THAT’S NOT a reference to the track at Oaklawn, but the fast track the Legislature can and should clear for Governor Asa Hutchinson’s $50-million-a-year tax cut for Arkansas’ least of these—those citizens who have to make do on less than $21,000 a year in still taxable income.
The feds have set the pace in prison reform by insisting that convicts do their time with no exceptions other than to reward good behavior. So why not follow the federal lead when it comes to taxes, too? Which is what Warwick Sabin, the state representative from Little Rock, recommends. He says he’d like to see Arkansas set up its own EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) on the federal model. For an EITC both encourages work and benefits the least of these. What’s not to like? Call it the best of both worlds.
Like the blind hog who finds an acorn on rare occasion, the federal government can come up with an idea worth emulating from time to fleeting time. Nor is such wisdom confined to one party or one house of the state Legislature. Jake Files, a state senator from Fort Smith, has already filed a bill similar to Warwick Sabin’s. Senator Files is in excellent position to move this good bill along, for he’s chairman of the upper chamber’s Revenue and Tax Committee. If the governor’s tax cut for the poor is a good idea, that doesn’t mean there aren’t even better ones out there that can be considered later, after they’ve had time to ripen.
To quote state Representative Joe Jett, a Republican from (and for) Success, Ark., “if the governor can prove to us we have got the money there to do it, then I’m going to vote yes on the $50 million for the low-income [tax cut].” One of the best ways to judge a society is to note how it treats (1) its poorest and (2) its imprisoned. So call this bill a twofer.
Brother Jett offered a bit of prognostication combined with persuasion when he told his colleagues: “Basically, I think what’s going to take place is, we do the governor’s tax-cut package and then we work through those [other] issues.” Joe Jett’s crystal ball and his good sense both seem to be in working order. The state can scarcely go wrong by following the bipartisan lead of Democrat Warwick Sabin and Republican Joe Jett.