The Arkansas Supreme court mandated a lot of addition expenditures for education system to get us off the crap list at the Department of Ed in DC. It had to do with the way we handled revenue sharing to school districts. It was deemed inappropriate by the court. This additional cost was not totally covered by the legislature in the form of offset cuts after much inside baseball, so Huckabee asked for the tax increase to balance the budget as required by our Constitution.
He was trying to do two things with this move. One thing was to force the legislature to enact some more trimming from their allocations, and the other was that if they refused, to embarrass them by the tax increase they forced on the public.
Somehow, with Arkansas politics being the blood sport that it is, Max Brantly, a widely read republican hating liberal managed through his constant media bashing to turn the tables and make the tax increase look like it was all Huckabees idea.
Huckabee's statement about the increase being tied to the Arkansas court decision is fundamentally correct, but had the legislator, (100% controlled by democrats) enacted the cuts needed to compensate for the additional outlays, the tax increase would never have been necessary.
I'm not trying to support Huckabee or any of his more liberal social ideas. I am simply trying to give you the context behind this tax increase to show the readers of this thread why it happened.
First of all, the Arkansas Journal, a conservative blog, broke this story, not the Arkansas Times or Max Brantley.
Second of all, the tax that Huckabee was seen “begging” for in the video had absolutely nothing to do with Lakeview. As a matter of fact, the special session called to address the Supreme Court mandate took place later in 2003. This tax increase was for “general revenue” and generated a very large surplus the following year.
The point is that Huckabee is trying to run for president as a tax-cutter when, in fact, he raised taxes multiple times in Arkansas and greatly increased spending. Huckabee’s campaign is trying to muddy the waters by bringing up Lakeview and that’s how he got caught telling a fib to Fox News yesterday.
Even if the tax increase was being shoved down his throat (which it wasn’t, as the Arkansas Journal documented), his actions were not in line with someone who is being forced to raise taxes. Have you seen the 2003 video? He looks elated to raise taxes. “You’ll have nothing but my profound thanks” ?!?!? Probably because he was thinking of all of his nanny-state programs he would be able to fund with the increased revenue.