My Letter to Governor Beebe on Healthcare Exchanges in Arkansas

As you may already know, Commissioner Jay Bradford has asked State Legislators to contact Governor Beebe and ask them to support additional funding to continue planning the Healthcare Exchanges under Obamacare.

Below you will find the email I sent to Governor Beebe in opposition to additional funding.  I ask my colleagues to do the same.

Dear Governor Beebe,

I am writing to you in opposition of moving forward with any additional spending as it relates to implementation of the Healthcare Insurance Exchange. 

As you are aware, there are still lawsuits challenging the PPACA working there way to the Supreme Court.  Although Arkansas has chosen not to participate in these lawsuits, we do not wish to undermine them through aggressive policies that implement key components of the PPACA.

More importantly, as I have talked to people in my district, one common message I have heard is that they are against implementation of the PPACA here in Arkansas to include the HIE.

The many unanswered questions regarding HIE, as well as the overall future of the PPACA and the timelines and policies it imposes compels me to believe that not spending any additional taxpayer money on the HIE is the wisest course of action at this time.

Thank you for your consideration on this issue.

Respectfully submitted,

David Meeks

State Representative- District 46

Promises Made, Promises Kept

One of the most important, if not most important thing a person can and should do is keep promises they have made.  In a day and age when people are disgruntled at those they have elected because of those officials not keeping their campaign promises, I looked back at the promises I made.  These promises are posted were posted on my previous website found here: http://whoisdavidmeeks.com/issues.html


Below is just a summary of the promises I made and kept.  As we go along, I will post more on my record.  If you have any questions about anything in particular, feel free to contact me:  dmeeks72@gmail.com

Create Jobs by Cutting Taxes

□  Co-sponsored the Capital Gains Tax Reduction, the Grocery Tax Cut, and the Back to School Sales Tax Holiday.  Also supported the reduction in the Used Car Sales Tax.

□  Fought against an increase in the severance tax which threatened to cost jobs in the natural gas industry.

□ Voted against every tax or fee increase.

Curb Spending and the Growth in Government

□  Voted against the state budget, which increased state spending by over $80 million.

□  Supported the Online Checkbook Bill, which will bring greater transparency to state spending.

Protecting State’s Rights

□  Sponsored HB1053- Healthcare Freedom Act (To protect Arkansans from being forced to purchase health insurance)

□  Co-Sponsored HCR1010- Claiming State’s Rights Under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Family/Life

□  Co-sponsored SB113, An Act To Prohibit Health Insurance Exchange Policies From Offering Coverage For Abortions Except Thru a Separate Rider.

Gun Rights

□  Supported several Pro-Gun bills such as the Arkansas Firearms Freedom Act.

Healthcare Exchanges Dead in Arkansas? Nope...

Yesterday, I read a blog post written by Jason Tolbert which you can review here:

http://talkbusiness.net/article/ARKANSAS-AVOIDS-FEDERAL-GRANT-FOR-HEALTH-CARE-EXCHANGES/2320/

In the article he quotes Governor Beebe's spokesman Matt DeCample as saying:

“As far as any other federal grants to help the state set up their own health-insurance exchanges, the Legislature made it clear that they wanted the federal government and not the state government to control the establishment of our health-care exchange. The governor has said before that he will not act unilaterally against those wishes, and he does not plan to change that stance,” 

I found this statement quite interesting as just last week at the Healthcare exchange meeting I attended the steering committee was still moving full steam ahead on implementing the exchanges to include requesting additional grant money.

So I sent an email to Cynthia Crone, who is leading the effort to implement the healthcare exhanges asking her:

What grants were turned down and/or sent back?
Will the planning meetings that we have been having continue as scheduled?
Are there any other plans to request any grants in the future?

Her reply:

We did NOT send back any money We are continuing our planning. The workgroup meetings will continue as scheduled.  We are now getting the results from our background research efforts.  Four of our workgroups have met this week--two yesterday and two today.

We do plan to apply for Level One Establishment funding in September--this is the next funding opportunity for States that have made progress with their initial planning grant--which we have.  More than half the states now have exchange authority or are otherwise planning their exchange.  Sixteen states have now received the Level One grants that we plan to apply for in September.   Please don't hesitate to let me know of additional questions/concerns.

So based on this reply nothing has really changed.  The planning on the exchange will continue and the grants for planning will still be requested.

Governor Beebe is already trying to frame the debate.  Look for a battle during the fiscal session over whether we will give the insurance department permission to start implementation of the healthcare exchange at the state level.  This, of course, all hinges on if the Supreme Court decides the constitutionality of the law by then.

The Effects of Efairness on Arkansas

I posted a couple of months back on how I thought that SB738, the efairness bill aka the Amazon Tax, would hurt the average Arkansan.  You can review that post here: http://davidmeeks.blogspot.com/2011/04/e-fairness-is-killing-arkansas-business.html

As expected, dozens of online affiliate programs have been canceled as a result of the law.  The real question is how many Arkansans will this effect and what is the cost?

I recently contacted the Performance Marketing Association to get what information they had on Arkansas.  This is the reply I received:

Representative Meeks, 

Great speaking with you today. Here are the stats on Arkansas affiliates:

• There are 2,000 affiliate marketers in Arkansas (or there were before the law passed).

• Affiliates, by the way, are simply website publishers who earn revenue from running ads on their sites.

• They earned $157 million in 2010, and paid $11 million in state income tax.

• By our estimates, affiliates lost 25-35% of their income when this law passed in Arkansas. Losing 1/4 or 1/3 of an income is a devastating event for a person or a business. 

By doing the math, you come out that each affiliate earned on average $78,500.  This seemed a little high so I wrote back asking if I had calculated something wrong.  This is the response I received:

There is a tremendous range of income levels by affiliates. They can be part time, or they can be millionaires, or they can be a company with employees. We estimate that 25%
are full time (quite a few in the 6-7 figure income level) and 5% have four or more employees. We also believe about 90% of that revenue comes from about 10% of the population, sort of an extreme Pareto principal. So that would skew the individual income average up a bit.

I have filed Interim Study Proposal 2011-177 to study more in detail the effects that this law will have.  You can view the ISP here:

http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2011/2011R/Pages/ISPIRDetail.aspx?ispid=2011-177 

For more on the Amazon Tax please check out this post on the Arkansas Project:

http://www.thearkansasproject.com/more-on-amazon-sales-tax-its-not-just-amazon/

So at this point based on the data, the Amazon Tax bill will cost Arkansas jobs, approximately 11 million dollars in state revenue, and most online retailers will still NOT have to collect ANY state sales tax.

Ways to Help Vilonia: Thanks!

Thanks to the many folks who stepped up to help with the Vilonia Recovery. You gave of your time, money, and materials to help those people in need. 

E-Fairness is killing Arkansas Business...

Recently the legislature passed SB738, the "E-fairness" bill. This bill would require "Internet retailers to collect sales tax if they accept referrals from affiliate web sites and do more than $10,000 a year in sales in Arkansas."

To get an idea of what an affiliate program is here is a link to Overstocks Affiliate program:

http://www.overstock.com/20789/static.html

Basically what the affiliate program does is allow everyday hard-working Arkansans to make a few extra dollars or in some cases a living by putting a link or a banner on their website. Every time someone clicks on that link/banner and then buys a product, the person gets a commission from it.

Here is a letter I received from one of my constituents:

To: Meeks, David
Subject: Act 1001 has already negatively affected my business

Dear Mr. Meeks,

First, I want to thank you for voting against SB738 regarding the sales tax
and online merchants.
I am an affiliate marketer and I made my concerns known when the bill was
still in the House committee (taxation).

The bill passed and I was immediately terminated by the online merchants who
follow this silly tax nexus bill around the country.

Every few hours I get another termination letter regretfully informing me
that I can no longer be a part of their advertising program because I live
in Arkansas. Each letter says that if I can demonstrate that I have moved
my business out of the state of Arkansas before the effective date of the
bill, I can reapply.

Here's a partial list - I say partial because I figure there are a few more
in my mailbox by now.

Overstock - I made most of my income last year from this merchant
Amazon
Scrubs and Beyond - this relationship was the mainstay of 3 of my web sites.
CSN stores - more than 200 stores networked together - I just lost all of
them
ThinkGeek
Nurses Station - another important one to my business
Dr. Leonard's / Carol Wright mail order catalogs.

There are dozens of others I expect because they have terminated ther web
site link affiliates in every other state that passed these laws.

Is there any chance of repeal when your fellow representatives see that it
isn't going to add to the tax revenues and is hurting Arkansas businesses?

I am already trying to figure out where I should relocate.

So the effect this law is having is actually taking money out of the pockets of hard-working Arkansans and as is the case of the person above, it is causing them to move their business out of Arkansas.

And here is the kicker...From the way I understand the law to be written, if the person above moves out of the state and I as an Arkansan order from that person's site, I pay no state sales tax on the item.

I say let's repeal this bad law, and take a different approach. Let's give those that have a physical store here a break via the corporate income tax or find some way to do away with them having to charge state sales tax on items they ship directly to the customer on items purchased via the internet.

UPDATE:

Here is a good talking points bulletin from Overstock about the effects of this law: http://www.performancemarketingassociation.com/overstock/

Have a similar story? Please feel free to send me an email at david.meeks@arkansashouse.org

Week in Review at the Capitol- April 1st

The legislative session is like a roller coaster, lots of ups and downs, twists and turns, and just when you think you’d rather be gliding along on a merry-go-round, you hop on for another ride.

The final week of the 88^th General Assembly took House members on a fast and furious flight through a thunderstorm of debate on the federal healthcare law, state-owned vehicles, congressional redistricting and even monkeys.

To get the coaster rolling, a bill requiring out-of-state online retailers to collect sales tax from Arkansas buyers passed the House and will soon be signed into law. I opposed this measure because it amounts to taking more money out of the pockets of hard-working Arkansans.

The Legislature is not your ordinary rodeo. Midweek, House members wrangled over a $72.6 million state Insurance Department appropriation bill which included $1 million in funding for the federal healthcare overhaul. Concerned about tying the federal healthcare law to a bill that funds an essential state agency, House Republicans made several attempts to remove the $1 million from the budget bill.

Meanwhile, legislation to establish federally mandated insurance exchanges necessary to the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was en route to the House floor. As a result, a deadlock on passing the Insurance Department appropriation surfaced, with a majority refusing to strip the budget bill of $1 million in federal healthcare funding. Fortunately, House members lassoed a compromise on Thursday, agreeing to pull down the bill to implement the insurance exchanges and send the legislation to interim study. Consequently, the Insurance Department appropriation garnered the 75 votes needed to pass the House.

I believe the compromise helps ensure a slow and deliberate process for examining a federal law that will drastically alter our healthcare system. We now have a year to study the impact of the federal healthcare law, giving legislators sufficient time to act responsibly in the upcoming fiscal or general session. Until the Supreme Court rules on the law’s constitutionality or Congress acts, our state should not spend money implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

A congressional redistricting gerrymander slithered its way out of the Arkansas House, despite overwhelming opposition from concerned citizens, Democrats and Republicans alike. The “Pig Trail Gerrymander” or “Fayetteville Finger,” does not respect our state’s regional communities of interest and will devastate the continuity of Northwest and Southern Arkansas. I opposed this partisan power grab by the State Democratic Party and hope our colleagues in the Senate will take a principled stand for the people of Arkansas, reject this unfair and illogical proposal and look at reasonable alternatives.

Members took up some monkey business on Thursday when a bill to restrict Arkansans from owning primates failed in the House Public Health Committee. Proponents say citizens have a right to own a monkey, and noted that some individuals use primates as service animals. As a result, the bill was pulled from consideration and sent to interim study.

The personal use of state-owned vehicles by elected officials and state employees dominated newspaper headlines and coffee shop talk last year. In an effort to assure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely, the House passed a bill to allow state agencies to furnish state vehicles with GPS devices to collect data for tracking purposes.

A $4.6 billion balanced budget for the 2012 fiscal year cleared the full House this week. The budget bill, known as the Revenue Stabilization Act, deals specifically with general revenue and prioritizes spending for public schools and prisons. I voted against this budget because it increases state spending too much.

We also approved a General Improvement Fund bill that sets aside surplus funds for special projects. The Governor controls $40 million, while the House and Senate each control $5 million. If you can recall, last month House members voted to use their share of the surplus for statewide projects, rather than funding lawmakers’ pet projects.

Over the course of the session and under the shining dome of Capitol Hill, we worked vigorously to cut your taxes, increase government transparency, hold the line on spending and move our state forward economically. As of Thursday, 903 out of 2,234 House and Senate bills had been signed into law.

The 88th General Assembly held the shortest session in two decades. However, because congressional redistricting is not complete, the House and Senate will reconvene on Monday to complete the process. Members will still return for a “sine die” on April 27, which is the final adjournment of the legislative session.

While we have recessed until next year’s fiscal session, I will continue my work to serve as your voice in the Arkansas House of Representatives. Please contact me with any issues, questions or concerns you may have. My email is david.meeks@arkansashouse.org