Category Archives: State government

Should the law make hospitals allow visitors during COVID?

By Steve Brawner, © 2021 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Should hospitals allow patient visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic? Should the government require them to do so?

For some Arkansas state legislators, the answer to both is “yes.”

House Bill 1061 by Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, would create the No Patient Left Alone Act requiring medical providers to let at least one person be present with patients each day at reasonable times.

Mayberry introduced the bill because many hospitals are severely limiting patient visitors during the pandemic. It has 11 co-sponsors in the House and six in the Senate.

Here’s the thing about being a journalist sometimes: You talk to a smart, persuasive person offering one side of the argument and decide they make sense. Then you talk to a smart, persuasive person on the other side. And then you rub your forehead and mutter, “I’m so confused.” Often, both sides have good arguments. Continue reading →

Why the governor can propose a tax cut

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

You know what Benjamin Franklin said about nothing in this world being certain except death and taxes? In Arkansas come legislative session time, you probably could add “tax cut proposals” to the list.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has led the Legislature in cutting income taxes this past three sessions, and he’s announced his proposals for the upcoming one. As a result of legislation passed in 2019, the income tax rate for the highest bracket will fall from 6.9% to 5.9%. He wants to reduce it further to 4.9% for new Arkansas residents for five years.

He also wants to reduce the sales tax on used vehicles from 6.5% to 3.5% for those costing between $4,000 and $10,000. There is no tax for vehicles sold for less than $4,000.

That second one seems like a fair and commonsense proposal. People paying for a vehicle that price are just trying to get a dependable ride to work or to school.

The first proposal? I don’t see it passing. Continue reading →

Does Issue 3 fix the broken process?

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansas state legislators are proposing a constitutional amendment that would make it harder for citizens to pass constitutional amendments in the future. And yes, the process is broken. The question is, will this fix it?

Issue 3, which is on this year’s ballot, also would make it harder for citizens to pass initiated acts, which are voter-created state laws, and also referenda, where voters can overturn a law already passed by legislators.

Let’s start with what clearly needs fixing.

First, the Arkansas Constitution is amended too often – 100 times since it was adopted in 1874 versus 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution since it was adopted in 1789 – and too easily. Sometimes it’s amended to create policy changes that should be made in less permanent ways, such as a law. Well-funded special interests and private businesses can write for themselves a permanent place in our state’s most important document.

Also, the current process is dominated by lawsuits that result in the Arkansas Supreme Court blocking proposals close to the election. This often occurs because of some technical issue regarding the voter signatures that citizen groups must collect to qualify for the ballot. For a constitutional amendment this year, for example, the groups had to collect 89,151 signatures.

The ruling often occurs too late for the proposal to be removed from the ballot. This year, voters will see a referendum to prevent optometrists from performing eye surgeries, but their votes won’t be counted.

Those are good reasons to reform the process. Here’s one that’s not as good: Some, including legislators, just don’t like how the people have voted lately. Examples include an amendment authorizing casinos, an amendment legalizing medical marijuana, and an initiated act increasing the state’s minimum wage. Continue reading →

Term limits with no lifetime ban on ballot

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

For the fourth time, Arkansans will vote on legislative term limits. The big difference with Issue 2 this November is that it would remove the current lifetime ban.

The proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution would limit state legislators to 12 consecutive years served in any combination in the House and/or Senate. After sitting out four years, they could run for office again – but this time, not as incumbents.

State lawmakers currently are limited to 16 years served in any combination of the House and Senate – for life. Some senators have a two-year term at the end of the decade that doesn’t count as part of the 16. That would not be the case with this amendment. Continue reading →

Fix the system? Not this year

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Two important citizen-led initiatives that could have been on your ballot this election cycle won’t be.

One would have changed the way Arkansas draws its congressional and state legislative maps, which is done every 10 years after each U.S. census under the U.S. Constitution. Currently, the Legislature draws the congressional lines while the governor, attorney general and secretary of state draw the legislative lines.

Unfortunately, the majority party can take advantage of this process to draw squiggly lines to stuff the other party’s voters into a few districts while spreading theirs strategically. This “gerrymandering” is almost as old as the republic, but technology has made it an exact science. Politicians can pick their voters rather than the other way around.

The initiative’s purpose was to take the power away from the politicians and their computers. An independent commission composed of three Republicans, three Democrats and three members of neither party would have been in charge of the process. Continue reading →