| Billionaire Jim Walton gives $75,000 to anti-lottery campaign
9/16/2008:
The Family Council's campaign opposing a proposed state-run lottery received a financial boost last month with a $75,000 contribution from billionaire Jim Walton of Bentonville, according to a financial report filed Monday with the state Ethics Commission.
The contribution from Walton, son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and chairman of Arvest Bank, brings the Family Council Action Committee's total contributions to date to $77,111. The committee has spent $3,472, leaving it with $73,639 on hand.
"We just received a check in the mail," said Jerry Cox, executive director of the Family Council. "We had not asked for the donation. I ... very quickly called to thank him for the donation, and like a lot of people at his level we weren't able to talk to him, but I conveyed our thanks to him through his secretary and then followed that up with a very nice thank-you letter for such a generous gift."[1]
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| Six parties to appear on Arkansas ballot
Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels' office announced May 28, 2008, that the Socialism and Liberation Party has been certified to include its presidential and vice presidential candidates on the November general election ballot. The Socialism and Liberation Party will join the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party of Arkansas, and the Constitution Party of Arkansas on the general election ballot.[2]
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| New severance tax measure rejected for ballot by AG
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel rejected on May 21, 2008, a proposed ballot initiative from the Campaign for Comprehensive Legal Reform to increase the state severance tax on natural gas and specify how proceeds from the tax would be allocated. McDaniel said the measure had several ambiguities, including how it would relate with the Legislature's recent increase of the severance tax.[3]
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| Legislature passes severance tax hike, Nelson withdrawns initiative
Sheffield Nelson withdrew his Severance Tax Hike initiative immediately after Gov. Mike Beebe signed the first severance tax hike on natural gas in a half century. But Nelson warned that he will refile the measure if lawmakers try to alter the increase signed into law on April 3, 2008.[4]
Nelson's proposed initiative would have raised the tax two-percentage points higher than what Beebe got through the state legislature in a special session called for that purpose. Beebe met with success after reaching a compromise that industry leaders could support, with Nelson's harsher proposal hanging over their heads.
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