Huckabee and the Grocery Tax Cut
Club for Growth Shines Light on Huckabee’s Record on Taxes
WASHINGTON - Feeling the heat from the Club for Growth’s reporting of his tax-and-spend record, Governor Mike Huckabee is taking credit for a grocery tax cut signed into law yesterday by the current Democratic governor of Arkansas. However, Governor Huckabee strongly opposed the repeal of the same grocery tax in 2002 (Arkansas News Bureau, 08/30/02).
Governor Huckabee claims “he helped ‘frame the message’ for the grocery tax cut by urging tax cuts during his final months in office” (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 02/16/07), but Governor Huckabee had ample opportunity in the summer of 2006 to push for the tax cut by calling the State Legislature into session and failed to do so (Arkansas News Bureau, 07/06/06). While Governor Huckabee claims he supported the tax cut then and takes credit for it now, his refusal to act speaks louder than his empty words.
Club for Growth President Pat Toomey warned that taxpayers will not be fooled by political sleights of hand and hollow talk. “While Governor Huckabee cut taxes modestly when he first entered office, his second full term as governor was marked by a series of tax hikes,” Mr. Toomey said. “By the end of his ten-year tenure, the sales tax in Arkansas was 37% higher than when he took office in 1996, and motor fuel and cigarette taxes were 16% and 103% higher respectively (Americans for Tax Reform, 01/07/07). It’s a sad day when a Democratic governor is more successful at cutting taxes in his first two months in office than a Republican governor was in ten years.”
