Thank you to the 23 Arkansas state senators and 61 state representatives who knew it was time to go home last week and voted to adjourn the special session of the Legislature.
They had done what Gov. Asa Hutchinson had called them to Little Rock to do, passing an income tax cut that not all of them agreed was necessarily the best of decisions.
Like it or not, that work was done. Extending the session to take up other issues was going to be nothing but trouble, given what the Senate rapscallion, Jason Rapert, R-Conway, had in mind.
Rapert, who is running for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor next year, wanted to make this session about Arkansas' adopting its own version of the Texas law that lets vigilantes bring civil action against anyone involved with an abortion.
At least, he wanted to let Arkansans who think like he does see him rallying to the cause in advance of next year's elections.
Rapert's version of the Texas law was called the "Arkansas Human Heartbeat and Human Life Civil Justice Act."
Mind you, Arkansas law already creates a near ban on abortion, although the law has so far been enjoined by a court order.
Rapert will surely try again next year to raise the issue at the end of the fiscal session or during some future special session.
To be sure, Rapert had some support last week but, thankfully, not enough to muster a two-thirds vote in the Senate, at least not now.
That's what it takes for the Legislature to consider items not on the session's call from the governor -- a resolution passed by two-thirds of both houses of the Legislature.
The Senate showdown came on Thursday, just three days into last week's special session, which was the minimum amount of time necessary for lawmakers to consider and pass the governor's tax cut and a few other bills, including funding for tax incentives for a proposed steel plant expansion in Mississippi County.
On a 23-11 vote, the Senate approved President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey's substitute resolution to end the session before Rapert could get his resolution to extend the session considered. The Texarkana Republican saved his colleagues from having to vote on Rapert's contentious bill and others, including one to ban critical race theory in public schools, in the special session.
Hickey also saved the rest of us the embarrassment of watching the Legislature try to emulate Texas, then having to listen as national news called attention to it all.
For its part, the House passed an adjournment resolution 61-32 by Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, shortly after the Senate closed up shop.
Gov. Hutchinson was trying to hold off further efforts to change Arkansas' abortion laws until after the U.S. Supreme Court does whatever it's going to do regarding abortion cases now pending before it.
The governor even commented in a written statement after the Legislature adjourned that Rapert, instead of working with his colleagues, "chose to politically grandstand and that rarely leads to good legislation."
At least some of those House and Senate votes to adjourn reflect the same conclusion among lawmakers that Rapert and perhaps others would be campaigning on the state's dime if the session were to be extended.
Granted, some legislators simply may not have wanted to spend any more of the Christmas holidays in session.
Whatever their reasons, thank them for getting out of Little Rock as soon as they did.
It will be a while before anyone knows the true effects of the tax-cutting frenzy Gov. Hutchinson appropriately touted as historic. The cut is the largest in state history, even if it does disproportionately help wealthier taxpayers.
The income tax cuts are projected to reduce state general revenue by $135.25 million in fiscal 2022 and gradually reduce the annual revenue by $497.9 million in fiscal 2026. The goal is to reduce the top tax rate for individuals to 4.9 percent over the next four years.
The legislation was certainly popular with lawmakers. Only four of 34 senators (one seat was vacant) and 16 of 100 House members voted against the legislation.
You can't really blame them. Voting against a tax cut could get them opposition or at least require a lot of explaining to voters who may not see the downside of the revenue loss to the government.