Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Arkansas Republican Assembly Opposes Highway Bonds



From Dr. Pat Briney of the AFRA. Click "comments" below for article.

posted by Debbie Pelley at Wednesday, November 23, 2005

2 Comments:

Blogger Debbie Pelley said...

REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLY OPPOSES “HIGHWAY ROBBERY” BOND PROPOSAL

The Arkansas Republican Assembly (ARRA) announced today that it opposes the proposed Referred Question No. 1, known as the Arkansas Interstate Highway Financing Act Of 2005. Voters will decide December 13 whether to give up their right to approve government bond issues in the future.

ARRA is calling the Financing Act the “highway robbery act of 2005” because it allows the government to perpetually issue bonds at will without voter approval. The proposal eliminates voter approval to issue bonds. ARRA President Dr. Patrick Briney cautions voters to, “never give up personal control over when and how you are taxed.”

ARRA is among the growing number of organizations questioning whether The Highway Financing Act violates Amendment 20 of the Arkansas Constitution. “Creating a perpetual debt vehicle on the voters is unconstitutional, fiscally unsound and highway robbery.”

Dr. Briney stated that, "ARRA favors a strong road improvement program, but not by handing the government a blank check.”

ARRA calls itself the Republican wing of the Republican Party because it supports empowerment of people and opposes efforts to increase the size and spending of government. Personal control over taxation is a fundamental right and empowerment of people.

The ARRA was chartered August 9, 1997 under the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA), which has a 70 year history of success as a true grassroots organization. The NFRA is our nation's oldest and largest Republican volunteer organization.

ARRA is presently chartering county chapters and serving as a gathering point for fiscal and social conservatives. More information can be found at http://ar.gopwing.com/.

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For more information about the Arkansas Republican Assembly, you may contact Dr. Pat Briney at 479-443-0510.

1:26 PM, November 23, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wanted to share a good editorial from our friends from the other side of the fence at the Arkansas Times. It provides some great information to use on the pro-bond faction that seems to be blinded by the Governor and his addiction to special interest money.

Hit and run on the Constitution

Ernest Dumas
Updated: 11/16/2005

State Rep. Bill Stovall of Quitman, the rube-talking country merchant who is speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, will never be confused with a lawyer, but he is a shrewder constitutionalist than anyone who is associated with the big interstate highway bond issue.

Stovall doubts that it is constitutional for a few voters one day in the early years of the 21st century to abolish a voting right of generations of voters to follow, which is what we will be asked to do in a little special election on Dec. 13. That part of the big debt package that Gov. Huckabee asks voters
to approve violates the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.

It would have taken Stovall no more than 30 seconds to determine that the 2005 bond proposal flouted Amendment 20. The single operating sentence in that simple law says that voters must give their OK every time that the state borrows money and pledges state tax receipts to pay off the debt.

If voters approve the governor’s proposition, the state Highway Commission in a few years — sometime in 2010 or afterward — will borrow up to $575 million to repair some of the interstate highways. After that, the Highway Commission could borrow whenever it chose without the voters’ approval as long as it did not exceed $575 million.

Gov. Huckabee says not to sweat. If future generations got riled up over the unadulterated power we gave the Highway Commission in 2005 they could get 90,000 signatures on petitions, or whatever it took then, to put another proposition on the ballot to restore their right to vote before they were saddled with more debt.

If that makes people feel better, he is right. But there is an even surer safety net. The Highway Commission almost certainly could never market unvoted bonds without a test lawsuit and a state Supreme Court ruling that the bonds did not violate Amendment 20.

Huckabee said early on that the authors of Amendment 20 would surely embrace his proposition.

No chance. Gov. J. Marion Futrell, the father of Amendment 20, thought in the year 1934 that he had put a lid forever on tax increases and debt. He hated both, and Amendments 19 and 20 threw up what he thought were insurmountable hurdles.

Amendment 20 was a reaction to the highway debt run up by Gov. Harvey Parnell, his predecessor, and to previous road, levee and drainage district bonds. The state at the time was a couple million dollars in arrears in retiring its accumulated debts, a fabulous sum in that day. Futrell did not think the state should be going into debt and he thought he was putting an end to it by requiring Arkansas voters to first approve every bond issue.

Now, there is nothing radical about borrowing money against future taxes without the voters’ approval — a bunch of states allow it — but it has abraded Arkansas’s conservative nature, or at least it has until now.

Stovall’s question about the legality of waiving constitutionally guaranteed future voting rights at an election where no more than a fifth of the electorate is likely to vote is not the only question that should be raised about this screwy proposition.

A good one: Why are we voting on it in December 2005? The Highway Commission says it will not use the bond authority, if the voters provide it, until 2010 and perhaps much later. The state won’t be doing much interstate work in the new few years because it is up to its neck trying to pay off the $500 million of debt from the last interstate bond issue.

If I were the Highway Commission, I would be thinking about how high long-term interest rates are apt to be in five years as the country tries to get investors to carry the nation’s massive debt (see Alan Greenspan, Nov. 14). If you can have the debate now, you can boast of a relatively low interest load.

The Highway Commission says the state would pay only about $745 million in principal and interest for the $575 million of actual road-building money over the 12-year payout period. That is based on low interest rates.

If removing the voting requirement for future debt makes sense for interstate highways, why is it not all right for other debt — say for public school or college buildings, or for other kinds of highways and roads besides interstates? Perhaps the bond lawyers and brokers are working on that legislation for the day when easy debt gains acceptance.

Of course, it would be harder to do for school buildings. The interstate bond proposal commits state school revenues to pay off the highway bonds should Washington cut interstate grants to the state or the consumption of diesel fuel slumps, both distinct possibilities. How many lawmakers know they did that? A few are complaining now that Gov. Huckabee and the sponsors never told them that the bill authorizing the bond election waived future voting rights.

No one asked any questions then. This is not the perfect time to be having the debate but it is the only chance left.

11:30 PM, November 23, 2005  

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