Arkansas House Committee Rejects Tax Break For The Poor, Approves Two For The Rich

States across the country are pushing tax cuts as a way to stimulate economic growth, and an Arkansas House Committee joined them yesterday by approving an income tax cut and raising an exemption on investment taxes. While approving two tax proposals that will largely benefit the wealthy, however, the committee rejected a proposal that would give a tax break to low-income families.

The efforts are aimed at stimulating job and economic growth, according to Republican state legislators, the Associated Press reports:

The income tax proposal, which will cost the state about $57 million a year, is expected to be the largest piece of the tax cut package being negotiated. The proposal would lower the top income tax rate from 7 percent to 6.875 percent and increase the minimum income it applies to from $34,000 to $44,000. The reduction would take effect for the 2014 tax year. The lawmaker behind the idea said it would help Arkansas generate jobs by making its tax rate more competitive with surrounding states. [...]

The panel also endorsed Carter’s proposal to increase the income tax exemption on capital gains of at least $5 million from 30 percent to 70 percent. It would also create a 70 percent exemption for any net capital gains relating to the sale of Arkansas property acquired after Jan. 1, 2014.

Even as it raises the minimum amount needed to qualify for taxation, the income tax proposal would grant more than half of its benefits to Arkansans who make more than $155,000 a year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The capital gains exemption, which ITEP calls one of the two “most regressive state income tax loopholes,” would only benefit wealthy families. But cutting taxes to stimulate growth isn’t the best strategy: a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released this week found that states that implemented tax cuts in the 1990s saw slower economic growth afterward than states that did not.

At the same time, the committee rejected a proposed Earned Income Tax Credit that would have given breaks to low-income residents, just as the EITC does on federal taxation. Arkansas’ tax code is already among the most regressive in the country, according to ITEP. It’s poorest residents pay 11.9 percent of their income in taxes, the 10th highest percentage among the 50 states and Washington DC. The richest one percent of its residents pay just 6 percent of their income in taxes. Gov. Mike Beebe (D) has warned the legislature that his budget does not include room for costly tax cuts, which should prevent Arkansas’ House Republicans from making the tax code even more regressive.

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One Day After RNC Calls For Minority Outreach, Arkansas GOP Passes Bill To Suppress Minority Vote

Monday morning, the Republican National Committee released a lengthy “autopsy” of their 2012 electoral loss, much of which was devoted to the GOP’s weak standing among people of color. “It is imperative that the RNC changes how it engages with Hispanic communities to welcome in new members of our Party” the autopsy proclaims, and “the Republican Party must be committed to building a lasting relationship within the African American community year-round, based on mutual respect and with a spirit of caring.”

One day later, Arkansas Republicans showed their mutual respect and spirit of caring for people of color by passing a law that will keep many of them from casting a vote.

Yesterday, the Arkansas Senate passed — on an entirely party-line vote — a so-called voter ID law requiring voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot. The same voter suppression measure already passed the state House with all but one of the votes for the bill coming from Republicans. These laws, which are popular among Republican lawmakers, accomplish little more than disenfranchisement. Even conservative estimates suggest that these laws will prevent 2 to 3 percent of registered voters from casting a ballot. And this impact is felt hardest by low-income voters, students and people of color — all of who tend to prefer Democrats to Republicans.

The most common argument raised in favor of voter ID laws is that they prevent in-person voter fraud, but this claim cannot be squared with reality. A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit fraud at the polls. A Wisconsin study found that only 0.00023 percent of votes are the product of such fraud. So voter ID laws disenfranchise a large chunk of voters — between 2 and 9 percent, according to different reports on their effect — in order to prevent a virtually non-existent form of voter fraud.

The bill will now go to Gov. Mike Beebe (D-AR), who should veto it.

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Chipping Away At Roe: Arkansas And North Dakota Advance ‘Fetal Pain’ Abortion Bans

So far this year, GOP lawmakers in Arkansas and North Dakota have practically tripped over each other to see which state can introduce more anti-abortion legislation. Among other abortion restrictions, each state is currently advancing a “fetal pain” measure to outlaw abortion procedures after 20 weeks of pregnancy — based on the scientifically disputed notion that fetuses can feel pain at that point — despite the fact that similar laws have been blocked in court for running afoul of the reproductive rights granted under Roe v. Wade.

On Monday, state senators in both Arkansas and North Dakota approved 20-week abortion bans. Neither measure makes an exception for the health of the woman, despite the fact that women who seek late-term abortions often do so because they discover unexpected health issues or fatal fetal abnormalities. Arkansas’ measure does include narrow exceptions to allow abortion services in the cases of rape, incest, or to save the woman’s life — but North Dakota’s abortion ban doesn’t even make the narrowest exceptions for rape or incest.

Nebraska was the first state to pass a 20-week abortion ban under the specious logic that fetuses can feel pain during the second trimester of pregnancy. Since then, seven other states have passed similar laws, and two fetal pain measures in Georgia and Arizona are currently being blocked from taking effect.

But the possibility of an impending court challenge won’t stop anti-choice lawmakers who are insistent on slowly chipping away at women’s constitutional right to reproductive health services. Both Arkansas and North Dakota have also proposed more extreme abortion measures — a “heartbeat ban” in Arkansas that would outlaw abortion after just 12 weeks, and a “personhood” measure in North Dakota that could ban all abortions and even some forms of contraception — that go even further to circumvent Roe, which guarantees women’s right to a legal abortion until the point of viability, around 24 weeks of pregnancy.

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Arkansas Restaurant Cancels LGBT Center’s Fundraiser, Just Like It Would For The KKK

The River Valley Equality Center is a support group for LGBT people and their allies in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Recently, the organization scheduled a fundraiser at the Sisters Gourmet Bistro, but now the restaurant has canceled the event because owner Richard Hodo opposes the group’s support of LGBT equality, just like he opposes the KKK’s white supremacy:

HODO: I called them and told them that I — we’re not going to have that at Sisters, we had no plans for that and there were no reservations to hold any kind of fundraiser or anything like that. I told them that I do not support their cause, that if they want to do that that’s their business. I do not care, but I don’t support their lifestyle and their cause.

What I told the lady on the on the phone, look I said if the KKK came here and wanted to hold a fundraiser rally and all that, I wouldn’t allow that either. This is a private club and I have the right to refuse service to anyone.

It’s unclear how Hodo was able to cancel the event if there was supposedly no reservation to cancel. To raise awareness about his discrimination and offensive comparison to the KKK, the group will hold a demonstration on the street corner by his restaurant later this month. The River Valley Equality Center formed just last year and is trying to raise enough money to obtain non-profit status. (TP: Queerty.)

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Tom cotton for Congress in Arkansas District 4

Editor's Note: Tom cotton can count all the official Red State support.  Here's mine on behalf of the Madison Project PAC.

Our problem with elected Republicans in Washington is not only the lack of conservative idealism among their ranks.  There are many Republicans who intuitively understand what we need to do to reduce the size of Government.  The fundamental problem is that there is a lack of elected officials who use their political capital the courage and determination to implement transformational change possess.  That is exactly why we need more people like Tom cotton in Congress.

Tom grew up on a farm in rural Dardanelle, Arkansas, near the Ozark Mountains.  He worked his way into Harvard and graduated with a Bachelor's degree and a law degree, pave the way for a promising and lucrative career as a lawyer.  Instead, he was moved by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to turn in the army and serve his country.

As a student of Harvard Law, cotton was offered a senior job in the JAG Corps.  This tempting offer and signed up for cotton solid decreased Ranger school.  He served in several important combat zones in Iraq with the 101st Airborne, earning numerous medals for his service.  Shortly after his return from Iraq, voluntarily cotton for a tour of duty in a dangerous part of Afghanistan.  It is clear that Tom cotton will not the type to bow to the special interest groups or leadership in Washington, DC.

After receiving numerous requests to run for public office, cotton decided for the seat of Parliament is in the 4th district of Arkansas vacated by Democrat Mike Ross.  It is easy to prevent the primary for this conservative neighborhood with the assumption that the Republicans will win the seat anyway.  However, it is not enough to simply appoint a Republican.  We have learned the hard way by ignoring largely primaries in Arkansas, which leads to the unfortunate election of Republicans who grants and one that leads the charge for tax increases to support.

Tom cotton has demonstrated a deep understanding of the policies and politics behind every major issue, of energy subsidies to national security threats of Islamic terror, China and Russia.  Cotton has the intellectual prowess to articulate unvarnished free market policy and the courage to hold the line on them.  He fought from the bad guys in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq; He will not pardon in battle with Statists have in the swamps of DC.

The Madison Project is honored to support this American hero for the Congress.  Let's give him the extra momentum he needs to prevent a runoff after primary elections on 22 May.

Cross-posted from the Madison Project

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