Gov. Hutchinson touts his government transformation initiative as primary looms

Gov. Asa Hutchinson was in Jonesboro Tuesday night promoting his conservative bona fides at a town hall meeting on the Arkansas State University campus, exactly three weeks before the Republican primary. Hutchinson touted his government transformation initiative, a plan to cut government spending and waste. When asked by Talk Business & Politics if he was worried about challenger Jan Morgan defeating him, he said he thinks he’s in a good position to secure the nomination of his party.

“We’ve been working hard. We like our poll numbers,” Hutchinson said. “We’re really covering the state.”

The latest Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College Poll of 676 GOP voters puts Hutchinson with 57.5% support compared to Morgan’s 30.5%. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided. The poll was conducted on April 17-19 and has a margin of error of +/-3.8%. Hutchinson has spent considerable time in Northeast Arkansas in recent weeks and he said he plans to spend more time in this part of the state. It has experienced strong economic gains during the last decade, and it has become a hub for the Republican Party in recent years, he said.

“As governor I need to be up here,” he said. “Expect to see me often.”

Since his election in 2014, Hutchinson said he’s pushed for more efficiency to improve services and identify ways to streamline processes in state government. About 1,100 workers have been cut from state payrolls and the merging of several governmental agencies will save the state $10 million during the next five years, he said. No workers were fired during this process, but several unnecessary positions were not filled when a vacancy arose, he said.

“Our goal is to improve services to our citizens,” he said. “We want to eliminate the duplication of services.”

Arkansas State University Jonesboro campus Chancellor Kelly Damphousse, Arkansas Economic Development Commission Executive Director Mike Preston, and two members of the of the governor’s Transformation Advisory Board – George Dunklin and Mike Carroll – joined a panel discussion with the governor.

Two agencies, the Arkansas Department of Rural Services and the Science and Technology Authority, were merged into the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. The move helped AEDC drop its employee number from 140 to 90 since he took over, he said. The first year he served as executive director his agency returned about $1 million back to the state from its budget, and that figure grew to $3 million the next year, and $3.3 million this last year, he said.

Integrating services, reducing office space, and other measures have led to the cost savings, he said. None of the jobs were created as a result of anyone being fired, Preston said. The parameters of some jobs were changed and a few employees decided to resign as a result of their new responsibilities, he added.

Damphousse told the 75 or so that attended the meeting that ASU recently had an efficiency study completed by an outside firm. The study had several surprising findings that will be useful to the university system moving forward, he said. State funding for universities has been stagnant for several years, and school administrators don’t want to increase tuition if it can be avoided.

One problem the report revealed was retention rates for first year students, and the recruitment of students in general. Students in the system’s two-year schools often chose other four year institutions, and it’s a trend the ASU must stymie, he said. Another problem was that a lot of ASU’s colleges have different information technology and data systems. A centralized system would be more efficient, the report found.

Hutchinson said the state has about 45,000 employees, and they don’t need to worry about losing their jobs. Streamlining processes and services and finding ways to cut spending benefit all Arkansans, he said. Preston agreed.

“We’re doing more with less employees,” he said.