Category Archives: State government

The 3 percent rules

Arkansas Legislature, Arkansas Works, Jeremy HutchinsonBy Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

“Ninety-nine percent of this body are good, honest people,” said Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, and I think his estimate is not far-fetched. But only 97 percent of the members of the 2013-14 Arkansas Legislature are not going to prison, and that percentage could shrink before all is said and done.

Sample, who was quoted in the Democrat-Gazette, was responding to the latest news to come from federal authorities’ corruption investigation. In federal court June 7, lobbyist Rusty Cranford pleaded guilty to bribery charges regarding two former legislators who themselves have pleaded or been found guilty, former Sens. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, and Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff.

Those two are awaiting sentencing along with two others from that 2013-14 session, former Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, and former Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale. A fifth ex-legislator, Rep. Eddie Cooper, D-Melbourne, who served from 2005 to the beginning of 2011, has also pleaded guilty to financial wrongdoings. All of it is related to the state’s General Improvement Fund, a grant program directing state dollars to specific local projects at the behest of individual legislators.

None of that is news. The news was that Cranford told the court that another legislator had accepted $500,000 in bribes.  Continue reading →

Government by attorneys general

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

“All politics is local,” said the late Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, and that may have been so at one time.

But these days, all politics is national. And no one understands that better than Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and her fellow attorneys general across the land.

Rutledge occupies a state office – in short, she’s Arkansas state government’s lawyer.

But attorneys general can have a big impact on federal issues – in fact, a bigger impact than most members of Congress. Each of those is just one of 535 members of an institution that can’t get anything done anyway.  Continue reading →

Listening to Eeyore in boom times

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There’s been a lot of supposedly good economic news lately, which means someone needs to be that guy – the Eeyore guy. Eeyore is needed to balance out the Tiggers.

In case your “Winnie the Pooh” is a little rusty, Eeyore is the pessimistic donkey who sees the cloud in every silver lining. Tigger is the optimistic, enthusiastic tiger who bounces around and is pretty full of himself.

I bring up those two characters in light of this week’s announcement that Arkansas state government is enjoying a $44.2 million surplus this fiscal year with one month to go, and has collected about $160 million more than last year.

That’s good news, and it comes amidst a prosperous national economy – indeed, a global one. We are now in the midst of the nation’s second longest economic expansion on record, though records don’t go back far. This expansion began in June 2009 in the bottom of the Great Recession. If we make it to July 2019, it will become the longest.

But economies that go boom eventually go bust, and so will this one. In the foreseeable future, the expansion will run out of steam and then we’ll be in a slowdown, or something bad will really shock the system like the banking crisis of a decade ago. Continue reading →

Better way to elect, or select, judges?

Alabama, blue wave, school boards, Hixson, Breanne, red tide, judicial electionsBy Steve Brawner , © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Let’s say you were on trial for a murder you didn’t commit. Your fate would be decided by average Arkansans.

Which process would you prefer?

A. A small group of focused people from all walks of life would hear both sides of the case through an orderly process. You would have a chance to testify. By the end, they would have adequate information upon which to make their decision.

B. Maybe a million distracted Arkansans would decide your case along with other cases by clicking “guilty” or “innocent” on an electronic ballot. Their information would be limited, and much of it would come from 30-second ads and mailers produced by anonymous people who say you’re guilty.

If you chose “A,” that’s the jury system. If you chose “B,” that’s the way we elect judges.

Continue reading →

Can the center make a comeback?

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Clarke TuckerBy Steve Brawner

© 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Does “the middle” equal “mushy”?

The concept came up in an interview with Rep. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, by the New York Times. The newspaper featured Tucker in a story about national Democrats favoring moderate candidates in Republican-leaning districts like central Arkansas’ 2nd.

It’s represented by Republican Rep. French Hill, himself not a fire-breather, but national and local Democrats think they have a shot at winning it. So they recruited Tucker and have backed him financially.  Continue reading →