Don Zimmerman, the long-time leader of the Arkansas Municipal League, died Sunday at 75.
He was a genial, accessible and astute leader of the powerful city government lobby in Arkansas. And though he endeavored to work with all sides, he was not afraid to take on powerful forces. Offhand, I think of his push for a gas severance tax increase; his push for collection of taxes on internet sales; his departure from conventional highway department thinking in suggesting a new Arkansas River bridge crossing in Little Rock, and, lately, his key role in the alliance of city government and county government in a class action lawsuit against drugmakers over the opioid scourge (this legal effort engendered great unhappiness from Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.)
Generally speaking, the Municipal League held a more progressive outlook than some of the other entrenched lobbies and politicians at the Capitol. The differences might have been subtle, but in this generally regressive state, they were important. This was particularly true in the League’s successful opposition to city-killing legislation aimed at, among others, protecting rural dwellers from such things as sound planning practices. If cities don’t have all the home rule they deserve in Arkansas, to the extent they retain some Don Zimmerman gets plenty of credit.
He’d worked for the League for 52 years and led it since 1974