Members of the 90th General Assembly approved tax cuts for an estimated 600,000 people and agreed to provide Medicaid-funded private health insurance policies for about 200,000 of the state's poorest residents.
They also implemented new criminal justice initiatives, passed a budget and gave themselves pay raises during their 81-day session.
It was one of the shortest regular sessions in recent years. The 2013 session lasted 100 days and the 2011 session 95.
The highest profile topic was a bill that passed this week.
After a week of demonstrations, political maneuvers and heated debate related to the passage of a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Arkansas Legislature sent the measure to the governor and recessed Thursday.
The House of Representatives and Senate will reconvene in a few weeks to tie up any loose ends and officially adjourn, according to Speaker of the House Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia.
"I think the members operated at an extremely high level of professionalism," Gillam said. "I think there is a lot for not only the members to leave here and be very proud of, but there is a lot of things that the state of Arkansas can be proud of."
Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said lawmakers wasted no time in taking on big-ticket issues that came up during the 2014 campaign season.
Legislators tackled issues including abortion access, school safety, education funding and gun rights.
Both chambers started early on one of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's top priorities, which was addressing the future of health care in the state.
"For the most part, we've had a very smooth session," Dismang said. "We were able to get some of the larger items out of the way early on that allowed us -- the individual income tax cut, for instance -- that allowed us to get a step ahead on the budget process."
Many of the Republican lawmakers, and many of the freshmen, ran on a platform of ending the private option program. The program uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private insurance for some low-income Arkansans.
The Legislature already has authorized the use of federal funds for the program through fiscal 2016, which ends June 30, 2016, and Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he wants to end the program on Dec. 31, 2016. In the meantime, a legislative task force will recommend changes in the Medicaid program, including the private option.
"It took some leadership in the chambers to get a solution on that in this session and one that creates a process that will allow us to have a final resolution in two years," Dismang said. "I think that was something good to have done on the front end."
On Thursday, House Minority Leader Eddie Armstrong, D-North Little Rock, said that preserving access to health care for nearly 200,000 Arkansans enrolled in the program, as well as finding a way to improve access, was his party's top priority walking into the session.
He thinks this session helped poorer Arkansans, but also saved rural hospitals and clinics.
"Ending the private option in our party was never an option," Armstrong said. "In theory, [some Republicans] think they ended the private option ... but by way of the Task Force, the governor's support, and the Senate ... [they] said this is something that's actually working for us ... It's Arkansas' and we should own it. Other states look at us as a national model."
Hutchinson pushed through a campaign promise of a middle-class tax cut that applied to about 600,000 wage earners in the state.
Act 22 cut income tax rates for Arkansans with incomes between $21,000 and $35,000 from 6 to 5 percent. Rates for those making between $35,100 and $75,000 would see their rate drop from 7 to 6 percent. The cuts will go into effect in the 2016 tax season.
In addition to lowering taxes, legislators also passed several workforce development bills aimed at increasing funding for job training and education throughout the state.
For Dismang, the tax cuts and targeted boosts in education funding worked hand in hand.
"You saw a real push to have Arkansas be as business friendly as it could," Dismang said. "You saw that reflected in the bills. Ultimately, I think it's been a good year and I think something people back home are going to be proud of."
Democrats cheered the tax relief for middle income Arkansans, but when they tried to get tax relief for poorer, working citizens in the state, they fell short.
A push by Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, to create a state earned income-tax credit that would have augmented a similar federal income-tax credit for Arkansans making less than $21,000 a year failed in committee.
"[Sabin] didn't go down without fighting ... It just wasn't our day at the ballpark," Armstrong said. "That's the price you have to pay when you're in the minority."
Legislators also passed a series of measures on prisons and recidivism.
Hutchinson set aside $36 million in his budget for a set of prison and parole changes that cleared both Houses.
Among some of the changes, lawmakers enacted legislation to contract for space with out-of-state facilities, allowed for state and local governments to partner on the creation of regional jails and found extra beds in current state facilities.
They also expanded services and opportunities for inmates transitioning back into the community, hired 50 more parole and probation officers, and gave the same warrantless search powers reserved for parole officers to other law enforcement agents to help keep parolees and probationers in line.
Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, spent many months leading up to the session working on prisoner re-entry solutions and said that she was "heartened" by the progress made this session.
"The fact that we are going to shore up the number of parole officers we've had, I like the way the governor talked about it and approached it and gave people the opportunity to change their behavior," Elliott said. "We can't continue to just lock up people."
The lack of tax breaks for poorer Arkansans, Elliott said, was part of a pattern of legislation that seemed to make things harder for the working poor.
"The more able you are, seemingly, we just pay more attention than if you were a part of a more vulnerable population," Elliott said. "That seems to be more thematic in what we've done."
Asked what to make of criticisms from Democrats that not enough was done to help poorer Arkansans, Gillam said that no session is perfect.
"You're never going to be able to take on every issue," Gillam said. "We'll continue to work on other issues."
The Legislature also passed a $5.18 billion budget, one that grew by $133 million from last year's budget. Funding for state higher education was frozen but prisons, public schools and human services programs all received upticks in funding under the 2016 budget.
Legislators also voted away their own office expenses, which could net a legislator as much as $14,400 a year, in exchange for a large pay raise recommended by the Independent Citizens Commission.
The commission, which was created by a vote of the people last November, approved legislators pay to rise from $15,869 to $39,500. They also approved large pay raises for state constitutional officers and judges.
Before leaving the capitol Thursday, Gillam announced that he will seek a fourth term and will seek to return to the 91st General Assembly as Speaker of the House.
"For me, I love serving in the House," Gillam said. "I still think there are things I can offer."
Metro on 04/03/2015