Gov. Hutchinson Opposes Grocery Tax Hike

Current Events

Today Gov. Asa Hutchinson sent a letter to the legislature’s Tax Reform and Relief Task Force expressing his opposition to increases in the grocery tax.

Under current law, the sales tax on groceries is slated to fall from 1.5% to 0.125% on January 1, 2019.

Last week the Tax Reform and Relief Task Force voted to review and discuss a plan to raise the sales tax on groceries to as high as 6%.

The task force cannot raise the grocery tax itself, but it can develop a plan to raise the tax and make recommendations to the legislature in 2019.

From 2009 – 2013 Family Council supported Governor Beebe’s effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate Arkansas’ sales tax on groceries. People shouldn’t be penalized financially for buying basic necessities like bread and milk.

Hats off to Gov. Hutchinson for opposing the grocery tax!

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Satanic Temple Plans to Sue Arkansas

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The Associated Press reports the Satanic Temple plans to join the ACLU in a lawsuit against the State of Arkansas over the new monument of the Ten Commandments on the Capitol lawn.

Arkansas unveiled the privately-funded Ten Commandments monument at a brief dedication ceremony yesterday.

The monument is identical to one the U.S. Supreme Court ruled constitutional in Texas in 2005.

You may recall the Satanic Temple threatened to put a satanic monument on the Capitol grounds a few years ago if Arkansas placed a Ten Commandments monument on the property; however, that effort never went anywhere in part because monuments require legislative approval. Arkansas is not obligated to put a statue of Satan alongside its monument of the Ten Commandments.

It’s worth mentioning that the monument installed yesterday actually is a replacement of one that was destroyed last year. You may recall a man plowed a car into the initial Ten Commandments monument less than 24 hours after it was placed on the Capitol lawn.

The ACLU and others who oppose the Ten Commandments monument were swift to issue public statements denouncing the destruction of that monument with a car, but they seem more than eager to try to destroy it with a lawsuit.

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Arkansas Unveils Ten Commandments Monument

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From Left: State Senator Jason Rapert (R-Bigelow), and Family Council staff members Ken Yang, Charisse Dean, Luke McCoy, and Jerry Cox.

Today Arkansas’ new Ten Commandments monument was unveiled on the Capitol lawn in Little Rock.

The legislature authorized the privately funded monument in 2015, and construction was completed last year. However, less than 24 hours after the initial monument was unveiled, it was destroyed when a man plowed a car into it.

The replacement monument includes concrete bollards to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Meanwhile, several groups continue to oppose the Ten Commandments monument.

The ACLU has promised to sue the state to have the monument removed — even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled an identical monument constitutional in Texas nearly thirteen years ago — and the leader of the Satanic Temple was present before today’s unveiling ceremony, along with several protesters.

Frankly, there just shouldn’t be anything controversial about honoring the significance of the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are one of the earliest examples of the rule of law in human history, and they have had a tremendous impact on western civilization. The Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are amazing documents, but the Ten Commandments are the great-great-granddaddy of them all.

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