Arkansas’ new Republican Governor, Sarah Sanders, was inaugurated on Tuesday, January 10, as many voters watch to see what changes she will bring about in Arkansas politics.
What does Governor Sarah Sanders say about influential voices in the Republican party?
“I think there are a lot of influential voices in the Republican Party and it can vary. I don’t think there is any one, singular leader. I think that happens when you don’t have a president in power from your party is that voice can come from a lot of different places. I think the more important thing is figuring out how we bring those groups together and remember what we’re fighting for, remember who we’re fighting for, and start delivering on a lot of the things that most of us talked about.
Sanders’ political platform has 3 major planks: education, taxes, and criminal justice reform.
On the subject of educational changes, Sanders says
We’re already spending, 54% of our state budget goes to education. We should demand better results with the money that we’re spending. We cannot continue to pour money into programs that aren’t delivering.”
In her inaugural address she said she would sign bills dealing with increased teacher pay, among other reforms.
On possible legislation dealing with sex orientation/gender identity in elementary schools, Sanders says
That piece of legislation, I would sign. I’ve already said publicly that I would. I obviously disagree with the way that they’ve characterized it since it doesn’t say that [‘don’t say gay’] anywhere in the legislation. But anytime, I think, we have an opportunity as a government to do our part in protecting kids, we need to take advantage of that and do what we can to make sure that we are doing everything within our power to protect the young people in Arkansas.
Sanders, along with the Legislature, is looking to reform the state’s truth in sentencing law, plus she’s already working on a plan to improve state prison overcrowding with an eye to completing the already-started new state prison for up to 1,000 inmates.
Sanders says holding criminals accountable for their actions needs reform and
In addition to the capacity problem is making sure people are held accountable and that there is actually justice, and time is served that they are sentenced to in the state of Arkansas. That is not typically the case right now.
On the possibility of accelerating the already-started plan to eliminate the personal income tax, she says:
Look, as long as we can get there responsibly, speed does not determine whether or not it’s responsible. Making sure that we can pay for the programs and services that we need to pay for, that’s being responsible. So if we are able to grow our economy, grow our revenue through increased tourism and things like that, then we can pass that on faster. Making sure that we have programs that are effective, efficient, modernizing our government, passing those savings on, it’s not going to be any one thing that allows us to cut taxes, it’s going to be a collection of things. And the faster we grow our economy, the faster we’re going to be able to phase out that state income tax.
READ more about Governor Sanders’ views on these and other topics at TalkBusiness.net