Altes, Pitsch share views at forum

The future of the Lavaca Slackwater Harbor project and tax issues were the only points of contention for Rep. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, and Mat Pitsch at Monday’s (April 23) League of Women Voters (LWV) Candidate Forum.

The event, which featured the Arkansas District 76 House of Representatives GOP primary candidates, took place at Golden Corral in Fort Smith.

Pitsch, the project manager for the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority (RITA) has championed the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) 12-foot channel plan since heading the group in 2009.

Despite recent news the estimated $180 million project — an effort to deepen the Arkansas River to 12 feet in all locations to improve industrial barge traffic — is not on a list of 50 projects to be funded over the next 20 years by the federal government, Pitsch remains optimistic.

Altes? Not so much.

“The federal government is bankrupt. It’s spending one and a half times more than it’s bringing in, and projects, such as the deepening of the (Arkansas) River, for instance, may have money appropriated, but the government is not funding them.”

Altes continued: “What that means to me is we may never see that money. We have several ports already, and I don’t know if they (federal government) will ever fund this.”

Pitsch said he understands the “is this ever going to happen or not happen” mentality, but feels things are moving forward.

At last Wednesday’s (April 18) RITA meeting, Pitsch said he took the setback knowledge as a “look behind the curtain that shows us how Washington thinks.” He said he also feels RITA now has the knowledge “to make adjustments and work more closely with Oklahoma” to show aligned interests.

On Monday, Pitsch reiterated his optimism.

“We recently learned a new term and have introduced it into the conversation — sequencing. That is, to build something in an order that makes sense. We’re starting to get some progress. We just have to become creative in our solutions.”

TAXES
Responding to a question about which bills he will sponsor in the upcoming legislative session, Altes said he will work to reduce the personal income tax rate.

Altes stopped short of endorsing full-scale abolition of the personal income tax, but he pointed to the Laffer Curve, an economic theory that indicates lower income tax rates spur spending, and cited President Ronald Reagan’s administration as his inspiration.

“I’ve never voted for a tax increase. The Laffer Curve says that every state with even a moderate personal income tax is going to be losing population, revenue, and jobs. So we need to reduce our income tax. Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, are already looking at it. I was the only one, who introduced a bill that would do that last session,” Altes said.

Altes endorsed a state sales tax to replace the personal income tax, calling it “the fairest tax of all,” because it is based on actual consumption.

While Pitsch said he “believes in a balanced budget,” stating that “we should have one at the federal level,” he warns that when lowering taxes, “you’ve got to be creative with it.”

Pitsch continued: “Our legislature needs to come up with creative solutions. If you’re going to pay for something, but you’re also going to lower income taxes by raising the sales and use tax — well, I don’t want to pay 12.5 percent every time I buy something.”

“Spending is our problem, but creative solutions to how you balance that is the other problem,” Pitsch added.

Both candidates condemned the Natural Gas Severance Tax Act of 2012, which would close exemptions and raise the rate on the state's severance tax on natural gas extraction.

EYE TO EYE
Despite some of their differing outlooks, Altes and Pitsch found much they could agree with at Monday’s event.

Both candidates came out against the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act, for instance, which seeks to offer in-state tuition for undocumented students at the postsecondary level.

“Illegal means against the law, doesn’t it? Not being here legally should not qualify one for the same things a U.S. Citizen qualifies for,” Altes said.

Pitsch added, “There is a process to get here. We can figure out a creative solution to get these people here and move them from undocumented to documented, but the word illegal alien — I can’t get by that. That’s where the discussion stops. The traditional solution of saying you’re illegal, and we’re going to look the other way — that is not the answer.”

Pitsch and Altes also agreed that one of the two most important issues facing the upcoming legislative session is the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) projection of a $60 million Medicaid budget shortfall.

“The Medicaid trust fund will be totally wiped out by the end of the year,” Altes said, noting that cuts to non-mandated services could be inescapable.

“Medicaid is coming at us, and we as citizens need to be getting experts in the room to talk about how we can overcome. If we don’t coalesce, we will not solve that problem, and we’ll have a liability that is ours to bear," Pitsch added.

Pitsch’s second most important issue for the upcoming legislative session was economic development and job creation, while Altes leaned towards the deterioration of Interstate Highways.

The next LWV Candidate Forum will take place May 14, and will feature candidates running for the Sebastian County Justices of the Peace.