A horrible message
For all of the recent bubbly rhetoric from state officials talking about their dedication to attracting businesses that specialize in alternative energy and conservation, it seems odd that the state punishes residents who embrace such concepts.
Every year owners of electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid cars get their annual car tags, they are punished. EV owners are charged an extra $200 for the privilege of owning their car in Arkansas. Hybrid owners are charged an extra $100 every year. It looks like plug-in hybrid cars are next to be hit. Ostensibly, this is because some small-minded politicians said we are not paying our "fair share" of gasoline taxes. It does not matter that we are trying to make the state's future better.
This makes no fiscal or logical sense. Even if I were to drive one of those politicians' gas-guzzling SUVs, I would have to drive hundreds more miles per year to add up to $100 in gas taxes. And the state tax on electricity to charge EVs is higher than that on gasoline.
This is a horrible message to be sending potential businesses looking to locate in Arkansas, especially if they want to use EVs and hybrids in their fleets.
JIM LENDALL
Mabelvale
Spend where need is
Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced the call for a special session to address the emergency need to cut taxes for the rich and the corporations. I assume the fact that one in five children in Arkansas live in poverty is not as pressing.
He says they have increased the funding for social issues in the past. But in fact, the funding simply went from low to not-as-low. That we remain near the bottom in measures geared to lift those in need must be a comfortable place in the minds of the Legislature and the governor.
Why not spend the build-up in budget surplus where it's needed, rather than lower the taxes for the already wealthy? A very wise man once said: "Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and will not be heard."
JOHN C. WARD
North Little Rock
Solution: Win it back
Been a lot of talk from state Democrats about gerrymandering over the 2020 census maps! How quick they forget that they owned the process for over 100 years of drawing the maps.
When Democrats reverse the political wind in Arkansas and gain back the majority, then they will once again gain control of the 10-year census maps.
JOE FINLEY
Fordyce