Friday, February 24, 2012
Filing and fulminating at the Capitol
Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:43 AM
Election filing continues. Still no big surprises by midday. People who've said they were going to run are indeed filing to run. U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin did the filing honors for Mitt Romney. Wonder if Romney might want to come down here to fight plans for a decent day center for veterans?
Joint Budget is meeting this morning. Republicans are raising the roof about an increased estimate on Medicaid costs in 2013. They feel sandbagged by Gov. Mike Beebe. Beebe's defense is that he doesn't believe his DHS agency's estimate. Hmmm. Something is disconnected in that, don't you think?
But it's worth noting that these are all just about estimates and they depend on many things, including federal reimbursement rates in the future and whether a new approach to Medicaid coverage could produce savings for the state.
Beebe is right about one thing: borrowing money from surplus this year to pay Medicaid operating costs this year will only increase the size of the operating deficit to be made up next year when the surplus is gone. It fixes nothing. Only a reduction in benefits, a reduction in payments to providers, a slash in other state agency budgets or a tax increase will fix it. Simple arithmetic, really, though loaded with consequences.
Speaking of...
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Morning report: ExxonMobil caught; city directors get big pay raise; the return of Ken Starr
May 22, 2013The morning report: * EXXON MOBILE CAUGHT MASSAGING MAYFLOWER SPILL DAMAGE: Interesting post on Daily Kos about documents obtained by Greenpeace through a Freedom of Information Act to the state Department of Environmental Quality. /more/
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Sunday morning: IRS, Kochs and movies
May 19, 2013Not much new to report this morning. If all goes well, I'm going to catch at least three movies today at the Little Rock Film Festival. /more/
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Guns and fetuses: A legislative review
May 16, 2013Crazy Davy Carter, the House speaker who is a potential Republican candidate for governor, won headlines all over today for remarks at a legislative conference in Hot Springs that Republicans need to move beyond guns and abortion to focus on issues more important to average Arkies. /more/
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Tuesday topics
May 7, 2013The line is open. Final words: * THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT HAS DESIGNS ON ARKANSAS: Church and State magazine reports on plans by the American Renewal Project, a Religious Right organization, to politically target 12 states including Arkansas in 2014 to "restore America to its Judeo-Christian heritage." /more/
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Flash: Texas grows enlightened on women's issues
May 7, 2013Interesting story from Texas on the Texas legislature. Republicans, who control nearly everything in Texas, apparently suffered huge blowback from their war on women in the last legislative session that cut health care to women in the battle to destroy Planned Parenthood. /more/
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Dumas: Obamacare covered a sorry legislative record
April 23, 2013Ernie Dumas writes this week that the 2013 legislature's approval of Obamacare, against long odds, made up for a multitude of sins. /more/
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Guns, fetuses, God and Obamacare: The legislature wraps it up
April 23, 2013At 9:17 a.m., the House adjourned until a formal close May 17. The Senate should follow in short order, if it hasn't already. /more/
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Now the legislature cuts up the swag
April 22, 2013If no detours develop, the Arkansas legislature should finish tomorrow and go home. Today and tomorrow will be primarily devoted to passage of the revenue stabilization act, which guides overall state spending, and — much more important to individual members — approval of expenditures from the General Improvement Fund, a surprlus account. /more/
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May more Sundays be the same
April 21, 2013Nice ays wasn't it? Quiet, except for the CYA noise from up in Faulkner County where Rep. Tim "Pipeline" Griffin is busy 'splainin' how that oil-spewing pipeline isn't like the other pipeline he wants to build carrying the same dangerous stuff. /more/
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What, me worry? Beebe to sign tax cuts
April 19, 2013Gov. Mike Beebe said today that he'd sign a raft of tax cut bills — heavily tilted toward the wealthy — that could reduce state income by $140 million or more in three years. /more/
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