PCSSD IN TROUBLE?/TAX VOTES DELAYED
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
It seemed she filed the bills just as a nudge to negotiators in the two-week old bus strike in the Pulaski County Special School District, but even after the end of the strike Representative Chesterfield is moving forward with her plans. Today her colleagues on the house education committee endorsed a bill that would merge parts of the district into Little Rock and North Little Rock. The committee also got behind a bill that would make districts forfeit their entire state transportation budgets if they failed to bus kids for three or more days.
"It is unconscionable not to care about those who make the least, who have the fewest benefits and obviously the least respect," said Chesterfield. Thats the Little Rock Democrats attitude on taxes as well. Apparently many of her fellow representatives feel the same. The full house failed to come up with the supermajority needed to pass an increase to the corporate franchise tax. Without assurances that the wealthy would bear some of the tax burden to pay for school reform, representatives pulled back on a vote for a multi-level tax plan that includes a sales tax. Many dont want to vote for a package that affects the poor more, when other sources of revenue havent been tapped. The ongoing special session on education is now in a record ninth week.
