Curtis Coleman: Are They Not Reading the Bills Again?

Eighteen Arkansas House Republicans voted for a tax increase bill that will allow the Governor to continue repeatedly calling special elections until voters approve the increase.

Curtis Coleman

Curtis Coleman, Contributing Author: While the bill is only 14 pages long, one would almost have to assume that lawmakers are back to not reading what they’re voting on. At least a conservative would have to assume that the 18 House Republicans who voted for House Bill 1902 must not have read the bill before they voted.

On a vote of 67 to 24, the Arkansas House passed HB 1902 last week. If eventually approved by Arkansas voters, the bill will increase the state tax on diesel fuel by five cents/gallon. Because the bill requires a majority of Arkansas voters to approve the tax increase, HB1092 did not require 75 votes to pass but the approval of only a simple majority of 51 of the 100 state representatives.

And that fact alone has many conservatives scratching their heads about those 18 Republican “AYE” votes. If the 18 Republican “AYE” votes are subtracted from the 67 “AYE” votes, then the measure fails by two votes. (See the vote here.)

So many Arkansas conservatives are troubled by several questions…

Why would smaller government, lower taxes Republicans be voting for a tax increase, (especially on diesel fuel when diesel fuel prices have reached a near record high)?

Why would conservatives vote for a bill that allows the Governor to continue calling special elections as often as every six months until Arkansas voters okay the tax increase? (Lines 7 -9 on Page 10)

Why would deficit-fighting Republicans vote for more debt for the State of Arkansas? Yes, HB 1902 puts Arkansas farther in debt, up to $1.1 billion. Bonds will be issued under this bill, to be paid back by increased taxes on the people of Arkansas. Bonds are debt instruments that pay interest to the purchasers and will be “guaranteed by the full faith and credit” of the people of Arkansas. Arkansans are still paying for highway construction bonds issued under Governor Mike Huckabee. How much farther in debt are Arkansans willing to go?

It is true that the Arkansas Trucking Association supports this tax increase on diesel. But only on the condition that sales taxes on big-rig 18-wheelers be eliminated. And this tax increase hits Arkansas farmers and small diesel truck businesses extremely hard, not to mention Arkansas’s tourist and recreational industry.

Arkansans understand that big-rig truckers won’t actually be paying this new tax. These taxes will become an additional cost of business, an increased overhead to be added to the ultimate charges for their services. Most Arkansans won’t be paying this increased cost at the pump; they’ll be paying at grocery stores, supermarkets and department stores. Has anyone noticed the already higher costs for food? This new tax, if approved, will drive it up even farther.

Does Arkansas need to maintain and improve its highways? Absolutely! Does the Highway Department need funds to do that? Of course. But some significant changes need to made for Arkansas’s highways to be efficiently and productively funded. As long as we keep feeding the current cookie monster, those changes won’t happen.

1. The constitutional independence of the Arkansas Highway Department must be ended. There was a time when members of the Arkansas House and Senate served unlimited terms and exercised almost unchecked political power over the expenditures of the department. The opportunity for graft was enormous. But those problems, which adequately ended with the enactment of term limits on members of the legislature, have morphed into the Department’s intolerable lack of required accountability to the Legislature and the people of Arkansas. Five highway commissioners, each appointed to 10-year terms, independently determine the annual expenditures of billions of dollars of highway construction and maintenance funds.

It is time for the adoption of Senate Joint Resolution 2 by State Senator Jeremy Hutchinson that will amend the Arkansas Constitution to govern the state highway commission in the same manner as all other state agencies. And it is time for the Highway Department to “compete” with all other agencies and departments for an appropriate allocation of general revenue funds.

2. Each of the five highway commissioners shares all available highway monies equally; each commissioner controls 20% of the total (except federal funds that are earmarked for a specific purpose). There are 10 highway districts in the State, so each commissioner can designate his 20% of the total funds to the two districts for which he is responsible. These 10 districts haven’t been redrawn since 1938, so districts that have seen significant population losses are still receiving the same amount of highway funds as districts with populations that have dramatically increased. No, it doesn’t make sense. To date, the Highway Department has refused to have these districts redrawn.

3. Arkansas State Highway commissioners are appointed by the Governor without any additional review or inspection. An appointment to the commission is coveted by some and can be a huge political payoff. Elections for highway commissioners have been suggested, but that seems to be an extraordinary opportunity for political pandering. A perhaps imperfect but better solution will be to require all appointments to the Highway Commission to be confirmed by the Arkansas Senate. At least these appointments will then get a little sunlight.

House Bill 1902 has been sent to the Arkansas Senate where it will first go through a committee hearing and vote. The Senate Committee to which this bill will be assigned had not been announced as of this writing.

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Curtis Coleman is the President of The Curtis Coleman Institute for Constitutional Policy and contributing author to the ARRA News Service.

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