Eureka Springs City Council Approves “Semi-Permanent” Public Drinking District

Alcohol, Public Drinking,

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Eureka Springs City Council voted 4-2 last week to allow public drinking downtown at certain times of the week.

Act 812 of 2019 by Sen. Trent Garner (R – El Dorado) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R – Smackover) lets cities create “entertainment districts” where alcohol can be carried and consumed publicly on streets and sidewalks.

The Eureka Springs ordinance creating a public drinking district will expire in September — giving the city council an opportunity to revisit the issue.

As we have said before, public drinking is a scourge on the community.

It raises serious concerns about drunk driving and public safety.

Public drinking doesn’t attract new businesses or bolster the economy.

It hurts neighborhoods and families.

That’s why Family Council has put together a free toolkit to help citizens oppose these public drinking districts.

Our toolkit contains talking points, information about problems public drinking has caused in other states, photographs of public drinking districts elsewhere around the country, and other resources you can use to fight public drinking in your community.

Click here to download our free toolkit.

Photo by Photolitherland at English Wikipedia [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

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Arkansas Lottery Has Spent $111,000+ on Mileage Reimbursements Since July

Arkansas Lottery

According to the state transparency website, the Arkansas Lottery has spent $111,995.74 reimbursing employees for mileage expenses since July 1, 2019.

Since 2018, the Arkansas Lottery has spent more than $200,000 on mileage each fiscal year.

For perspective, last year the Arkansas Department of Education spent about $62,000 on fuel and on mileage reimbursements for its employees — about one-third what the Lottery Office spent.

State employees — like those who work for the Arkansas Lottery — can be reimbursed for the mileage they drive in their personal vehicles on work-related trips.

For example, if a state employee drives his or her personal vehicle on a business trip from Little Rock to Fayetteville, the employee is eligible for reimbursement.

According to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration’s website, the current reimbursement rate for mileage is 42 cents per mile.

That means an employee at the Arkansas Lottery would receive 42 cents for every mile he or she drives in a personal vehicle on a work-related road trip.

If that’s accurate, then $111,000 in mileage reimbursements would be enough money to cover 264,000 miles of travel.

The Department of Finance and Administration has a fleet of state vehicles. Why doesn’t the Office of the Arkansas Lottery use them for official travel?

The cost of fuel for a state vehicle would be about half the cost of reimbursing a state employee for driving his or her own car.

Or for that matter, why doesn’t the Arkansas Lottery purchase a couple of vehicles that employees can use for business trips? It would be cheaper in the long run than paying people to drive their personal vehicles on state business.

Click here to see a breakdown of Arkansas Lottery mileage reimbursements for FY 2020.

Photo Credit: Airtuna08 at English Wikipedia [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

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