Category Archives: Legislature

Column: Good first step on prison reform

My column this week is about the prison reform bill signed by Governor Beebe into law yesterday. The law lightens certain sentences for nonviolent (and, to be honest, some not-very-violent) offenders while emphasizing parole, probation, electronic monitoring and drug courts.

Most columnists are critical of legislators most of the time, but this was a good vote. Legislators addressed a critical area of government spending growth despite this being an issue that is easily demagogued by opponents.

Few have every lost an election proclaiming the need to lock offenders up and throw away the key. But that approach is wasting a lot of taxpayer money – and a lot of lives as well. Some of those convicts can be turned around, but it makes it harder to do that if they languish in prison for years amongst the real criminals.

So while call it a first step? Because debate is beginning on another major government spending growth area – Medicaid. And that will be much more contentious. I’ll be writing a lot about that in the coming weeks.

Here’s the column.

To cut spending, you cut spending

Sen. Gilbert Baker (R-Conway) appeared on KARN’s “Dave Elswick Show” yesterday in the wake of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee tabling his proposal to cut the used car sales tax. He’s frustrated, so we should all cut him some slack, but he made this comment:

“I do support cutting the spending of this state and there is only one way you do it. You don’t talk about it. You don’t sponsor it away. You cut taxes.”

With all due respect, there is only one way to cut spending – by cutting spending. And then you cut taxes. In that order. Otherwise, Arkansas goes the way of Washington, D.C.

Jason Tolbert has a lot more.

Column: In defense of payday lenders

My Arkansas News Bureau column this week is about two bills before the state Legislature that would open the door to the return of small loan providers – payday lenders, basically.

The lenders, which provide small, short term loans mostly to poor people, shut down and left the state after Attorney General Dustin McDaniel threatened to sue them in 2008. They couldn’t justify their expenses and risks charging what the state would allow.

Everyone celebrated their departure as if they had done some noble deed – and then did nothing about the underlying problem, which is that poor people sometimes need $300 by Friday or their lights will be shut off.

Banks don’t loan that kind of money to anybody. Banks don’t loan money to poor people. But nobody proposed doing anything about that. And lest you think there are churches and agencies out there ready to help – there aren’t, at least not nearly enough of them.

So basically we left poor people with one less option to keep their lights on until a paycheck comes in or until they can figure out what to do. In fact, it was the best option. Now all they can do is go to a pawn shop, beg or steal.

Poor people sometimes need $300 to keep the lights on, and there’s no one out there willing to loan it to them. For those who oppose these bills – and, of course, that includes McDaniel – I have one question: What is your solution to the real problem?

What is your solution?

Here is the column.

What I was talking about

My Arkansas News Bureau column this week took state legislators to task for cutting taxes without first cutting spending. My point: With the state already owing the federal government $330 million for unemployment benefits, the responsible path would be to cut spending, pay down the state debt, and then cut taxes – in that order. You never know when unexpected expenses may occur.

Such as the $23.5 million legislators learned about yesterday that the state will have to pay in state employee salaries because the calendar squeezes in an extra pay period this year. It happens every 10 years, and of course, the calendar we use today was invented more than 400 years ago, so this shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

But it did, which is why responsible adults leave extra leeway when they think about reducing their revenues.

Read more about the $23.5 million shortfall here.

And if you’re interested, here is my column from Wednesday.

For Grand Master Lee, it was a “Land of Opportunity”

Grand Master Lee

Independent Arkansas acknowledges and even defends opposing points of view because healthy debate is the cornerstone of our democracy. And also because none of us have all the answers, even if we think we do.

I bring this up to share this anecdote about Rep. David Sanders’ efforts to change the state’s nickname from “The Natural State” back to “Land of Opportunity.” I have written on this blog and in my Arkansas News Bureau column that it’s my opinion that both nicknames are too vague to mean anything. Sanders argues that “Land of Opportunity” can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we see Arkansas as a land of opportunity, it can become one.

So here’s the anecdote. In 1977, Haeng Ung Lee moved the headquarters of the American Taekwondo Association from Omaha to Little Rock. It was the early days of the ATA, but since then it has grown into an organization representing 350,000 members worldwide. Its annual world championships attract 6,000 competitors and 20,000 spectators, making it the city’s largest annual convention. Grand Master Lee became a local legend. After he died in 2000, a $1.4 million memorial was erected in downtown Little Rock.

Why did he move here? According to the ATA’s current CEO, Jim Wolf, Lee always said there were two reasons. One was that the hills of northwest Arkansas reminded him of his native Korea. And the other was that he saw the words “Land of Opportunity” on a license plate and decided this was the place for him.

I haven’t changed my mind yet. But I thought this was worth sharing.