A collection of recent editorials by Arkansas newspapers:
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 10, 2015
The polls vault
The story didn’t get much play, so you might have missed it. Come to think, many people around here might have missed it. What with all the flooding in Arkansas over the last 10 days, some folks might have been too busy with sandbags to catch every bit of national news.
But there it was: Another poll had come out, this one by the much-respected Pew Center. And the subject was immigration.
It’s been a touchy subject the past few years, immigration. Or maybe the past few centuries. These days there’s a new-ish outfit here in Arkansas that seems to have been put together just to stir people up about all them Mess’cans coming up from south of the border. You see, it’s all a part of the Mexican government’s plot to take back the southern part of the U.S. of A., all the way up to Kansas City! (Yes, somebody once said that.) But it appears as though the conspiracy theorists, and the just plain mean, are losing ground. At least when it comes to pushing around those hab-la’ing all that espan-yol in the Wal-Marts.
The Pew poll, released last week, showed not only widespread support for immigrants trying to live the American Dream, but growing widespread support. Last year, 68 percent of those polled said they support some kind of legalization for immigrants who didn’t have their papers in order. This year, more than seven out of 10, or 72 percent, said they believe immigrants should be allowed to stay in this country if they meet certain requirements.
What requirements? That part was a little sketchy. The story said those conditions weren’t noted in the poll question. But typically when conditions for legal status are mentioned, they have something to do with a criminal record (or lack of one), paying back taxes and learning English.
Why, of course. This country has enough criminals without importing them, thank you. To be a part of this society, you’ve always been required to pay taxes. And you’ll need to know English just to get by.
There was even better news when one studied the details of the poll: The Pew people found that younger and more educated Americans are more likely to welcome immigrants than shun them. Which bodes well for the future. Not only for immigrants but for the country. As the years go by, that 72 percent could go even higher. Which would mean even more people coming here, yearning to be free, having ideas and creating businesses, sending their kids (or even themselves) to school, paying taxes and generally helping create a more perfect union.
Of course, 72 percent isn’t a perfect score. Ask any high schooler with a C in history. So there’s still room—dwindling room, but still room—for those who’d howl about all those immigrants taking over. Consider it an American tradition. Dating back even before old Ben Franklin was worried about all those Germans o’er the land. Then came the Know-Nothings. Then those in the early part of the last century who put up No Italians Need Apply in their storefronts. Oh, how Americans can snub immigrants—once their own immigrant forefathers have made a place here.
Fortunately, fewer and fewer Americans are doing the shunning and snubbing these days. Thank you, land of the free. And home of the increasingly brave.
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Texarkana Gazette, June 3, 2015
Cowboy spirit alive and well in times of need
Many older readers grew up on Westerns. Those of a certain age can remember going to the movies on a Saturday, when a Western double feature included two “shoot-em-ups,” a newsreel, cartoons, the latest chapter of a serial and possibly a travelogue as well.
Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, John Wayne and countless other stars of B-grade oaters would ride the range, rescue fair maidens and catch the bad guys. And a few_Roy and Gene first and foremost_would sing a song or two along the way.
For those a bit younger, TV was their time machine to the Old West. Roy, Hoppy and Gene all became Saturday morning staples, and new shows such as “Gunsmoke,” ’’Bonanza,” ’’Have Gun Will Travel,” ’’Maverick” and “The Rifleman” populated prime time.
Though Westerns aren’t the big draws they once were on TV or at the box office, the romance, legend and mystique of the West still has its hold on American culture and lives on in the hearts and dreams of so many of us.
Take the cattle drive, for example.
Back in the late 1800s, before the railroad stretched far and wide, ranchers and their hands would drive cattle across miles and miles of tough country to get to the nearest shipping point_cattle towns like Dodge City and Abilene, Kansas.
Here in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas, we have a lot of cattle. But cattle drives are a thing of the past. At least they were.
The recent flooding has left many pastures underwater. And that means thousands of head of cattle have to be moved to higher ground.
All around the area, farmers and ranchers have been pitching in to drive their own and their neighbors’ cattle to safety.
These modern drives use horses just like in the old days, as well as trucks, trailers and, in some cases, even boats.
It’s a real community effort.
Similar cattle drives are going on wherever livestock and flooding meet. On Sunday, for example, about 500 head of cattle were driven by cowboys on horseback nine miles down U.S. Highway 90 from a flooded area along the Trinity River to a rail yard in Dayton, Texas. Hundreds lined the highway to watch the procession.
We are blessed to live in a time of advanced technology. But it’s good to know the old ways are still there when needed.
And that people are still ready, willing and able to help their neighbors. That’s the cowboy way.
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Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 6, 2015
Chambers of clarity
For as long as we can remember, chambers of commerce have played some sort of role in economic development in the communities where they exist.
Chambers of commerce are often the first place someone seeking information — particularly about the business climate and opportunities — will go. It’s sometimes easy to forget chambers of commerce are not public entities. Most are structured as private nonprofits that represent its members, made up mostly of people from the business community. In many cases, chambers of commerce are also engaged by city government to serve as economic development consultants of sorts. Rather than cities having their own economic development departments, the cities make arrangements with local chambers for the work.
What’s the point?
Cities’ contracts with local chambers of commerce should provide clarity about how tax dollars are used.
In Northwest Arkansas, all the major cities have contracts with their chambers for economic development services. Those contracts differ significantly as to what the “deliverables” required under the contracts must be.
In Springdale, contract is worth $150,000 a year. Fayetteville’s chamber receives $165,000 a year from taxpayers. In Rogers, it’s $200,000 a year with a chamber-created entity called the Rogers-Lowell Economic Development Corp. Bella Vista has a $25,000 contract with the Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce while the planned transaction with Bentonville involves $100,000.
But chamber contracts are, to a degree, in limbo these days because of litigation in central Arkansas challenging whether they are legal. A circuit court judge in Little Rock in January forced Little Rock and North Little Rock to stop paying their local chambers of commerce. He called the arrangements “window dressing” to get around the constitutional provision that bars municipalities from giving money to private businesses without getting something in return.
Without question, one cannot lump all chamber contracts into one basket. Some, such as Fayetteville’s, are quite detailed in what city government expects to get in return for payment of taxpayer dollars to the chamber. Throughout history, however, the arrangements between chambers and cities have not always been so contractual. Some chambers were simply handed money to promote the city to business interests. In other instances, such as in Springdale, the chamber contract has at times become quite controversial because of concerns about transparency as to how the money was being used.
In the central Arkansas case, the taxpayer plaintiffs have argued the chambers of commerce provide no unique services for the municipalities and would continue the work they do whether the city contracted with them or not. Opponents argue the money spent with chambers amount to an illegal payment when there’s no discernible service provided.
Without a doubt, arrangements between chambers and cities should be clear, concise and specific enough that taxpayers can tell what service they’re getting for the money. Let’s not forget that, although they are not governmental entities, chambers usually are made up of hundreds or thousands of people who live and work in those communities. Chambers have something of value to offer, and that can include economic development services.
Unfortunately, some of the arrangements with chambers of commerce have been intentionally vague because cities want to veil the process by which it seeks to attract new businesses. Economic development specialists harp a lot about how vital confidentiality is in ongoing efforts to lure industry to a town.
What’s vital in this discussion is transparency involving the use of taxpayer money. When money is collected through taxation or other government authority, the public has every right to see how that money is spent and what taxpayers are getting in return for it.
Payments to chambers should never be a subsidy of the work their membership would have them do anyway. Municipal governments owe it to their taxpayers to be clear in the use of funding for economic development. Contracts should detail the services rendered.
If chambers of commerce cannot handle the scrutiny, they should not get entangled with tax dollars.
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