Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

On my mind: I want my $26.51 tax refun

Its funny the things one thinks of while reading the newspaper. I read several newspapers regularly, but my most recent moment of genius hit me while I was reading the Daily Siftings Herald.

At the bottom of the front page of a recent Siftings edition, the headline read: States surplus grows above $1 billion; only $26.9 million not committed.

Of course my first thought was "they can sent that $26.9 million my way if they dont want to commit it to something else." Then I decided that was a little on the selfish side, so to be fair to all, Ive crunched the numbers to see just how much we could all get if we divided it equally amongst everyone who proudly calls themselves an Arkansan.

I began my quest for knowledge with the U.S. Census Bureau. According to their statistics there are 2,701,431 people in Arkansas. That divided the extra surplus money to less than $10 per person. There has to be a way to narrow that down.

The census bureau says that there are 2,029,097 in Arkansas over the age of 18. Now were getting somewhere. Juveniles dont need any of the money anyway. Now we each get $13.26.

Still not enough.

Maybe we should narrow it down to only those who vote. Im a firm believer that if you dont vote, you do get a say, so therefore only those who vote should get the money.

According to a study I found online that was conducted by the George Mason University (that makes it sound more official), only 51 percent of Arkansans voted in the 2004 presidential election. For the sake of my math skills, Im rounding down to 50 percent.

Now were getting somewhere. With my calculations, well each get roughly $26.51. That will almost put a half of a tank of gas in my truck!

But Im sure theyll find something else to spend the money on. I doubt they will do anything that most of us will benefit from.

Ive got other ideas. They could temporarily cut taxes on fuel for one thing.

Nah, who needs tax cuts. They found a way to spend the rest of the $1 billion surplus, so Im sure theyll find a way to spend the last $26.9 million without my help.