Paying down debt
Gubernatorial candidate Mike Beebe touched on this subject briefly during the first debate last week and now Stephens Media gets him and state officials to elaborate.
Beebe floats the idea of paying off state bond debt with the growing surplus, thus freeing existing state revenue to offset a cut in the grocery tax.
This has a wonderfully prudent sound, though the article identifies enough savings to pay for only a small fraction of the quarter-of-a-billion that would be lost if the state removed the entire sales tax on groceries.
The question is, does prudent financial management appeal to voters? Based on A$a's response you'd think not. Cut taxes and worry about the debt later seems to be his mantra. Not unlike most Arkansas households -- charge stuff to the credit card now and worry about the payments later.
Comments
While paying down debt may seem to be a good idea, it does not make sense unless you are never going to borrow again. Iinterest rates are the lowest in decades. You do not pay back current debt unless you can refinance at even lower rates as every homeowner knows. Sounds good winds up BAD. With a half a billion state tax surplus mainly from the rich, why not use the surplus to offset grocery sales taxes which hit the poor the hardest.
Posted by: downtowner![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 23, 2006 07:31 PM