Folks, It?s Called ‘Compromise’ (Editorial)

Already, the jury is out about whether state legislators will finish the special session that began May 5 as acrimoniously as they did the 94-day regular session that ended in April.

Frankly, we’re not sure what has happened recently to make it any less of a fight. And it could be worse since the Department of Finance and Administration has added to the expected budget shortfall for this fiscal year, which ends in June.

We wonder if any of the legislators have ever heard that politics is the art of compromise. For the sake of the state, we hope they learn soon.

What we’ve heard and read about during the cooling off period was how some legislators are telling the people in their districts that it’s the others who are to blame for the impasse. Unless that kind of attitude changes, it’s hard to imagine any compromise.

Somehow, this muddled group of legislators must come up with a budget, even if it doesn’t please everyone. No one wants their taxes increased, but we don’t think anyone wants to see vital state services, such as Medicaid funding, cut back either.

In addition to helping people, every dollar the state spends on Medicaid brings an additional $3 in federal matching funds to the Arkansas economy. Cutting Medicaid is the worst kind of mistake. And we’re persuaded that most of the true waste in state government has already fallen under the knife. What’s left to cut is a question of political philosophy. But unless we change the definitions of what we expect from state government, the state will come up short by $220 million in each of the next two years.

That doesn’t include what it will cost to fix the public schools so that they are “adequate and equitable” as mandated by the state Supreme Court. That’s likely to take hundreds of millions annually.

A 15 percent tobacco tax increase seems likely. But the big budget fight will be over how to use the state’s General Improvement Fund. One group of lawmakers wants to use the $40 million fund to meet pressing statewide needs and cover the Medicaid budget shortfall during a time when the slowed economy has reduced revenue.

Others say the one-time money shouldn’t be spent on recurring state programs. They argue that a tax increase is the best way to solve the budget shortfall.

There will be a lot of pressure from various sides. With what’s at stake, it’s time for the lawmakers to become leaders and come to some agreement, or compromise, to prevent shutting down chunks of the state government.