Tolbert: Tax Reform Becomes an Issue in Arkansas Politics

Whenever politicians dare open their mouths on complicated issues, they put a target on their back for their political opponents. We are seeing this play out in Arkansas on a couple Republican candidates who have dared address the issue of tax reform.

Overhauling the tax code is hardly the type of hot button issue that inspires much political activism but anyone who deals with our complicated tax code knows that reform is most certainly needed. Different plans pop up regarding the best way to do that, but the “FairTax Plan” is the most popular right now.

The plan has been introduced several times in Congress by Rep. John Linder, R-Ga. It is not considered to have much chance of passing, but it has picked up 64 co-sponsors, including Rep. John Boozman, the congressman from Northwest Arkansas in a race for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Blanche Lincoln.

The Lincoln for Senate Campaign has gone on the offensive with Boozman’s support of what they call a “23 percent national sales tax on everything you buy.” Their most recent ad has footage of a debate where Boozman says he is “excited about looking at the FairTax.” The ad says that “95 percent of Arkansans would pay more in taxes” under the plan.

Both Joyce Elliott and Chad Causey liked Lincoln’s ads so much that that have incorporated them into their congressional campaigns in spite of the fact that both Tim Griffin and Rick Crawford have said they have issues with the FairTax. Griffin said he prefers other types of tax reform and Crawford questions whether it is feasible.

There are numerous problems with Lincoln’s charges. For starters, a liberal group called the Citizens for Tax Justice produced the study used to support the charge that the FairTax would raise taxes on 95 percent of Arkansans. Their study skews the number quite a bit by using a much higher rate of around 45 percent for their calculation. They defend this by contending that the 23 percent rate is not nearly enough to support the same level raised by the current federal tax system so they must use the higher rate. Because of that, their analysis is based on a completely different plan.

To read the rest of this Arkansas New Bureau story click here.

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