Arkansas revenue off from 2016, but hits new budget target

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ revenue in May was less than last year but under a new forecast adopted last month money available for the state to spend is 1.2 percent above expectations, the state Department of Finance and Administration said.

After months of revenue falling short of expectations, Arkansas last month revised its budget forecast downward.

On Friday, the Department of Finance and Administration said it was largely hitting the new targets.

Individual income tax refunds were 7.1 percent below the amount forecast, while income tax money collected through the withholding tax was up — both benefiting the state.

The report said individual income tax collections for the month of May totaled about $209 million. Withholding tax decreased 3 percent compared to last year as a result of payroll timing differences, according to the department.

Tobacco tax revenues, gambling revenues and sales and use tax collections were also up. The department said the sales and use tax was up because last year’s revenue figures accounted for refunds issued as part of a court settlement.

According to the report, money available to the state from the month of May totals about $339 million, or about 20.5 percent above the expectations.

The report also noted that the year-to-date collections of the soft drink tax totaled about $43 million, which is an increase of 2.2 percent from last year.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he was pleased with revenue report, but the state will remain cautious when it comes to spending.

Hutchinson announced in April a $70 million budget cut to offset a revenue shortfall for the fiscal year that ends in June.

“Notwithstanding the good numbers for May, it was the right decision to revise the forecast and curtail Category B spending last month. The belt

tightening was appropriate,” Hutchinson said Friday.

Hutchinson said agencies will see cuts in funding for programs and projects not deemed essential or necessary. Hutchinson said the agencies also would be able to absorb the cuts because of savings generated in the past year.

The governor said there would be no disruptions in services and no reductions in jobs.

The department said state agencies will see cuts in funding for programs and projects not deemed essential or necessary.

Attorneys in open-record lawsuit aim to bar firm

FAYETTEVILLE — An attorney for a northwestern Arkansas college said a motion to bar his firm from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the school is harassment.

Attorneys for former Ecclesia College teacher and board member Jim Parsons filed a motion seeking to disqualify the school’s attorney, Travis Story, and his firm from the lawsuit, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Parsons’ attorneys said a lawyer practicing in Story’s firm sponsored two grants to Ecclesia.

Story called the motion a ruse to harass the school.

Parsons filed the lawsuit in February seeking documents related to state grants from the Springdale school. Arkansas legislators gave the private Christian college nearly $700,000 from the state’s General Improvement Fund.

The lawsuit argues that private organizations receiving public money are subject to the state’s open-records law. But the school contends that the requested documents can’t be released because they’re covered in a protective order issued by a federal judge hearing a corruption case involving the school’s president, Oren Paris III.

The school’s receipt of funding was questioned after Paris was accused of being involved in a bribery scheme involving former Arkansas lawmakers.

In March, former Sen. Jon Woods was named in the wire fraud indictment along with Paris and Randell Shelton Jr. The indictment alleges Woods and former state Rep. Micah Neal directed hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds intended for economic development to specific, unnamed entities. In exchange, Woods and Neal were to receive kickbacks.

Neal pleaded guilty in January to taking bribes that totaled $38,000 for helping two organizations receive grants through the state’s General Improvement Fund.

Story is seeking sanctions and dismissal of Parsons’ lawsuit.

Little Rock Zoo:

No lion as ‘mane’ attraction this summer

LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock Zoo intends to close its lion exhibit for much of the summer while it builds a new containment fence and prepares for the arrival of two young female lions.

Zoo officials said Friday that its lion, named Bakari, will move indoors during construction of a taller fence. The lion exhibit will close Monday and remain shuttered for up to eight weeks.

Bakari’s indoor quarters has five rooms. The zoo plans to keep the 11-year-old lion active while his outdoor exhibit is closed.

Arkansas lawsuit over jail fight tossed for lack of evidence

FORT SMITH — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a federal prisoner in a northwestern Arkansas jail who said staff used excessive force against him.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Eastern Arkansas’ U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes ruled that 47-year-old James Clayton Solomon didn’t prove allegations filed in federal court in 2010.

Holmes also ruled that jailers weren’t blameless in causing a fight that led to Solomon’s charges against them.

In the lawsuit, Solomon said two deputy marshals threatened him with retaliation after he wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson in April 2008 that said he hoped the judge would die a slow and painful death from a disease.

Solomon wrote the letter after Dawson sentenced him to five years in prison for violating his supervised release on a federal drug conviction in Oklahoma.

3 charged with first-degree murder in man’s killing

BLYTHEVILLE — Three suspects have been jailed and are charged with first-degree murder in the Memorial Day killing of a 28-year-old Blytheville man.

Authorities say the suspects fatally shot Richard Wilkins Jr., during a fight that broke out late Monday.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports Blytheville residents Quadrell Bledsoe and Gerome Spiller surrendered to police on Tuesday. Blytheville resident Cameron Wells turned himself in on Wednesday.

Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington says Wells also faces a firearm possession charge.

Court records didn’t show attorneys listed for any of the suspects.

An arrest affidavit filed in Mississippi County Circuit Court states that Wilkins’ brother was actually the intended target of the dispute, but was shot when police say he got caught up in the fight between the men.