With the start of another odd-numbered year comes the start of a new regular legislative session of the Arkansas legislature. The 95th General Assembly began on Monday, January 13, 2025, with Senators, Representatives, and constitutional officers being sworn in, rules adopted, and leadership announced. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders began her third year in office by announcing her plans for re-election in 2026 and her agenda for the 2025 regular session. Her goals include eliminating the remainder of the sales tax on groceries, continued implementation of the Arkansas LEARNS Act, and keeping the people of Arkansas safe. She also highlighted the successes in her first term with Arkansas being a top state for people moving, growth in the economy, tax cuts, decreased crime, improving schools, and stopping the leftist woke agenda.
Gov. Sanders continues a push to more conservative government after Arkansas dealt with eight years of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s massive growth in government, blocking school choice statewide, and offsetting tax cuts with tax increases.
Sanders looks to work closely with the new speaker of the Arkansas house – Rep. Brian Evans of Cabot. Speaker Evans reflected on life-changing moments that lead him to the Arkansas House of Representatives, highlighted being guided by faith and sacrifice, and announced the chairs and vice chairs of house committees. You can read exerts of the speech and see the announced chairs and vice chairs here.
Bills have been filed and committees have been organized to hear them soon. This will be the 10th year and fifth straight session that Conduit will publish a weekly legislative report highlighting bills affecting the Economic and Individual Freedom of Arkansans.
Conduit will flag and analyze bills that may be considered for the annual Legislative Scorecard that will be published later in 2025 scoring legislators on their votes. Conduit uses the proprietary Economic Freedom Filter to determine what bills to flag for potential scoring.
The Economic Freedom Filter considers whether a piece of legislation allows more freedom or less freedom by considering: (1) If it Grows or shrinks government (2) Increases/Decreases dependency on government and/or (3) Spends money the state does not have.
New this session, Conduit will also score bills that support a transparent, open, and honest government that is accountable to the people.
Each week a legislative report detailing important legislation impacting Arkansans economic freedom will be published. This report will be sent weekly to state legislators to have outside analysis of legislation and know about potential scoring of their votes on this legislation.
Conduit hopes this weekly legislative report tool will help aid the public and legislators in knowing exactly what a bill does while giving historical context, real world impact, and cutting through any carefully crafted language that may confuse people.
Week 1 Conduit Bill Analysis
HB1009 by Rep. A. Collins: To Allow Pregnancy to Be a Qualifying Event for Automatic Enrollment in Medicaid – OPPOSE
This bill would create “presumptive eligiblity” for Medicaid for any pregnant woman in Arkansas and immedilatey enroll them in Medicaid and cover services for prenatal care. This would increase the Medicaid rolls without prior proper screening to ensure the Medicaid program is limited to those who are truly needy and not based on a specific class of people (pregnant women). Medicaid would potentially foot the initial bills of any and all medical services provided to any pregnant woman in Arkansas.
HB1012 by Rep. A. Collins: To Establish a New Population of Persons Eligible for Medicaid Coverage for “Family Planning” Services (Code – ABORTION Services) – OPPOSE
This bill would create a new population of eligible persons for Medicaid coverage not otherwise eligible based solely on income (no work requirements or other criteria to be eligible are included) of 200% of the federal poverty level to receive taxpayer funded “family planning services”. Family Planning Services are not defined but have long been used as code for “Abortion Services” – see Planned Parenthood. The bill would also force the state Department of Human Services to seek additional taxpayer funding at the federal level for additional support of this new government program within Medicaid.
HB1015 by Rep. A. Collins: New $300 Per Child State Income Tax Credit – OPPOSE
We are not supportive of increasing this child credit to $300 under the terms as written. This bill would cause the credit to be refundable, meaning it would give cash directly to persons who do not pay taxes. We are supportive of this tax credit if this bill is amended to remove the refundability aspect to ensure the credit only goes towards offsetting taxes owed by those who actually pay taxes in at least that amount. Also as written, the credit would be limited to single persons making up to $100K, or couples making up to $200K.
HB1016 by Rep. A. Collins: Sales Tax Exemption for Diapers, Breastfeeding Products, and Tampons — SUPPORT
We generally support all tax cuts and therefore support this tax cut. However, we are not a fan of carve outs, and this bill would create a new sales tax exemption (state sales tax only) for products including: tampons, diapers, breastfeeding equipment and products, certain grooming and hygience products, baby bottles, certain over the counter drugs. This would save some taxpayers money, but is highly targeted to a specific subset of items rather than a across the board sales tax cut.
HB1017 by Rep. A. Collins: Expansion of Taxpayer Funded Paid Time Off for School Employees with New Babies — OPPOSE
This bill would increase government spending by expanding paid 12-weeks off for women who have a child, adopt a child under one, or became a foster parent of a child under one. This would be for ANY school employee, not just education personnel, as is currently the standard. It would cover 100% of that persons paid leave through the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.
HB1024 by Rep. A. Collins: Repeal of Collective Bargaining Ban for Taxpayer Funded Government Employees — OPPOSE
This bill would repeal the current ban on collective bargaining for taxpayer funded government employees. Collective bargaining is basically legalized unionization protections to allow them to negotiate contracts or other terms of employment between an employer and employee. This is generally accepted in the private sector. However, many states have banned this for taxpayer funded government employees to avoid collusion between elected officials, government workers, and taxpayer funded unions to result in the taxpayers paying inflated wages or benefits outside what the market may otherwise provide through forced collective bargaining protections for the government employees.This repeal would lead to higher costs to taxpayers without any recognizable benefits in return.
HB1025 by Rep. A. Collins: Making It Nearly Impossible to Fire Bad Taxpayer Funded Government Teachers — OPPOSE
This bill would make it even harder to fire bad taxpayer funded government teachers, protecting their jobs and pay even if it is not in the best interests of the children being taught at that government school. It is already very difficult to fire a bad teacher “for cause” that is not arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory, and this new law would raise that standard to “just and reasonable cause” and would lower the requirement that teachers adhere with strict compliance to the school districts policies to a lower standard of “substantial compliance.” The bill states the law would not provide “tenure” to government teachers as it does not guarantee lifetime employee, but it effectively will do just that. This will lead to lower quality teachers and lower quality education for Arkansas children. It will also take away local control from local school districts to make their own determinations of personnell decisions. This bill only helps bad teachers and harms everyone else, including the taxpayer paying for the bad teacher.
HB1035 by Rep. A. Collins: Increasing Voter Fraud Through Online Voter Registration — OPPOSE
This bill would increase voter fraud through a new online voter registration program. The law would FORCE election officials to register anyone who signs up online if they submit the form within 30-days of an election and they provide a current drivers license number or the last four digits of a social security number. No additional screening or security is provided in the text of the bill. When big government politicians keep losing elections, instead of changing their policies to reflect what the people want, they try to change the rules to cheat and win elections, which is what this bill does.
HB1038 by Rep. A. Collins: Increasing Voter Fraud Through No-Excuse Absentee Voting — OPPOSE
This bill would increase voter fraud by allowing any person’s ballot to be cast by absentee vote for any reason or no reason at all. This will allow ballot harvesters and ballot thief, preventing the actual voter from potentially voting in person later in the election period, such as waiting until the actual election day. This appears to be a change in the rules to provide a better opportunity to cheat and steal elections.
HB1041 by Rep. A. Collins: Government Censorship of Free Speech Using Technology to Harm Politicians Reputations — OPPOSE
This bill would vioalte a person’s Right of Free Speech protected under the First Amendment. It would ban free people from engaging in speech that would harm the reputation of politicians if the politician did not agree with how they are being portrayed. Specifically it would apply to speech made using technology, such as artificial intelligence, to create memes, videos, or other items in which someone says something the government does not like. This would harm the rights of people to engage in political speech against their government, and protect political incumbents and governments against speech with which they disagree.
HB1043 by Rep. A. Collins: Government Censorship of Free Speech in Judicial Elections — OPPOSE
This bill would require government registration, disclosure of private people’s information and create a target on people who engage in speech that discusses judicial candiates for the Arkansas Court of Appeals or Arkansas Supreme Court. Specially it would create a new “noncandiate disclosure committee” requirement by anyone who engages in speech regarding candidates for office, even when that person is not advocating for or against either of the candidates but rather providing information on candidates positions, past rulings, financial support, or otherwise. This type bill has previously been referred to as targeting “dark money” and has been run for several sessions now since people are less likely to elect liberal judges.
HB1048 by Rep. C. Cooper: Increased Freedom for Sale of Goat/Sheep Milk — SUPPORT
This bill would allow the sale of raw goat, sheet, and whole milk at places other than just the farm where the milk is produced, allowing greather access to consumers who wish to buy this product and increasing markets to producers.
HB1049 by Rep. Tosh: Criminalizing Unlawful Squatting — SUPPORT
This bill would further protect private property rights against unlawful squatters by making such sqautting a criminal offense – a class B misdeameanor. Specifically if a person enteres onto the premises of another person, resides there for any time period, and does so unlawfully, and cannot produce evidence of having a deed to the property, a lease agreement, or evidence of payment of rent, they can be charged with a crime.
HB1065 by Rep. Ray: Removal of Cap on Standard Deduction Increases Year over Year — SUPPORT
This bill removes the cap, currently set at 3%, by which the standard deduction against individual income tax may increase year over over. This would allow for situations when/if inflation rises higher than 3% in a year, then the standard deduction would be allowed to increase by the same rate of inflation. The measurement would also refine the inflation measurement to be of the rate of inflation in the West South Central Division of the South Region rather than All Urban Consumers, which should produce a more localize and accurate rate of inflation for Arkansas.
HB1066 by Rep. Ray: Increase in Standard Deduction for Income Tax — SUPPORT
This bill would increae the standard deduction for income tax from the current rate of $2,200 (began in 2015) to a rate of $4,400 beginning in 2026. This would save money for taxpayers.
HB1068 by Rep. McElroy: Expansion of Taxpayer Funded Government Retirement to Metropolitan Port Authority Employees — OPPOSE
This bill would grow government and spend money we do not have by adding all metropolitian port authority employees to the taxpayer funded government retirement system. This would increase ongoing obligations to a new group of people who have already benefitted from taxpayer funded salaries and benefits for decades. It is an unfunded debt liability that will only grow as government grows and at some point may only be covered by increased taxes.
HB1073 by Rep. Ennett: Creation of New Task Force — OPPOSE
This bill would create a new “advanced energy jobs” task force. No new task forces are needed in Arkansas. Standing committees of the legislature are already set up to address any issues or specific topics. In the past, the primary purpose of a task force is to provide cover for the pre-determined plan of the executive branch. However, it also provides opportunities for legislators to get extra pay and per diem for traveling to the task force meetings, which usually seem unproductive and duplicative of the legislatures standing committees and subcommittees.
HB1081 by Rep. B. McKenzie: Repeal of Increased Funding for Professional Learning Communities — SUPPORT
This bill would decrease the additional funding for the development and administration of professional learning communities. This would cut $16.5 million and allow those funds to be better used for core functions of government.
HB1134 by Rep. Unger: Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Compact — SUPPORT
Generally, this bill would create a compact with other states which have passed this law to have a more streamlined licensing and regulation of advanced practice registered nurses. This should allow for greater access to care for the public by increasing the supply of APRNs who could work in Arkansas from other states or in multiple states.
HB1139 by Rep. B. McKenzie: Protection of Religious Moral Education Courses without Hurting Students Attendance — SUPPORT
This bill would allow courses to be taught in religious moral instruction by independent entities of a government school, and such attendance at the course cannot be counted against the the student. This protects the religious freedom of students and parents who wish to learn such content without being treated poorly by the government school through docking their attendance.
HB1141 by Rep. R. Scott Richardson: Prohibiting Free Speech in Elections if using Government Defined “Deep Fakes” — OPPOSE
This bill would attempt to ban speech that the government considers deceptive or injures a politicians running for office or otherwise influence the results of an election. Specifically it would ban what the government would define as “deep fakes” that show something other than what actually occured. This bill tries to exclude satirical items or changes the brightness/contract of a politicians photo. The definition is overbroad and places a chilling effect on free speech. Political speech has traditionally and by law been the most protected speech in our land. The people should be able to engage in political speech, even if that speech makes fun of politicians and hurts their changes to be re-elected.
HB1144 by Rep. Wooten: Government Overreach Regulatory Requirements on Private Schools — OPPOSE
This bill would place burdensome government regulations on private schools which accept payments from children with their educational freedom accounts. This bill seems designed to hurt private schools. It should be noted that the sponsor of the bill and its supporters are against school choice and want to force all kids into one size fits all government schools even if it is in the best interests of the child to go elsewhere.
HB1159 by Rep. J. Richardson: Government Mandated Employment and Security Measures for Convenience Stores — OPPOSE
This bill would place government mandates on private businesses to require a certain number of employees working at specific times within a convenience store. It would also mandate types of security cameras the private businesses must use, types of safes, lighting outside the store, forced speech on signage of how much money is in their safe, regulations on how signs may be displayed in the store, install height measures at store entrances to measure people’s heights, mandate how much cash the store can have at a certain time, mandate employment training, mandate silent alarms installation, and force the businesses to be locked from 9pm to 6am and only transact business through a trapdoor or window. This is government overeach that would cost small businesses and overregulate free enterprise if passed.
SB57 by Sen. C. Tucker: Increased Tax Credits for Political Contributions — SUPPORT
This bill would increase the annual tax credit to those who donate to individual political candidates from $50 per person to $100 per person. This would result in less money flowing to government.
SB59 by Sen. Dismang: Free Daily Breakfast to all Government School Students Regardless of Income Eligibility — OPPOSE
This is an unfunded mandate requiring all government schools to provide all students who request a breakfast to receive one daily for free, regardless of their income levels or eligiblity for free/reduced meals. The bill first directs taxpayers dollars sent to D.C. to be used for the program, then taxpayer dollars sent to Little Rock to cover everything else. While a nice notion to provide all students with free meals, this once more places the government in the role of parent, expanding the role of government by taking over the duties of parents, and spends money we do not have, thus violating the economic freedom filter principles.
SB61 by Sen. Hill: To Allow Veterinary Telemedicine — SUPPORT
This bill would authorize and allow veterinary telemedicine. Telemedicine for humans has been allowed for years, but past efforts to allow veterinary telemedicine have been defeated by special interests who make more money with limited access and supply of vets. This will increase the supply and options that farmers, ranchers, or others could have in getting care for their animals and livestock as well as create new opportunties for the veterinary profession to provide services to their customers.
SB62 by Sen. B. King: Repeal of Private Option – Arkansas Works – Arkansas HOME Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Program – Transition to Traditional Medicaid Expansion — SUPPORT
This bill would shift the current Arkansas HOME (previously called the Private Option and Arkansas Works) medicaid expansion program from paying Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and other insurance providers directly for premiums for health insurance to a pay for service model within Medicaid. This Obamacare government welfare program is for able-bodied, working age adults who do not work or pay income taxes. It is the only program in the country to keep the insurance premium model because insurance companies get rich off the premiums, regardless of whether or not the insurance is used and would instead only cost taxpayers when services are actually rendered. The healthcare industry donates large sums to Arkansas state legislators to keep the system going as-is rather than what would be best for taxpayers. When this same repeal effort was proposed last legislative session, it was proposed to save taxpayers possibly over $200 million annually.
SB64 by Joint Budget Committee: Appropriation for Government Television — OPPOSE
There should not be state television. This clearly expands government. This appropriation gives them over $11 million.
SB68 by Sen. Hill: Allowing Vet Techs to Respond to Emergency Calls Without Vets at that Location — SUPPORT
This bill would allow vet techs to respond to emergency calls and practice with indirect supervision from their associate vets in an emergency call situation to care for an animal. This reduces regulation and would allow for common-sense responses to help secure and preserve animals and property of Arkansans.
HJR1005 by Rep. Long: Constitutional Amendment to Require 3/4th Vote for Raising Taxes/Fees and 2% Cap on Budget Increases Year over Year — OPPOSE
This proposed constitutional amendment would be placed on the 2026 general election ballot if passed. The amendment is good in many respects, but because it does not go far enough, we oppose it. The proposal would require a 3/4ths vote of both chambers of the state legislature to pass any tax/fee that is new, increasing rates, extensions, or otherwise a change in law causing a gain to the state in next tax/fee revenue. There would be a cap on the state budget of a 2% increase year over year. For any revenues received above the allowed budget cap, funds would be distributed to (1) Catastrophic Reserve Fund then (2) Budget Stabilization Trust Fund. Since the Budget Stabilization Trust Fund can be tapped by the legislature as they see fit, there is no real advantage to this cap. If there is to be a real cap on government spending, then any remaining balance should be “refunded” through reductions of income tax rates and sales and use tax rates rather than merely placed in a separate fund to be used as needed. This bill is labeled the “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” but is not exactly like simlarly named proposals, such as that proposed by Conduit for Commerce beginning in 2013 (https://conduitforcommerce.org/containing-government-growth/). This is an example of why a bill should be read beyond its title.
HJR1006 by Rep. B. McKenzie: Stopping Taxpayer Funded Government Lobbying — SUPPORT
This proposed constitutional amendment is long over-due. It would prohibit the use of taxpayer money to be used to lobby to grow government. It prohibits government actors from hiring lobbyists which then lobby on behalf of the government actor. This would include a prohibition on using tax money going to organizations who then lobby on behalf of the organization, such as public sector membership organizations. This would include all government actors at the state, county, or local level. This would not prohibit actual government employees within a government body to engage in lobbying, including registering as a lobbyist.
SJR1 by Sen. B. King: Constitutional Amendment to Require 3/4th Vote to Change the Freedom of Information Law — SUPPORT
This proposed constitutional amendment would be placed on the 2026 general election ballot. It would require that any changes to access to public records or access to public meetings by the state legislature be subject to a vote of 3/4ths of both chambers to make the change. This would apply to any potential changes to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. This is a good proposal that would protect against changes which undermine transparency in government.
