This story has been changed to correct an error as originally published.
Northwest Arkansas legislators split 11 to 5 in their vote on health care reform, but will not leave the session with grudges, delegation members from both sides of that issue said.
“We’re all big boys and girls who realize we can have different opinions, but we’re all elected to work together,” said Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville. Douglas voted for the $1 billion “private option” of health care coverage, which will use federal taxpayer money to help pay for private health insurance coverage for poorer Arkansans. The measure barely garnered the 75 percent supermajority required for passage.
Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, was on the other side of the health care count. He and the two other state senators from Benton County were among the seven votes against the measure in the Senate.
“There hasn’t been any bitterness or retaliation, in the bills we’ve sponsored or in what was allocated in the General Improvement Fund,” Hendren said. The improvement fund is a distribution of state money among lawmakers for projects in their districts. The share each lawmaker gets from legislative leaders has varied in the past, depending on whether they favored or opposed certain measures.
“In fact, I had the privilege of seeing Senate Bill 463 pass 93 to nothing in the House today,” Hendren said. The bill, which Hendren sponsored, exempts active service military personnel from state income taxes.
Washington County’s delegation supported the health care appropriation 6 to 2. Washington County has four Republicans in its House delegation. They split their vote 2 to 2.
There are far deeper issues dividing the Northwest delegation besides any one vote, warned Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville.
“There’s no animosity. There’s not even any core disagreement about where we want the state to go, but there is fundamental disagreement about how you get there,” Lindsey said.
He and other Democratic members deeply disagree with the tax cuts passed in the session that favor higher incomes. They recognize that the new Republican majority is succeeding in its efforts to change how the state functions.
“It is shifting, to the long-term detriment of the state,” Lindsey said. “You can’t keep squeezing government without hurting real people.”
Lindsey and Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, are the only two members of the Senate who did not vote for the capital gains tax cut supported by House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot.
Changing the state’s approach to government is what the new Republican majority was sent to Little Rock by the voters to do, said Hendren and others.
“The conservative base should be extremely pleased with this session,” said Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale. He pointed to bills passed that restrict abortions and expand gun owners’ rights, and to tax cuts. Woods, who served three terms in the House, called the session “my most successful, personally, by far.”
There was a great deal of concern about how well the Republican majority would function, Hendren said. The Republicans had not had a legislative majority in both chambers for 138 years before this session.
“This was our first test, and we had something to prove,” Hendren said. “I think we passed it very well.”
Republicans were able to disagree, but still govern and come to a consensus on important issues, Hendren and Woods said. All Democrats in the session supported the health care plan, for instance, so the divide that threatened the measure’s required three-fourths margin was among Republicans.
“Benton County is the stronghold of the Arkansas Republican Party, and we represented our constituents,” Hendren said. “Other Republicans from other areas of the state represented their constituents. We understand that.”