Saturday, September 8, 2012
Taxes The highway sales tax projects: Worth a sales tax?
Posted by Max Brantley on Sat, Sep 8, 2012 at 5:57 AM
He responds with the list of the projects, heavily weighted to populous counties (and, I should add, heavily weighted to further general taxpayer subsidy of encouraging inefficient, high fuel consumption of suburban development. When the freeway widening of a six-lane route to Cabot is completed, state taxpayers will then be asked to pay a few more pennies for their jeans and T-shirts to widen it to eight lanes). He did NOT respond with an itemization of how he's spent the $600,000 or so that has passed through his hands as campaign consultant, the biggest current abuser of the state ethics reporting law. In this scam, which I've protested to the Ethics Commission and which it vows to correct, consultants like Douglass are used as pass-throughs for spending that is never itemized. Just what has Douglass spent the money on? We don't know and won't know.
But for the record, the list follows of the four-lane projects that would be financed. There are no "bridges to nowhere" on this list, Douglass says. (The sales tax also would provide some money for cities and counties, though not nearly so much as the far preferable gas severance tax initiative that fell apart):
Central Arkansas
• Widening of US Hwy 70 to four lanes between I-30 and Hot Springs
• Continuation of widening US Hwy 270 to four lanes from Hot Springs westward
• Completion of widening US Hwy 64 to four lanes between Conway and Beebe
• Completion of widening I-40 to six lanes between Little Rock and Conway
• Completion of widening US Hwy 67 to six lanes from Jacksonville to Cabot
• Improvements to I-30 connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock, including widening the I-30 Arkansas River Bridge (120,000 cars a day)
• Continuation of widening I-630 in Little Rock from Baptist Hospital to University Ave.
Northwest Arkansas
• Widening I-540 to six lanes between Fayetteville and Bentonville
• Completion of the initial two lanes of the future four-lane Bella Vista bypass
• Beginning four-lane construction of the US Hwy 412 Springdale bypass from I-540 to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) connector
South Arkansas
• Completion of widening US Hwy 425 to four lanes from Hamburg to the Louisiana line
• Completion of widening US Hwy 167 to four lanes between I-530 and El Dorado
• Beginning the widening of US Hwy 82 to four lanes from El Dorado to Magnolia to Texarkana
Northeast Arkansas
• Completion of widening US Hwy 412 to four lanes between Paragould and Walnut Ridge
• Completion of widening State Hwy 18 to four lanes between Jonesboro and Blytheville (to I-55)
East Arkansas
• Continuation of widening US Hwy 64 to four lanes between Marion and Wynne
North/North Central Arkansas
• Continuation of widening US Hwy 65 to four lanes between Harrison and Clinton
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Ethics update: Amending the amendment
April 14, 2013I've done some emoting on the blog and in my column about the proposed constitutional amendment, SJR 9, crafted by Rep. Warwick Sabin and others to incorporate some of the Regnat Populus ethics initiative into a multi-pronged proposal with some benefits for legislators. /more/
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The legislative pay raise and junket protection amendment passes
April 9, 2013The fix is in. When the deeply split Arkansas House passes something 71-12, you know something is amiss. /more/
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The Sunday night oily ethics line
April 7, 2013* COMPLAINT AGAINST SEN. BOOKOUT ON CAMPAIGN SPENDING: Interesting story in the Jonesboro Sun about an ethics complaint filed by a Jonesboro resident against Sen. Paul Bookout (Is he still in the Senate? /more/
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Friday night line
March 22, 2013The evening line is open. Finishing up: * DATE GONE WRONG: ABC reports on a KAIT story about a Jonesboro man who arranged a fake assault during date with a woman at Crowley's Ridge State Park so as to impress her. /more/
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Re: The open line — spanking wives for Jesus
eL let me ask a lady who I see every couple of days who walks…
- on June 19, 2013
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Re: The open line — spanking wives for Jesus
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Re: The open line — spanking wives for Jesus
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