Andrew DeMillo is the editor in chief of the Arkansas Advocate. He joined Ozarks at Large to talk about the close of the fiscal session, an upcoming special session and Bill Clinton's appearance at the Clinton School commencement.
Matthew Moore: Let's start with the fiscal session. It ended last Wednesday. What are some of the highlights? What are the things that are still lingering for you and your team?
Andrew DeMillo: The biggest thing lingering right now is the issue that we had not really been talking about before the session, which is the incentives for this possible super project that officials want to land in West Memphis. There's up to $300 million that's been set aside to go into the quick action closing fund for this project, and officials are being very tight-lipped about it, as they are with most economic development deals — but especially this one. All we really know is that it's some kind of advanced manufacturing site. It says specifically in the legislation that it's not a data center. Arkansas is one of several states in the running for this. If Arkansas does land it, it would be several thousand jobs, and it would be one of the biggest uses, if not the biggest use, of this incentive fund, which is about 20 years old now. We're also watching to see what other incentives are being offered in addition to the quick action funds.
There are a lot of issues that I think are going to linger for next year's session, especially for the University of Arkansas. It's very clear from this session that Arkansas lawmakers are going to be trying to step into university operations and university decisions a lot more than they have in the past. That's going to cover everything from the decision to send some money to athletics to individual programs like the Middle East Studies Center. It's a really big shift from what we've seen before. It used to be that Amendment 33 — the amendment that protects the independence of universities and colleges — used to be the red line that lawmakers would not cross. They're a lot more willing to cross it now, or at least see how close they can get to it. This goes back to what we saw with the law school dean and the offer being withdrawn. And this is not going to be limited to UofA. We're going to see a lot more fights, a lot more debate over academic freedom and university independence in next year's session. We saw a concrete example of this with UA Little Rock, where essentially the administration agreed to stop providing a gender studies minor.
Moore: Are we seeing examples of this in other states, or is Arkansas kind of an outlier?
DeMillo: Arkansas is kind of wrapped up in what we're seeing in a lot of other Republican states right now. Gender studies programs are an example of the types of programs that have been caught up in this push to end diversity programs at universities — targeting certain programs, certain minors, certain majors that Republican lawmakers object to. We've seen this in several other states, including Texas and Florida. It's being presented as wanting universities to focus on studies that are going to provide jobs and be beneficial to the economy, but it's hard to separate it from this larger debate over the anti-DEI push right now.
Moore: As promised, a special session is going on. It's really around cutting taxes.
DeMillo: That's correct. When people hear this, we're going to be in the midst of the special session. We're expecting it to last the minimum three days. I don't really expect much suspense or much drama. It's clear based on looking at the number of co-sponsors in the House and Senate that there are enough votes just based on the co-sponsors to get these tax cuts through. It cuts both individual income and corporate income taxes. This is part of what's been a multi-year push to eliminate the individual income tax, starting with former Gov. Asa Hutchinson and continuing through Gov. Sanders right now. It's really hard to get Republicans to vote against tax cuts, especially in an election year.
Moore: You were able to attend the Clinton School's commencement ceremony, and the keynote speaker this year was namesake and former president Bill Clinton. What were your takeaways?
DeMillo: This was the 20th graduating class of the school. The school started in 2004, the same year that Clinton's presidential library opened. On the surface, it was not a political speech — he didn't mention Republicans, didn't mention President Trump or any other political figures. But the messaging was very clear. He talked about the vital role that the school plays in terms of helping prepare people to contribute to public service and teaching that cooperation is much better than division. That's definitely a contrast to what we're seeing in other political rhetoric right now. One of the more significant things to see at this event was an honorary master of public service given to Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of the Little Rock Nine. It was very significant to have that honor in Little Rock, in the city that meant so much to her — a sentiment she shared herself. She compared it to when the Little Rock Nine were given the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999 when Clinton was president. And we're coming up on the anniversary of the Central High desegregation next year, so this was definitely important to honor as part of that.
Andrew DeMillo is the editor in chief of the Arkansas Advocate. You can find more of his reporting at arkansasadvocate.com.
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