Arkansas Legislature concludes 2025 legislative session; conflict over planned prison continues

Lawmaker asks governor to fund expansions of existing prison facilities instead of building new “megaprison”

By Tess Vrbin and Ainsley Platt, Arkansas Advocate

The Arkansas House and Senate adjourned sine die Monday morning, marking the end of the nearly four-month 2025 legislative session.

Sine die — a Latin phrase for “without day” — means the Legislature isn’t scheduled to convene again this year unless Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders calls for a special session. The next scheduled session will be the 2026 fiscal session early next year.

The Legislature ended the business portion of the session on April 16 after considering more than 1,600 bills. Sanders signed 1,026 bills into law and vetoed four others.

Lawmakers can override the governor’s vetoes with a simple majority vote in both chambers before sine die adjournment. Both chambers convened briefly Monday but did not vote to override Sanders’ vetoes; leaders in both chambers said there was not enough support for this option.

House Speaker Brian Evans, R-Cabot, said after adjournment that he spoke with the sponsors of two of vetoed bills, Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, and Rep. Brandon Achor, R-Maumelle. He said neither indicated they wished to attempt a veto override.

Evans said Achor had been in communication with the constituents involved with House Bill 1961, which would have allowed medical providers to temporarily withhold medical records if they had a reasonable belief patients would misinterpret the records in a way that could endanger their health, safety or mental state. Evans said Achor and his constituents were already working on an interim plan and “believe there will be a good collaborative agreement on that.”

HB 1961 passed the House with 75 votes and the Senate with 18 votes, the minimum needed to advance out of the upper chamber.

Meanwhile, Evans said Pilkington did not feel he had the votes for an override for his bill that would have allowed delivery of marijuana and drive-thru window pickup. House Bill 1889 narrowly passed the House and Senate with 51 votes and 19 votes, respectively.

Prior to adjournment, Evans told his colleagues that legislation passed this year “will shape our state for years to come.” He reiterated both on the House floor and after adjournment that members of his chamber should take pride in the work they did during the session.

“We worked late into the night, we debated, we disagreed, we discussed; the most important thing, we collaborated,” he said. “We thoroughly vetted legislation, we brought diverse perspectives to the table and we made good bills through that debate even better.”

Similarly, Senate President and Lt. Gov. Leslie Rutledge told senators they should “leave here today proud” of their work during the session and that they “zealously and respectfully advocated” for their constituents.

The House conducted no business in addition to the adjournment, while the Senate confirmed a batch of five gubernatorial appointments to state boards and commissions in a voice vote after no debate. Sen. Matt Stone, R-Camden, was the only audible dissenting vote.

The appointments included Sanders’ deputy chief of staff, Judd Deere, to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees. Deere was appointed in March and will retain his position in the governor’s office. Deere is replacing Sheffield Nelson and his term on the board expires March 1, 2035.

Additionally, Larry Walther, former state Treasurer and Secretary of Finance and Administration, was confirmed to the Arkansas Public Employees’ Retirement System’s board of trustees. Walther is replacing Candace Franks and his term expires March 9, 2031.

Finance and Administration officials announced last week that the state’s income tax revenue in April dropped 15.5% compared to a year earlier. Sanders also extended Arkansas’ tax filing deadline in light of recent severe weather across the state.

The state has reduced individual and corporate income tax rates four times in the past three years, most recently in June 2024. Three of those instances have been since Sanders took office in 2023, and she supports phasing out the income tax entirely.

Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, said Monday that he hopes the Legislature will cut taxes again in a special session later this year. The fiscal year ends June 30, and state officials should take the year’s revenue into account before convening for a special session, he said.

Hester also said he anticipates no other reasons for a special session, including the ongoing controversy over Sanders’ plans to build a 3,000-bed prison on 815 acres of land the state purchased in Franklin County.

A $750 million appropriation bill to support the prison’s construction died after five failed votes in the Senate in April. State officials, including Republican Sen. Bryan King of Green Forest, and Franklin County residents have fought against the project, citing concerns about transparency, infrastructure and staffing.

The appropriation would have covered the remainder of the projected $825 million cost of the project. An additional $75 million appropriated in 2022 for prison expansion has already been allocated to the Arkansas Department of Corrections, which can use the funding to move the project forward.

The Legislature also set aside another $330 million for the project in 2023 that hasn’t been appropriated yet.

Hester said the state has “a clear path forward” and “plenty of money” to complete the prison project. The state has already hired a construction management company, Vanir Construction Management Inc., and started seeking proposals from architectural firms and contractors.

“Once we have the architecture and engineering done, hopefully we can get a hard bid, and I think that will bring a comfort level to a lot of members and ultimately get us the vote we’re needing” for the Senate to approve the rest of the funding for the project, Hester said.

King’s request to Sanders
King, who represents part of Franklin County, sent Sanders’ office a letter Monday asking for the 2022 appropriation funds to be used for their original purpose, which would add 525 beds to the state prison in Calico Rock.

Sanders has pushed for the new penitentiary to alleviate overcrowding in county jails, but King said Monday morning in a news conference that the Calico Rock expansion would be “much faster and much more economical.” He criticized the possibility of building water and sewer lines between the prison and the city of Fort Smith, saying it would be a waste of money.

Evans told the Advocate there were existing issues with Calico Rock’s infrastructure that impacted its expansion previously, adding that he was “not aware” of any new developments on that front.

“I feel like if that had been a reasonable option early on in the Sanders administration” then it already would have been acted upon, he said.

King’s letter also calls for the expansion of “smaller regional facilities” in Benton, Sebastian and Washington counties, which are among the state’s most populous, since they already have “basic infrastructure in place” to house more inmates.

About 20 opponents of the prison joined King at the news conference at the state Capitol, including members of the Chickamauga Nation, an Indigenous tribe with a presence in Franklin County.

“If you’re going to put a megaprison in a community, it’s certainly going to change their DNA … The fact that the governor went ahead and just tried to railroad the people without doing a basic needs infrastructure [assessment] is wrong,” King said.

Chickamauga burial sites and a “ceremonial stone structure” surround the property designated for the prison, and building the prison would have a negative impact on those sites, said Justin Flanagan, a chief with the tribe.

“We’re here today providing pamphlets with this information to the House and the Senate so that all deniability is removed,” Flanagan told the Advocate. “…With all the evidence we’re providing, there should be no reason not to do a three-phase archaeological study and cultural environmental impact study [of the land].”

King said he is willing to meet with Sanders and discuss ways to reduce prison overcrowding, and he added that addressing the issue “probably doesn’t need to wait” until next year’s fiscal session.

The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.