13 INITIATIVES AIM FOR ARKANSAS BALLOT, BUT ONLY 2 CONNECT

Groceries and used vehicles will continue to be subject to sales taxes, the
prohibition against marijuana and hemp will stay in place, and the dogs and
ponies still will be the only legal wagering in Arkansas.

Those were among the situations in the state that some citizens wanted to
reverse through the ballot initiative process. But they weren't able to
raise enough signatures to be eligible for the November election.

Failure of the proposal to remove state and local sales taxes on groceries
means Arkansas taxpayers can expect an already-enacted $173 million income
tax cut to take effect over the next two years.

The attorney general's office had certified the ballot titles for 13
proposed constitutional amendments or initiated acts. Supporters then had
to gather signatures of registered Arkansas voters: 71,955 for
constitutional amendments, 57,564 for initiated acts.

Only two of the 13 made the July 3 deadline. One is a proposed amendment to
abolish ad valorem taxes on real and personal property and replace the lost
revenue, estimated to be about $895 million, with a 1.375-cent addition to
the state sales tax, which would raise about $600 million. Cities and
counties would be allowed to raise their sales taxes by an extra one-half
cent. Amendment proponents gathered more than 98,000 signatures. The
secretary of state's office is checking the signatures to ensure they are
valid.

If there are not enough valid signatures, the sponsors get 30 days to
collect more signatures. The other proposal that cleared the deadline was a
proposed initiated act that would allow the state Public Service Commission
to lower the rates long-distance telephone companies pay to local telephone
companies for the use of the local networks.

Those rates were frozen for three years under Act 77 of 1997. Bill Vickery,
spokesman for a coalition led by AT&T, said his group gathered 61,745
signatures in about 30 days. The act's ballot title was certified May 29,
and the signature drive began in early June.

Probably the biggest surprise no-show to the secretary of state's office
was the initiated act petition drive, sponsored by a group called the
Arkansas Citizens' Alliance, to remove state and local sales taxes from
grocery purchases.

Polls in early 1997 showed that as many as 82 percent of Arkansans
supported removing the sales tax on groceries. The Arkansas Citizens
Alliance even got the endorsement and pledges of assistance from the
American Association of Retired Persons in Arkansas. But alliance leader
David Couch of Little Rock, a lawyer, said his group only collected between
30,000 and 35,000 signatures, far short of the total necessary to get the
act on the ballot.

"My guess is we were relying real heavily on the local AARP chapter," he
said. "We didn't get the response we wanted from the AARP." The advocacy
group for the elderly boasts of about 360,000 members in Arkansas. Chip
Hillman, the AARP's state legislative committee chairman, said his group
simply did what Couch asked it to do.

"The last I heard," which Hillman said was in early June, "everything was
going slow but moving." The alliance had begun their effort with a
constitutional amendment, but later decided on an initiated act, partly
because an act needed fewer signatures and partly because supporters
believed that an initiated act would receive less scrutiny from the state
Supreme Court than an amendment.

Couch also blamed Arkansas Municipal League Director Don Zimmerman for his
group's failure. "Don Zimmerman went to every city and told the old people
that removing the sales tax on food would mean cities would close senior
centers, close parks and that there would be less police," Couch said. "He
scared them."

Zimmerman said he didn't realize he was the cause for the alliance's
failure to gather enough signatures, "but if I did, I'm proud of it." "I
think that's giving me more credit than I deserve," he said. The Municipal
League is opposed to removing the sales tax from groceries because this
would deprive cities of a significant source of revenue. Zimmerman said he
didn't organize meetings where he could campaign against the petition
drive. "I went to wherever I was invited," he said. Couch and his group
believe that it's immoral to tax people's bread and butter.

Zimmerman said it's not immoral when one looks at how the money is spent to
provide local government services, such as police and fire protection.
Another part of his group's problem, Couch said, was that his group's
effort was all volunteer, since the alliance had no money to pay
canvassers. But sales-tax payers' loss will be income-tax payers' gain.

The Legislature in 1997 enacted income tax cuts and other tax reductions
expected to save taxpayers $90.6 million in 1999 and $83.1 million in 2000.
The Legislature, fearing that voters could approve the alliance's
initiative and thus set off a state revenue crisis, made their tax
rollbacks contingent upon keeping the sales tax on groceries in place.
Couch said Arkansans can expect to see his group's petitions back on the
street in 2000 should the Legislature not repeal those sales taxes when it
meets in 1999. "If the General Assembly doesn't do it this time, we'll do
it again, and we'll be better organized and we won't have a 'poison pill'
to worry about," he said.

All three gubernatorial candidates favor steps to remove the sales tax from
groceries, perhaps by phasing out the levy. Another petition that wasn't
delivered to the state Capitol failed not because of lack of support, but
because its backers hitched their horse to another wagon. Little Rock
resident Nora Harris' group, Empower Arkansans, had a proposed amendment to
abolish property taxes and replace the revenue with an additional 2.5 cents
sales tax.

But her group melded its efforts in May with those of Fort Smith lawyer
Oscar Stilley, who was leading the aforementioned property tax measure.
Stilley was behind nearly half of the 13 ballot initiatives certified by
the attorney general's office.

But he acknowledged that a lack of resources forced him to concentrate
solely on the property tax amendment. Other amendments Stilley had
certified were: An amendment to freeze county property tax appraisals at
their 1993 level, unless otherwise changed by popular vote.

It also would have required popular votes on any local tax increase. An
amendment requiring voter approval of new taxes or tax increases. Stilley
said that issue will become law if the voters approve his property tax
amendment.

An amendment allowing parents to choose what public schools their children
attend and allowing state-financed vouchers to help parents pay for private
or parochial schools.

An amendment abolishing sales taxes on used goods and abolishing the income
tax. An amendment prohibiting the judiciary from disqualifying citizen
initiatives for any reason other than the failure to collect the required
number of valid signatures.

Stilley said that if the Supreme Court does with his property tax amendment
what it has done with other proposed constitutional amendments in past
elections, 2000 may be the year to get that proposal through. Stilley
complained that the court, by its actions, has shown a hostility toward the
citizen initiative process. "When you throw off nearly everything that was
on the ballot, what do you call it?" he said, referring to 1994 when five
of six proposed amendments were disqualified because of faulty ballot
titles.

"It is corrupt and wrong to throw these things off. They know they can't
win in a fair fight." As for the future of his other proposals, Stilley
said, "We'll just have to wait and see how the powers that be respond to
our [property tax] initiative."

Another proposal that may come back is the proposed amendment to allow for
casinos, a lottery and charitable bingo in Arkansas. The Fix Arkansas Now
committee tried but failed to gather enough signatures to put another
gambling proposal before the voters.

No one was available at the committee's offices in Little Rock to comment
last week, but former Arkansas State Police Col. Tommy Goodwin, president
of the Arkansas Casino Corp., told The Associated Press that his group's
idea of establishing casinos owned by an Arkansas company and by Arkansas
stockholders would be back.

"I don't think we can blame anybody but ourselves for it," he said. "We
just didn't get the signatures." While the casino proponents pledge another
try, Bobby Gwatney of Conway said he didn't know if he would make another
go at his proposal to remove the sales tax from the sale of used cars.
Gwatney's no-budget effort only netted nearly 1,800 signatures.

Another element that hampered his effort was the unusually hot weather this
year, Gwatney said. "We didn't contemplate 90- and 100-degree temperatures
in April and May," he said. "That was too hard on the old people
[collecting signatures]."

An amendment to end the state's prohibitions against marijuana and hemp
also fell woefully short of the necessary signatures to get before the
voters. Fayetteville lawyer Larry Froelich said that people were too afraid
of being labeled a "druggie" or afraid of run-ins with police to publicly
circulate the petitions.

He said people weren't afraid to sign, though. Froelich said there are
about 250,000 regular marijuana smokers in Arkansas, using the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration's estimates.

He said the purpose of his effort was to allow the state to regulate and
tax the drug as alcohol is now. He said another damper to his effort,
besides the lack of a budget, was people's inability to differentiate
between marijuana and hemp, which does not contain the psychoactive
chemical, Froelich said.

He said hemp, because of its high-strength fibers, have a number of
commercial uses, such as rope and fabric. "This isn't an ordinary kind of
amendment," he said. "You make yourself a target."

This article was published on Sunday, July 12, 1998