Griffin visits area to discuss economy

— The Golden Triangle Small Business Listening Session with Lt. Governor Tim Griffin was held Friday at the Ouachita Partnership for Economic Development building, and Griffin shared his ideas about how to improve the state of Arkansas for small businesess, and to discuss other various logistics.

OPED Executive Director James Lee Silliman explained the reason for the meeting and introduced the members who attended.

Sylvester Smith, an NFIB associate who moderated the meeting, introduced Griffin and expounded more on the purpose of the meeting. Smith, originally a Camden native, expressed his appreciation for those involved in setting up the meeting. A few jokes were thrown as Griffin is incapable of partaking in anything provided by AT&T as they hire lobbyists.

“It’s a really dumb law by the way,” Griffin commented amidst laughter.

Mike Dumas of the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce explained what the Golden Triangle iss about, and the entities involved. The Golden Triangle’s purpose is to bring the surrounding four counties - Union, Columbia, Ouachita, and Calhoun - together for economic development. The members meet on a quarterly bases, with representatives from all four counties included.

Ouachita County Judge Robbie McAdoo and Camden Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Beth Osteen both expressed gratitude to those in attendence, and to Griffin for taking the time to hear from the businesses involved.

Griffin was then to speak, however, instead of taking all his time to push his agenda, he asked to hear from those in the room about current issues that concern them.

“I think it’s important to focus on conversation," Griffin said. "I’ve been to all 75 counties - many of them tons of times - and I’ve got some ideas. But I want to save mine until I hear from you all.”

Griffin answered questions pertaining to taxes, reformation, and uneccessary spending in the state of Arkansas.

Griffin then stood and addressed his own agenda: “Bold Innovative Reform.”

He said that his stance is: "We’re taxed too much for everything.

“Literally every single thing you do is taxed… Why do we tax so much at the state level? Well, we’re funding something… Our government is always looking for new ways to fund themselves.”

Griffin continued to talk about agencie, and how they are forced to follow laws set up by legeslation decades ago.

“We have to start with a blank piece of paper… from the ground up," he stated. "The situation we’re in is no one person’s fault - it’s years and years of legislature trying to reform a system that’s already been in place.”

Griffin explained that, if you paid someone to come in and reform your faulty business system, they wouldn’t try and start with the system that was already having issues. They would start new. Griffin explained this is what needs to happen to our state’s tax system.

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