HOW WE SEE IT: Game & Fish Power Grab Was Stunning

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — No state agency gets to write its own laws in a representative democracy.

We’re glad the state Game & Fish Commission decided Monday to stop drafting its own Freedom of Information Act, which would have either closed or delayed the release of many of the commission’s records.

What bothers us still is that it started such a power grab at all and only dropped it in a special meeting after the governor hammered them, threatening their state appropriation.

When first caught, thecommission protested that it was “constitutionally independent,” as if laws written for the rest of us don’t apply to it.

Let’s state this clearly: A state agency - or at least some members of its governing board - assumed the power to write a law that would supersede one passed by the representatives of the people and signed by their elected governor.

The Legislature - elected by the people - is the lawmaking body of this state. When it passes a law, everybody and everything in this state is supposed to stand equal before it.

The commission argued that the people made Game & Fish independent through a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1944. That vote set up a state agency that was somewhat less vulnerable to political pressure and patronage than other state agencies. It was never a plebiscite on setting up a second government with no direct accountability to the voters who created it. The same constitution that creates the Game & Fish Commission makes it dependent on an appropriation from the state Legislature. You don’t need to be law scholar to realize that the people left that appropriation power with the Legislature precisely because they didn’t want to create an agency that could become a law unto itself.

We applaud Gov. Mike Beebe’s fast response. We remain alarmed that it was necessary. This episode shows that the commission bears watching.