Arkansas Ballot Issues Newsletter

April 2023

Lottery Proceeds

on 2024 Ballot

For the first time in nearly 40 years, Arkansas legislators sent only one constitutional amendment to voters. And it's an issue voters have seen before: lottery proceeds.

HJR1006 proposes expanding lottery scholarships to students bound for technical or vocational schools. Currently, proceeds are used for two-year and four-year college scholarships.

Read HJR1006

Lawmakers pushed through the amendment on the evening of April 6, less than 24 hours before they closed out the session. They will come back May 1 to officially adjourn until 2024.

The Arkansas Constitution allows lawmakers to put three constitutional amendments on the ballot for voters to decide, plus one about their salary.

Although there seemed to be support for other proposed amendments based on the number of cosponsors of bills and related discussions during the session, the House referred only the one ballot measure. The Senate didn't refer any.

Looking back at historical records, 1986 was the last time legislators referred only one ballot issue. Voters in 1994 also saw only one legislative issue because the Arkansas Supreme Court had removed others by Election Day.

Expanding Direction of Lottery Proceeds

The 2024 ballot issue is tied to one that came before voters in 2008.

After years of failed lottery proposals, a citizen initiative campaign led by then-Lt. Gov. Bill Halter succeeded in repealing a constitutional ban on lotteries. Proceeds from the new scholarship were earmarked for two-year and four-year college scholarships and grants.

Voters approved what is now Amendment 87 by a vote of 648,122 (63%) in favor to 383,467 (37%) against.

From the Archive: Read our 2008 Lottery Fact Sheet

Since 2009, more than $1.1 billion in scholarship proceeds have been raised through the lottery, according to the lottery's website.

Qualifications for the scholarship include being an Arkansas resident for at least 12 months prior to enrollment and receiving at least a 19 on the ACT. Students qualify for between $1,000 to $5,000, depending on their status in school.

In 2017, legislators passed Act 613, creating and funding the Arkansas Workforce Challenge Scholarship. Lottery proceeds, in an amount of up to $800, could be awarded to students attending technical schools for certification in industry, health care, and information technology.

Former Sen. Shane Broadway helped present HJR1006 during a March 27 House committee meeting. He shared how lawmakers discovered the issue during the their 2009 legislative session.

"As we worked on developing the scholarship program we were told by our attorneys we could not include the state-owned vocational technical schools because they were not included in the definition in the constitutional amendment," Broadway said.

HJR1006's sponsor, Rep. Robin Lundstrum, said the details of what types of vocational education activities that would be covered would be fleshed out during a future legislative session if the amendment were to pass on Election Day. She said they must ensure the types of trainings covered would meet business needs in Arkansas.

Committee Discussions on Contenders

In all, lawmakers submitted 33 proposed constitutional amendments for the 2024 ballot. The number was not out of the ordinary compared to past years.

Legislators on the House State Agencies committee responsible for identifying the winning proposal reviewed seven other proposals: HJR 1002, 1003, 1005, 1008, 1009, 1011 and 1013. They ranked HJR1006 and HJR1009 the highest, but never voted on a second amendment.

The Senate's State Agencies committee reviewed SJR1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 15, and 20. SJR15, which would have reconfigured how state highway commissioners are appointed, "was the only bill that had consistency across the membership," Sen. Blake Johnson said during the April 4 committee meeting.

Committee members approved a last-minute amendment to SJR15 and it had four supporting votes. But SJR15 needed five votes to go to the full Senate.

"I was told it was a unanimous pick," said Sen. Bryan King, SJR15's sponsor, in an interview April 11. He said he made amendments to satisfy members, "who ultimately didn't vote for it."

CAPES Seeks Referendum on Arkansas Learns

A citizen-initiative group wants voters to decide whether the Arkansas LEARNS education bill, or Act 237, should go into effect. This type of ballot measure is called a referendum.

Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES) submitted a ballot title on April 10 to the Arkansas Attorney General's Office for review. The group also submitted the required Ballot Question Committee Statement of Organization paperwork with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.

Referendum groups must act quickly. They have 90 days after the official end of the legislative session to collect and submit voter signatures to the Secretary of State's Office. Referendums have a lower voter signature threshold than constitutional amendments and state laws. CAPES will need to collect voter signatures equal to 6% of the number of people who voted in the last governor's race, or 54,422 valid signatures in this case.

If approved by the Attorney General's Office, the referendum would be the first to face a new 50-county rule passed by the legislature. Previously, ballot issue groups needed to collect voter signatures from at least 15 counties. Legislators passed Act 236, which increased the number to 50 counties. A lawsuit over the constitutionality of Act 236 has yet to have its first day in court. Follow the court case 60CV-23-1816 online.

House Rejects Amendment 7 Test Case on Road Tax

The legislative session is all but officially over. We're digging into a Senate Bill that might not have caught many people's attention when it stalled in the House Committee on Public Transportation.

SB445 sought to make technical corrections to a highway funding amendment, clarifying that state sales tax dollars can be spent on interstates wider than four lanes. It was admittedly a test case to see whether Arkansas legislators could use a 1920 constitutional amendment that says they can amend or repeal ballot measures with a 2/3 vote.

"If the General Assembly chooses to amend the constitution by a vote of the members and skip the process of allowing the people to vote on the Constitution and the Supreme Court overturns the Edgmon case, at that point, every two years every legislative session will be a constitutional convention. There will be nothing off the table. Higher ed, Game and Fish, highways, marijuana, casinos, lotteries, term limits, everything ...," said former Attorney General Dustin McDaniel at the committee meeting earlier this month.

Read our Blog Post

Behind the Scenes: Finding Citizen Ballot Issues

With the passage of Act 194, the process for citizen ballot issue groups is now back to the way it was before a 2019 law shifted responsibilities from the Attorney General to the Secretary of State. Then and now, we search for ballot issue groups through the Attorney General's Opinions page.

Ballot issue groups will submit their proposed ballot titles to the AG's office, which will review the wording. Regardless of whether the office approves or rejects the wording, it will issue an Attorney General's Opinion that lists the person submitting the request along with the title. This will give us an idea of what's possibly circulating for the next election.

If you are aware of a citizen initiative in the mix, we ask you to reach out to us. Email us at publicpolicycenter@uada.edu to share information about the campaign.

PPC In the Media

Below is a selection of recent Public Policy Center media coverage:

KUAF - The Process Behind Constitutional Amendments

We joined Matthew Moore for a few minutes last month to talk about the ballot issue process in Arkansas. (We should have knocked on wood. We said legislators always talk about only referring one but we hadn't seen them do that. Well, hello it is 1986 all over again.)

Listen

Stuttgart Daily Leader: UADA Celebrates Women in Leadership

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture recognized several employees in their Women's History Month write up. Spoiler alert: We're included in it! The Stuttgart Daily Leader was kind enough to publish the Q&A.

UADA Women History Month

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The Public Policy Center was established in 2004 to provide Arkansans with timely, credible, unaligned and research-based information and education about public issues. Public issues are defined as pressing and emerging issues that involve multiple points of view and have widespread consequences.

Our goals are to:

Increase citizen knowledge, awareness and understanding of public issues;
Enhance public participation in decisions regarding public issues, and
Help citizens craft, evaluate and implement alternative solutions to public issues.

We are part of the Community, Professional and Economic Development unit at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service in Little Rock.

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