King speaks out on mega prison, wind farm, and Buffalo River
“I love my rural district,” Bryan King said while taking a break from working his farm near Green Forest. “It’s big, and I have a lot of things going on. But on the other hand, it’s all good people.”
Arkansas State Sen. Bryan King (R) represents the six counties in District 28, including all of Carroll, all of Madison (second fastest growing county in the state), most of Boone, most of Newton, and the top part of Franklin and Johnson.
Senator King is a self-described Libertarian who believes in individual freedoms and local control. No matter what side of the aisle, it’s hard not to respect how he’s fought to defend our natural environment and stood with his constituents to preserve their way of life. “The people of my district pay my salary,” he said. “They deserve for me to be honest with them.”
The biggest issue on Senator King’s mind right now is what he refers to as the “Mega Prison Scam.”
“I call it a scam, what they are trying to do in Franklin County,” he said. “In our system today, it doesn’t matter if it’s somebody I agree with or votes with me or not. You shouldn’t have a thing with the governor calling up and saying, ‘Oh, by the way, you’re going to get a new three-thousand bed prison, and you are going to like it, it’s good for you.’
“This prison is estimated to cost $825 million to build. People need to know that even though this is in Franklin County, it is going to affect every county.”
There are 75 counties in Arkansas, but two out of three inmates come from eight counties, and four of those contribute half of the state’s total inmate population.
King moved on into his view of Runway Group LLC, owned by Tom and Steuart Walton, lobbying to strip the Buffalo of its National River designation, and redesignate it as a national park and preserve. King presided over a town hall in a Jasper school cafeteria a year-and-a-half ago. The town hall was organized by Remnants Project, and 1000 local residents showed up to get information.
Bryan Sanders, husband of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, heads the Natural State Advisory Committee. The Waltons were scheduled to attend but did not show. Tom Walton is also on the NSAC.
“My thing with the Natural State Advisory Committee is, are they qualified?” King asked. “The number one thing about that committee is they’re deciding a lot of things and not being transparent. I’ve invited them to have meetings up here, where tourism is certainly one of the pillars of the economy. And we’ve had nothing. You can’t spend taxpayers’ money, advocate taxpayer money or use taxpayer money and have no accountability or transparency about what you’re doing. Or accessibility to the people you impact. That is the biggest issue with all that.
“When the Buffalo River was nationalized in 1972, it was the first national river. It’s still undammed. My thing was whatever was decided about the Buffalo River, the people that I represent, who pay my salary, should have a seat at the table. I mean, they shouldn’t have to just wake up and be told, ‘Oh by the way, we’re changing this.’”
Senator King also supported the moratorium on windmills in Carroll County, even though he sympathized with both sides of that argument. His brother, Jerry King, is a justice of the peace on the Quorum Court. Before Bryan King made his decision, he spoke with many locals.
“It’s been a hard issue,” Bryan King said. “In some ways it’s property rights where people can erect these things and some of those people up there are farmers who are struggling to make a living in these tough times. I attended a few energy meetings, and our overall energy supply is critical. We have these data processing centers for phones, computers and clouds. I just don’t think wind and solar are going to keep up. But the biggest reason is we don’t know what we don’t know yet.
“You can’t impact the ones who have already signed up. I did support a moratorium because we do need to know what is really going to happen with these things. I hear from residents that these blades last five to ten years, but the wind turbine people tell me they will last twenty to twenty-five years. I hear one side say that these will not generate twenty percent of the time and aren’t economical, and the only reason people are involved with these things is the heavy tax credits coming out of D.C.”
Out of the six counties in Senator King’s District, four have moratoriums on windmills.
We talked about how neither the JFK Democratic Party nor the Teddy Roosevelt Progressive Republican are the parties that exist today. King said an old-timer recently said told him, “You’re pretty much the same person you were when you went into office almost twenty years ago, it’s all these other things that have changed.”
Bryan admits there is corruption on both sides of the aisle. “Bad Republicans now have gotten to where they are controlling and manipulating now that they are in power. All because some special interest can buy off eleven people on a House committee, fifty-one on the House floor, five in a Senate committee, eighteen on the Senate floor and a governor. And that just destroys it. Reagan said the best government is closest to the people. Local control, for the most part, has been my path. It was my path when I went in, and it still is today.” King served in the Arkansas House from 2007-2013.
“I believe in local control, for the most part,” he said. “Look at the short-term rental issue in Eureka and Berryville. Even if I disagree with it, I believe the city of Eureka Springs should have the ability to make the decisions for their own town.
“I’m not saying I’ve gotten every decision right. And I’m not saying that I’ve agreed with every decision. But I’ve always been accountable. I’ve always come to Eureka. I always face the people. A lot of times politicians don’t want to have town halls because it can turn into a spectacle. “
“I need to have a town hall meeting in Eureka and talk about different issues. I am traditional in my views and that puts it in difficult situations. But on the other hand, we have to figure out what is the overall goal. Like the short-term rental issue. That’s regulating small towns. That’s what the people of Eureka, their government, are there for, to be heard. Rather than me trying to dictate that issue in Little Rock.”
Bryan King can be reached at (501) 682-5452 or at Bryan.king@senate.ar.gov.