In an interview with Talk Business & Politics, Misty Orpin, executive director of Common Ground Arkansas, shared data that she compiled on the past legislative session. She said that 62% of the bills that were filed did pass, while 38% failed.
Most of the bills that failed to pass were related to taxation. Orpin said that 61% of the bills filed in the revenue and taxation committees didn’t pass.
“The biggest graveyard was actually revenue and tax [committees]. I think that because the state is absorbing some of the big tax cuts that they ran in the previous sessions,” Orpin said. “There are really big ticket expenses that they passed that are coming down the pipeline. I think whether they would admit it or not they’re a little skittish about the budget.”
During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers did pass tax cuts to lower the top individual income tax rate from 4.9% to 4.7%, according to the Associated Press. Before leaving office, former Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson enacted a series of tax cuts in 2021 and called a special session in 2022 to accelerate implementation of those tax cuts.
The big ticket items that Orpin referenced include building a new prison and teacher pay raises.
Orpin said legislation that was filed in the judiciary committees had the highest rate of passage. She explained this typically is the case, because lawmakers use the judiciary committee to make corrections in the language of previously passed bills.
In her data collection, Oprin also tracked which lawmakers were the most effective at getting their bills passed. She said Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, and Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountview, were two of the most effective lawmakers.
Orpin said Dismang is responsible for filling bills that have to do with appropriations and the budget and that is why he has a high passage rate with his bills. Irvin being the chair of the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee played a role in her high passage rate for bills passed, Orpin said.
Despite being in a legislature with overwhelming Republican majorities, a few Democrats were able to have success having their legislation passed. Orpin said Rep. Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, and Sen. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, was able to find a way to get a majority of the bills they filed passed.
“I mean a lot of the things he [Collins] runs are very moderate bills. He doesn’t come as a firebrand. Same thing with Sen. Clark Tucker, he does a really great job of working with his Republican colleagues,” Orpin said.
During the past legislative session, Orpin said the least amount of bills since 1971 were passed. She said part of the reason for this was the amount of new legislators who participated in their first legislative session.
