Arkansas investment

The governor has been considering a special legislative session to reduce the personal income tax rate from 5.9% to 5.5%, or more. At first glance, that sounds like it is good for all taxpayers, but this is estimated to remove over $138 million a year from the Arkansas state budget.

We need to invest in Arkansas infrastructure to build economic opportunity for all citizens and not just hope that the people who earn over $218,000 a year and will receive 68% of the tax cut will let it trickle down. The latest census shows that a quarter of rural Arkansas counties have lost over 11 percent of their population. That trend will continue unless we invest in the infrastructure that empowers these communities to thrive and attracts people and businesses to our state.

One thing we have seen over this last year is how critical it is to have access to affordable high-performance Internet. It is our economic highway, whether we are involved in telemedicine, education, virtual business meetings, or credit-card transactions, and it is just as transformational as turning off from a rural dirt road onto an interstate highway. I live in rural Arkansas where broadband internet is either not available or not affordable. Our state is ranked 41st in the nation for access to broadband. The big telecom companies focus on the highly populated metro areas for expansion, not where I live nor where I work.

The only way economic development will occur in rural Arkansas is through public investment in our infrastructure that attracts private businesses and prospers communities. Let your representative know how you feel about tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest in our state at the expense of our future. Let’s build that economic highway and “Invest in Arkansas.”

ANNA McCLUNG

Lonoke