 11.

Legislation passed includes an expedited process for corporate and individual tax cuts.

The Legislature also approved an appropriation of $50 million for a school safety grant.

This does affect lobbying reporting.

The August special session triggered a lobbyist activity report due September 10.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has called for a special session in August to discuss possible tax cuts.

The previously estimated Arkansas budget surplus for the 2022 fiscal year of $1.4 billion grew to a record $1.6 billion.

The special session will be held the week of August 8.

This affects lobbyist reporting.

Lobbyists who are registered to lobby the General Assembly are required to file a monthly report for any month the General Assembly is in session.

The report will be due August 10, which is 10 days after the month of the session.

The 93rd Fiscal Session of the Arkansas General Assembly adjourned sine die on March 15 after about 30 days in session.

During the session, appropriations bills were enacted that will determine how taxpayer money is spent in the fiscal year 2023, which begins July 1.

The acts would also transfer $150 million from the state’s general reserves to a restricted reserve fund to pay for various improvements and projects.

The adjournment sine die date does not affect lobbyist reporting.

Lobbyists who are registered to lobby the General Assembly are required to file a monthly report for any month the General Assembly is in session.

The next report is due April 10 for the period of March 1 through March 31.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson will call the Legislature back into a special session beginning December 7 to take up a tax cut plan.

The primary focus of the special session will be on the tax cut package that calls for reducing the state’s top income tax rate from 5.9% to 4.9%.

The package, which also includes corporate tax cuts and a low-income tax credit, would cost the state $135 million in the current fiscal year and grow to nearly $498 million when fully implemented in 2026.

While the session’s agenda will include several other items, Hutchinson said he does not plan to include a proposal to enact neighboring Texas’ unique law banning abortions six weeks into pregnancy.

Lawmakers, however, could vote to extend the session to take up abortion or any other items with a two-thirds vote of both chambers after the items on the agenda are considered.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson set a February 8 special election date to replace Sen. Lance Eads of Springdale.

Eads resigned to take a lobbying job. Former state Rep. Jim Bob Duggar is the only announced candidate so far.

The governor’s proclamation also sets December 14 for party primaries.

A special runoff primary, if needed, is set for January 11.

Candidate filing begins at noon November 15 and ends at noon one week later.

The Arkansas Legislature will return from its extended recess on September 29, continuing the regular session of the 93rd General Assembly.

According to the schedule released by Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, the General Assembly will return to vote on redistricting before adjourning the 2021 session sine die.

After each census, the state redraws the boundaries for seats in the General Assembly as well as the boundaries of the districts for its seats in the United States Congress.

The legislative districts are decided by the Board of Apportionment, which consists of the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general. The board and its staff use census data to redraw the 100 districts of the Arkansas House of Representatives and the 35 districts of the Arkansas Senate so districts within each chamber represent roughly the same number of people.

Drawing boundaries for the state’s federal congressional districts is the responsibility of the General Assembly. The number of districts in the state will remain at four based on the population count from 2020, but the distribution of the population has shifted away from rural areas toward more urban areas.

A registered lobbyist who lobbies members of the General Assembly is required to file a monthly report due 10 days after the end of the month for any month the General Assembly is in session.

Hickey stated he hoped the General Assembly would continue for only three days, meaning the session will likely continue into the month of October. If the session continues into October, a monthly lobbyist activity report will be due November 10, which is 10 days after the end of the month.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson reinstated the states’ general health emergency July 29 and called for a special legislative session to convene in the first week of August.

Hutchinson cited staffing shortages at hospitals along with the rising number of COVID cases.

His emergency directs the state to seek help from other states and to ease licensure rules for health care professionals. Huthcinson also contacted the White House for possible assistance.

The special session will amend Act 1002, which prohibits the state government from requiring face masks for most entities, including schools.

The Arkansas Legislature is currently in extended recess and is still considered to be in session for purposes of lobbyist activity reports. Lobbyists who are registered to lobby the General Assembly are required to file a monthly report for any month the General Assembly is in session.

The regular session of the 93rd Arkansas General Assembly has been extended until May 3, 2021.

House Concurrent Resolution 1008 provides the purpose of the extension is to consider vetoes correcting errors or oversights, complete work on proposed constitutional amendments, and decide if there is need for additional extension.

The resolution further provides if the General Assembly takes an extended recess or recesses for reasons related to COVID-19, the designated adjournment sine die date will be subject to change.

Lobbyists who are registered to lobby the General Assembly are required to file a monthly report 10 days after the end of the month for any month the General Assembly is in session. The anticipated adjournment sine die date of May 3 creates a lobbyist activity report due June 10.

Additionally, whenever the name of a public servant appears in a lobbyist’s activity report, the lobbyist must notify the public servant seven working days prior to the filing date of the activity report. Such notification must be delivered by June 1.

On November 3, voters in Arkansas approved a constitutional amendment to impose term limits for state legislators.

Issue 2 creates term limits of 12 consecutive years for state legislators with the opportunity to return after a four-year break.

Arkansas previously had a 16-year lifetime term limit for state legislators.

The 12-year limit will apply to anyone elected in 2021 or after.

Those first elected to the legislature before 2021 will keep the state’s existing term limit of 16 years, but they will be eligible to run for election again after four years.

As of 7:00 a.m. November 4, with more than 95% of the precincts reporting, the amendment passed 55.4% to 44.6%.

A federal judge has made his temporary injunction permanent in allowing Arkansas candidates for statewide office to accept campaign contributions more than two years before an election.

U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. reinforced his initial ruling that it is unconstitutional for the state to ban contributions for state office candidates more than two years before an election.

In January, a three-judge panel of the 8^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Moody’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction against the state’s blackout period for accepting campaign contributions.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson will call a special session of the Arkansas Legislature on Thursday, March 26.

The session will fill budget holes caused by the economic fallout from COVID-19.

Gov. Hutchinson announced the special session would grant him the authority to use the state’s $173 million unallocated budget surplus.

He plans to fill budget needs after his administration cut the state’s general revenue by $353 million to $5.38 billion.

The governor made the budget cuts in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019.

The special session triggers a lobbyist activity report (monthly) due April 10 for the reporting period of March 1 through March 31.

The special session is expected to span three calendar days.

The House of Representatives will meet at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Jack Stephens Center rather than the Capitol to limit close contact of legislators.

On March 17, Arkansas legislative leaders announced a suspension of the Arkansas Legislative Council meetings.

Specifically, this will affect the meetings scheduled for March 18 and March 19.

The decision to suspend the meetings until further notice follows the latest guidance regarding COVID-19.

House and Senate leadership continue to review contingency plans for this year’s regular session scheduled to begin April 8.

An order barring the state from enforcing a campaign contribution blackout period of more than two years was reinstated on March 3.

Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-203(e) prohibits candidates for state offices from accepting campaign contributions more than two years before an election.

In place since 1996, the constitutionality of the law was challenged in June 2019.

The court agreed to stay the injunction, keeping the law in effect while the proceedings continued.

The injunction was affirmed on January 27.

This prompts the plaintiff’s attorney to push for the stay to be lifted, and the law to become unenforceable.

The stay was lifted on March 3, enjoining the state from enforcing the law while the lawsuit is pending.

A date has yet to be determined for a final hearing on the matter.

A panel of federal appellate judges held on January 27 that a campaign contribution blackout law that has been in place in Arkansas since 1996 is likely unconstitutional.

The panel upheld a preliminary injunction that U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. imposed June 17 to prohibit Arkansas Code Annotated 7-6-203(e) from being enforced while its constitutionality is determined.

The law, part of a package of campaign-finance measures approved by voters in 1995, bars candidates for state offices from accepting campaign contributions more than two years before an election.

The constitutionality of the law was challenged as an infringement on the right of political expression by preventing contributions to potential candidates in the 2022 election cycle.

The state argued that the purpose of the blackout period is to prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption, but the panel said it hadn’t shown that early contributions present a greater risk of corruption than later contributions.

The Office of the Attorney General could seek a rehearing before the full 8th Circuit within 14 days.