Rancher who was state Senate leader

A former leader of the state Senate, Jim Hill, died Thursday morning at his home in Nashville.

Hill, 75, died from lung complications, said his wife, Charlotte Hill. He’s struggled through ailments during the past few years.

“He was a fighter and loved life,” she said.

Hill, who served in the state House of Representatives from 1993-1997 and in the state Senate from 1997-2009, was known in legislative circles as a blunt and sometimes coarse-talking cattle rancher who enjoyed gnawing on cigars.

Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, who served with Hill in the state Senate from 19972003, called Hill “a dear and trusted friend whose life was dedicated to service, be it as a United States Marine or as a member of the Arkansas General Assembly.

“Working alongside Jim for many years, I got to enjoy the dry wit that peppered his conversations and debates,” Beebe said in a written statement. “It was a disarming trait that left smiles on the faces of friends and adversaries alike.”

Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, who succeeded Hill in the Senate in 2009, described Hill as a good man who cared about people and southwest Arkansas.

Hill’s quips were often delivered with a straight face. The smile would follow a few beats later.

“Sometimes you never knew if he was picking on you or serious, and then he grinned,” Teague recalled. “I loved him. I am sorry. We’ll miss him.”

In 2003 and 2004, Hill was the Senate’s leader — the president pro tempore — and guided the Senate through what some veteran state lawmakers regard as the most contentious legislative session in the past dozen years.

That was a special session on education called by then-Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee after the state Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling that public school funding in Arkansas was unconstitutional, inequitable and inadequate. Not much was accomplished in the 2003 regular session to overhaul the public schools in response to that ruling, so Huckabee summoned lawmakers back.

The Legislature enacted 111 laws during the special session. The measures required the consolidation of school districts that have fewer than 350 students; funneled more money to low-income school districts; raised state taxes a record $380 million to increase education funding for 2004-05; and did scores of other things.

Hill also served stints as chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee and was often a key player on tax measures.

As a state representative, Hill was the chief House sponsor of a proposed constitutional amendment, which voters approved in November 1996, to levy a 0.125 percent sales tax for conservation that helps fund the Game and Fish Commission, the state Department of Parks and Tourism, the Arkansas Heritage Commission and the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission.

Hill earned a bachelor of arts degree from Henderson State University and served in the Marine Corps Reserve for seven years, obtaining the rank of sergeant, according to Henderson State University’s website.

The funeral service will be Saturday at 1 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Nashville.