Examining four ballot issues
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Early voting for the general election started this week in Arkansas, and all ballots include four state issues — three proposed amendments to the Constitution and a bond issue. The issue and one amendment can be especially confusing.
For an objective and thorough examination of all four proposals, go to this link on the state Cooperative Extension Service’s web site:
https://www.uaex.uada.edu/business-communities/voter-education/state-ballot-issues.aspx
Amendments 1 and 2 are unnecessary. They constitute political ploys by the Legislature to give us what we already have.
No. 1 says noncitizens cannot vote. The Constitution already says that to vote you must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of Arkansas, at least 18 years old and registered to vote. Legislators imagine that some city or county government will ignore that provision and allow illegal immigrants to vote in local elections.
If passed, the Legislature could add more restrictive proof of citizenship — take your birth certificate to the polls, for example.
No. 2, which carries the popular name of an amendment “to protect the right to keep and bear arms,” also gives us what we already have, courtesy to the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the state Constitution.
Proponents argue, contrary to U.S. Supreme Court decisions, that isn’t enough. We must also define that as covering hunting and recreational use and that we must specify the right also covers ammunition and firearms accessories and components.No. 3 is much more complicated and has been debated to an extent. It would authorize the General Assembly to create economic development programs and pass legislation permitting cities, counties or cooperative areas to establish economic development districts. It would give such a district the power to levy taxes, assessments or other charges on properties within the district, thus transferring that authority from local government leaders and bodies to unelected boards.
A district could also repeal or modify any provision of the state Constitution that conflicts with this amendment.
When property goes into an economic district, it would go off the tax rolls for schools, county and city government. That shifts the cost of public services to everyone outside the district.
The General Assembly has not passed implementing legislation to spell out how this would work. We are being asked to trust that it will be done right.
Proponents argue that most other states already have similar economic development districts and that Arkansas is at a disadvantage because we don’t.
Opponents contend this is an outdated economic development tool that doesn’t work as intended, but instead is a means of corporate welfare.
Kaleb Posey, a certified professional community and economic developer, provides an example in a column he wrote for Arkansas Business. In Conway, he said, Hewlett-Packard received a $10 million state grant in return for a promise of 1,000 full-time jobs by the end of 2013. Conway and the local utility added $7.2 million, bringing upfront subsidies to at least $17 million. Instead HP failed to create 40 percent of the promised jobs, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and wound up keeping 92 percent of the grant.
There is another good reason to oppose these three proposals, which I addressed in a June 2025 column.
In its 2025 session the Legislature passed Act 602, which requires the attorney general to use the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Formula to measure the reading level of each ballot title proposed by the people under the state’s initiative and referendum process. The Flesch formula is a scoring system for reading ease that originated in the 1940s and had its best use by news organizations in trying to keep stories readable by average people, whatever they are. Its basis is the number of syllables in words used. For example, the phrase “constitutional amendment”contains eight syllables and therefore would be hard to read.
Act 602 says if a proposal ballot title isn’t at or below the eighth-grade level, it should be rejected. Sure enough, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin rejected several proposals last year because they failed the Flesch test.
Here’s the legislative hypocrisy: Act 602 does not apply to what the lawmakers propose. If it did, all three of this year’s proposals would fail.
I ran the three proposals through the Flesch formula, and here’s what I got:
• Guaranteeing the right to bear arms — score 56, “challenging for 10th to 12th graders.”
• Prohibiting non-citizens from voting — score 45, “college level, challenging for most adults.”
• Creating economic development districts — score 32, “college level, challenging for most adults.”
Maybe our legislators intend that what they propose is hard to read.
Issue No. 4 is a bond issue and doesn’t count as one of the three items the Legislature can submit to voters in a given year. It asks voters to allow the state to issue up to $500 million in general obligation bonds to pay for water, waste disposal, water pollution control, abatement and prevention, drainage, irrigation, flood control, and wetlands and aquatic resources projects. Bonds could also be used to refinance previous bond issues.
A similar issue was passed in 2008, and every single county has benefited from such loans. They are repaid from existing revenues.
We need to maintain and improve our infrastructure, and this is valuable tool for that.
Roy Ockert is a former editor of The Jonesboro Sun, The Courier at Russellville and The Batesville Guard. He can be reached at royo@suddenlink.net.