3 address future of No. 2 post

Lieutenant governor’s office, duties an issue in state race

Along with Viola mental health worker Christopher Olson, U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin is jousting with Little Rock businessman John Burkhalter to be elected as the state’s lieutenant governor — a job that has been vacant for eight months.

Mark Darr of Springdale resigned as lieutenant governor in February, after he was fined $11,000 by the state Ethics Commission for multiple violations of state laws. Last month, Darr reimbursed the state $10,973 for improper expenses.

The office’s four employees all resigned by July. The office’s lights have been mostly off since.

The winner of the Nov. 4 general election will be sworn in in January for a four-year term. The annual salary is $42,315. The office’s budget is about $400,000 a year.

The lieutenant governor’s main duties are presiding over the state Senate when it’s in session and serving as acting governor when the governor is outside the state.

Three of the state’s 15 lieutenant governors later were elected governor after taking over the job because of the governors’ resignations, according to the lieutenant governor’s website. The three were Mike Huckabee, Jim Guy Tucker and Harvey Parnell.

Next year, three state lawmakers say they plan to ask the Legislature to refer a pro- posed constitutional amendment to voters in 2016 to eliminate the lieutenant governor’s office and transfer its duties to other offices starting in 2019. One proposal would transfer the duties to the attorney general, and the other would transfer them to the secretary of state.

Griffin, a Republican, and Burkhalter, a Democrat, said they oppose both proposals and don’t expect lawmakers to refer either of them to voters. Libertarian Party candidate Olson said he supports the plan that would transfer the post’s duties to the secretary of state.

Griffin said voters should cast their ballots for him because he has a proven conservative record and because Burkhalter “supports President Obama, and I think that there is no more anti-jobs policy than supporting President Obama and his policies.”

He said Burkhalter contributed $10,000 to the state Democratic Party as it was working to turn out the vote for President Obama in 2012, and “if he thinks Obama’s policies are harmful, he would have said so long before now.”

Burkhalter, president of Burkhalter Technologies, said voters should elect him because he’s been creating jobs and building businesses in the state for many years, and he has served on the state’s Economic Development Commission and Highway Commission.

He said Griffin has spent “approximately the last 20 years in Washington, and he has been a political operative and career politician the entire time.

“Do you want a career politician or do you want a small-business guy who has been here his whole adult life, building companies, building people up, supporting people?” Burkhalter asked.

Asked about Griffin’s assertion that Burkhalter supports Obama and his policies, Burkhalter said through a spokesman that “Congressman Tim Griffin is an expert on Washington politics and has a proven record as a career politician. He voted to ship jobs overseas and voted against job-training programs.”

Griffin said it’s false to suggest that he voted to ship jobs overseas because he voted for the Small Business Tax Cut Act, and he opposed a Democratic procedural motion that would have killed the measure. He said it’s inaccurate to say he voted against job- training programs because he voted for the bipartisan workforce training bill signed into law by Obama, and he opposed a separate bill backed by unions that he considered ineffective and wasteful.

Griffin said Burkhalter “has been deceptive regarding his own record, and now he’s lying about mine.”

Griffin said he grew up in Magnolia, attended college in Conway, served President George W. Bush in the White House and as interim U.S. attorney, and returned to Little Rock to raise his family nearly eight years ago after serving in Iraq.

He said he has been in the U.S. Army Reserve for 18 years, but he’s only been in elected office for 3 1/2 years, “so clearly Mr. Burkhalter has a problem with math, but that is to be expected from someone who failed to pay his federal payroll taxes.”

In July, the Internal Revenue Service released a tax lien for more than $80,000 against Burkhalter & Stephens of North Little Rock, a company formerly led by Burkhalter. Burkhalter dissolved the company after the lien was filed in November 2012. A Burkhalter spokesman said a former business partner came up with the funds to settle the lien for which Burkhalter said he wasn’t liable.

Olson said he’s the best choice for lieutenant governor because he has a “very minimalist” view of the of- fice. He said he would hire only a part- time secretary to answer the office’s phone and would decline half of the lieutenant governor’s annual salary.

Griffin said he would cut the office’s number of employees from four to two. He said he plans to continue serving as an officer in the Army Reserve and will work in the private sector, but he hasn’t finalized the details yet.

Burkhalter said he wants to have four employees in the office, in part, so that they can assist people who want to start or expand businesses. He said he plans to be a fulltime lieutenant governor and will work for free, returning his salary to the state treasury.

As lieutenant governor, Burkhalter said he wants to push for improving education starting with the state’s pre- kindergarten program and continuing to the state’s two- and four-year colleges, so the state has an educated and trained workforce that will help create more jobs.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mike Ross of Little Rock has proposed creating the Governor’s Cabinet on Economic Development, which would be headed by Burkhalter, to coordinate the state’s job-creation efforts. Asked if Burkhalter would head the economic development post only if he is elected lieutenant governor, Ross said through his spokesman that he’s confident Burkhalter will be elected and lead that post.

According to the state Department of Environmental Quality’s website, Burkhalter’s companies have paid $20,340 to the department for violations of state environmental laws during the past several years.

Burkhalter/ Haas paid a penalty of $4,500 in 2006 for violations on the Riverview Business Park and the Burkhalter/Hass subdivision construction projects in Pulaski County. Burkhalter Technologies paid a $2,640 penalty in 2007 for violations on the Caldwell Elementary School construction project in Saline County. Burkhalter Commercial Group paid a $5,400 penalty in 2010 for violations at an apartment construction site in Maumelle. It also paid a $7,800 penalty in 2011 for violations on a construction site in Pulaski County.

Burkhalter said he’s in the construction business and worked on many projects over the years, and “if you do this many projects, you may get a visit from ADEQ,” adding that he hasn’t had any problems with that department or any other agency.

Griffin said the penalties paid by Burkhalter’s businesses for state environmental violations are “something that voters can consider.”

As lieutenant governor, Griffin said he wants to push for the Legislature and the governor to conduct a comprehensive look at the state’s tax system, a top-to-bottom review of state agencies and their regulations, and give the state’s two-year and technical colleges a higher priority in workforce training to help the compete for jobs with other states.

Griffin said he supports Republican gubernatorial nominee Asa Hutchinson’s proposal to cut state income tax rates for the middle class by $100 million in fiscal 2016.

Burkhalter said the state needs to lower its income tax burden because someone making $34,000 shouldn’t pay the same state income tax rate as someone making $ 340,000 a year. Ross has proposed phasing in an overhaul of the state’s income tax brackets at an eventual cost of $575 million a year, an idea Burkhalter supports.

Olson said the state’s goal should be to eliminate the state’s income tax.

As for the state’s private option, which uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans, Griffin said he has “serious concerns about the private option because the math does not work. It has yet to be shown sustainable for Arkansas taxpayers.”

“We all know how dependent our health care system and local hospitals are on federal dollars in today’s system, and we need sustainable policies that will solve that problem,” Griffin said. “I don’t fault legislators forced to choose between bad options, but I will do everything in my power to protect hardworking taxpayers in our state from being saddled with higher taxes and a long-term financial commitment we cannot keep.”

The expansion of the Medicaid program, approved by the state Legislature last year, extends coverage to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level — $16,105 for an individual or $32,913 for a family of four. More than 170,000 Arkansans have enrolled in private health insurance through the program.

The state will be required to start paying 5 percent of the program’s cost starting in fiscal 2017, gradually increasing to 10 percent of the cost in fiscal 2020.

Burkhalter said he supports the private- option program, noting that it was backed by Democrats and some Republican lawmakers. Eliminating the program would be harmful, Burkhalter said, because “it is so tied to our economy. It is tied to our rural hospitals.”

Olson said the program should be ended now because if it isn’t, “we’ll be talking about a lot more than 170,000” enrolled in it.

Griffin said he would have signed legislation banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, a measure that Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe vetoed last year.

Beebe said he vetoed it because it was unconstitutional. The Republican-controlled Legislature subsequently overrode Beebe’s veto.

In March, a federal judge nullified part of the resulting law, Act 301 of 2013, by declaring the 12-week ban “clearly unconstitutional.” The state’s attorney general has appealed the judge’s ruling.

Griffin, who is an attorney, said he doesn’t believe that the measure is unconstitutional, and it’s possible to find federal judges across the country who would rule one way or the other.

“The question is what would the [ U. S.] Supreme Court say and, with the current makeup of the Supreme Court, I do not believe that it would have declared it unconstitutional straight out of hand,” said Griffin.

Burkhalter sides with Beebe. “I have got to believe the governor’s leadership was right” in vetoing the bill, he said.

Olson said he would probably have signed the anti-abortion measure.