Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Hutchinson Makes Fact Finding Trip In Area

What do people in the area think of the job Congress is doing?

This is the question Sen. Tim Hutchinson wanted answered on a fact-finding trip across the state during the August recess.

Hutchinson had promised to visit all 75 counties in Arkansas this year, and has been working to live up to his word.

Part of the reason behind his statewide tour is to get the public's reaction on topics such as social security, medicare, farming problems and the proposed tax cut.

Hutchinson said much work was done by the House and Senate to pass funding to avoid another shutdown of the government. However, he added, if the president doesn't sign the bill, another shutdown could occur.

Before the session took the annual August break, the House and Senate both approved the $792 billion tax relief bill.

Hutchinson said this bill has been misrepresented in the media and from Capitol Hill concerning what it does.

He pointed out about 21 percent of the American gross domestic products (GDP) is based on taxes. These taxes, Hutchinson said, are higher now than they've ever been.

Under the tax relief plan, this amount will be reduced to about 20 percent of the GDP.

Everyone in Arkansas, he said, would get a break on their taxes under this measure.

But, he said, there's still a lot of work to be done on the marriage tax issue. As it is, the tax brackets are designed to basically punish married people as they are forced to pay more taxes than do couples living together yet filing as individuals.

This, Hutchinson said, isn't fair and promotes cohabitation without marriage.

The elimination of the estate tax in instances of death will help more than just the wealthy, he said. Farmers will benefit as they can now pass their farms to heirs without the heirs being taxed as heavily. This tax, he added, is being phased out.

"I know the president threatened to veto this," he said, "but we need to reduce the tax burden. This dominated the end of the session."

When the break ends and the Senate reconvenes, it will start work on reforming bankruptcy laws, Hutchinson said.

As it stands, it's too easy for a person, business or corporation to file bankruptcy. Last year alone, he said, one million people filed for bankruptcy in the U.S.

"A lot of people are victimized by those who abuse the system," he said. "People have learned to game the system."

The law, he said, needs to be harder on the type of person who abuses the system and files for bankruptcy multiple times. It will affect corporations as well as individuals.

Before the session ended, Hutchinson said, the Senate passed a farm crisis reform bill. This bill doubled AMPTA payments to farmers, as well as doubling their loan deficiency payments.

This was done, he said, to help offset the low commodity prices. At this time there are fewer markets for farmers to sell to, and the drought conditions haven't caused an increase in commodity prices.

The result has been a crisis for farmers as they can't make a living selling what they've grown.

Farms are being lost daily, Hutchinson said, and this bill could mean the difference in a farm continuing or going under.

The measure also contains a soybean component which will aid farmers in Arkansas.

The bill was tilted to help Southern farmers more than those in the Midwest, he said.

Welfare reform is still a big issue in Washington, D.C., but, Hutchinson said, what has been done already has been a big success.

In a nutshell, the federal government basically handed the welfare reform problem over to the states with the idea being states knew what they needed better than the feds do.

Money was provided to states, as was flexibility in how programs were instituted, though there were strings for accountability concerning reducing the number of people on the welfare rolls, putting people to work and reducing the number of illegitimate babies being born.

"Arkansas has succeeded in reducing the number of people on the welfare rolls," he said, "but we still need to work on the area of unwed mothers."

Arkansas is still one of the highest ranked states where teen pregnancies are concerned. The previous welfare system rewarded people for having illegitimate babies.

However, a cap has been set under the new welfare laws allowing a maximum of two children. This, he said, has removed the incentive for having more children out of wedlock.

In addition, states can get more money if they work to reduce the number of unwed mothers.

Arkansas' biggest problem in this area is with teen pregnancies, and it must be dealt with at the state level, with state leaders working with the federal government.

The biggest complaint Hutchinson has heard on the education front is with the IDEA bill for disabled students.

The problem, he said, is there hasn't been enough money provided for school districts to help them educate disabled students and this has been a drain on their resources.

This is one area where more money is needed so those areas being adversely affected can also be properly funded again.

One of the areas the Senate will be looking at in education is reducing duplication of effort. There are more than 700 federal educational programs, he said, and many of these can be combined with flexibility added on how the money provided is used.

By reducing the duplication of effort and paperwork, teachers will have more time to teach and counselors can return to counseling.

Hutchinson said hopefully the IDEA program can be fully funded, and schools can use the extra money to upgrade their high tech training programs.

Hutchinson's journey across Arkansas had him covering 27 counties in two weeks. "I'm trying to get in all 75 counties this year," he said, "and we're making headway.

"It's kept me focused, by doing all this traveling around."

Hutchinson said anyone wanting to discuss issues with him can call his office in either Little Rock or El Dorado.