Gov. Hutchinson at No Labels: States picked up tab after earmarks banned

The loss of congressional earmarks has required states to lift a heavier load when it comes to infrastructure projects, which Arkansas has done, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday.

Hutchinson was part of a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., along with Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, this year’s president of the U.S. Council of Mayors, and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. The three were participating in “1787: Constructing the Peace After the War,” a daylong series of meetings sponsored by the centrist group No Labels, which says it seeks bipartisan solutions to national problems. Their session was titled, “The First 100 Days: How the States and Congress Need to Work Together.”

Hutchinson also was to meet Monday with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell about the state obtaining a federal waiver for Arkansas Works, his version of the private option, the program that uses federal Medicaid expansion dollars to purchase private health insurance for lower-income Arkansans. He also planned a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team about health care.

Earmarks, sometimes referred to as “pork,” are specific expenditures for particular projects often benefitting a single congressman’s district. Congress banned the explicit practice in 2007.

That ban forced states and local governments to take more responsibility for their own infrastructure projects, Hutchinson said, referencing the Interstate Rehabilitation Program, a bond issue passed by voters in 2011, and the Connecting Arkansas Program, a road-building program passed by voters in 2012.

“You just couldn’t wait on earmark money (that) wasn’t going to happen. And so if you’re going to create that growth, create that infrastructure for the highways, you had to figure out a way to do it on your own,” he said.

Hutchinson said he does not favor reinstituting earmarks. Instead, he hopes a new federal highway bill with new funding sources would be “more robust” and that it would allow projects to be completed more quickly. He said federal restrictions result in there being too much time between highway projects being approved and ground being broken, and that states do not have enough flexibility. Public-private partnerships can be used to create a revenue stream and then accelerate development.

He said one way to help pay for increased infrastructure would be by using repatriated money that American companies are holding offshore.

Hutchinson said he was pleased that Trump seems to place an emphasis on infrastructure, adding that infrastructure includes not only highways but also water projects such as the Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project, which will divert surface water from the White River to farms in the state’s Grand Prairie region that are rapidly depleting the Alluvial and Sparta Aquifers.

“That’s a federal project, it’s a state project, but it’s been stymied in terms of the flow of money. It’s an example of where we’ve made an investment, but we don’t have enough money to complete the project,” he said.

Hutchinson said the state was looking for investment possibilities from the public, private and international sectors, including the recent announcement of a $1 billion Chinese investment in a bioproducts facility in south Arkansas. He pointed out that the state’s teacher retirement system invested in the Big River Steel plant in Osceola.

“When you’re a small state, you’ve got to rely upon a whole arena of investment opportunities for huge, for big infrastructure projects whether they’re private sector-driven or whether they’re public projects as well,” he said.

He said he was optimistic that the Trump administration will offer more flexibility on health care and be a partner with states on infrastructure.

“We’re sitting on pins and needles as to see how this develops,” he said.