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Mike Beebe as John Adams Saturday, Apr 5, 2008 By John Brummett It's good to be watching the John Adams series on HBO while you're watching Mike Beebe govern Arkansas. Adams was a great man who advanced freedom and democracy. But he and the other founders wanted to limit that democracy. And they were not exactly committed to open government. Fearing mob rule, they tended to prefer the closed-door maneuverings of a wise American elite. Senators would not be based on the principle of one-man, one-vote, but on state autonomy, with each state, no matter how small or large, getting two. You'd have to be white, a man and a landowner to vote, otherwise you were considered to be without any stake in the government. The president would be chosen by electors from the various states, not the people directly. Slavery was a point of political contention, so, ever pragmatic, the founders left that alone lest it derail the supposedly greater goal, a new country with new liberties, except for those slaves. Here in Arkansas this week, there was something simultaneously uplifting and unsettling about that perfunctory passage by the Legislature of Beebe's negotiated increase in the severance tax on natural gas. It was uplifting that an unjustly low and antiquated tax rate could be made fairer and modernized after five decades. It was uplifting that a little money was raised for our needy transportation infrastructure. It was uplifting that our state government, often eccentric and irresponsible, could be so efficient. But if you prefer full and open dialogue that engages the people, or at least their elected representatives, in their government, then this exercise was not for you. This was government by Beebe. He negotiated this deal privately with the affected natural gas industry. Then he told legislators they had to take it up or down. Then he got blood oaths of support before he dared call a special session. Then, when legislators said they really deserved to see a bill before they came to Little Rock, he sent them an incomplete draft to peruse at a wholly superficial pre-session hearing. Then legislators came to town and passed the actual bill without any substantial discussion. The most visible opponent, Sen. Bob Johnson of Bigelow, said he didn't see much reason even to bother speaking against such a fait accompli. At the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, the chairman, looking around for testimony, recognized an extremist right-wing columnist in the audience and asked if maybe he'd like to say something. The usually gabby chap declined. Perhaps I was made more sensitive to all of this by having, days before, encountered Lonnie Turner, the oil and gas lawyer from Ozark. He had seemed rather emotional in saying the severance tax increase was unfair to low-income royalty owners in his part of the state. He was delving into detail about the nature of drilling contracts, and how regular people would be affected. So I asked him if he intended to testify to a legislative committee during the special session. "Why?" he asked. Well, for purposes of debate. "It's a done deal," he said. "Plus, nobody's asked." Then I dropped in one morning on the speaker of the House, the jolly Benny Petrus. The severance tax increase would get passed that morning. So Petrus was cooking up an April Fool's joke. He would declare the bill failed for lack of a three-fourths majority, even though that threshold would be achieved. Then he'd say "April Fool's." Everybody would get a big kick out of it. That's precisely what transpired a little later on the House floor. Passing a bill to raise taxes and then joking about it - it kind of bothered me. I could have done with a little more testimony and a little less joshing. But that's not to suggest I'm anything but delighted with the outcome. ------- John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699. |
