Duplicity of the Day

There was a tie on this one. Both the lead editorial in the Northwest Arkansas Times and an opinion column by its Executive Editor Greg Harton wax whiningly today about the demise of Brandon Barber's planned Divinity hotel and condo project.

These opinionators at the Northwest Arkansas Times take aim at the opponents of the Divinity debacle and blame them for undermining growth and the city's revenues . Harton harps on money lost for public schools, and the unsigned editorial gigs the aginners by suggesting they killed sales tax revenue for the trails system. The learned writers overlook a much more obvious source of sales tax revenue to help the City build trails or save urban green space or whatever, one that doesn't require ugly buildings or even hotels with minimum wage jobs.

If these scribbling servants of the developers really care about increasing the available sales tax revenues, then why don't they advocate repeal of the loopholes for special interests in the state tax code -- starting with repeal of the sales tax exemption on newspaper advertising -- so everyone will pay their fair share to support public schools, fund the public library, build the trail system, cover Mayor Coody's $60 million cost overrun on the sewer plant, and pay Ray Boudreaux's salary for whatever it is he does? If they don't, according to their own logic, they must be against growth and good schools.