Sen. Bryan King said Monday he was very disappointed that the Arkansas Senate City, County & Local Affairs Committee refused on March 21 to allow an amended bill out of committee that would have allowed public water districts that have not begun fluoridation to opt out of it as mandated by the legislature.
“After the initial bill did not pass, I amended the bill just to apply to those water districts that have not fluoridated,” King said. “Unfortunately, that could not pass the committee. It’s a shame that people can’t decide for themselves what is put into their water.”
The two districts that have refused to fluoridate, Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority and the Madison County Regional Water District, are now left with continuing lawsuits filed by the state to force them to fluoridate. The two holdouts on fluoridation have opposed it because of concerns that fluoride is harmful, that fluoridation chemicals contain harmful byproducts such as lead and aluminum, and that fluoridation chemicals are so corrosive they can reduce the life of the water delivery system by 40 percent while increasing lead leaching from old pipes.
The Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) has opposed local control stating the fluoridation is safe and helps protect the teeth of young children. A representative of Delta Dental, a dental insurance company, testified against King’s bill stating that they had invested $7 million in helping local districts purchase fluoridation equipment. Districts are required to pay back pro-rated portions of that grant money if they end fluoridation before 10 years.
There will be no more opportunities to remove the fluoride mandate for another two years as the legislative session is nearing the end, and the legislature has a fiscal-only session every other year.
Jeannie Burlsworth, founder and chairwoman of Secure Arkansas, said the failure of the committee to pass Act 299 out of committee was a hurtful and disappointing slap in the face.
“The local control bill is dead, and the bill will not be brought back this session,” Burlsworth said. “Most of the Senate is as corrupt as it can be, and we have never been through such high-handed tactics in a session. The public cannot trust their health and welfare to the current government. Local control is off limits to the public. We have been denied once again. The public will not be allowed to decide what we have in our drinking water. We won’t even be allowed to hold an election regarding the matter. The legislators against local control are against the people and need to be retired at the next election.”
Alderman David Mitchell traveled to Little Rock earlier in March to testify for local control, but was not allowed to speak. Mitchell said it was apparent from watching the Delta Dental CEO and the ADH medical director hanging out with senators prior to the meeting that the decision against local control had been made prior to the hearing.
“It was very obvious it was not going to pass,” he said. “It was apparent that the outcome was pre-determined.”
Mitchell was signed up to speak third, and was skipped over while others were allowed to speak before the vote was called.
Committee members who voted against the amended Act 299 include Sen. Jim Hendren, Gravette; Sen. Will Bond, Little Rock; Sen. Stephanie Flowers, Pine Bluff; and Sen. Lance Eads, Springdale. Voting in favor of the bill were Sen. Alan Clark, Lonsdale, and Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, Pocahontas.
Sen. Hendren, who is the nephew of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, voted against local control even though it was requested by the mayor of the Gravette, where Hendren lives.
“I strongly urge you to return to us the rights to which we – until recently – enjoyed regarding fluoride, which is to determine among ourselves and for ourselves the level of fluoride we deem safe in our water systems,” Gravette Mayor Kurt Maddox wrote in a letter he asked to be communicated to committee members.
Burlsworth said for legislators who give lip service to local control to vote against it isn’t hard to understand when you look at their campaign finance contributions. In 2016, Sen. Flowers received $1,000 from the Arkansas Dental Political Action Committee and $2,500 from the Delta Dental PAC. Flowers is also a member of the Senate Public Health Committee that originally approved the fluoride mandate and that also voted against local control two years ago.
King said he introduced the bill in the Senate City, County & Local Affairs Committee because he knew he didn’t have the votes in the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee. Members of that committee received large campaign donations from dental groups.
For 2016, Sen. Eads received $750 from the Arkansas Delta PAC.
Burlsworth said that the dental PACs dish out tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions particularly favoring members of Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee.
Ed Choate, the CEO of Delta Dental, who testified against the local control bill, earns more than $500,000 per year, according to IRS records. Burlsworth said it is outrageous that the CEO of a non-profit organization would make that much money.
Burlsworth said this has been one of the most hideous legislative sessions that anyone can remember in Little Rock. Other issues of concern including legislation to gut the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, and legislation proposed to convene a Constitutional Convention. Burlsworth said Rep. Bob Ballinger [R-Hindsville] is one of the chief promoters of those two proposed bills.
“Ballinger is behind all of this bad legislation,” Burlsworth said. “A Constitutional Convention could open up Americans to lose all the rights they currently enjoy.”
It takes 34 states to call a Constitutional Convention. Burlsworth said billionaire funders such as the Koch brothers are behind promoting the Constitutional Convention to further their private interests. Proponents of the Constitutional Convention are going to pastors asking them to support the Constitutional Convention in order to outlaw gay marriage and abortion. But Burlsworth said the real intention of a Constitutional Convention is to make changes to allow billionaires to rule the country.
“When they take away the Constitutional and rewrite it, we will lose the many liberties that have been the foundation of this country,” Burlsworth said. “For more than two hundred years, we have never done anything like this in the U.S. It is a very dangerous thing to do.”