Our View Lawmakers need to get it done with no new taxes

Our View

Lawmakers need to get it done with no new taxes

Well, now that our esteemed political leaders in Little Rock have agreed on how they will be spending over $5 billion of our tax dollars during fiscal 2017, just what can we expect from them during another special session Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he plans on convening by month’s end.

Here’s what to expect, Hutchinson plans to call these politicians into a special session to consider highway funding.

Remember, the first of the year the governor announced he wants to increase highway funding to fix our crumbling roads, highways and bridges by $46.9 million in fiscal 2017.

These extra tax dollars will go toward matching and receiving more federal highway dollars, but he says he doesn’t want to raise taxes on us already tax burdened citizens.

Instead, he wants to use $20 million of the state’s unobligated surpluses; $20 million of the state’s rainyday fund; $5.4 million that now goes to state central services, which includes money for constitutional offices; and to reallocate $1.5 million from sales tax collections on new and used vehicles.

From a taxpayer standpoint, we certainly support this better utilization of existing tax dollars before any effort is taken by these politicians to simply raise taxes to address this long-standing issue.

Unfortunately, at this point it appears there is no clear consensus in the Senate on a plan to increase highway funding by any means.

Hutchinson has projected that tapping surplus funds and other state revenue would raise $64.1 million in fiscal 2018, $71.1 million in fiscal 2019, $76.1 million in fiscal 2020 and $81.1 million in fiscal 2021 to put toward more federal matches for the state’s highways.

Hutchinson has estimated that $48 million a year of the increased highway funds in fiscal 2018-21 would come from devoting 25 percent of the state’s General Improvement Fund.

While we certainly understand that many of these lawmakers may have their own ideas as how to solve this financial issue it would certainly be a serious error if they play politics with this issue and pandering to the whining bureaucrats who would rather impose additional taxation on the struggling taxpayers rather than make better utilization of existing budget tax dollars.

Let’s all face the face that raising taxes for highways is not a viable option, especially for those lawmakers who will surely face angry constituents if any suggestion is made to bypass reasonable alternative ideas, especially those that have been clearly outlined by Gov. Hutchinson.

The political mood of the people clearly shows a strong resentment toward the political establishment, and politicians having the attitude that the decisions they make are what they feel are in our best interest when, in many cases, they aren’t.

A word of caution to those elected officials who say they have “an open mind” to the possibility of additional taxation. The silent majority of people today are in no mood for political deception by a bunch of career-minded politicians.