Leaders of both the state House of Representatives and the state Senate on Monday called for civility from their members as the 91st Arkansas General Assembly convened.
Civility.
The suggestion, intended or not, is that the legislative session will be a rocky one, marked by the kind of partisan division more common to Washington, D.C., than to Little Rock.
That can't be.
Arkansas voters more or less settled any partisan arguments when they loaded this legislature with Republicans.
The 100-member Arkansas House began with a supermajority of 76 Republicans and 24 Democrats while the 35-member Senate opened with 26 Republicans and just nine Democrats. Included among this year's crop of lawmakers were three elected as Democrats who then switched their party allegiance.
However they got the numbers, the Republicans have them and should therefore prevail in truly partisan votes.
The difficulty, if any, would come in the Senate when a super majority vote is needed. Then the question is whether one or more of those few Democrats would vote with the Republicans.
That could happen with key appropriation votes, and likely will.
Rancor, if it develops, won't necessarily split along party lines.
Greater differences may show among Republican members of this Legislature, particularly those of a more conservative bent than Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Some are already promising to push, for example, for greater tax cuts than the governor is proposing as well as for steep spending cuts in some areas.
Some lawmakers may also want to address social issues and controversies others would just as soon ignore.
For his part, Gov. Hutchinson offered opening remarks to the assembled lawmakers on Tuesday, repeating a variety of goals for this session, including plans for a low-income tax cut to complement cuts from an early session as well as a variety of other initiatives for government efficiency.
Some of his ideas will be popular. Others won't be. There will be give and take in what Hutchinson characterized as a time of fast change.
Expect the governor to work in concert with the legislative leaders -- House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy.
Both Gillam and Dismang are second-term leaders, having been re-elected to their respective posts. That fact alone should help them navigate this session they've suggested might not be altogether civil.
Hutchinson himself is in the middle of his first term as governor and appears prepared for this general session of the Legislature.
The heart of his agenda is budget-related and probably won't be resolved early in the session.
He wants lawmakers to approve a $50 million income tax cut for Arkansans who earn below $21,000 a year. (An earlier cut benefitted middle-income Arkansans. And Hutchinson has said a next step would help higher-income earners at a later date.)
Another element of his plan is not to tax military retirement income. He expects lawmakers to repeal some other tax exemptions to cover the resulting tax loss to the state.
There's plenty more in the governor's agenda to busy lawmakers, including the elimination of some state boards and commissions.
He also wants a change in the way higher education is funded, rewarding institutions for the numbers of students who complete degree work rather than funding based on the numbers of students enrolled.
And that's far from all that awaits this legislature.
Look back through that list and the items suggest a lot of interests other than partisan ones will be at play in this session.
Don't think "red" or "blue." Keep your eye on the "green" -- who pays it and who gets it.
This session, like others before it, will be mostly about how lawmakers dole out state tax dollars and what they do to assure plenty of money keeps coming to state coffers.
Commentary on 01/11/2017