WASHINGTON Not often does California look to Arkansas as a trend-setter.
Usually it's Arkansans who pick up fashion tips or ideas on new foods from California.
Leave it to Arkansas to give substantive, government policy advice to its West Coast cousins.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed fashioning his state's budget after the Arkansas model.
In Arkansas, budget deficits are constitutionally prohibited. A downturn in revenue legally must be tied to a decrease in spending.
Schwarzenegger told California reporters in January that he got the idea for spending limits from former Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.
Current Gov. Mike Beebe said he was glad to see Schwarzenegger seek to emulate Arkansas policy.
"I applaud him," Beebe said last week at a National Governors Association meeting in Washington.
The two governors met briefly at the NGA conference but did not discuss the issue, Beebe said.
Schwarzenegger's plan faces resistance from California lawmakers because of the difference in size between the two states. California's annual budget is about $145 billion. Arkansas' budget is about $4 billion.
Beebe said he thought the Arkansas model could work anywhere.
Budgeting and the economy was a top concern of the state's governors last week.
Because of the slowing economy, at least 18 states currently have budget deficits.
Even with Arkansas' budget model, the state is not immune to economic troubles. The state benefits from the process because it can react immediately to money problems by cutting the budget where necessary, Beebe said.
"While it doesn't keep us from being subject to the vagaries of a changing economy and a downturning economy, it does let us address those issues on a timely basis that keeps them from building up to the point where they almost become unmanageable," Beebe added.
No free ride
Even if the Delta Regional Authority was planning to dole out grant money for "luxury" cars, the federal agency probably won't do so now in Arkansas.
DRA chief Pete Johnson was discussing grants with the region's governors last week when he mentioned that he had rejected one community's application for a "luxury vehicle."
As Johnson talked, Beebe leaned over to an aide and audibly said: "Find out if that was one of ours."
Johnson overheard Beebe's aside and assured the Arkansas governor that the application was not submitted by someone from his state.
The DRA took heat for its spending practices last year, with Rep. Marion Berry, D-Gillett, accusing the agency of spending too much on administrative overhead. DRA officials have said they use taxpayer dollars judiciously.
For the record, Beebe uses a state-owned Chevrolet Suburban.
Pryor says 'farewell'
Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., continued a long-standing Senate tradition last week by reading George Washington's farewell address to Congress.
The Senate each year observes Washington's Feb. 22 birthday by having one of its members read the 7,641-word address, delivered by the first president in 1796.
The Senate tradition began in 1896. Republicans and Democrats alternate reading the speech each year.
Pryor is the first Arkansan ever to do so.
His reading took 58 minutes, well above the 45-minute average. His Southern drawl probably accounted for the delay. The longest delivery was in 1962, when another Southerner, Jennings Randolph, D-W.Va., took 68 minutes.
