Every jurisdiction in this catalog has entries whose figures move when a bill passes, whose act takes effect on a later date, or whose program is repealed while its agency keeps advertising it. This page watches each jurisdiction's law, follows a bill through its own jurisdiction's process where its stages are recorded, and names the catalog entries each instrument touches.
17 instruments in Arkansas. Tracked across 51 jurisdictions. Every other jurisdiction on the board is still watched by hand.
A bill that died is listed only where a guide, an agency, or a news story has described it as current law. That is the failure that puts a number in front of a veteran which no assessor, registrar, or school will honor.
▲Expands benefitsRaised the homestead property tax credit from $600 to $675.
Amended Ark. Code Ann. § 26-26-1118(a)(1)(A) from $600 to $675 for assessment years from January 1, 2026; approved May 1, 2026. The credit was $425 before Act 3 of the 2024 Second Extraordinary Session raised it to $500 and Act 330 of 2025 to $600. County collectors say a veteran or spouse receiving the § 26-3-306 exemption is not eligible for the credit. Flagged because the Department of Veterans Affairs property tax guide, revised October 2024, still prints $425.
▲Expands benefitsWould have barred charging for help with a VA benefits claim except as federal law allows.
Died in House committee at sine die adjournment on May 5, 2025. Arkansas has no state law against unaccredited claim consultants charging fees; free help remains available from state, district and county veterans service officers.
▲Expands benefitsWould have created a sales and use tax exemption for disabled veterans.
Died in House committee at sine die adjournment on May 5, 2025. HB 1319 of the same session, a similar exemption for disabled veterans and their spouses, was withdrawn by its sponsor on March 17, 2025, and HB 1465 of 2023 did not become law either. Arkansas exempts only vehicles and adaptive equipment bought with VA assistance under Ark. Code Ann. § 26-52-401(6).
▲▼Expands and restrictsLets a home held in a trust or family LLC qualify, but reprints the 40-acre limit that Act 407 had raised to 160.
Rewrote Ark. Code Ann. § 26-3-306(a)(2) so a homestead owned by the veteran's revocable trust, an irrevocable trust of which the veteran is a beneficiary, or an LLC whose only members are the veteran and spouse qualifies, with proof filed under a new § 26-3-306(b)(3). Effective for assessment years from January 1, 2026; approved April 17, 2025. Its text restates the pre-Act 407 figure of 40 acres. Because it was signed after Act 407 and takes effect a year later, Ark. Code Ann. § 1-2-207(b) would let its 40 acres prevail from assessment year 2026 if the two are read as irreconcilable.
▲Expands benefitsExtends the National Guard tuition benefit to private nonprofit Arkansas colleges.
Added Ark. Code Ann. § 6-60-214(j) and (k): a Guard member at a private nonprofit two-year or four-year college headquartered in Arkansas and eligible for Title IV aid may receive up to what the member would receive at a public college. Act 14 of 2025 separately opened the waiver to certificate and credential programs. Approved April 17, 2025; effective August 5, 2025.
▲▼Expands and restrictsMakes the VA letter a one-time filing, but lets a collector reclaim up to three years of taxes on an erroneous exemption.
Added a subdivision to Ark. Code Ann. § 26-3-306(b): the VA letter "is required to be submitted only one (1) time" and "annual submission of a letter from the department is not required", with a duty to report a change of status or property and a new letter for a new homestead. Added § 26-3-306(g) letting a collector remove an erroneous exemption and collect up to three years of taxes. Effective for assessment years from January 1, 2025; approved April 17, 2025. Flagged because Saline, Pope and Miller county collectors still tell veterans the letter must be filed every year, and because Act 880 added a different subdivision with the same number.
▲Expands benefitsRequires larger employers to post the veterans benefits and services available in Arkansas.
Enacted Ark. Code Ann. § 11-2-126: the Department of Labor and Licensing, with the Department of Veterans Affairs, creates a poster covering veterans programs, mental health treatment, education, tax benefits, the licence designation, unemployment insurance, legal services and the Veterans Crisis Line, and employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees must display it. Approved April 16, 2025; effective August 5, 2025.
Repealed Ark. Code Ann. § 16-101-106 and enacted § 16-90-1602, under which a specialty court judge may dismiss and seal a case on successful completion and the prosecutor's recommendation; set a specialty court program user fee of up to $250; and tied § 16-101-101 to national standards rather than those of January 1, 2021. Eligibility in § 16-101-103 is unchanged. Approved April 16, 2025; effective August 5, 2025.
Sponsors
Carol DalbyRepublican, House, District 100
Tyler DeesRepublican, Senate, District 35
Touches Ark. Code Ann. § 16-101-101 · Ark. Code Ann. § 16-101-106 · Ark. Code Ann. § 16-90-1602
▲Expands benefitsCounts prior military service toward a state employee's annual leave accrual rate.
Added Ark. Code Ann. § 21-4-204(h): a state employee who retired from the military, was honorably discharged, or served in the Arkansas Guard or a reserve unit before state employment receives service credit toward the annual leave accrual rate, with Guard and reserve time measured as career points divided by 365. Approved April 14, 2025; effective August 5, 2025.
▲Expands benefitsRequires jails and prisons to identify veterans and give VA and the state department access to help them apply for benefits.
Enacted Ark. Code Ann. §§ 12-29-121 and 12-41-111: within 14 days of incarceration, verification through VA's Veterans Reentry Search Service; notice to the department within 45 days and on release for a veteran held six months or more; and reasonable access for VA and the department to help the veteran apply for benefits or a veterans treatment court. Approved April 10, 2025; effective August 5, 2025.
▲Expands benefitsAdds the Space Force to the military pay and retirement exemptions and the licensing examination credit.
Amended dozens of definitions to include the Space Force, among them Ark. Code Ann. § 26-51-306(c) (military pay), § 26-51-307(e)(2) (military retirement), § 17-1-101 (the 10 percent licensing examination credit, which until then named only the Army, Navy and Marine Corps and now also the Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard), § 21-4-301 (military leave) and § 12-62-413 (state active duty employment protection). Approved April 10, 2025; effective August 5, 2025.
▲Expands benefitsExtends the property tax late penalty waiver to one tax year after a deployment ends.
Rewrote Ark. Code Ann. § 26-36-201(d): no penalty during a deployment plus one tax year after it for a member of the Armed Forces, a reserve component or the National Guard, where deployment means assignment outside Arkansas on Title 10 active-duty orders. The taxpayer gives the collector a DD 214 showing the deployment date within a year after it ends. Approved April 10, 2025; effective August 5, 2025.
▲Expands benefitsRaised the land around a disabled veteran's home that the exemption covers from 40 to 160 acres.
Amended Ark. Code Ann. § 26-3-306(a)(2)(A)(ii) so the homestead includes up to 160 contiguous acres not used commercially, for assessment years beginning on or after January 1, 2025. Approved March 25, 2025. Flagged because Act 880 of 2025, approved three weeks later, rewrote the same subdivision and reprinted "forty (40) acres" with effect from assessment year 2026. For 2025 only Act 407 is in force. From 2026, Ark. Code Ann. § 1-2-207(b) gives an irreconcilable conflict between acts of one session to the act signed last, which is Act 880, unless the reprint is read as no conflict at all; nothing we found has settled it. The veterans agency's October 2024 property tax guide predates both.
▲Expands benefitsCreated the Arkansas Heroes Scholarship and counts a military disability retirement as well as a 100 percent rating.
Enacted Ark. Code Ann. §§ 6-82-2501 to 6-82-2508 in the Arkansas ACCESS Act. A disabled veteran is a person awarded Armed Forces disability retirement benefits or VA compensation for 100 percent permanent and total disability; residence is one of three alternative routes; children are covered to 26 and spouses until remarriage; the award covers costs beyond federal DEA for eight semesters. Repealed the law enforcement dependents subchapter but only amended § 6-82-601, the Military Dependents Scholarship. Approved March 18, 2025; effective August 5, 2025. Flagged because the Division of Higher Education describes only the 100 percent route and a strict one-year residence rule, and the old Military Dependents Scholarship rules are still codified.
▲Expands benefitsWaives the 10 percent yearly penalty when a disabled veteran redeems his or her own tax-delinquent land.
Added Ark. Code Ann. § 26-37-302(e): a disabled veteran meeting the § 26-3-306(a)(1)(A)(i) test who submits the VA letter to the Commissioner of State Lands does not pay the 10 percent annual penalty on redeeming a tax-delinquent parcel he or she owns. Interest and costs remain. Approved March 12, 2025; effective August 5, 2025.
▲▼Expands and restrictsCreated the Women Veterans plate and repealed the Pearl Harbor Survivor plate.
Enacted Ark. Code Ann. § 27-24-216: a Women Veterans plate for a woman veteran of the six armed forces, at the registration fee plus a $15 design-use contribution to the Department of Veterans Affairs Women Veterans Program. Removed the Pearl Harbor Survivor plate from §§ 27-24-204 and 27-24-206. Approved February 13, 2025; effective October 1, 2025.
Sponsors
Dave WallaceRepublican, Senate, District 19
Stetson PainterRepublican, House, District 3
Touches Ark. Code Ann. § 27-24-216 · Ark. Code Ann. § 27-24-204 · Ark. Code Ann. § 27-24-206
▲Expands benefitsLets a retiree whose military exemption is under $6,000 use the rest of the $6,000 exemption on other pensions.
Amended Ark. Code Ann. § 26-51-307(f) for tax years from January 1, 2023. A taxpayer claiming the full military retirement exemption still cannot also claim the $6,000 exemption for other retirement income, except for the difference when the military exemption is below $6,000. Approved March 21, 2023.
A bill moves when the people who vote on it hear from the people it affects. Enter your address to see who represents you in Congress and in your state legislature, and where to get free, accredited help with a VA claim: your county veterans service officer or town veterans’ agent, and your state’s service offices.