Rogers-Lowell Chamber Legislative Forum

The Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce held a legislative forum this morning. Among the legislative attendees were Representative Mike Kenney of Siloam Springs, and Senator Kim Hendren of Gravette. Hendren gets special kudos for making the 7:30 AM meeting one day after surgery and with his arm in a sling. Fellow Republican Senator Dave Bisbee joked that Hendren's family was against him attending, not because they thought there was a health risk, but because, "they did not want him anywhere near a microphone while on meds".

Bisbee has great stage presence and connected well with the group. Representative Donna Hutchinson also did well in that department also with some self-effacing humor. Both left the bulk of the policy talk to Representative Kevin Anderson of Rogers. Anderson mostly held to a conservative line, gently telling those seeking a special tax exemption they had little chance while focusing on the tax cuts they had already won. He also spoke up for charter schools after a reality-free speechette from a far-left member of the audience who as Reagan said of liberals, "know so much that isn't true". One big red flag on Anderson: He spoke of positioning Arkansas to begin collecting sales taxes on internet transactions as a source of revenue. What a terrible idea to propose a tax increase so soon after they blew an 843 million dollar wad of money. If such transactions must be taxed, all sales taxes should be lowered by an amount needed to make the proposal revenue neutral.

Representative Horace Hardwick was the only one who really misfired, using his time to push the discredited International Baccularte program for Bentonville schools. His main selling point was that it would allow students to get college credit while still in high school. You can do that right now with concurrent courses, and without the U.N. writing the course materials. That course is taught under the framework of moral and cultural relativism- the idea that no culture is any better or worse than any other, it's all about "diversity". As Mark Twain said, some ideas are so stupid that only an intellectual could believe them.