Beebe Calls On Region’s Influence

MOST LIKELY EFFECT OF REFERENDUM WOULD BE A STAMP OF APPROVAL FROM VOTERS ON PRIVATE PLAN

Gov. Mike Beebe is famous for both shunning controversy and not showing his cards until he has to. These traits usually reinforce each other.

So when the guy stands on his opposition’s front porch to appeal directly to their most powerful constituents, it’s worth noting. Such an event shows two things: He’s in his last term, and the stakes are high.

Beebe wants the next appropriation for the state’s private option health care plan to pass the state’s fi scal session in February. After that, he wants voters to defeat an expected initiated act to repeal that plan in the November 2014 election.

Beebe laid out his recommended strategy Wednesday, describing a vital role for Northwest Arkansas. He did this in a speech to the Northwest Arkansas Council, a group that includes the region’s business leaders.

Three of the seven state senators who voted against private option live in Benton County.

A fourth represents a large swath of it. Beebe was talking to many of their constituents. This Democratic governor was doing all that at the Springdale Holiday Inn and Convention Center - the annual site of the largest Republican fundraiser in the state.

Yeah, politics makes strange bedfellows. These bedfellows aren’t so strange when you look closely, though.

First, Beebe enjoys business community support other Democrats can only dream of, and all but a few Republicansmust envy. He runs state government well and springs no big surprises that require new taxes.

In fact, he’s set the tax-cutting record.

Businesses backed the private option plan because, without it, they faced an estimated $38 million in new taxes and penalties under federal health care reform. It really is that simple. The threat of that $38 million increase has not gone away, Beebe said. The tax hammer will fall if the repeal succeeds or the appropriation fails, he said. So business needs to keep up the support.

They will have powerful allies, he said. Hospitals in particular will face major cuts in federal funding if Arkansas repeals its plans.

As for the appropriation, the state Legislature will need to muster the required three-quarters vote in the next fi scal session. Beebe called on the business community to support Republicans like Reps.

Duncan Baird, R-Lowell, and Micah Neal, R-Springdale, who voted for the private option. He said those Republicans “get it,” going so far as to say Neal “deserves some kind of medal” for being a freshman and mastering policy detail.

It’s becoming clearer and clearer Northwest Arkansas is joiningLittle Rock and an “emerging” population base in Jonesboro as the major forces in Arkansas politics, the governor said. The business communities in those areas, therefore, have more clout - and more statewide responsibility.

“You can’t have the fastest growing MSA (metropolitan statistical area) in the state and not have infl uence,” Beebe said. “You can’t have a half-million people in that MSA and not have infl uence. With that influence comes an obligation. You can’t just sit somewhere and makemoney - although I want you to make money. You have a public obligation to educate, to inform and to lead.”

Northwest Arkansas has lawmakers who have to be either supported, leaned on or both for the private option to survive.

The private option would not have passed if three Benton County members of the House hadn’t switched their votes in the second try. Five of the 23 votes against the measure in the House came from Benton County.

I’m intrigued at how the appropriation votewill turn out. The crisis point will come in the fi scal session, which should end in March.

Filing deadline to enter the Republican primary will also come in March.

Lawmakers supporting the private option will be under intense pressure to switch their votes or watch an opponent fi le against them.

The repeal attempt, on the other hand, is a mistake by those pushing it. The private option barely passed - but only because it required a three-quarters supermajority under legislative rules. It’s a stretch tothink House members are so out of touch that a measure they supported so heavily would fail to get a simple majority of their constituents’ votes.

The most likely eff ect of this referendum would be that the voters will put their stamp of approval on the private option plan. The next time opponents seek to block, disrupt or even change that plan, supporters can say - with much truth - that the people have spoken. Move on.

DOUG THOMPSON IS A POLITICAL REPORTER AND COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 14 on 06/30/2013

Upcoming Events