Unless unforeseen circumstances have derailed the Second Extra-Ordinary Session of the Arkansas General Assembly this past week, this argument is being made against future special sessions.
Should the skies currently be falling down in Little Rock and our Legislature is still in an Extra-Ordinary Special Session, which was said to be headlining a highway funding bill; then this column might educate you to why our lawmakers are at loggerheads currently.
The 14-item call issued on May 16 by Gov. Asa Hutchinson contained more than just a highway funding formula.
The call contained at least one giant step at subterfuge of eliminating the work done by a standing state committee/task force on Autism and another state committee's study and professional recommendations on the needs of Arkansas' 45,000 special education students.
Hidden deep within a 98-page bill, brilliantly entitled to streamline and make for a more efficient state government, were provisions to undo the legislative hearings, public and professional testimony of experts, lay people, teachers, school administrators, and public health officials on behalf of autistic children.
Also hidden in this bill was a provision to move the Arkansas History Commission, a state agency, away from the oversight of the Parks & Tourism Department, to the state Heritage Department. At the outset, that might, to the untrained eye, seem like a lateral move.
But it is not.
The Arkansas History Commission was paired with the Arkansas Parks and Tourism Department for the passage of the one-eighth of a cent state-wide sales tax which funds both departments.
The Parks and Tourism leaders, back when the tax was being asked of voters, partnered with the Arkansas History Commission and its supporters to join forces -- share this one-eighth of a cent sales tax campaign and work towards its passage.
The History folks threw in with the Parks and Tourism folks because more than one-half of the state parks system is based on historical items found in our history -- Arkansas' history.
The two agencies have had a long and harmonious relationship. Now there is a new parks manager, appointed under Hutchinson and the long-standing relationship seems to be over -- at the Governor's behest.
Why split the two?
Here is why.
The Arkansas Department of Heritage is fleeing a building where it is housed that is owned and rented to them by a long-standing Democrat.
OK, to the elected victor go the spoils. A long-time Democrat is losing a state renter. Stuff like this happens each election cycle.
The Arkansas Department of Heritage is building a new building to house its many groups down by the Arkansas River. The new building costs money, money the Department of Heritage has, but not enough money to pay for maintenance and operation of the building.
So there is a reason to siphon off the Arkansas History Commission -- and for a short time, if not forever, bring the History Commission's share of the one-eighth cent sales tax to aid the cash strapped Arkansas Department of Heritage.
Or is the sales tax money staying with the Parks Department? No one knows for sure?
Amid this drama -- there are other items in this legislative call that seem never to be resolved in a regular session where days of testimony, budgets and other documents can be mulled over.
Suddenly lawmakers who received the official call notice on Monday night have a session that starts Thursday with one of the 14-call bills being 98-pages long.
At a meeting of Democrats last week, state Rep. David Whitaker, waxed philosophical on the large number of pages in these "emergency bills."
"It has been said that in a five-page bill the authors 'might,' be hiding something," Whitaker said. "In a 10-page bill... well you pretty well know they are hiding something."
So what else didn't we know about the Special Session that took place last week?
And so we wait....
MAYLON RICE, AN AWARD-WINNING COLUMNIST, HAS WRITTEN BOTH NEWS AND COLUMNS FOR SEVERAL NWA PUBLICATIONS AND HAS BEEN WRITING FOR THE ENTERPRISE-LEADER FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
Editorial on 05/25/2016