Second, support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and KUARFM 89.

Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for Arkansas week.

I'm Dana Tyrell as 2021 comes to a close.

It's a time for reflection and a time for thinking about the possibilities in front of us.

In 2022 for Arkansas Governor ASA Hutchinson, 2022 represents his final year at the Statehouse.

And the governor is closing 2021 with a signature less legislative win, a historic tax cut.

The governor joins me.

Now.

First of all, Governor, I want to thank you so much for for joining me for Arkansas Week and Merry Christmas to you.

Well, thank you Donna and I do enjoy this time of year.

That is a time of reflection and also thinking about the future.

So grateful for you hosting this and being able to talk about Arkansas both this past year and in the next year.

And that's exactly what we're doing.

I first of all want to talk about this.

I guess you could call it a legislative win with the largest tax cut in Arkansas history.

How are you feeling about that governor?

Well, I'm feeling really excited and thrilled by the fact that we were able to pass the historic tax cut that's the largest in Arkansas history that we had broad support forward in the special session of the legislature.

They came in.

They did their business and they went home.

I thought the spirit of the legislative session was really good.

We had.

You know half of the Democratic delegation in the Senate voted for the tax cut bill.

And so it was a bipartisan I. I've say somewhat humorously, that it was a Tri partisan bill because we had an independent Democrat and Republicans that supported it so great.

Broad support.

But what it really means for Arkansans is that instead of creating more government programs, we're simply putting more money.

In individuals pockets, as we go into next year, it's the largest tax cut.

As you said in Arkansas history, but you've got to put it in historic perspective that when I was elected governor, we had a 7% individual income tax rate.

We reduced that gradually through major initiatives down to 5.9% this year.

Next year will go to 5.5% the following year 5.3 and then it will subsequently get down as planned to 4.9%.

This is our individual income tax.

It benefits every Arkansan low income, high income.

It lowers the rate.

It helps us to be more competitive, so I couldn't be more pleased with that success story.

Second term and in my next to final year and with the legislative support that we saw, I, you know, I think.

Pretty much every Arkansan is is very happy that we'll be paying less in taxes, but there were some people who said that perhaps that money that was generated through taxes could benefit some social programs that benefit Arkansans.

What do you say to that?

Well, first of all, we're not neglecting any social programs that we have.

The budget is fully funded in terms of education.

This last year we gave the largest increase in education funding funding over anytime in the last decade.

We have increased teacher pay.

We have invested in our health care system.

We have a Medicaid budget that is.

Funded, we actually have a reserve fund in our Medicaid that's set aside, and so we are funding those initiatives now.

There are some specific issues that some people address, like we still have a waiting list for our developmentally disabled, and that's true and we want to address that we've got more work to do there.

But what happened was that we actually made progress.

On that waiting list and we reduce the waiting list.

When that happens, then people have hope and they sign up for those services and so it's a revolving list.

And so we've got more work to do, certainly.

But we have the funds to do that, and we're not going to neglect those responsibilities.

But you have a basically $500 million of revenues that come into the state.

We have the choice of creating more government programs.

And expanding government programs or giving that money back to the taxpayers.

And I think that is the right call, so we're not neglecting the services.

We don't want to do that.

We're going to meet the needs that we have here in this state.

One year left in office.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2022?

Or a lot.

And this last year we came out of the public emergency in terms of our pandemic.

Our COVID challenges that we faced.

They still here we're managing it.

Everybody is moving toward getting vaccinated.

And so as we look into next year, will and we have a lot to be thankful for as a state and as a nation.

And I'm very grateful that people have responded helping our neighbors encouraging vaccination, and we don't have mandates in the in the state.

But through education, we're increasing those numbers as you look into next year is.

Should be like the burden is off our back.

I know we're going to have some challenges this winter, but with a vaccination rate it should be manageable.

We've got to watch it very carefully, but as you go into next year we're going to get back to the business of recruiting industry, job creation, working on, improving education and closing out, and reducing the gap in education that we all experience across the nation.

Because of the pandemic.

We've got to focus on the basics again of improving the education.

Our workforce training is going to be a focus of mine as well as getting out the broadband deployment into the rural areas of our state.

Those are some priorities.

I expect this next year to be an infrastructure year.

We've got a large amount of money coming from Washington that we can invest in water projects.

We can invest in broadband deployment.

We can invest in at workforce education and strengthening our investment there.

So we have a unique opportunity in history to impact the next generation through these improved areas of workforce as well as helping our communities with the infrastructure.

And so I'm not going to slow down in my final year, it's going to be a very busy year and I'm very excited about it.

So what's the first thing though governor, what's the first thing you plan to tackle come January 1, 2022?

Well, the first priority is to get through our fiscal session and pass the budget next year.

But my first priority all through next year is the continued investment in education and that is going to be through enhancing our workforce training.

When I became governor, we had 54 high schools that did not have access to a career Learning Center a workforce.

Training center that number is now down to 1.

And so that is enormous progress we've made, but we want to enhance the quality of our workforce training.

So I want to put money in enhancing our welding programs to enhancing our auto mechanics program.

These training that gives our young people opportunities in the future to make a good paying job in industries that are growing in this state.

And so we want to enhance that training and invest more.

That's one of the top.

Priorities and the first thing on my list for next year as we invest more, let's talk about the last two years or say the last year and nine months dealing with COVID.

How did that hamper your progress in terms of things that you had hoped to accomplish?

Did it slow you down?

It did, I mean it was a distraction for everyone.

Whenever you look back at the beginning of the pandemic I had just returned from my first international trip to India.

We had recruited a a significant industry for the state.

We are poised for the announcement.

The pandemic hit international travel stopped and so that deal went by the wayside.

And so that's just one example of where you slow down progress.

In economic development, and we have a gap there.

Now we quickly got back to it and it and we didn't completely eliminate my recruitment of jobs during this time.

But this last year we saw an announcement of treks here in Central Arkansas area.

We had expansions of business and northern Arkansas Northwest Arkansas as well and so.

It did hurt us in terms of the fast accelerated growth that we are experienced in prior to the pandemic, and it's taken us a while to get back on track to renew that growth, we completed the census were over 3 million in population are in migration has increased and so even though it slowed us down a little bit, it also created opportunities.

Now we have people from some of the large metropolitan areas of the country.

Wanting to move out to an area that they have more space that they have a higher quality of life that they might be able to work remotely and so we have an opportunity to capitalize on that, increase our people coming into the state with our low tax rate.

That will help as well.

And then my phone is ringing off the hook with companies that are interesting coming to Arkansas and expanding here.

So those are things that we're back to now that was slowed down some.

What during the pandemic can you give us?

A hint on what company you're referring to?

Well, there's a number of them, but I will say that we are in good position in the drivers seat to attract the expansion in the steel industry in eastern Arkansas.

They will create hundreds of new jobs over $100,000 each, which is incredible to think about those high salaries in an area of the state that's been historically lower income.

And so that's something that we set the stage for in the legislative session by providing an incentive package.

Hopefully we will know soon as to whether we could be successful in that.

But that's just one example.

There's a number of others that we have opportunity for this next year.

I will be going to making another trip to the.

SHOT Show which is the sporting outdoor sporting show that gives me an opportunity to attract the firearms industry that we've recruited six hour in Arkansas.

I hope that we can recruit other and have other industries in that sector expand.

Rimington was acquired by Vista Outdoors.

They have a lot of expansion plans in place.

That industry is growing.

Arkansas is a good position to capitalize on that.

OK, I'm going to go back to COVID again.

We we were talking about COVID.

I know there are many pluses in terms of how you dealt with COVID.

One of the things that you tout a lot is that we never shut the state down, but when you look back on how you handle things, are there regrets at all?

You know, I, I think we've managed it well, and at this point I can't point to a particular error that was made.

I know that history will look at it more closely, and and I suspect that there was things that maybe we could have done better or done differently.

But by and large.

You mentioned that keeping the economy open, but just as importantly as that, we kept our schools open and at a time when most of the states were closing their schools, we made a commitment to keep them open for in classroom instruction last year.

And that made all the difference.

It reduced our gap.

It kept our education of our students, but just as importantly, it was the activities.

It was the.

Togetherness that they were able to enjoy over that year and they didn't lose everything.

That was one of the best decisions we made.

Keeping our schools open as well as our economy opened.

You mentioned, though.

You know what lessons learned?

I'm really anxious for a national 911 Type Commission that would be focused on the pandemic that will be independent will be thoughtfully done and thoroughly done to really look at the decisions the governors made and the administration made.

We've got to learn from this and our decision making process.

One of the great regrets is that we became divided in terms of our country.

On the approach to the pandemic, and that's really has hurt us in terms of a nation in terms of being together fighting this coronavirus and coming out of this with a greater sense of togetherness and a sense of community, we have become divided.

It seems on many many many different issues and I agree with you, COVID being one of them you.

By some accounts in terms of Republicans, you made an unpopular decision when you chose to divide the MLK and Robert E. Lee holidays.

And obviously there, there's a lot of division in the country.

But you sided with I guess.

Folks that people did not expect for you to side with on that.

That's true, and it's, and it's important that.

You know, a governor lead all of the people that I listened to.

All of the people of Arkansas and not just one party or one segment.

And clearly that's a recognition that you know we need to celebrate the national hero of.

Martin Luther King junior.

That means so much not just to African Americans, but to all of America.

And so you know, yes, we separated that to give Doctor King his own holiday.

But also you look back this last year and we had the George Floyd protests all across the country.

In some instances they lead to acts of violence and we had a challenge of that even in Little Rock and.

I had to take action in order to protect public safety, but I also pulled together some of the young protesters that were there legitimately and genuinely saying we need change.

We need more transparency.

We need to make some adjustments in our law enforcement and I brought them together with our our law enforcement community and said let's work together, and through that we had a task.

Force through that, we've made recommendations and that was a healing moment to bring those that felt so strongly that we're off track together with those in law enforcement.

And say, let's talk.

And yes, I think it's important to listen to everyone.

Be able to step outside of your comfort zone and make sure that you can make changes that are needed for the good of all Arkansans.

Let's talk about transgender.

You vetoed legislation that would have prevented gender affirming medical treatment for transgender.

You had a lot of a lot of pushback on that.

Well, I did and that's one of those very controversial positions that I took.

And whenever you have a law that's passed, it's I have to either sign it or to veto it.

And in this case I looked at it and it did not give proper regard for the parents as they make those very difficult decisions.

Whenever you talk about vaccines, you want the parents to make the decision.

Well, this is the health care of their minor children.

And do you want parents to make that decision?

Or do you want to the state too?

Put restrictions on and mandates on that decision making and so philosophically I wanted to leave it in the hands of parents.

If it's been a narrowly crafted bill that prohibited transgender surgery as minors, I would assign that in a flash, because that shouldn't happen.

It doesn't happen in Arkansas, but it was one of those bills that created more problems than it solves.

It was not drafted narrowly enough, and so I did veto, but you know, my heart goes out.

To those young people that struggle and the parents they have to make those tough decisions.

And I wanted to make sure that they had.

As a parent, the latitude that they needed to make the health care decisions you know another controversial issue.

The Texas Anti abortion law.

By some call it the Texas abortion law.

One of the strictest in the country.

After EU S Supreme Court made the decision that it did.

There's a belief that other states will eventually follow along in that same path.

And do you see Arkansas doing that?

Do you support that law?

I don't particularly like that law because it allows individuals to file suit from Arkansas, even on a Texas civil rights issue, or.

Taxes, abortion, case and so it's a very odd construct of the law.

And now you see that California is looking at giving individuals the right to sue for violation of their gun laws there in that state.

And so this is one of those things that we need more time on.

The Supreme Court gave a preliminary ruling, but haven't given the final guidance on it.

This is something we're going to have to come back and address next year.

There might be some steps that we can take with the Texas.

Law in place, and if it continues in place, we might have to make some adjustments in our law.

But I think time will tell, and we'll probably have to come back to that next year.

Right now, Arkansas has the strictest anti abortion law in the country that's on appeal to the through the courts right now.

And so we're going to have both the Mississippi case, the Arkansas case and the Texas case that the courts are going to have to rule on.

I expect that guidance to come in.

Next year, and we'll have to determine then whether there's more steps that we can take to protect life and to do it in the right way.

Accomplishments teacher salaries.

I remember around the time you were up for reelection.

One of the things you were talking about you named about five different things that you wanted to accomplish within that upcoming four years teacher salary raises one of them stem learning.

Transportation.

There were several things.

Have you been able to accomplish what you set out to do?

I know you have another year, so what's what's remaining?

The answer is yes.

We have accomplished everything that I set out to do and more.

You mentioned.

Really the I call it the goat session, the greatest of all time 2019, in which we did my 40s, which was a transportation bill which is of historic proportions that will put us in good shape for the future in terms of our highway funding, we passed tax cuts.

We raise teacher pay and we transform state government, which is another great success story.

In which we've reduced the size of state government made it more efficient and increase the delivery of services.

So I've exceeded my original expectations and goals.

But goal setting is a continuous process and and also other needs come up during the course of that.

Nobody expected the pandemic, and so we've got to refocus on education and double down on that to help these students to make sure they don't have that gap.

And learning and so the education side from computer science to raising teacher pay to our rise initiative, which is a reading initiative for 3rd grade to make sure they can read at grade level.

All of these are our investments in our young people.

For the future we want to continue to make those work.

The computer science is probably the greatest story because we lead the nation in a comprehensive education program and computer science.

We've gone from 1000.

Students that take computer science to over 12,000 here in Arkansas.

That will be a difference maker both in terms of the young people and the job opportunities, but also it's allowed Arkansas to become a micro hub of technology companies with this talent pool that's coming in to serve the needs of that tech community as we closeout this program, I guess I just want to hear from you.

What are you most?

Proud of.

Well, you know you have to define what I'm most proud of in two ways.

One, it is the what motivated me to be in the political arena to begin with and that is serving people and touching the lives of people.

And you do that one on one.

And we've touched, we've had to touch a lot of lives during this last year.

From health care to education and and that I'm gratified with.

But it's also about.

Policy changes that impact people's lives, and I think, as I mentioned, probably the greatest thing is the computer science initiative.

But I'm blessed to lead an incredible state where people care about each other, and a governor is as a leader.

You know, this.

Last year we've had the Tornadoes.

I've had to be in the communities I've had to hug people that are suffering and just to help people through difficult times.

Is one of my responsibilities and if I can touch lives of Arkansans and in good ways then that's a blessing in and of itself.

We have one minute what's next for you?

After the governorship.

Well, we'll have to define that this next year, but one continue to see me engaged.

I feel strongly that we need to have civil discourse in our nation.

I hope that I can set the right example for that is, I have opportunity to do more nationally this coming year, and I'm going to be focused on Arkansas.

But I also want to be able to influence the direction of our country.

So expect me as governor to also be engaged in that way.

I hope I can set the right example of political leadership of governing leadership at the same time, you know I've people forget that I've practiced law and bid in the private sector of over 25 years of my life so I can enjoy that part of life as well.

My family is very important to me, so this next year I'm going to be watching a lot of grandchildren playing tennis and music recitals and playing basketball.

That's a joy.

In any person should have and I certainly enjoy that part of it too.

Well, governor Hutchinson.

We have certainly enjoyed this conversation with you.

Thank you so much.

We wish you and the first family a very Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Thank you Donna.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Thank you and thank you for joining us for Arkansas week.

That concludes this segment.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Happy holidays.

We'll see you in the new year.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and KAR FM 89.