Ellington Calls Crawford’s Proposal “Opportunist”

I spoke today with Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress, about the proposal from Republican Rep. Rick Crawford to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment in exchange for a new a 5% surtax on individuals earning over a million dollars.

“Coming out in an election year makes me raise my eyebrow a bit,” said Ellington. “Congressman Crawford was voting along party lines most of last year and this is obviously a change from that record.  It seems opportunistic to make that proposal at this time. It seems as if he is dangling this tax on millionaires out there to garner support of average folks.”

As for the proposal itself, Ellington was definitely not sold on the idea.

“I am not the economist in the race,” said Ellington when asked whether he supports a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “But running a federal government is different from running a state government. The balanced budget amendment works well for Arkansas, but could cause problems at the federal level so I am not ready to buy into that yet.”

As for the millionaire’s surtax, Ellington seemed at least open to the idea.

“I don’t have one voter in my district that thinks they don’t already pay enough in taxes, but I do think folks should pay their fair share,” said Ellington.

He said he was open to going back to tax rates in effect during the time President Clinton was in office, but also saw some areas where tax breaks should be considered to stimulate the economy, such as tax breaks for corporations that focused on getting jobs that had moved overseas back into the United States.

Ellington faces State Rep. Clark Hall and ASU professor Gary Latanich in the Democratic Primary on May 22. Crawford is unopposed in the Republican Primary.