LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The fiscal year ended in Arkansas with a surplus of more than $1.1 billion, which is the state’s second largest, finance officials announced Wednesday.
The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration said the state’s net available revenue for the fiscal year that ended on Friday totaled nearly $7.2 billion. The state’s individual income taxes came in below last year’s numbers but above what was forecast, while corporate income and sales tax collections were above last year and forecast.
“The economy outperformed expectations across the fiscal year in revenue results amid volatility from slowing inflation, tax reductions and tight labor markets,” Finance and Administration Secretary Larry Walther said in a statement.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has named state Republican Party chairman and former federal prosecutor Cody Hiland to the Supreme Court.
An Arkansas judge has ruled that a recently passed education law cannot take effect until Aug. 1. Friday’s ruling puts in doubt state education officials’ vote to let a charter school organization take over a small school district.
A tech industry trade group is suing Arkansas over its law requiring parental permission for minors to create new social media accounts.
New laws taking effect on Saturday in Georgia include a ban on gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for those under 18.
The record for a surplus was set in the previous fiscal year, when Arkansas reported a $1.6 billion surplus. The state has reported its three highest surpluses over the past three years.
Republican lawmakers have cited the state’s surpluses as they’ve pushed for tax cuts in Arkansas in recent years. In April, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law a measure cutting individual and corporate income taxes by $124 million a year.
Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Sanders, said the governor “will continue working to responsibly phase out the state income tax. Henning said that “being financially sound and strong helps keep us moving in that direction.”
