NWAonline
Town hall queries governor on environment, education
By Doug Thompson
BENTONVILLE -- Gov. Asa Hutchinson received little objection in principle to his plan to reorganize executive departments but heard specific concerns about whether the environment, workforce education and health care would be fully protected during a town hall meeting Tuesday.
The governor's plan to consolidate 42 state agencies into 15 will require legislative approval to fully implement. If re-elected, the governor would put that plan before the legislators when they convene in January. Tuesday's 5:30 p.m. meeting at Northwest Arkansas Community College was Hutchinson's second such public forum to discuss his proposal that day. His previous one was in Fort Smith.
"I've been in town halls all over Arkansas and the civility we have is a model for our nation," Hutchinson told the crowd at the end of Tuesday night's event.
Concerns about merging environmental agencies into a consolidated Department of Energy and Environment drew questions about whether environmental agencies such as the current Department of Environmental Quality could maintain independence.
Some of the 30 or so attendees also wanted specific answers on the state's decision to not renew the permit for a 6,503-hog operation in the Buffalo National River's watershed. Those who attended the town hall such as Ellen Corley of Newton County wanted to know if a moratorium on any permits for such large, concentrated hog farms in the river's watershed could be made permanent.
Hutchinson isn't sure he can legally impose a moratorium lasting beyond his own term as governor, he replied to Corley. The governor said he expects C&H Hog Farms, which received its first permit to operate in 2013, to take the state's refusal to renew to court. Asked if the state might buy out the farm, Hutchinson said if the decision against renewing the permit stands he wouldn't be surprised if the owners of the farm attempted to make a claim for compensation from the state.
Hutchinson was director of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in 2001 when picked to help reorganize that agency and others into the Department of Homeland Security. He said that experience will be helpful in setting up the state organization with no added personnel and no added costs to taxpayers.
Besides the environment, town hall attendees including former state Rep. Debbie Hobbs of Rogers expressed concern about putting career education into one Department of Education along with public schools and higher education. The same concern was expressed by others for plans to put the pre-kindergarten program, the Arkansas Better Chance Program, in the same department. Hutchinson assured the audience the change would improve coordination with other branches of the education system and not lead to those specialties being sacrificed.
NW News on 10/31/2018
