Connecticut Passes Bill Undermining Electoral College

Elections,

Yesterday the Connecticut Legislature passed a bill awarding the state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the nationwide popular vote.

The bill makes Connecticut the newest member of the National Popular Vote Compact. The compact becomes binding once states representing at least 270 electoral votes join the agreement.

Under the compact, a state gives its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes nationwide. That means Connecticut’s electoral votes would go to the winner of the national popular vote rather than to the presidential candidate that most voters in Connecticut supported.

Family Council helped defeat a similar proposal in the Arkansas Legislature in 2009.

Under that proposal, Arkansas’ six electoral votes would have gone to the candidate who received the most votes from the rest of the nation instead of the candidate that most Arkansans voted for.

The measure effectively would have disenfranchised Arkansas voters and made Arkansas’ presidential votes irrelevant.

If you’re curious why the Electoral College is important and why we should not elect the president via a nationwide popular vote, here’s a short video explaining some of the strengths of the Electoral College:

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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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