Representative Nelda Speaks (R- Mountain Home) refuses to go along with the special interests who want more taxes. That is why the tax-and-spend establishment doesn’t want her to be reelected — she stands strong for conservative principles, including the principle of lower taxes to produce economic growth.
2019 TAX VOTES
Let’s compare Representative Speaks’ voting record to what the tax-and-spend majority in the legislature passed in 2019.
- The Arkansas legislature passed some tax cuts and several tax increases, but the tax increases outweighed the tax cuts. The legislature passed an overall tax increase of $64.3 million for Fiscal Year 2020 and $54 million for FY2021.
- Representative Nelda Speaks refused to go along with the crowd and instead voted for overall tax cuts of $37.2 million in FY 2020 and tax cuts of $71.6 million for 2021.
Add another $293.7 million a year in a sales tax proposed by the legislature in HJR1018 beginning in 2023. Representative Speaks stayed true to conservative principles and voted “NO” against this huge tax. The one-half percent (0.50%) sales tax in HJR1018 will be on your November ballot and, if passed, will go into the Arkansas Constitution where it will be nearly impossible to lower or repeal the tax. It takes away tax relief promised beginning in 2023 when a temporary sales tax for highway debt is scheduled to expire.
In 2019, the legislature passed: 1. A new internet sales tax you pay when you buy goods from out-of-state sellers, 2. A tax increase on gasoline and diesel fuel, 3. A water bill tax, 4. An increased cigarette tax, 5. A cell phone bill tax, and 6. For putting a sales tax on the November ballot. Representative Speaks voted against all of these taxes, except the cell phone tax to support a new 911 system, otherwise her outstanding record of voting for tax relief would have been even higher.
OVERALL RECORD ON TAXES
Representative Speaks began serving in 2015. Her votes in 2015 and 2017 brought another $168.9 million a year in income tax relief. During her service she voted for income tax relief for the low, middle, and higher income tax brackets, and she voted for an increased homestead tax credit. When you add together Representatives Speaks’ votes on tax legislation during her service in the legislature (2015 to present), she voted for $240.5 million in overall tax relief for Arkansans.
ELECTION
In the March 3rd Republican Primary for State Representative District 100, Representative Speaks’ opponent is Paige Dillard Evans. If Representative Speaks wins the Republican Primary, she will then face a Libertarian opponent in November.
NOTE: The amount of annual tax collections that would result from the one-half percent (0.50%) sales tax on your November ballot is from the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) Fiscal Impact of HJR1018. Other tax numbers are from a Bureau of Legislative Research document with corrections based on DFA Fiscal Impact Statements. For a discussion of those corrections see a previous Conduit For Acton article found here.
I’ll tell you what is going to happen if the GOP-AR tax increases are passed and our loyal legislators lose, that is; the independent slate will pick up these great people in 2022 and rerun them where the GOP Tax & Spend machine can’t take them out in their 2022 primary.