Huckabee on 'friendly' city visit

Gov. Mike Huckabee is pursuing his goal of making state government more "user-friendly" today in Conway.

By Renée Hunter

The governor and a large group of state department heads and staff members started what promised to be a full day by having breakfast with the morning Rotarians and numerous community leaders. After breakfast, the governor, first lady Janet Huckabee and state employees fanned out to "canvass Conway" individually.

"We try to take as much of state government as we can out of the Capitol and out of Little Rock into the communities where great things are happening," Huckabee said. "We're like wildcat drillers, drilling deep into the town to find out what works" and how state government is helping or can help.

The visit is part of the governor's Community Forum program, in which he visits a selected city in the state for an entire day.

So far, the governor said, about 19 community forum days have been held around the state.

Huckabee said he requires state employees to spend at least half a day every six weeks at a "delivery point" of state government: a local revenue office, a human services office or the Conway Human Development Center.

During his talk, the governor touched on several successful programs.

He commented that moving people from welfare to work was "one of the most challenging issues facing us in state government" and welfare rolls have been cut in half during the first couple of years of the Transitional Employment Assistance program.

He talked about water needs in the state, saying that in his visits to Israel he had "noticed their extraordinary stewardship of the water" and had talked to various Israeli leaders about the issue. As a result, Israel's top water expert has recently spent time in Arkansas working with Randy Young, director of the Soil and Water Conservation Commission, on a program to conserve the state's water.

The governor talked about Smart Start, a program to give young children a good start in school, and Smart Step, a new program to implement high standards and accountability in public schools.

"No child should come out of our schools not knowing how to read, (or) how to do math," he said.

These are long-term programs, the governor said, and will not improve test scores in a year or two, but will build a stronger, healthier Arkansas.

The governor said he is pleased the parental-income ceiling for the Academic Challenge scholarships was raised from $40,000 to $75,000 last year, and he is going to ask that the ceiling be eliminated next year. It is important to keep Arkansas' brightest and best in Arkansas, he said, because companies like Alltel and Acxiom Corp. can use all the trained high-tech people the state can turn out. Huckabee touted Academic Challenge and the Governor's Distinguished Scholar program, which pays full costs to Arkansas universities for students who have at least a 19 ACT score and a 2.5 grade-point average and who pledge not to use alcohol and tobacco, as ways to keep young Arkansans in Arkansas.

"What we're trying to do is change Arkansas' pathetic ranking from dead last in the number of people with baccalaureate degrees," Huckabee said.

Questioned about the tobacco settlement, the governor expressed strong disappointment that the compromise bill for using the money worked out by the state's health professionals and sponsored by 32 state representatives did not even get out of the House committee in the recent special session of the Legislature.

"I'd have felt better if the House members had listened to it, heard the debate and then voted it down," Huckabee said. The reason that did not happen, he added, is that opponents knew there were enough votes to pass the bill.

He is planning to place the bill before the state's voters in November as an initiated act, Huckabee said, and the necessary 57,000 signatures are being collected now.

Arkansas, the governor said, is the unhealthiest state, with a life expectancy of 10 years less than in any other state.

Asked about widening Interstate 40 between Conway and Little Rock, the governor said he did not control the highway department and could make no promises.

"The good news is with the passage of the bond issue and the acceleration of the construction program, it will happen," he said.

He pointed out that widening of the interstate between Little Rock and Benton is about to begin five years ahead of schedule.

(Staff Writer Rene Hunter may be reached by phone at 505-1266 or by e-mail at rhunter@thecabin.net)