Mike Huckabee on Technology Republican AR Governor

Improved AR roads, via voter-approved tax increase

A: He made claims about things like tax increases, but he failed to mention that they were voted on by the people & approved by the people for roads. And I left my roads in great shape, took them from the worst in the country to what Truckers Magazine said were the most improved. He left his roads in a mess, with huge problems in the infrastructure. He claimed that he didn't raise taxes, but, in fact, he did raise taxes by half a billion dollars.

Q: As fees.

A: Yes, fees. It's a tax. If you're a small business person and you pay more money than you paid last year to the government, you can call it a fee, call it a tax, it's a three letter word that means the same.

Q: But you raised taxes.

A: Well, [we used revenue to] build highways that give you economic incentives and capacities that, frankly, created the lowest unemployment numbers that our state had over had over a sustained period of time. We saw more new jobs created.

We modernized Arkansas & made state accessible online

We went from a road system that was deemed the worst in the country, by Truckers Magazine, to the most improved. I changed the way to get a driver's license so that, instead of it taking seven hours, all day, it took four minutes on the Internet.

Brown University said we had done more in technology to make our state accessible online and to do more electronic services than any other state in the country.

So what we did, we modernized Arkansas. We rebuilt its education system. The things that were done were done to make government functional. People don't hate government. They just want it to work. And that's what we did in my state, and that's what I would do as president.

Air tech is Jetsons but air traffic control is Flintstones

A: Well, as president, that would be one of the first things I'd like to do, since I've spent most of my year on an airline this entire time. First of all, we've got to have the kind of technology on the ground that we have in the cockpit. We've got Jetsons-level technology that's running the cockpit; we have the Flintstones technology on the ground that's controlling the airplanes. And it's ridiculous. And the second thing, we've got an incredibly archaic method of the controls where you have incredible traffic coming in to key hubs. I don't want to re-regulate the industry, but the industry's going to have to start either getting in the program--and one thing they've got to stop doing is holding the passengers hostage on airplanes for hours and hours without any way of being able to get off those planes. And part of it, I think, is let's make sure that the consumer gets a voice in what happens. And it's got to be a priority.

No Fairness Doctrine: no equal time if morally objectionable

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: Yes.
• HUNTER: Yes.
• KEYES: Yes.

Apply broadcast indecency rules to cable networks

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: Yes.
• KEYES: Yes.

Spend on our infrastructure instead of other countries'

A: It's not necessary that we raise a tax. We're spending billions of dollars all around the world, but it may be time that we start spending some of those billions of dollars to deal with our own infrastructure. And it's our bridges, our interstates, our sewer and water treatment systems. They're crumbling. They're old. And we have to start addressing building this country, not everybody else's.

Cars' navigation systems are better than air traffic control

TV is like fire; pols must use it even though it can burn

One is not to be afraid. Whether you like it or not, the media provide the vehicle through which whatever you do or say is delivered to people. I had to accept the reality that Arkansans' perceptions of me and what I was doing came through the media.

Second, you must diversify your contacts with various types of media. Neither have one reporters or paper be your only contact. Do not become dependent on one medium. All are important. Now there are new technologies like the Internet.

If the medium for moving public policy is TV, then understand that TV is the field of play & learn to run on it. It does not mean you have to give up your intellect; it means you have to be able to demonstrate that intellect in the medium the public has chosen. If you cannot do that, you probably are not going to be successful in politics today.

More bible; less blogs; more music; less network TV

• Don't believe bad reports without documentation.
• Read the Bible more; blogs less.
• Read more from the "Features" page and less from the "Letters to theEditor."
• Listen to more music and less talk radio.
• Watch classic films made before 1968.
• Read biographies.
• Read magazines about your favorite hobbies.
• Have regular conversations with people very unlike you (race, religion, political party, ethnic background).
• Do volunteer work with the impoverished, disabled, or ill.
• Write letters of praise to total strangers you read about who do wonderful things.
• Practice what my philanthropist friend calls "Random Acts of Kindness."
• Watch TV Land and Nick @ Nit Source: From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p. 30 Jan 4, 2007

  Supports Internet sales tax

  Q: Should Internet sales be taxed?

  A: Yes.

  Q: Should Arkansas institute a state lottery?

  A: No.

  Q: Do you support eliminating the sales tax on food?

  A: Yes.

  Source: 2002 AR Gubernatorial National Political Awareness Test Nov 1, 2002

  Arkansas becoming a leader in e-government

  I got a phone call from former Gov. Pete Wilson of California. Pete Wilson is now in a global telecommunications and technology business. He said one of the things he does is evaluate states that are moving toward e-government. He said, “Mike, we have looked at all 50 states, and Arkansas is leading the nation in moving toward e-government. No state has quite moved forward as your state has in becoming a leader in bringing its state services on-line and using technology effectively for its taxpayers.” Source: State of the State address to the Arkansas legislature Jan 9, 2001

  Opposes public electronic voting; wouldn't focus on issues

  Television is a wonderful communications tool and will help to communicate issues to the voters, but it would be impossible to have an effective and fairly administered two-way communication system in which the public could vote electronically on major issues. In addition, issues might be decided on the basis of which groups could most effectively communicate by television, not which groups really presented the most convincing and/or constitutionally sound arguments. Source: Responses to Associated Press Questionnaire for AR Senate Nov 1, 1992

  Level playing field for Main Street vs. Internet sales tax.

  Huckabee adopted a letter to Congress from 44 Governors:

  The nation’s governors have a strong and unified message to Congress: deal fairly with Main Street retailers, consumers, and local governments. In a letter sent to all members of Congress late Friday, 44 governors said:

  If you care about a level playing field for Main Street retail businesses and local control of states, local governments, and schools, extend the moratorium on taxing Internet access ONLY with authorization for the states to streamline and simplify the existing sales tax system. To do otherwise perpetuates a fundamental inequity and ignores a growing problem.

  The current moratorium on Internet access taxes, like those consumers pay to Internet service providers, and multiple and discriminatory taxes is scheduled to expire in October. The moratorium does not apply to sales taxes.

  Currently, sales and use taxes are owed on all online transactions, but states are prohibited from requiring “remote sellers” to collect and remit those levies. A 1992 US Supreme Court decision said states can only require sellers that have a physical presence in the same state as the consumer to collect so-called use taxes. In instances when a seller does not have a physical presence, consumers are required to calculate and remit the taxes owed to their home states at the end of the year. The problem is most people are unaware that they’re supposed to pay, and states lack an effective enforcement mechanism. Online and catalog sellers, thereby, have a significant price advantage over Main Street businesses that must collect a sales tax on all transactions.

  The loophole creates serious budget problems for schools, states, and local governments. A study estimated that states could lose as much as $14 billion by 2004 if they are unable to collect existing taxes on Web-based sales. Nearly half of state revenues come from sales taxes.

  Source: NGA Press Release, "Level Playing Field" 01-NGA18 on Aug 20, 2001

  Permanent R&D tax incentive & more R&D funding.

  Huckabee sponsored the Southern Governors' Association resolution:

• Whereas, the federal government’s investment in research and development (R&D) has dropped from 70% of total, national R&D at the height of the “cold war” to merely 27% in 1999; and,
• Whereas, federal R&D spending has dropped from 1.5% of the Gross National Product (GDP) in 1987 to only 0.6% today; and,
• Whereas, industry-sponsored R&D has off-set this decline by merely growing from 1.5% of GDP in 1987 to 1.6% today; and,
• Whereas, federal leadership in technology transfer is of critical importance to the development and commercialization of established intellectual property; and,
• Whereas, broadband, high-speed Internet technology is an essential asset to support the New Economy and foster a climate to aid R&D efforts; and,
• Whereas, the advancement of digital government can foster supportive services important to research and development including cataloging of labor, statistics and venture capital, and further, can enhance citizen access and coordination of government information and services; now, therefore, be it
• Resolved, That the Southern Governors’ Association urges Congress and the Administration to:
  • Substantially increase all areas of research and development funding, and enact a permanent tax incentive for R&D and a tax election to exchange research-related benefits for a refundable tax credit;
  • Pass legislation to bolster federal technology transfer efforts, ensuring that a sense of urgency exists in tech transfer officers of government agencies;
  • Support legislation and regulations that will speed the deployment of broadband, high speed Internet networking throughout the nation; and,
  • Establish a federal chief information office within the Office of Management and Budget.