Keep income tax, say 3 Democrats in governor’s race
Three Democratic gubernatorial candidates said Thursday night that they oppose a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate the state’s individual income tax that Republican gubernatorial candidate Leslie Rutledge has vowed to try to qualify for the 2022 general election ballot.
Two of the three Democratic gubernatorial candidates said they favor requiring teachers to be vaccinated against covid-19, while the other Democratic candidate said he opposes such a requirement.
Democrats Anthony Bland, Chris Jones and James “Rus” Russell III, all of Little Rock, participated in KATV and Talk Business & Politics’ educational forum for Democratic gubernatorial candidates on Thursday. The fourth announced candidate, Supha Xayprasith-May of Little Rock had a scheduling conflict, according to KATV and Talk Business & Politics.
Jones is a physicist, minister and former executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub. Bland is a teacher. Russell is a businessman. Xayprasith-Mays is a businesswoman.
INCOME TAX
A month ago, Rutledge said she plans to try to get on the 2022 general election ballot a proposed constitutional amendment that would eliminate the state’s individual income tax. The other announced Republican candidate, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, also has indicated she, too, would like to elim
inate the income tax.
Legislation that would have cut all individual income tax rates, effective Jan. 1, 2022, would have led to a $3 billion reduction in state general revenue in fiscal 2023 based on the net tax amounts reported on 2019 returns, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has proposed a general revenue budget of $6.01 billion for fiscal 2023, with an additional $54.9 million to transfer to a long-term reserve fund, according to a finance department spokeswoman.
Rutledge said Monday that she plans to eliminate the individual income tax over eight years, giving lawmakers time to determine where to cut state government.
Russell said, “I don’t think it was coincidental that the plan that Miss Rutledge announced the other night was incremental over an eight-year period, which would be her ideal two [terms], which would leave someone else with a crisis to put up with that would been created by that implementation.”
Jones said he would campaign against the proposed constitutional amendment partly because it is short-sighted.
“More importantly, what are you going to cut?” he asked.
Jones said there are already are teachers across the state who are strapped for money and eliminating a large source of the state budget and state tax revenue would mean fewer teachers and police officers and fewer hospitals in rural areas to keep communities healthy.
Bland said he cannot support the proposed constitutional amendment to phase out the individual income tax.
“I have a very, very big problem with politicians that show one person this hand and hide this hand,” he said.
“I do not agree with taking away something that will cause possibly more harm than help,” Bland said. “I feel like there are other paths and opportunities to take rather than trying to go to take away the tax.”
VACCINE MANDATES
Jones and Russell said they would favor requiring teachers to be vaccinated for covid-19, while Bland said teachers should have the freedom to choose whether they are vaccinated.
Jones said Arkansas already requires 10 vaccines.
“The only difference between the first 10 and No. 11 [vaccine for covid-19] is politics,” he said. “That’s it,” so he would “absolutely” require teachers be vaccinated.
He said the consequences of teachers not being vaccinated would depend on the situation.
Russell said, “I would absolutely require it for the exact same reasons, for protection.”
There would be exemptions for the immunocompromised, he said.
“If an individual doesn’t want to [get vaccinated] and doesn’t want [to wear a] mask [and] if they don’t take the basic precautions, then they can look at teaching from a virtual environment where they are not one on one with someone,” Russell said.
But Bland said, “I don’t want to take away from a democracy.
“We are not a dictatorship, so I do believe that people should maintain their sense of choice when it comes to whether or not they should be able” to take the covid-19 vaccination, he said.
“I do believe that if you do not take the vaccination, then stop complaining about the masks,” Bland said.
Act 1030, sponsored by Sen. Trent Garner, R-Jonesboro, bans state and local government, including the public schools, from requiring documentation to show that a person has been vaccinated against covid-19.
Under this law, such documentation “shall not be a condition for entry, travel, education or services.” The law also applies to private businesses, but not for employment.
MASK MANDATE
Bland said he would have never signed a bill to prevent mask mandates in the public schools because mask are designed to spread the covid-19.
He declined to rule out closing the public schools if that option is needed to provide safety for people in the public schools.
Jones said, “I do think that there are things we can do like masking and increasing our vaccination rate that will allow us to be in person” in the public schools.
“I think there are steps we can take before we get to the point that we have to shut down,” he said. “But when we look at the numbers, I would certainly not take that off the table.”
Russell said that closing schools “should be on the table, but it shouldn’t be a blanket decision.
“The core problem of what we saw with the bill that was passed, the law that was put in place, was that stripped away the ability for the local municipality, the local school boards to make that determination on current data,” he said.
On Aug. 6, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing Act 1002 of 2021’s ban on mask mandates by most state and governmental entities, including the public schools. Fox’s ruling has prompted many school districts and colleges and universities to require that masks be worn in their buildings in an attempt to slow down the coronavirus.
Hutchinson signed Act 1002, but he recently said he regrets doing so.
On Aug. 13 Rutledge announced that she will appeal Fox’s ruling to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
CRITICAL RACE THEORY
Asked whether he would support teaching critical race theory in the public schools, Jones said, “I struggle because it is a boogie man that doesn’t exist.
“Critical race theory is taught in advanced-level law classes,” he said.
Jones said it is important to look back at the past and understand what worked and what didn’t work to help people make better decisions in the future.
“Even fast forward to the Little Rock Central High crisis, we know … that there were things that we did wrong and the only way that we can fix those for the future is to understand them.”
Russell said critical race theory “is the red herring blowing a dog whistle inside a straw man.
“It is blown out of proportion,” he said. “You are talking about an upper division course in law school.”
For example, Russell said trying to the ban the 1619 Project “is straight-up revisionist history,” and history isn’t always comfortable.
Bland said he agreed with Jones and Russell.
“We never know where we need to go unless we know where we came from and to hide history should never be a subject to be ever placed on the table,” he said. “History happened. Why are you afraid to face history head-on? … We should get to the point that we don’t see anger and frustration when we see color, but I get it. We are not there yet.”
On Monday night, Rutledge, the state attorney general, of Maumelle participated in the KATV and Talk Business & Politics educational forum for Republican gubernatorial candidates, while Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Little Rock declined to do so. Sanders is the former White House press secretary for then-President Donald Trump and the daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The party primaries are in May and the general election is in November 2022.
Hutchinson has served as governor since 2015 and is barred from seeking re-election under the state’s term limits amendment.