Arkansas Blog

"CS wonders about projects such as money to study African-American gravesites . . ."

In general, I'd say there's too much pork. But a gravesites project could be worthwhile; lots of history could be uncovered. Ya gotta love the April 2 Arkansas Times photo (provided by George Gatliff) of the moss-spotted tombstone found in a small cemetery at Gurdon. The marker reads:

Mary Wilson
Feb. 14, 1863
Oct. 26, 1966
Born a slave, worked as a midwife, gone to eternal freedom.

As the Times (the observer) noted, "Mary Wilson saw both the Civil War and the Vietnam War, slavery and civil rights --- with her own two eyes. That's a long life. Hope you're having a nice afterlife, Mary. You've earned it."

To that I'd shout a hearty Amen!

The General Improvement Projects listing is quite a laundry list of warm and fuzzy projects. No doubt many are worthy of consideration and all probably have advocates who would attempt to justify why each item appears and why they should be funded with taxpayer money. The gravesite survey is such an example. I am not one of those. Additionally, it appears that many of the projects should be looking toward financing through individual donations and/or volunteer "sweat equity" or corporate sponsorships and not by the taxpayer. The cemetery survey, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, various county fairs and rodeos and zoo expansions/ additions are a few examples that seem to fall into that category. Again, I know there is all kinds of justification as to why the taxpayer should shoulder the financial burden, not the least of which is: without the aid many would not exist or would not survive and "they are for the economy." Questionable justification at best. Not forgetting the fact that many of the projects fall outside the scope of the state's responsibility to finance with tax revenues.

Recently I've been reading, with much dismay, about some of the work being turned out by our General Assembly, while at the same time trying to endure the pains of the dire economic times we are in. I see over $630,000 approved by the House for the Civil War Sesqucentennial Project; a fee (tax) on dairy products going to the governor for signature to subsidize less than140 dairy farm operations, which in my opinion should never have been passed; I see the governor cave into public pressure, elect not to sign the act but rather "appropriates" the $10M dairy farm bailout from a slush fund set up to provide incentives for bio-disel projects (so much for long term commitment); I see the governor insist on a $50,000 a year increase in the salary of the Director of the Department of Higher Education because some say he's the only person for the job and he might "walk" if he doesn't get a raise. (seems I've heard that same justification recently during the debates over corporate retention bonuses) What really put the icing on the cake on the pay raise issue was to hear the sponsor of the bill apparently say: The public will understand the large salary raise despite the poor economy and state shortfalls. Get real. I don't understand and I don't think a majority of Arkansans do either. This is a real case of being out of touch with the people.

Now the AR House and Senate members will be turned loose to distribute their individual shares of $60M from the state surplus. (75%now, 25% later) More earmark (pork) going back home only in diguise and no doubt will be extremely difficult and complex to track. Since the taxpayers have been assured the distribution process will be transparent and above board, I'm sure there will soon be a listing as to which state agency or other entity the funds were distributed to by each member, how much and where the funds ultimately end up and for what. That should be an interesting process to monitor.

I will say that I have been sleeping better at night after hearing the governor say he intends to watch the distribution process very closely to insure all rules and laws are strictly followed by the members. We shall see.