Two candidates for state office have active state tax liens filed against them for amounts ranging from about $5,000 to nearly $14,000, according to state records.

State House of Representatives candidate Glenn Barnes of Pine Bluff has three liens filed against him for a total of $13,946.72, and state Sen. Matt McKee, R-Pearcy, has one lien against him for $5,014.02, according to the state Department of Finance and Administrative records were provided Aug. 8 in response to an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

This newspaper provided a list of candidates for state and federal office to the Treasury Department and filed a public records request on July 25 seeking a list of the candidates who have state tax liens and how much is owed on the liens.

A lien is a legal claim or possession of property as security for the payment of a debt. It has the same effect as a judgment issued by the circuit court, where attachment is filed.

According to Treasury Department records, Glenn Barnes and his wife, Ladawn Willis-Barnes, have three state tax liens filed against them, including:

An income tax lien in the amount of $6,958.13 for the tax periods ending December 31, 2012 and December 31, 2013. The lien was filed on November 19, 2015 with the Jefferson County Circuit Clerk.

An income tax lien in the amount of $3,594.76 for the tax period ending December 31, 2014. The lien was filed on March 16, 2016 with the Jefferson County Circuit Clerk.

An income tax lien in the amount of $3,393.83 for the tax period ending December 31, 2011. The lien was filed on February 4, 2016 with the Jefferson County Circuit Clerk.

In response to the public records request, Assistant State Tax Commissioner Paul Gehring said in a letter dated Aug. 8 that Barnes’ current balance on the three income tax liens totals $7,922.82.

Barnes, a pastor at Park Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, said last week that “I have a payment plan with the state and I pay every month.”

He said he expects to pay off what he owes the state “within a year.”

Barnes said he also has a payment plan to pay off what he owes in federal income taxes, and he expects to pay off those taxes by March 2025.

In February, Barnes said pastors for years believed they were exempt from paying income taxes, so he hired the Bailey & Thompson Tax Accounting firm in Little Rock several years ago and said he has paid his state and federal income taxes ever since. then.

At the time, he said he owed about $50,000 in federal income taxes and was focused on finishing paying off his outstanding federal income taxes this year and then was looking to pay off his state income taxes in about a year or so.

But Barnes said last week that he then learned he should pay off what he owes in federal and state taxes at the same time and that’s what he’s currently doing.

In the March 5 Democratic primary, Barnes handily defeated Kanisher Caldwell of Pine Bluff to win the party’s nomination in state House District 65. State Rep. Vivian Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, currently represents state District 65 and is running for mayor of Pine Bluff in the general election on 5 November.

Barnes is unopposed in the general election.

The State Department of Finance and Administration shows that the state tax lien filed against Matthew McKee and his wife, Nikki McKee, is an income tax lien of $5,014.02 for the tax periods ending December 31, 2019, December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2021.

The lien was filed on May 23 of this year with the Garland County Circuit Court Clerk.

In response to this newspaper’s public records request, Gehring said in his letter dated Aug. 8 that McKee’s current tax lien balance is $4,914.22.

Last week, McKee said that “I just got behind.

“We have a payment plan,” he said.

McKee said he owns a small home remodeling business and has four children at home and was “just a little behind” on paying state income taxes.

“We’re doing everything we can to catch up,” he said.

Arkansans are experiencing inflation like people across the country and “I know exactly how they feel,” McKee said.

He has served in the state Senate representing Senate District 6 since 2023 and is unopposed in the Nov. 5 general election. He is a former Garland County Justice of the Peace.

In the 2022 general election, McKee handily defeated Democratic candidate Courtney McKee of Royal in Senate District 6 after unseating state Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, in the primary.

The number of state tax liens filed against candidates for state and federal office in Arkansas has varied over the years, and the amount of their state tax liens has varied widely.

For example, six candidates for state and federal office in the 2022 general election had active state tax liens that ranged from a little over $1,000 to slightly more than $80,000, state records showed at the time.

Some of the candidates said before the 2022 general election that they hoped to resolve the active state tax rules soon, and some were in the process of paying back their taxes under a payment plan.

In 2022, the candidates with active state tax liens included one seeking a U.S. Senate seat, one running for attorney general and four vying for state House of Representatives seats in the general election based on data from the state Department of Finance and Administration in 2022 to the Arkansas Democrat- Gazette under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. They included three Libertarian candidates, two Democrats and one candidate for a nonpartisan office.

None of these six candidates won in the 2022 parliamentary election.