Legislative disappointment

In what was often termed a tidal wave, Arkansas Republicans picked up all seven contested Arkansas Senate races and added 16 new Republican House seats to their totals. The end result was that the 35-member Senate began the session with 15 Republicans and 20 Democrats. The 100-member House ended up with 55 Democrats and 45 Republicans.

The conventional wisdom was that Arkansas may soon see a Republican majority in one or both legislative chambers if the GOP could exhibit responsible leadership and manage well the political capital they garnered from the November 2010 election.

So much for conventional wisdom.

Believing that healthy competition is just as important in the political arena as it is in the business arena, I am sincerely disappointed by many Republican legislators who failed to set themselves apart from the nonsense they railed against during their campaigns.

Let’s be clear. I’m all for cutting taxes and reducing the size of government. My naive hope was that the GOP and conservative Democrats would begin to build an argument and support for responsible reductions and/or eliminations in the capital gains tax, income taxes and other business unfriendly taxes and fees.

Also, I wanted to believe in the campaign promises of many new GOP legislators who said they intended to go to Little Rock to reduce the size of government, curtail the reach of government and create transparency in government. That’s it. Just take care of business and come home.

The disappointment emerged early.

Rep. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, decided to change the state’s motto from “The Natural State” to “The Land of Opportunity.” Unbelievable. The state is struggling to emerge from a deep national recession, we have a $343-million-and-growing debt related to unemployment benefits we owe the federal government, Congressional and legislative redistricting looms large, our Medicaid system is 2-3 years away from a possible crisis; and yet Sanders wastes valuable legislative time with a motto change. Furthermore, the self-absorbed legislator failed to consider that the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism was just days away from unveiling an $8 million marketing campaign built around “The Natural State.”

Sanders is a piker, however, compared to Rep. Justin Harris, R-West Fork. The God-fearing Mr. Harris flourished frequently during his campaign that government spends too much and reaches too far into our lives. Turns out, Rep. Harris owns and operates a day care center (Growing God’s Kingdom) that is almost 100% dependent on state and federal taxpayer funding. And some of that funding —You Tea Party folks might want to sit down for this — pays for children of immigrants. Really, I mean, what would Jesus do?

Not to be outdone, Rep. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, proposed somewhat convoluted legislation that would regulate which grocery stores could and could not use plastic bags. Not sure about you, but I always see IRONY in neon when Republicans, who bitch and moan about how the federal government interferes in our business, go to Little Rock and proceed to interfere in our businesses.

In the category of Politically Tone Deaf, our group of hold-the-line-at-any-cost GOP’ers in the Arkansas House voted against a budget for the Arkansas School for the Deaf because it contained a $6,389 increase over the previous budget. It was noted by Matt Campbell, who authors The Blue Hog Report, that the hard-core Republicans who voted against the budget had already availed themselves of “reimbursements” to the tune of $37,150 a month. (See more of Campbell’s research on reimbursements in our Guest Commentary.)

GOP legislators aren’t the only disappointments. Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin, a Republican, decided on his own to spend about $70,000 of the roughly $200,000 budget for legislative apportionment. The other two members of the apportionment board, Gov. Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, were none too happy with the surprise. Some of that money was spent with Legacy Consulting, which was once and may still be partially owned by Martin’s chief of staff. Martin also campaigned on cutting costs and making government more transparent. Nice. As Daltry might note, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Not all Republicans are more keen on political posturing than political leadership. A group of about 5-10 Republicans in the House and Senate recognize that they can’t reverse the state of affairs in one session. They are working to build relationships and lay the foundation for bigger conservative wins maybe just a few legislative sessions down the road. One of those legislators expressed his frustration with what he termed “an undisciplined, uncoordinated” approach to legislating.

“At this point, they’re throwing bombs and they’re losing credibility, and there is no end game. They don’t know what they are doing,” noted the legislator.

The thing is, many of these undisciplined Republican legislators will come back and tell their constituents that they played hardball with Gov. Beebe and caused $15 million more in tax cuts than he initially was willing to abide. And those constituents, who may have no knowledge of arcane reimbursement procedures or looming financial obligations ignored for purposes of political expediency, will cheer them.

And then the disappointment will be complete.