Much has been written about the alleged and apparent abuses of the General Improvement Funds over the past 36 months.
To recount what we do know, as fact, is at least one former state representative, Micah Neal, R-Springdale, District 89, as a part of Washington County, has agreed to a guilty plea deal with the U.S. District Attorney.
His plea came after agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service confronted him with numerous federal charges in relation to abuses of GIF funds. Neal, in his plea deal, admits he received a personal kickback for securing these state funds for various entities.
At least one other elected official, former State Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, formerly of state Senate District 7, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on similar charges. Woods has entered a not-guilty plea.
A Dec. 4 trial looms for Woods and at least two other principles in the case, both of whom, like Woods, have entered not-guilty pleas to the federal changes.
Recently, after additional charges have been filed by the federal government, along with the revelation that recorded telephone calls between all parties was being used in the investigation, a once calmer, almost-apathetic public in Arkansas, has now become alarmed at the range and scope of these alleged GIF abuses.
Already the state, at the behest of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, has done away with the practice of GIF funds available to legislators.
But that doesn't end the ongoing federal investigation on how such GIFs -- tax money -- were distributed.
And along comes a historical article on another dark time in Arkansas' legislative history, that is, well just too broad, not to mention.
In full transparency, I am a board member of the Arkansas Historical Association.
I knew the gist of the impending article by Dr. James H. Willis, a professor emeritus of history, at Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia, who is writing on former Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Lewis Rhoton and his campaign to prosecute corruption in the Arkansas electorate from 1905-1908. The appearance of this article's publication has nothing to do with the ongoing controversy.
As a subscriber to the Arkansas Historical Quarterly, I received my copy of the Summer 2017 issue last week.
I will tell readers of this column, if you have not read the historical account by Willis, you are missing out on a fantastic article on the scope of corruption and the attempts to prosecute vote buying more than a century ago.
Between 1905 and 1908, and often hampered by state law, the lack of federal help, actions of at least two governors and even rulings of the state Supreme Court, Prosecutor Rhoton secured indictments against 16 Arkansas state senators and state representatives, one mayor and three other individuals.
One Arkansas state senator, who was already expelled by that body, also confessed to taking bribes.
The term of the day, in 1905, for taking a bribe was "boodling."
As customary, when the Eastern urban press, notably, according to Willis' article, got hold of the story, they made fun of Arkansas. The Philadelphia Ledger took notice of the on-goings in Arkansas, making light of the total boodle, said to be close to $200,000, a low sum, the newspaper surmised.
In the end, Prosecutor Rhoton's work almost ruined his personal health, but despite some very rigid roadblocks to justice, he did help usher in an era of progressive leadership and ethics at the state capitol.
To close out the article, Willis makes the only mention of the GIF scandal: "More recent reports involving kickbacks from the state's General Improvement Fund might suggest that while its methods have changed, boodling itself persists."
Sometime after Dec. 4, we shall see what the federal courts say about alleged boodling in Arkansas' legislative members more than a century after Rhoton's effort.
MAYLON RICE IS A FORMER JOURNALIST WHO WORKED FOR SEVERAL NORTHWEST ARKANSAS PUBLICATIONS. HE CAN BE REACHED VIA EMAIL AT [email protected]. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.
Editorial on 09/27/2017