Thank You, Alice Walton (Bill Bowden Editor’s Note)

In comedy writing, and life in general, its fashionable to gig the rich.

Theyre sitting yucks.

Its human nature. We want to know theyre regular folks just like the rest of us, except for all that money, of course.

Alice Walton, the accident-prone Wal-Mart heiress, has had her fair share of media attention. At the age of 56, shes now tied with her mother Helen for the title of richest woman in the world. Each has a net worth of $18 billion.

In his autobiography, Sam Walton described his only daughter as volatile. With three low-key brothers, she was the wild child of the Walton clan.

It seemed that she was always breaking bones. A horse stomped on her foot. Her car went off a cliff in Mexico. More than 30 leg operations ensued.

Then, in 1998, she was arrested for drunk driving after she crashed her Toyota 4 Runner into a gas meter in Springdale and broke her nose. It was national news, especially after she invoked the name Walton in an apparent attempt to intimidate the police officer.

It didnt work. He took her to jail.

Alice Walton could have settled the case for $650, but she hired a Dream Team of lawyers and fought it instead. They lost. She was ordered to pay $925 and do 28 hours of community service.

Soon afterwards, she moved to Texas, a state that levies no income tax.

For years, it seemed she had turned her back on Arkansas. Rumor was she thought the DUI conviction wasnt fair after all she had done for the area. Through her financial support, Walton had made the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport a reality.

Since then, she has maintained a low profile, working mostly with cutting horses on her ranch near Mineral Wells, Texas.

The sport has its roots in Western ranching tradition, where horses were used to cut, or separate, specific cows from the rest of the herd.

In the meantime, the Walton family gave $50 million to the University of Arkansas business school, which is now named for Sam Walton. Then the family gave $300 million to the UA. It was the largest donation ever to a public university. And it was only one of many donations the family has made over the years.

While all of that was going on, Alice Walton was quietly being philanthropic in Texas.

Then, in March, word got out that she planned to build a large art museum ??” not in Texas, but in her hometown of Bentonville.

Walton came back to Bentonville on May 23 to officially announce the $50 million Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The museum will be built along Crystal Springs, a creek that runs through the property. Part of the museum will be a bridge over the creek. The largest art gallery will serve as a second bridge and dam.

When completed in 2009, the museum will house much of Alice Waltons personal art collection, including Asher Durands Kindred Spirits, which Walton bought for a reported $35 million, the most ever paid for an American painting.

When she entered the conference room at the Clarion Inn, some people in the crowd commented about how she looked like her father, who opened his first dime store in Bentonville in 1950 and died in 1992. Others said she resembled her mother. It was Alice Waltons first public appearance in the area since the airport dedication in late 1998.

When she stepped up at the podium, her passion about the museum project ??” and Northwest Arkansas ??” was obvious.

Walton told the crowd her parents had taught her to give back to the community, and thats why she was there.

Bentonville and this region of the state is my home, always has been, always will be, Walton said, her voice quavering slightly with emotion. Id like to dedicate this project to the love of my mom and my dad They, in turn, gave us that love as a family.

Anyone who thought Alice Walton had turned her back on Arkansas couldnt think that anymore. Through her generosity, Alice Walton is building bridges, over Crystal Springs and generations.

System Taxes Itself

It certainly was no surprise when Arkansas recently showed up as one of the states that faces the greatest risk of a structural deficit according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It should be a call for reform.

The center defines that as a chronic inability to grow state revenue in tandem with growth in state government expenses or the states economy.

Failure to modernize tax systems to reflect a shift from a goods-based to a service-based economy puts many states at risk for chronic budget gaps, the Washington, D.C., think tank said.

The shift cuts into sales tax revenue, the report said, since most states do not tax services. The rapid growth in Internet purchases is also hurting sales tax revenue, since states generally cannot collect taxes on them.

Corporate income tax revenue has declined by nearly half as a share of total state revenue over the past two decades, and many states have failed to update their brackets of personal income tax to reflect rising incomes.

What it boils down to is that unless states like Arkansas change their basic tax structures, theyll face the hard choice each year of raising taxes or cutting government services.

Heres some of the analysis of Arkansas situation, which was given a score of nine on the centers risk scale of 10 factors:

The percent of sales subject to sales tax declined by 10.1 percentage points from 1990-2003.

The state has significant loopholes in its corporate income tax.

Arkansas could lose an estimated $230 million to $360 million in revenue a year in untaxed e-commerce.

Arkansas provides preferences to seniors in its property tax regardless of their income level.

The top bracket of Arkansas income tax starts at a relatively low level, making it a less progressive tax. An individual earning $30,000 in Arkansas pays income tax at the same rate as someone earning $300,000.

From 1994-2000, Arkansas cut income taxes and reduced the capital gains tax rate while increasing its sales tax and gasoline tax. Then from 2001-04, Arkansas increased personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, the cigarette tax and the sales tax.

Arkansas has two limits that restrict the growth in revenue from property taxes: a property tax revenue limit and an assessment increase limit. While Arkansas budget is balanced (another constitutional requirement) and the current revenue reports show the state is in good shape, now might a good time to look at the tax codes.

The legislators have been preoccupied with putting out the biggest fires for the past couple of sessions. But before the next session, they ought to look closely at tax issues and make them a priority.