Beebe Election-Year Flip Flop On Grocery Tax Repeal?

Little Rock - Asa Hutchinson questioned the credibility of Attorney General Mike Beebe's claim in a new television ad launched this week that he would eliminate the sales tax on groceries in Arkansas.

Despite paying lip service to cutting the grocery tax during his 20 years in the state Senate, Beebe never did show the leadership or take the action necessary to get it done. Even more significant, Beebe actually fought efforts to eliminate this very tax just a few years ago. Hutchinson pointed to a 2002 ballot proposal that Attorney General Beebe publicly opposed. [Food Tax Question Pending Before High Court, AP, 10/10/2002}

In July, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette chronicled the tax records of the two candidates, which showed Hutchinson's consistent support for tax reform and relief throughout his time in Congress and Beebe's support for billions of dollars of tax increases as a member of the Arkansas Senate. [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 7/23/2006]

''Over a two decade career in the state Senate, Mike Beebe continuously and repeatedly raised taxes on Arkansans, with the end result that Arkansas has one of the highest tax burdens in the nation," Hutchinson said. "But now that he's running for Governor, he claims to have discovered the virtues of cutting taxes. ... After 20 years of claiming tax increases are necessary, isn't it a bit of a stretch to think he's suddenly come around to a new way of thinking?" [Press Release - Asa for Governor Campaign]