The Tolbert Report

The Tolbert Report has obtained a copy of a lawsuit filed by Sheffield Nelson against the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.  I will update as more details become available but a quick read of the filing by this non-lawyer shows that the compliant has to do with the rules of the Commission.  Representation is required for each of the four Congressional district but Nelson argues that the current rules administratively make this impossible.

Sheffield Nelson was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor against Bill Clinton in 1990 and against Jim Guy Tucker in 1994.  He served as a member of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission from 2000 to 2007 as an appointment by Gov. Mike Huckabee and served as chairman from 2006 to 2007.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has an article from a couple weeks ago that discusses Nelson beef with the AGFC in depth.

It been a slow news day on the Arkansas politics front so far and that may drag on until after things pick up on Labor Day.  But I did notice this little gem in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette today from Sarah Wire.

The Arkansas Legislature’s Joint Adequacy Evaluation Oversight subcommittee meet yesterday and this morning to consider the budget for state education for fiscal year 2012. Originally, they proposed 2.5 percent or $69 million increase but pulled back yesterday. Why? Wire reports…

…Gov. Mike Beebe and members of his staff also approached lawmakers with concerns, Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said.

“Essentially we’ve asked for more time to look through and examine the impact of the numbers on the education budget and the budget in general,” he said.

He said how the increase would affect the rest of the budget is “always a concern.”

Last fiscal year, Beebe cut the state’s budget by $246.9 million because of decreased tax collections.

A state law requires that when revenue declines, education must be funded even at the expense of other aspects of state government, a measure known as “the doomsday law.”

Still, the governor needs to “take the rest of the state budget in mind,” DeCample said.

Setting the state budget will likely top the Legislature’s agenda during its 2011 session.

State Department of Finance and Administration Director Richard Weiss has said the official general revenue forecast for the next two years won’t be presented until Nov. 10, which is 60 days before the legislative session starts…

Yeah, let’s put this whole increasing the budget dealio off until November.  This is not something that we want to talk about right now.

My column yesterday discussed the practice of legislators scheduling committee meetings in northwest Arkansas on the same weekends as Arkansas Razorback home football games.  It is a ongoing practice that occurred for three Fayetteville games in 2009 and is scheduled for at least two weekends this year.

In short, the practice is to schedule meetings in northwest Arkansas on a Friday night and a Saturday morning before the game.  This allows all legislators living further than 50 miles from the meeting site to attend both meetings and get reimbursed $232 per diem plus mileage.

See the attached spreadsheet and on the jump for a list of travel reimbursements paid to legislators in 2009 for the three weekend meetings.

Several legislators that attended these meetings have commented on the practice.  Several explained that they attended the meeting but not the football game.  Several commented how productive they feel the meetings were and worth the expense.

These comments are also on the jump (and I would be glad to add any more from other legislators.)

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The Lottery Commission Legislative Oversight Committee met earlier this afternoon at what was largely an uneventful meeting.  The Committee merely reviewed the presentation without even casting a vote which has to make you wonder the purpose for the meeting in the first place.  The Lottery Commission insisted this rule is in place as a separation of power and the the Oversight Committee has no power to approve or disapprove of the Commission’s rules.

There was some excitement during the meeting however thanks to Sen. Terry Smith (D – Hot Springs) who grew increasingly agitated when Family Council presented their argument against the machines to the committee.  He asked Jerry Cox after his testimony if he was “the same guy who was just here arguing against scratch off ticket?”

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when local tea party activist Kenneth Wallis came to the table to speak wearing a Jim Keet for Governor t-shirt.  I got some (but not all) of the video on my camera phone but it lead to a rather awkward and comical exchange.

Sen. Smith objected to the testimony unless Wallis would take off his Keet t-shirt.  Sen. David Johnson (D-Little Rock) who was chairing the meeting said he understood the objection but he would prefer Wallis did not take off his shirt.  Rep. Rick Green (R- Van Buren) gave his sport coat to Wallis to cover up his Keet shirt to make sure Wallis was able to testify. Wallis commented that the jacket was too big.  The exchange brought nervous laughter to the meeting.

There was also some very interesting but seemingly “off the record” sparks between a legislator and a member of the public after the meeting that was less than attractive for the legislator involved (no video.)

I am fortunate enough to live in a Saline County where politics is never boring.  Perhaps more so this year than ever.  Inside Saline reports today on just how high unrest in the county, with my own hometown of Benton leading the way.

Benton claims the top spot in the first Voter Unrest Top 7 poll following the historic Saline County municipal voting period that produced an unprecedented list of 108 candidates.

Challengers outnumbered incumbents 59-49 when filing ended at noon Tuesday for candidates in the county’s seven cities.

Among those filing in the municipal election was the Republican Party of Arkansas finance director Heather Kizer who will be challenging incumbent Bryant City Clerk Brenda Cockerham.

“I want to bring my 13 years of experience in state government to the city of Bryant,” said Kizer in her press release yesterday. “Transparency and accountability in government are my top priorities and I believe that begins at the local level.”

An interesting races is former RPA Chairman and two time state representative candidate Dennis Milligan who is challenging incumbent Democrat Doug Kidd. Also, Jim Harris former communications director for Gov. Mike Huckabee and current spokesman for Beth Anne Rankin for Congress is running as a write-in candidate for constable against another write-in candidate Ed Collins.

If you are a true political junkie, you should read some of Inside Saline from the last few days on the all the race developments.

I did not get this by deadline but wanted to provided this in the fairness of context to my column on Sunday.  This is a list of the 25,364 jobs signed by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission since Gov. Beebe took office in 2007.

I have not had a chance to comb through each one and may not ever get that much time but some big projects that jump out are 1,100 new jobs for LM Glasfiber in Little Rock in 2007, 1,797 retained or extended jobs for Cooper Tire Plant in 2008 when they were considering closing down their Texarkana plant, 1,000 for Hewlett-Packard in Conway in 2008, 700 new jobs for Nordex USA in Jonesboro in 2008, 600 new jobs for the Caterpillar plant in North Little Rock in 2009, 500 retained jobs to keep Windstream from moving out of the state in 2010 and 400 for Mitsubishi Power Systems in Fort Smith in 2010.

Hopefully a reporter with more time than me can take a closer look.

Also, Joe Holmes, spokesman for the AEDC, comments on my column that while they cannot track specifically how many of the announced jobs have been filled, they do pull off the jobs from the list when official announcements are made such such with Man Industries and with Polymarin Composites.  He also says he is proud of the work of AEDC in what is viewed by many as the worst economic downturn since the Great Depreciation.

Duly noted but I still stand by my analysis on the overall jobs numbers in Arkansas.  The AEDC and the Beebe Campaign may be able to make the case that things would be worse without them but that does not take away from the fact that the overal jobs record is not good.

(Note on the list - If a company did not authorize their names to be released by the AEDC, then that field is blank on the spreadsheet.)

A June report from the Arkansas Realtors Association (caution – the ARA advised me that a correction is being made and they will provide a revised report later today) shows that Arkansas home sales were both up and down.  The number of units sold was up 0.56% from 2,323 homes in June 2009 to 2,336 homes in June 2010.  However, in terms of total value, sales were down 9.6% from $347.3 million in June 2009 to $314.0 million in June 2010. 

I have a question into the ARA as to why this is the case but it appears this means the price/value of homes sold decreased dramatically over the past year.

UPDATE - The ARA sent out corrected June report with a much better numbers for home sales in term of value showing only a slight decline of -0.3% down from $347.3 million in June 2009 to $346.3 in June 2010.

Nationally, it is even worse for July with home sales down a whopping 27.2%.  Arkansas July sales have not yet been released.

A couple weeks ago I wrote that Chad Causey had not taken a stance on the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which extends employment rights enjoyed by gender and minority groups to homosexuals.  His primary opponent Tim Wooldridge was heavily criticized by the left for opposing it. He was chief of staff to Rep. Marion Berry who voted against it. But he has not taken a stance personally.

Dave McAvoy, a liberal gay rights activist for Blue Arkansas and a voter in AR1, lets me know that he asked Causey about this directly and Causey avoided answering the question.  McAvoy writes about the experience…

There was one moment I felt he handled pretty badly.  I asked him about ENDA and made the point that he didn’t have to be for marriage equality or anything considering the district but that he should treat LGBT people with compassion, respect, and dignity.  It started off really good when Chad said “The only reason anyone should be fired is if they’re not doing their job right.”  So I pressed the issue, asking if he would vote yes on ENDA then.  He said we would have to see if it would create a suspect class or not.  I made the point that there wasn’t anything wrong with that, in fact, it’s what we should do.  That is, after all, how we handle things like race with regards to discrimination.  Why should sexual orientation (or gender identity?) be any different?  His response was a little odd I thought.  “We have to make sure it works both ways.  Does that make sense?”  I said, “No.”  Still, I think if he’s elected, I think we can work with him on this issue, and pressure him if need be.  None the less, the answer was disappointing.  Lesson to Democrats dealing with this issue, the way you handle this issue is simple.  When asked about ENDA you say “Yes, I support it because it’s a no brainer.”, or some variation thereof.  If you do that, you really will not get that much trouble from the left, even if you aren’t with us on all LGBT issues. (And good luck to the right in making employment nondiscrimination into a bogeyman.)

Of course, this is just one of many issues the Causey has not taken a stance regarding,  although this could soon change. Sources tell me that the Causey campaign is currently polling on different issues within the district.  Once they know how the majority of AR1 feels on the issues, then Causey can adopt the same stance.

I meant to mention yesterday that I did stop by the Lottery Commission meeting where they heard from the public and voted on the rules for the new vending machines.  A crowd of around 50 or so showed up.

For the most part, the 20 or so commenters where just regular Arkansans voicing their concerns about the machines and about the lottery in general.  Perhaps the best commenter was a recovering alcoholic who pleaded with the Commission to not install the machines for fear it was need to underage gambling addiction. “If anyone knows addiction, it’s me,” he said.

I had to slip out before the vote but KTHV reports that they approved the machines 9 to 0.  They quote lottery spokesperson Julie Baldridge as saying they have to consider the 63 percent that approved the lottery, although I suspect not all of that group would have approved of the machines.

Nevertheless, it is apparent that the commission views their role as creating a lottery that can maximize the amount the revenue for scholarships.  Little consideration is given to how this revenue is extracted or the impact it has on the state.  In short, the Commission cares about problem gambling like the fast food industry cares about obesity.

Which brings up an interesting point, the governor is responsible for appointing a third of the lottery commission. I have not heard either candidate address the machines or the way the commission views their role. This might be a good question to explore.

An email sent to state legislators today lets them know that some reorganization will be taking place in the Arkansas House of Representatives.  A new organization chart for the House staff included the news that Bill Stovall will be filling the new position of House “Chief of Staff.”

I have question in the House communication director as to what all this position entails but it appears that it could be part of some restructuring as long time Parliamentarian Tim Massanelli’s health continues to decline.

Stovall currently serves as Administrative Assistant to the Speaker, and Director of Constituency Services. Stovall was a state representative from Quitman before being term limited and at was the Speaker of the House in the 2005 session.

The email does note that none of the changes will affect the state wage freeze.

Full email message on the jump.

UPDATE – Roby Brock caught up with Stovall who said among other things that he was “a peach of a guy.”  I hope so because I am sure I will be working with him in my coverage of the upcoming session in a few months.

“Speaker Wills and Speaker-designate Moore have been coordinating and sharing thoughts about reorganizing the House of Representatives with our personnel.  After evaluation, they felt like there wasn’t any one, particular, central communications person so that the Speaker could easily be involved in whatever to address in his day or legislative week. So they wanted a central communications point.  They thought the logical person for that was me and that was primarily the reason for the change,” Stovall tells Brock.

You can read the full interview here and also see the official job description on the jump that Amanda (Manett) Story sent my way.

It will be interesting to see if this new position becomes an influential position or largely an administrative one.  With term limits, the staff members have often been around much longer than the legislators increasing in their importance.  Stovall is no stranger to the state capitol so he could end up having a big impact.  From the job description, it would appear this will largely be up to how the Speaker of the House choose to use the Chief of Staff.

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