Gubernatorial candidate Mike Beebe touched on this subject briefly during the first debate last week and now Stephens Media gets him and state officials to elaborate.

Beebe floats the idea of paying off state bond debt with the growing surplus, thus freeing existing state revenue to offset a cut in the grocery tax.

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This has a wonderfully prudent sound, though the article identifies enough savings to pay for only a small fraction of the quarter-of-a-billion that would be lost if the state removed the entire sales tax on groceries.

The question is, does prudent financial management appeal to voters? Based on A$a’s response you’d think not. Cut taxes and worry about the debt  later seems to be his mantra. Not unlike most Arkansas households — charge stuff to the credit card now and worry about the payments later.

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