|  |  |  | | | | | Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | This week on the Week in Review Podcast: more discussions on John Pelphrey's fate, how Lu Hardin's apparent gambling addiction obscures his other misdeeds, state legislation we hate, five spring concerts to anticipate and, new this week, endorsements! With Lindsey Millar, Max Brantley and John Tarpley. Download here or stream below. On the jump, links to what we talk about: [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Not much to leave you with for the open line, except these items hot off the rumor mill: * UAMS faces a budget pinch. Departments are being asked for give-ups to erase a $5 million shortfall for fiscal year 2012. The pain extends, apparently, to Arkansas Children's Hospital, which is expected to be sending $2 million less to UAMS for physician contracts. The College of Medicine is looking for ways to save $4 million, between UAMS trims and the expected Children's reduction. * I keep hearing talk of a "third-way" tax cutting plan to emerge next week. The governor's office says it isn't a part of it. One scenario: Double the grocery tax cut to a full penny. That would be a face-saving way for avoidance of some of the burgeoning tax cut proposals that don't enjoy bicameral support. Not to worry: Whatever else happens the manufacturers will get their utility tax cut. If nothing else passes, THAT passes. Probably including even the pure profit giveaway of a cut on the tax on gas burned by merchant power plants. Priorities, people, priorities. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  - HOUSE SITE: Abdul Kareem Hasan and his wife, Helen Hasan, look at the site where their new home is going up.
A dozen-plus Muslim Arkansans gathered today at the site of the New Africa development, on a no longer vacant block at 40th and Potter in the John Barrow neighborhood, to celebrate the completion of three houses and the construction of a fourth. Among them were Imam Abdul Kareem Hasan and his wife, Helen Hasan, who are building a home in the development, a private effort of the Islamic Center for Excellence. Helen Hasan said the couple has been making the hour-long drive up from Malvern to worship at the decades-old Islamic Center at 1717 Wright Ave. for years; when their house and the masjid (mosque) the Center plans for New Africa is complete, all she’ll have to do to go to worship is just walk out her door, she said; her husband said he felt like “a kid waiting on Christmas.” Islamic Center Imam Aquil Hamidullah said he’d been asking himself, in light of U.S. Rep. Peter King’s hearings in D.C. about Muslim influence, “What is radical Islam?” It is not real Islam, he said; Islam is about peace, and he hoped New Africa, which will one day included 22 houses, the masjid and a community center, and the Islamic Center’s interfaith efforts would make that clear to all. New Africa won’t be exclusively Islamic; two of the three houses now there are owned by Christians. Hamidullah’s wife, Najiyyah, a pediatric nurse at Arkansas Children’s Hospital for more than 30 years, said the New Africa development got past neighborhood objections when it first began four years ago. There were, at that time, folks who said they didn’t want Muslims living next door to them, she said. “We already live next door to you,” she said. — Leslie Newell Peacock [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The House this morning voted 67-24 to pass HB 1902 to call an election on a five-cent increase in the diesel tax to raise money to repair U.S. and interstate highways. House Speaker Robert Moore, defending the bill, said: 1) it was permissive — that is, it is not a tax increase but a question for voters; 2)it addresses a problem that is not going to go way, and 3) it was critical to creating good roads that are vital in attracting industry. Opponents objected to the current allocation of highway dollars around the state; the $750,000 cost of a special election; the failure to consider taking general revenues for the work. Opponents also suggested there's sufficient fat in state spending to provide the money. Rep. Stephen Meeks said the solution was to mine lignite in South Arkansas. With whose capital and in what century, are the first of many questions about the awful idea to tap into just about the dirtiest energy source known. Speaker Moore said the better course would be for the House itself to pass the tax, but he said it wasn't likely to do it. He criticized those who supported a do-nothing posture. "It's our responsibility; it's our obligation." [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Highway Department estimates almost a half-billion in damage to 800 miles of roads from gas drilling, against $35 million in revenue from the severance tax. You'd think this would encourage some support for legislation in committee this morning to tax a bit more of the Fayetteville shale production at the 5 percent rate, rather than a favored 1.5 percent rate for certain "high-cost" gas. No resolution on the bill was reached. But Republican legislators appeared primed to oppose any additional severance tax. The gas lobby has done its work. The lobby's talking pointtoday is that nobody is making the timber, agriculture, poultry and other industries pay for the damage they cause. I'm not aware of studies that show comparable damage to the localized destruction done in the shale zones. However, by all means, let's study it and tax road-damaging industries accordingly. Silly me. Corporations don't pay for the damage they cause. You pay. Thus Jonathan Barnett's general sales tax for road construction, the biggest portion to fix roads destroyed by trucks, not passenger cars. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  - SHOW HER THE MONEY: Republican Jill Dabbs
They've sought an attorney general's opinion in hopes of invalidating the city policy that took their pay down a peg — by $208 and $68 per pay period from annual salaries paid previously of $71,000 and $41,000, respectively. “Bryant City Council members’ salaries are all the same regardless of the years of experience, and I cannot find any other elected officials in the state of Arkansas whose salaries are based on elected experience or education,” Dabbs said in her press release. “Elected officials salaries are established by the legislative body for cities, counties and states, respectively. Once salaries are established by legislative bodies, they should follow that position as do the responsibilities of that election position.”  - SHOW HER THE MONEY: Republican Heather Kizer
You'd think somebody with Republican in their name would be arguing for lower salaries and strict adherence to rules and regulations. That said, a personnel policy for elected officials tied to education and elective office doesn't sound like a good idea for any number of reasons. Remember Dr. Maxwell Sniffingwell? [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rep. Jim Nickels failed, as expected, yesterday with his bill to require combined corporate tax filling by multistate corporations. The use of subsidiary reporting allows accounting tricks that reduce and even eliminate tax liability in Arkansas. Nickels told the panel his bill would allow small businesses to be treated the same as multi-state corporations.
“It would allow Sherwood Tire to be treated the same as Sam’s and Wal-Mart tire departments,” he said. Richard Pomp, a University of Connecticut School of Law professor, testified that the bill would levelize the corporate taxation field that currently, under a court order, gives multi-state corporations the right to choose combined reporting in Arkansas. “You have the worst of all worlds, where multi-state corporations can elect to chose what’s to their advantage,” Pomp said. “I love being in any state where the corporate tax rate is essentially elective.” Pomp said corporations like Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, may set up a Delaware subsidiary that owns store buildings. Each corporate store pays rent to the subsidiary, which then provides a tax deduction to the main company, he said. “You’re picking up all the pieces from Humpty Dumpty and putting him back together again,” he said. Pomp estimated Arkansas would gain from $38 million to $95 million annually from combined reporting. “You don’t have to use that money for spending,” he said. “You could use it to reduce the corporate tax rate.” [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | UALR invites all to a pep rally. Chancellor Joel E. Anderson invites all students, faculty, staff, and the community for a Celebration Pep Rally at 12:15 p.m. Friday, March 11, in the Donaghey Student Center Fitness Center to congratulate the Trojan Men’s and Women’ s basketball teams for their twin Sun Belt Tournament wins and to wish them well at the the NCAA tournament. UALR Trojans made history Tuesday as the men’s and women’s basketball teams swept the Sun Belt Conference tournament, becoming conference champions for the first time in the same tournament. Come join the March Madness. Wear Maroon. Go Trojans! [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mike Huckabee's mouth now draws criticism from Rotary International, the civic organization. The letter comes in response to a statement made by Huckabee in a March 2 radio interview that most Americans "grew up in communities filled with Rotary clubs, not madrassas (Islamic seminaries)," during a critical assessment of President Barack Obama's "world view." Obama spent a portion of his childhood in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population. It also is home to about 89 Rotary clubs. ... Among Muslim-majority states, Turkey has the most Rotary clubs with 223, totaling about 6,000 members. Pakistan is second with 155 clubs and more than 3,000 members, followed by Malaysia, 109 clubs; Indonesia, 89 clubs; and Egypt, 74 clubs. Others include Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and United Arab Emirates. In 2010, a Rotary club was chartered in Palestine. There they go again. Confusing Mike Huckabee with facts. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hope you have something to contribute. Seems like I've been in meetings all day. Notes: * The bill to equalize tax on goods sold in Arkansas by attempting to collect the sales tax on Internet sales (it is legally owed as a use tax already, but rarely collected) passed the Senate today. House will be a harder sell. * Rep. Gabrielle Giffords plans to be at the April 19 launch of the space shuttle flight that her husband will command. * Gary Dunn will go to trial Aug. 1 for the third time in the slaying of Nona Dirksmeyer. What could possibly change the evidence that led to two mistrials? [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Education caucus. Environmental caucus. Human justice caucus. Never seen one. But let somebody try to propose effective regulation or fair recompense from the natural resource plunderers tearing up roads and threatening water supplies and seismic zones and a group of legislators immediately springs up in defense. As if the out-of-state gas drillers, who send finite Arkansas resources to out-of-state customers, need help, given the huge profits and how they throw it around to the right legislative candidates. Following is news of the formation of the Legislative Take the Money and Run Fayetteville Shale Caucus. All but three members are from the corporate party, otherwise known as Republicans. You need not look far to see the success of voluntary compliance with environmental protection laws and fair share payments for detrimental side effects. There is no such record. It is certainly not the aim of this new group. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Commercial Appeal reports the FBI is investigating the death of a Forrest City man as a potential hate crime. Marcal Camero Tye's mangled body was found beside a highway. Tye was wearing women's clothing and local authorities have described him as transgender. The FBI typically looks at cases that appear to be based on gender, sexual orientation or other discriminatory categories. "We think there's enough from the physical evidence" to launch an investigation, [Steve] Frazier said. UPDATE: The Forrest City Times Herald reports Tye was shot in the head with a small-caliber weapon and run over by a vehicle. Sheriff Bobby May said investigators believe the body was run over as the vehicle fled the scene. He told the newspaper he doubts the death was a hate crime. More from the Times-Herald [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Meredith Oakley, columnist and associate editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is leaving the newspaper after almost 35 years there. "It was time," Oakley told me at lunch, when I asked her to confirm a note I'd received overnight. She didn't elaborate other than to emphasize the decision was her own. She gave notice Tuesday and will be working two more weeks. Oakley was editor of the Voices page and reported to Paul Greenberg, the editorial page editor. She'll turn 60 in June and plans to seek other work, but she has no specific plans at the moment. Oakley is the senior news/editorial employee at the newspaper. She went to work about a year after Walter Hussman bought the then-evening Arkansas Democrat in 1975 and rose through reporting ranks to a management position. She was a right-hand to John R. Starr, the managing editor during the fierce newspaper war with the Arkansas Gazette. The war ended in October 1991 with the closure of the Gazette and Hussman's purchase of its assets. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Channel surfing the legislature this morning: * The House Transportation Committee discussed and then recommended the 5-cent diesel tax increase to pay for $1 billion in highway construction. A Twitter report from Stephens Media quoted Highway Department director Dan Flowers as saying there's a rule of thumb that 27,000 jobs are created for every $1 million spent on highways. A $1 billion payout on roads would create 27,000,000 jobs? Must be a typo. Even if it's 27,000 for each $1 BILLION, I'm still skeptical. * Rep. John Walker carried the load of pointed questioning as House Judiciary heard a bill to exempt individuals from liability under the state civil rights law. As Walker noted, this effectively prevents winning anything against a state agency, because the state is immune from lawsuit. If individuals are exempt, there's no place to recover for the worst sort of discrimination. Trey Kitchens, president of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers, said the bill "takes the person who is the bad actor" and immunizes them from suit. If the law goes forward, companies will just claim they had no knowledge of bad actors and fixed it and will say they should owe no damages. Debate is nearing an end, but I have to make an appointment. Hope to update. UPDATE: It was close, but the bill failed to make it out of committee. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Michael Tilley at the City Wire reports that the Golden Living nursing home chain (formerly Beverly Enterprises) is preparing to move its corporate headquarters from Fort Smith to Plano, Tex. Hard to recruit execs to Fort Smith. Airport connections better in Texas. The company is privately held by a California investment firm and there's also some speculation it may be positioning operations to make them more attractive for a sale. The firm will retain some 500 jobs in Fort Smith, the article says. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Attorney General Dustin McDaniel boasted in a Democrat-Gazette op-ed today about how his office's quiet negotiations with utilities had paid dividends for ratepayers. We can only take him at his word since the pro-utility PSC and friendly closed door negotiations don't offer much for the public to consider on whether a full-throated defense of consumer interests might have produced better outcomes. We know the utilities ALWAYS ask for way too much and settle for less. That is no measure of the success of an intervenor's work. Maybe, in some of those increases, they deserved nothing. We do know this. McDaniel's office did nothing on the SWEPCO coal-burner down in Hempstead County, which isn't needed to serve Arkansas customers and which is an environmental disaster. Private interests carried the ball in the sweeping court victories that are now causing the polluting industry headaches. McDaniel — though all over the non-existent problem of sports agents and smokable bath salts and working assiduously to trash the FOI to protect the Razorback ticket industry — is nowhere to be found in the utility-favoring workout of legislation that originally was intended to stop court review of utility-friendly PSC decisions altogether. It is still unbelievable to me that the PSC worked in concert with SWEPCO and the co-ops on this bill. (UPDATE: John Bethel, the director at the PSC, talked to me about this this morning. He said the PSC had offered suggestions on the legislation at the request of sponsors because it concerned PSC process and that it has customarily done so. He said some suggestions were made that were not incorporated, including the PSC's objection to removal of judicial review, and that the PSC had relayed its continued objections after the bill was filed with that provision.) A consumer advocate suggests another op-ed topic for McDaniel: Dustin McDaniel has an op-ed in today's DG about how he protects ratepayers. Maybe he can answer how separating the determination of need for power from the approval of ways to meet those needs would protect ratepayers. As HB 1895 is currently written, it weakens ratepayer protection by restricting their ability to discuss all alternatives to meet the need for power, i.e., energy efficiency, already existing power plants. It also doesn't close but affirm the merchant plant loophole that SWEPCO used to jam Turk, which wastes taxpayer money by going through PSC proceedings only to have utility turn the plant into merchant in the midst of proceedings. Maybe Dustin "I protect rayepayers" McDaniel can explain why he didn't stick up for Arkansas' ratepayers until the courts had to do the job for him. And he isn't protecting them now by letting HB 1895 pass. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
No comments:
Post a Comment