Senate News

Thanks to a Senate bill that became law earlier this year, thousands of Arkansas students will qualify for free lunches at school. Act 656 of 2023 was approved by an overwhelming majority of senators. It benefits children from families with low incomes by eliminating the requirement that they pay a reduced price for lunch. Instead, lunch is free.

Over the course of the upcoming year legislators will study all the various laws in Arkansas governing firearms, with the intent of simplifying them.

Participation in athletics at Arkansas institutions of higher education has increased in recent years, even as total enrollment at colleges and universities has gone down.

The Arkansas legislature enacted a lengthy list of new laws to strengthen the integrity of the elections.

This year back to school activities in Arkansas have historic importance, thanks to the far-reaching changes in Act 237 of 2023.

Most of the bills that were approved by the legislature earlier this year became law on August 1.

The Arkansas Highway has held four events around the state to commemorate the 31 projects paid for with a half-cent sales tax approved by voters 10 years ago. In 2012 Arkansas voters approved the sales tax increase and since then it has generated about $1.8 billion in revenue, which has paid for improvements to about 200 miles of highway. The projects are collectively called the Connecting Arkansas Program, or CAP, and they represent one of the largest highway programs in the history of the state.

Every year the sales tax holiday is the first weekend in August. This year it will be Saturday, August 5, and Sunday, August 6.

The governor announced that the state would provide about $11 million to local school districts to help them pay the steeply rising costs of property insurance premiums.

Fiscal Year 2023, which just ended, was one of the best in Arkansas history. The state closed out the fiscal year with a budget surplus of $1.161 billion.