Late last week, I received an email from former state representative Dan Greenberg, in which he politely took issue with some of the statements made and conclusions reached in the Reimbursementgate discussions. Boiled down, Dan’s argument is that legitimate expenses…
Category: Ethics
Now My Advice For Those Who Die: Declare The Pennies On Your Eyes
The reaction to my reporting on Reimbursementgate — which, yes, has now been given a proper name, ending in “-gate,” in keeping with the rule that requires all political scandals to end that way – has made a few things…
A Timeout For The Fab Five
We interrupt our regularly scheduled exposing of the absurdity of “reimbursements” to bring you a bit of positive news. Following last Wednesday’s first post on statutory expense payments, I requested updated records from both the House and Senate, which I…
Three Thoughts On The Reimbursement Scheme Generally
More fun with invoices coming later today, but, first, three tangentially related thoughts on reimbursements under the statute: 1. The most common response I’ve heard since starting these posts is that some legislators simply cannot afford to do the job…
Sunlight is the best disinfectant: A look at reimbursements
I wish I could say that exploiting the state reimbursement system is strictly a Republican phenomenon. Between Mark Martin and the legislators exposed as salary padding hypocrites Wednesday, one might even get that impression. The fact of the matter, however,…
The Audacity of "Nope"
Yesterday afternoon, House Republicans prevented the passage of House Bill 1193, the appropriations bill for the Arkansas School for the Deaf, because the bill contained a spending increase. Of $6,389. For the ENTIRE YEAR. Oh, sure, $532.42/month may not sound…
Well Said
Busy day, but I wanted to get this posted and hopefully expand on the thought later. When he was running as the Vice Presidential half of Thomas E. Dewey’s Republican ticket in 1948, Earl Warren, then the Governor of California,…
HB 1887: And Never The Twain Shall Meet
About seven weeks ago, when it was rumored that Rep. Andy Mayberry was going to file a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation, I wrote a post explaining the likely problems with such a bill. Mayberry has now filed…
Just When I Thought I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In (At 520% Interest)
Via Jason Tolbert, I see that Steve Brawner has written in defense of Senate Bill 586, which would carve certain exceptions to the constitutional 17-percent interest rate cap for loans under $5000. (In case you were wondering, that would be…
ABC, As Easy As 1-2-3 (Or 90% of $900K)
When I wrote the first post about Rep. Justin Harris and his daycare, Growing God’s Kingdom (“GGK”), I purposefully kept the post focused entirely on the money received and not the propriety of the money itself. As the story has…