Two candidates for state office face state tax liens ranging from about $5,000 to nearly $14,000, state records show.

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

This newspaper provided the Treasury Department with a list of candidates for state and federal offices and filed a public records request on July 25 seeking a list of candidates who hold state tax liens and the amounts owed on them.

A lien is a legal claim or pledge on an item of property as security for the payment of a debt. It has the same effect as a county court judgment recording liens.

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 with the Jefferson County Clerk on November 19, 2015.

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

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

In response to the public records request, Deputy Treasurer Paul Gehring stated in an Aug. 8 letter 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: “I am on a payment plan with the state and I pay every month.”

He said he expects to be able to repay his debt to the government “within a year.”

Barnes said he also has a payment plan to settle his federal income tax debt and expects to pay off those taxes by March 2025.

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

At the time, he said he owed about $50,000 in federal income taxes and planned to finish paying his outstanding federal income taxes this year and settle his state income taxes in about a year.

But Barnes said last week that he has since learned that he must pay off his federal and state tax debts simultaneously, and that is exactly what he is doing.

In the March 5 Democratic primary, Barnes easily defeated Kanisher Caldwell of Pine Bluff to win the party’s nomination in the state’s 65th House District. State Rep. Vivian Flowers (Democrat, Pine Bluff) currently represents the state’s 65th House District and is running for mayor of Pine Bluff in the Nov. 5 general election.

Barnes is unopposed in the general election.

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

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

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

Last week, McKee said: “I just fell behind.

“We have a payment plan,” he said.

McKee said he owns a small home remodeling business and has four children at home, and he is “just a little behind” on state income tax payments.

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

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

He has been a member of the State Senate since 2023, representing the 6th Senate District. He is unopposed in the November 5 general election. He is a former Garland County Justice of the Peace.

In the 2022 general election, McKee easily defeated Democratic candidate Courtney McKee of Royal in the 6th Senate District after ousting Republican Senator Bill Sample of Hot Springs in the primary.

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

For example, six candidates for state and federal office in the 2022 general election had active state tax liens ranging in size from just over $1,000 to just over $80,000, state records showed at the time.

Some of the candidates stated before the 2022 general election that they hoped to see an early resolution of active state tax liens, and some were in the process of repaying their taxes under a payment plan.

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

None of these six candidates won the 2022 parliamentary elections.