Monday, January 10, 2011

Morning Roll Call~ News You Need to Know

First Day of Class

Today, January 10, 2011, at noon the 88th General Assembly of the state of Arkansas will convene for the first time.  There are 35 members of the Arkansas Senate, 100 members of the Arkansas House , several Constitutional officers, staff members and many who will be working over the next several months to governor our state and communities.

I hope that you will join me in praying for our leaders on every level, they need our support and protection, along with our resolve to communicate with them respectfully and effectively.

My family and I have the names of our leaders from school board to president listed on our prayer board to remind us of the importance of coming alongside those who have been charge with leadership.

Veto or not to Veto

In an interview on TalkBusiness.net Governor Mike Beebe talked with John Brummett about tax cuts, health care, and how the new dynamics of the 88th General Assembly will affect the legislature. Beebe said he doesn't see “the general assembly is gonna succumb to the partisan trap that we see in Washington”. Great! I’m for that! 

When discussing the repeal of health care reform Beebe didn’t give up if he would veto it or not but did say that he wanted to wait until the Supreme Court decided the case. He is concerned about lawsuits and other repercussions including expenses to the taxpayer. Watch the YouTube~  


Our Governor didn't seem real open to cutting taxes outside of his grocery tax cut saying "It's the only thing of any substance or size that we can afford. If you're asking me is there a million dollars here or two million there that we could scrape up or find, I'm not going to be naive enough to say no there's not a couple million dollars somewhere,"
For more on this interview read here or watch the video on YouTube:





Arkansas Prisons are Busting at the Seams

On Friday Governor Beebe posted his weekly radio address and column. The subject of this particular post was the prison system here in Arkansas.  Arkansas Partnership, a research group working with the governor, sent a report claiming “Arkansas can cut its prison population growth by 3,200 inmates over the next decade and save $875 million.”
From the address Beebe states, “If we do nothing, the prison population is projected to grow another 43 percent by 2020, costing taxpayers an additional $1.1 billion. Current state revenues cannot cover these additional costs, so the path we're on can only lead to tax increases if we fail to act and act now.” (read more…)


Arkansans become more frugal

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality released its 2010 State of Recycling Report released last week as reported by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The study revealed that Arkansans are consuming less and saving more.

If you’re like me you remember your grandparents and parents saving and reusing foil, plastic containers, boxes, and other things we just seem to casually toss. They also kept appliances and electronics for years and years.

As a child I don’t remember us ever getting a new dishwasher or fridge. I recall getting a microwave and VCR when they came out but those neither had been replaced upon my leaving.

I am not sure how many TV’s, VCR’s, CD-DVD players, vacuums, and major appliances I have bought as an adult but now looking back… TOO MANY.

Back to the study: “In 2010, Arkansans recycled 32 percent and in 2009, 45 percent of trash” while “electronics recycling saw a dramatic drop. The state recycled 495,714 tons of electronics in 2009 compared with 8,245 tons in 2010.” And in “2009, Arkansans recycled 295,996 tons of cardboard compared with 91,234 tons in 2010”.

The ADG talked with Melinda Glasgow, Little Rock’s recycling coordinator who said “There’s less packaging because there’s less purchasing. And you probably don’t want to hear this, but more and more people are getting their news online, so there’s not as much newspaper to recycle as in the past.”

There’s a lot more in the story that I won’t go into here but suffice to say that seeming our way of life seems to be changing some for the good and some for the bad.



 
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