ENGINE SERVICE: Might our big institutions be served better by more bus routes than a contribution to chamber?

  • ENGINE SERVICE: Might our big institutions be served better by more bus routes than a contribution to chamber?

Kathy Wells, president of the Coalition of Greater Little Rock Neighborhoods, noted a convergence of public events last week that’s worth repeating. The events:

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1) The Little Rock Board of Directors, after a lot of moaning about bus service and the empty trolleys, cut back Central Arkansas Transit Authority’s budget a bit.

2) Billionaire financier Warren Stephens spoke at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce’s annual luncheon where, among others, he called for a tax break for corporate contributions to the Chamber. Kathy elaborates:

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On Dec. 14, city directors criticized officials of the bus service, CATA, for failing to provide routes they wanted, and brushed aside polite replies extra revenue was required to provide extra routes. The discussion wandered on, and one director asked why there was no service late at night to serve hospital shift workers at UAMS. There was service until the city dropped this in budget cuts some four years back, the CATA Ex. Dir. replied. Undaunted, directors continued to complain.

Then, on Dec. 15, business leaders met for the annual lunch of the Chamber of Commerce, where the keynote speaker lauded Little Rock’s hospitals as an engine for economic prosperity that the community should work harder to recognize and support. Excerpt below:

* Three vital and perhaps overlooked economic engines for the region are the local health-care industry, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and the Little Rock Air Force Base;

Get it? The city gives taxpayer welfare to the chamber. Stephens wants still more corporate welfare for contributions to the chamber. Nobody makes a peep, however, when bus service is cut that helps low-wage workers get to work at one of the Stephens-touted “economic engines.” You don’t have much of a hospital when workers can’t reliably get there. This fact seems lost on “leaders” like Warren Stephens when prioritizing government spending wish lists: Some people can’t afford cars at all, much less Maserati sedans.