Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Rodgers Final Session As Representative

Representative Sandra Rodgers recently completed her third and final term in this office.

Rodgers was one of many who finished their final session because of Arkansas's term limit law. She said it was more emotional than expected as she boxed up her things for the last time. "I made a lot of friends there, and learned a lot."

During the recently completed session, Rodgers proposed a bill to extend term limits to 12 years instead of the current six, for constitutional offices. The terms, under the bill, would have also extended the term for county officials to four years, instead of the current two.

For a while, she said, the idea was being considered as one of the legislatures three constitutional amendments for the November, 2002 General Election.

However, it didn't make it that far.

But, Rodgers said, two amendments will be placed on the ballot, and both need to be scrutinized by the public.

One of the measures is for totally secret balloting. Under the proposal, she said, there would be no way to trace who cast ballots after an election.

The other proposal, she said, would allow the governor to remain governor even when out of state. As it stands, when the governor is out of state, the lieutenant governor steps in as acting governor.

But, Rodgers said, with today's technology, even when the governor isn't physically within the state's borders, he's still in communication and can still run the state.

As to the session itself, she said it was an unusual one, as the assembly had so little money to work with as revenue forecasts were down, and the state had already been committed to giving teachers pay raises by Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The raises were promised without a tax increase to cover the $122 million in costs over two years.

This put the budget process in the whole from the beginning, with Gov. Huckabee cutting the budget for programs such as ABC, turnback to cities and counties, along with library funds.

But, she said, the ABC program was salvaged with a beer tax passed by the legislators. This, though, could have been done had 4 percent been taken across the board from the budget, and there would have been no need for a beer tax.

The biggest problem, Rodgers said, is how the chart program was handled. This deals with how the state will handle its share of the tobacco suit settlement. Voters, in November 2000, approved a plan proposed by the governor.

According to Rodgers, the first thing on the agenda for these funds should have been for veterans to get part of the benefits. "We encouraged our veterans to smoke. We gave them cigarettes in their C-rations."

The veterans, though, got none of this money, she said.

Additionally, the breast cancer act received $4 million from general revenue to begin with. The bill had a rider with a tobacco tax to kick in if funding for the program wasn't there.

The assembly then forced the tax to kick in by moving the $4 million to fund the ABC program, along with meals-on-wheels and a prescription drug plan for senior citizens.

The tobacco tax, she said, is expected to generate about $7 million a year.

Rodgers wasn't complimentary of how the settlement money will be used in the state. She said it will create 487 jobs, result in more buildings being built and a tax will have to be passed down the road to pay for them.

Arkansas, she said, has one of the best research hospitals in the nation at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science in Little Rock. However, the state also has the sickest people in America, including the highest cancer rate in the U.S.

"We need to start concentrating on prevention, find the causes of these diseases in south Arkansas and work to prevent them.

"If we had invested the money on the front end," Rodgers continued, "we could have such programs from now on. But now, the money will be gone and we'll have a bureaucracy we can't afford, like the one we have now."

Rodgers didn't vote for the beer tax, saying a true tax could have been passed for education to cover all the programs and fund the teacher's pay raise. "You can't give raises without the money."Doing so, she said, affects others negatively and brings resentment toward teachers, even though they deserve a pay raise.

Rodgers did get some money for her district. Through her portion of the general improvement funds, she was able to get $120,000 for Prescott's Main Street program, $25,000 for the armory in Prescott, $10,000 for the recycling center and $10,000 for a veteran's van. This van will be used to transport veterans to and from Little Rock.

Along with this, Rodgers was able to get money to help the Prescott-Nevada County Fair Association, all of the rural fire departments, and funds for Old Washington Historic State Park.

History, she said, is something this area abounds in, yet doesn't tap into. Rodgers would like to see Prairie DeAnn in Nevada County turned into a historical park to help attract tourism to the area.

This area is rich in history with people such as Greeson and McRae, she said, and by expounding on their accomplishments, it would help the area's economy.

On the topic of school funding, Rodgers said the Lakeview case is one people need to keep an eye on, as how it's settled in court can haven an impact on future taxes in the state.

Should the courts rule in favor of Lakeview, it could cost Arkansas billions, forcing the state to pass major tax increases to pay up.

The legislature also postponed instituting energy deregulation for two more years, in an effort to see how things turn out for California, and to avoid having the same kind of problems.

Rodgers was the sponsor of a bill to reduce the alcohol concentration in the body from 0.10 to 0.08 for adults. It means those who register 0.08 would be considered legally drunk and could be cited for driving while under the influence.

Arkansas has a no-tolerance alcohol limit for people under the age of 21.

Rodgers said she pushed this measure because there were 200 alcohol-related accidents in 1999. These wrecks resulted in 14 deaths and 300 injuries.

The assembly also increased the cost of driver's license for everyone in the state by $1.50 per year. This increase will be used to help pay for the Arkansas State Police officers's health insurance.

Another tax passed during the session, she said, was on rental cars. This money will be used to help pay teacher pay raises, with the rest to improve rural transportation systems. The tax should raise $4 million per year.

A bill was also presented to limit tort costs for the nursing home industry, she said.

But, in Rodgers's opinion, the nursing home industry went about it the wrong way, and the bill never made it to the House floor.

"The bill was awful," she said. "It didn't address the problems they're having."

The problem, she said, is the Arkansas Department of Health oversees the nursing home industry in the state, making inspections and writing home with violations up. However, Rodgers continued, a nursing home can be written up for something such as wax buildup behind a door, but not fined for it.

Along with this, there are many areas in one category, so it appears as though some homes are repeatedly in violation of the same thing.

"They need to change the inspection method," Rodgers said. "Now, unless a home is fined, it can't appeal the suit and have any of the survey results taken off the records."

The nursing home bill was placed in the interim committees to be studied further, and give those in the industry time to change it.

As it stands, Rodgers said, nursing homes don't have due process afforded to them, as they can't have infractions removed from their record unless a suit has been filed. This information is used by attorneys during law suits against nursing homes, to show how they don't correct problem areas, even though, she added, the problems have been corrected.

"I think they went about it wrong," Rodgers said. "Nursing homes in Arkansas do a great job. The people there really care."

While this was the last regular session for Rodgers because of term limits, don't expect her to go quietly into that good night.

Because of term limits all constitutional offices, except for governor, will be open for the 2002 General Election.

Rodgers plans on running for State Land Commissioner, as incumbent Charlie Daniels can no longer seek this office.

"There will be some interesting races," she said.