Leadership is more than talking--it is listening to those you serve in order to know what is important to them and in what direction they want our state to go. For the second time in two years, I traveled to all 75 of Arkansas' counties to hear directly from you about the issues impacting your communities and what government needs to do better.
Rutledge Roundtables were launched in 2015 based on a lesson I learned in college, albeit not in the classroom, but rather during those sweltering summers in Independence County flagging traffic for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. I saw firsthand that there can be a disconnect between people in the office and the men and women out on the road.
As attorney general, I do not want there to be a disconnect between Arkansans and those of us who work in the capital city. Face-to-face conversations with elected officials are important whether you live in Little Rock, Bella Vista, Jonesboro, Texarkana or Lake Village.
Over the course of 2016, I held Rutledge Regulatory Roundtables and met with nearly 700 small-business owners, manufacturing workers and other industry leaders, including more than 375 farmers who took time out of their harvest season--leaving their tractors and combines in the fields--to meet me and share their concerns about the agriculture industry, which is so critical to our state's economy.
What did I learn from listening? Arkansans are not anti-regulation, but we want common-sense regulations based on science and data and not on politics. Arkansans want solutions to the actual problems and not "solutions" created by bored or overzealous bureaucrats in Little Rock or Washington, D.C., looking for non-existent problems.
Most people want to know how various federal and state regulations, as well as decisions by the courts, will impact their business or job, and as a result, and most importantly, their family. Whether I am talking to the mayor of Corning or a farmer from Humphrey, I may come away from each encounter with a different perspective of an issue, but I also hear common threads of concerns across the state.
It was abundantly clear how concerned Arkansans were--especially small-business owners and nonprofits--about the U.S. Department of Labor's Overtime Rule, which was scheduled to take effect Dec. 1, and would have set a national one-size-fits-all model by doubling the minimum salary overtime threshold for public and private workers.
As a result, I joined a coalition of 21 states, filing a lawsuit challenging the overtime rule, and last month a federal judge granted our request for an injunction, protecting countless Arkansans from increased costs and forced layoffs right before the holidays.
Farmers and ranchers consistently raised concerns over the proposed federal rules that broadly expand the definition of "critical habitats" for endangered and threatened species. The new rules effectively declare that any area currently unoccupied by an endangered species but may potentially host an endangered species could be classified as a critical habitat subject to stringent regulations--essentially allowing the federal government to prevent activities it deems could adversely affect habitat features that do not even exist.
Such an overreach would not only hurt our farmers and ranchers, but anyone who owned land could be subjected to the stranglehold of the federal government. Leading the charge against this action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, I formed a coalition of 18 states, and we filed a lawsuit challenging this dramatic federal expansion over land rights. Like the dozens of Arkansans that voiced concerns to me about these rules, I want our endangered species protected, but this proposal would mire wide swaths of land in bureaucratic red tape under a false notion.
Listening is only half of the equation--I need to hear from you. Your ideas are not only important to me, but they are important to your family, friends and neighbors across the entire state.
It takes all of us working together, and I am committed to working with you and for you.
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Leslie Rutledge is the 56th attorney general of Arkansas, the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected to the office.
Editorial on 12/26/2016