The Arkansas General Assembly Fiscal Session begins April 8, 2026. During this session, the Arkansas Legislature will pass Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ recently proposed $6.69 billion budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. This is an increase of approximately $175 million, or 2.79%, from original proposals for the 2025 – 2026 fiscal year. As Gov. Sanders’ first term ends this next fiscal year, she will have increased spending by over $466 million over four years, or about 7.53%. Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson increased spending during his first term by over $503 million, or 9.71%.
Most of the budget increase comes from increased support for educating children through the education savings accounts program. Over $53 million of the increase is dedicated to increased pay and benefits for government workers.
A balanced budget is required under the Arkansas Revenue Stabilization (RSA) law. The budget includes state general revenue dollars left over after applying non-discretionary spending items, and does not include federal taxpayer dollars used by state government. Below is a breakdown of recent proposed RSA budgets from 2010 – 2027, the dollar and percentage increases, the Governor at the time, and which party controlled each chamber of the state legislature. You will see that over this 17-year period, the state government budget has increased by over $2.19 billion, or 48.9%.
Conduit for Commerce, Inc. recommends, at a minimum, passing into law a tax-expenditure limit that would cap any increases in government spending year to year to inflation plus population growth. A function to return most of any surplus money back to taxpayers or to automatically reduce the next year’s budget or income taxes accordingly would also benefit the state and ensure the budget does not grow faster than the growth of the population and inflation rates, providing conservative budgeting and spending.
Source: Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research, Fiscal Division Publications; Ballotpedia
*For fiscal year 2020 – 2021 it is unclear the final budget proposed from Gov. Asa Hutchinson due to multiple RSA submissions/adjustments during the COVID-19 pandemic..
