Gov. Asa Hutchinson has formed a 10-member Military Affairs Steering Committee in a public-private partnership to work on protecting and expanding the state's military installations and missions, Hutchinson said Monday.
The Republican governor said he's devoting $400,000 from his discretionary General Improvement Fund to establish the statewide initiative in the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and to fund an economic impact analysis.
"This is a world of defense budget shrinking right now and ... efficiencies are expected in our military installations, so the Department of Defense [officials] are looking at those states that are good partners," Hutchinson told a few hundred people in the Army Aviation Support Facility for the Arkansas National Guard at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock.
"If we are not a good partner and we are not supporting our military installations, that's a downgrade," he said. "We can be more competitive when [Arkansas] is in the arena supporting our military installations and having this type of initiative."
Brad Hegeman of Conway, president of Nabholz Construction Services, will chair the governor's Military Affairs Steering Committee.
Hutchinson said the initiative is the result of his discussion several months ago with Republican U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock, who told him the state needs to do more to support its military installations, and AEDC Executive Director Mike Preston's experience with military installations in Florida.
Hill attended the event. He said Hutchinson's initiative will help guide strategic planning for the state's military installations.
This initiative is important because "we are under unprecedented assaults on the size, force projections, strength and capability of our military" in the budget fights in Washington, he said.
"We'll take every step that we can to give our men and women the resources that it takes to carry out the mission to protect and defend this country," Hill said.
Hutchinson said there has been no statewide initiative or organization that has supported the state's military installations until now.
"My commitment to put $400,000 into the effort gives it the impetus to really be effective," he said.
"We don't know what recommendations the steering committee will come back with as to what the needs are there and we will develop the future budget based upon that. If we have to add additional funds, we'll take a look at that and see if we can scrape up the dollars to do it."
Hutchinson said the state's military installations collectively contribute more than $1 billion to the state's economy and are critical to the national defense. Little Rock Air Force Base has an $813 million local impact and is the state's fourth-largest employer, he said.
Preston said "we've got to use these [military installations] as economic development drivers." Business, state and military leaders and the state's congressional delegation need to work together to support the installations, he said.
Hutchinson said the steering committee's other members include Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, the former 2nd District congressman who serves in the U.S. Army Reserve; retired Maj. Gen. William Wofford as the representative of the adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard; Larry Wilson of the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council; Lou Ann Nisbitt of the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County; Tim Allen, president and chief executive officer for the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce; Jan Gattis Burd, vice president of commercial lending at First National Bank of Fort Smith; Danny Games, deputy director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission; Ken Griffin, military and veterans affairs liaison for Hutchinson; and Preston.
Metro on 09/22/2015