Too bad Arkansas state government has to take care of roads, education, court orders, leftist legislatures, and health issues.
“Too bad Arkansas state government has to take care of roads, education, court orders, leftist legislatures, and health issues.”
Feeble, feeble, feeble. You can take care of those things without raising taxes IF you are a fiscal conservative. The thing is - Huckabee is not.
All states had budget issues in 2002. So did Masssachusetts, but Mitt Romney managed to close their budget gaps without broad tax increases. Cato ranked him 15th and Huckabee 45th on fiscal responsibility scale, giving ROmney a C and Huckabee an F.
Huckabee could get some lessons on how to be a fiscal conservative from Mitt Romney, for sure. And what’s most feeble is your “leftist legislatures” - nobody had the most leftist lege than Mitt but he still managed to keep spending increases to BELOW THE RATE OF INFLATION, while Huckabee increased it 2 times inflation.
Huckabee has his defenders - but they are mostly LIBERAL DEMOCRATS who agree with his tax hikes:
http://www.arkansasleader.com/2007/12/top-story-lawmakers-are-split-on.html
“He supported the gas and diesel tax in 1999, when redoing the interstate highways. We could have worked the highways without a tax increase if he had committed part of the General Improvement Funds,” said Minton, who was in the Arkansas House at the time.
Minton said that during Huckabee’s 10-year term as governor, net taxes increased $505 million and state spending increased 7.4 percent, about triple the consumer-price index.
He said Huckabee added about 10,000 state jobs, even as the number of federal jobs was decreasing.
Huckabee’s policy concerning the tobacco tax was not fiscally conservative, according to Minton.
“He says he’s pro-family. If you’re raising taxes on the families of Arkansas, causing wives to go out and get jobs to make ends meet, that’s not pro-family,” Minton said.
Huckabee was steadfastly against taking the sales tax off groceries, Minton said, which was a top priority of new Gov. Mike Beebe.
Not surprisingly, Democratic lawmakers, who helped pass those taxes, have a kinder assessment than Minton, saying tax increases were needed to fund adequate education and repair state roads.