Category Archives: State government

Column: An oath and a pledge

My column this week focuses on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge that 19 legislators signed before this year’s session. I don’t think they should have done so.

The pledge was pushed by Americans for Tax Reform, a Washington, D.C., outfit led by Grover Norquist that opposes all tax increases. It states that legislators will “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes.”

My point in the column is that signing such a pledge makes legislators beholden to a special interest group like ATR and forces them into rigid ideological positions.

That dynamic was clearly at work in this session. When faced with the question of allowing Arkansans to vote on highway tax increases, at least two legislators have said that, rather than letting their consciences be their guides, they instead relied on Norquist. Moreover, the pledge forced legislators into performing all kinds of moral and mental gymnastics. Five didn’t vote for or against a $1 fee increase to fund the Arkansas State Police retirement fund. I’m pretty sure the pledge was the reason they took that somewhat wishy-washy route.

What about you? Should legislators sign such pledges before a session?

By the way, here is the list of signers.

Column: How to pay doctors?

My Arkansas News Bureau column this week discusses the Beebe administration’s Arkansas Health Transformation Initiative.

That’s a lofty-sounding title for a plan that is forming to remake Medicaid, the federal-state program that serves many lower-income Arkansans as well as Arkansans with disabilities and those in nursing homes. The initiative would “bundle” payments to groups of medical providers rather than paying each individual provider using the traditional fee-for-service method.

Why is that significant? Under fee-for-service, Medicaid keeps paying as long as doctors keep billing, so there is no incentive to cut costs. The goal is to provide that incentive before Medicaid starts running huge deficits soon.

Doctors would be paid a negotiated flat fee per episode as inducement to avoid duplicate and unnecessary care – much like you or I would pay for many other services we receive. Imagine telling a house painter that you’ll just pay him as long as he keeps painting. He might very well paint just enough to get the job done right. Or he might cover your house in layers of paint.

Lots of medical providers, of course, do not believe they should be paid like house painters, so it’s going to be a heckuva fight.

Here’s the column.

Column: Democrats try to give Arkansas the finger

That’s the headline I couldn’t use in my column today for the Arkansas News Bureau, for obvious reasons.

The “finger” in question is the “Fayetteville Finger,” the effort by Democrats to redraw congressional maps to their advantage by creating a peninsula stretching from the Fourth District up to Fayetteville.

Their motivation is simple: Put more likely Democratic voters in the First and Fourth districts and stuff Republican voters in the Third.

It comes at the end of the state’s first ever two-party session – one that went pretty well, frankly. Aside from this stunt – and a few others – if this is Arkansas partisanship, I can live with it. It certainly works better than the kind we have seen in Washington.

Here’s the column.

House panel says no to 350 school threshold

The House Education Committee just passed House Bill 2010, by Rep. Jon Hubbard, that would basically remove the 350 threshold that school districts are required to maintain in order to avoid consolidation. I only heard one no vote.

Hubbard pointed to the Weiner School District, which was required to consolidate with Harrisburg even though it was performing well academically.

It now goes to the House. We’ll see.

Now Hubbard is testifying in favor of House Bill 2011 that would pay private school families and home-school families. It would have an immediate impact of more than $80 million. The parents would be reimbursed for expenses. Under questioning, he says he doesn’t have the details worked out. It would take effect next year.

Unanimously failed.

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.