Asa Hutchinson: “We have a supermajority requirement, a three-fourths requirement, to raise the income tax in Arkansas. The evidence is…”

“We have a supermajority requirement, a three-fourths requirement, to raise the income tax in Arkansas. The evidence is very clear that the legislature has been more reluctant to raise the income tax levels for hard-working Arkansans. Now, we have a lower threshold for raising the sales tax, which many believe is a more regressive tax. The fact is they have fallen back many times on that regressive sales tax, which hurts poor people more than affluent individuals. I believe the supermajority across the board, whether it was a two-thirds or three-fourths, would make a lot more sense. But Arkansas today has one of the lower tax levels and one of the lower tax burdens in the United States. That is why people are moving to Arkansas. That is why our economy is good in Arkansas. In my particular district, we have got unemployment down around 3 percent, virtually full employment in my district, companies moving in, people doing well, because the tax burden, heavy as it is on the Federal level, has not been that onerous on the State level, partly because of that super majority provision.”