EL DORADO — Matthew J. Shepherd, State Representative for District 6, spoke about some of the high profile bills that were passed during the legislative session in Little Rock, at the Kiwanis Club meeting on Wednesday.
Shepherd practices law in El Dorado at the law firm of Shepherd & Shepherd, P.A. He is also in his fourth term of serving as a state representative, with plans to run for Speaker of the House in the future.
He is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and is a member of the House Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development Committee, which he formally was the chairman. He serves on the Joint Budget Committee and the Joint Energy Committee, as well as Chairman of the Arkansas Code Revision Commission.
He spoke about Arkansas’ unemployment rate dropping to 3.4 percent. “I believe that is a new low. That’s initially full employment,” Shepherd said. “This is really great news for the State of Arkansas and I think with Governor Hutchinson’s leadership and hopefully with some of the policies that we’ve enacted, we’re moving the state in the right direction.”
They also passed additional income tax cuts that are targeted towards individuals making less than $21,000. “We wanted to provide some additional relief at the lower end of the income spectrum,” Shepherd said.
They have also created a task force that will study what additional tax reforms are needed, he said. “I believe that one of the things that we’re going to have to look at is the spending side of things,” he said. “We’re going to have to look at what additional efficiencies we can create in state government. A lot will be related to technology. A lot of things we do in state government, have been done the same way probably for 100 years and they’re probably some things we can do to create additional efficiency.”
There has also been a new website added so if you have an idea or a suggestion for state government, you can go online and submit your ideas. Visit the site at http://myidea.arkansas.gov/ or call (844) 7MY-IDEA. “All of those suggestions are being looked at and are being considered,” Shepherd said.
Hutchinson signed a bill giving a tax break to retired military veterans. One of the motivations for this bill is that many military retirees have a lot of working life left and they have skills that are in high demand, Shepherd explained. “We want to attract those types of individuals to the state of Arkansas and this is one of the things that’s going to make us more attractive as a state,” he added.
They also separated the Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. holidays. The holidays used to be celebrated on the same day in January, but now the Robert E. Lee holiday will be in October. This was a top priority for Hutchinson, Shepherd said.
They also dealt quite a bit with medical marijuana. Essentially, medical marijuana is a whole new industry for Arkansas and they are having to start from scratch to determine how to regulate it, he said. They want to make sure that they handle the substance the right way and are not creating any loop holes.
“With the change of administration, what’s the federal government’s position going to be on this?” Shepherd said. “So you’ve got all these factors swirling around that are related to this. We dealt with a number of different issues related to medical marijuana and I anticipate that we’re going to have to revisit a lot of those. There’s still more work to be done.”
Shepherd also talked about how Arkansas has become a leader when it comes to health care. Arkansas, unlike most states in the south, have not had any hospitals close, which is a good sign, Shepherd said. There are still options for health insurance in Arkansas.
The legislation passed concerning gun licenses allows for an enhanced permit related to the concealed carry laws and allows for additional training and the ability to carry in more places, Shepherd said. But he also thinks that there will be additional legislation in the future concerning gun laws.
The Criminal Justice Efficiency and Safety Act of 2017 bill was passed, which will allow funding for three behavioral crisis intervention centers. “Right now, we have a lot of individuals in jail or in prison that were probably more of a mental health issue before they were a criminal justice issue,” Shepherd said. “We’ve got a lot of people in our jails that need to be somewhere else getting treatment and stabilized.
“We’re trying to be proactive in addressing mental health issues that we face and get people into these stabilization units, where hopefully they can get back on their medication, get the treatment that they need so that they can transition back into public,” Shepherd added.
In addition to these bills, Shepherd talked about two constitutional amendments that they referred out. The first is a constitutional amendment to require a voter ID.
The second is SJR8, which refers to tort reform. This will provide caps on attorney fees when it comes to personal injury actions. There will be a $500,000 cap on pain and suffering, which you cannot quantify, Shepherd said.