By David J. Sanders
There are a few general outcomes used to measure a lawmaker’s effectiveness: How many bills does he or she shepherd through the legislative process that are eventually signed into law? How well does he or she represent the constituents back home? Is he or she the type of lawmaker that colleagues come to when they need help passing legislation?
After watching one particular lawmaker at work, I might add another measurement. This week state Rep. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, convinced 63 lawmakers to pass a piece of legislation that benefits him over the rest of the entire body. That not only takes some nerve, but it requires significant skill.
The freshman Democrat was one of 75 lawmakers who helped pass the new 56-cent-per pack cigarette tax increase.
Now that the tax has been in place for a few weeks, several tobacco shops around the state are going out of business, especially those in cities located near states with lower tobacco taxes.
This week, the Beebe administration announced the tobacco tax will generate around $14 million less than originally forecasted. In response to the shortfall, the governor has asked lawmakers to give him $100 million to plug the gaps from the drop in expected revenue.
Arkansans apparently don’t mind crossing state lines to buy cheaper cigarettes. I suspect while there buying cheaper smokes, they’re filling up their gas tanks, buying lottery tickets and, if lawmakers pass the proposed milk tax and Mr. Beebe signs it into law, pretty soon they’ll be picking up a few gallons of the white stuff.
Current law stipulates that retailers in Mr. Ingram’s hometown aren’t required to charge the new 56-cent tax hike on a pack of cigarettes because Tennessee’s tax is lower than Arkansas’. Therefore the price of cigarettes sold on this side of the Mississippi is comparable to that on the other side of the river.
Now if you were to drive from Memphis to West Memphis and then on up I-55, as soon as you left the West Memphis city limits you’d find yourself in Marion.
Retailers in Marion, like their counterparts throughout the rest of the state, have to pay the higher tax. For obvious reasons, Mr. Ingram, who also represents the city of Marion, drafted and filed legislation that would fix this disparity.
Now if you’re reading this and you happen to be a cigarette retailer in a town or city that bumps up to a border city other than Marion, don’t get your hopes up. Mr. Ingram’s proposed House Bill 1942 does nothing for you.
His bill, entitled “An act to allow a city that adjoins a border city that is separated by a navigable river from a city in another state to sell cigarettes at the rate used by the border city,” fashions a narrow loophole.
His bill stipulates that only those cities that adjoin a border city located across a navigable river from a city classified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a metropolitan statistical area “with a population of at least one million” are eligible for this exemption. That designation only applies to Marion.
The bill sailed out of Senate Revenue and Tax and is headed to the Senate floor. If it passes the Senate, the governor is expected to sign it into law.
Is Mr. Ingram a hypocrite for trying to exempt retailers in his district from a tax he supported? And, what about the lawmakers who voted for the Marion exemption and represent districts where businesses have gone under as a result of the tax? They have a lot more to answer for.
With respect to Mr. Ingram, I suspect the folks back home would say he’s effective.
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David J. Sanders writes twice weekly for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock and is the host of Arkansas Education Television Network’s “Unconventional Wisdom.” His e-mail address is DavidJSanders@aol.com.
