From The DOG (Democrat-Gazette)

This information was taken from a column in today's Democrat-Gazette by Meredith Oakley.

The Arkansas Legislature has met every two years for 172 years. This year, for some unknown reason, the voters, who always, almost to a man, vote "no" to change, decided it would be a good idea for the Lege to meet every year. This is such a bad idea, on many levels.

First crack out of the box, they declare their offices inferior. The Senators don't much like having to share with other Senators, and members of the House don't much like not having offices at all.

They are planning to use $6 Million of what I assume are stimulus dollars to renovate offices at the Multi-Agency Complex, called Big MAC. Also, 135 lawmakers will be housed at the new Arkansas General Assembly Suites and Business Accommodation Grounds - or, A-GASSBAG. Really. I'm not making this up.

Then, someone got the bright idea to use $3.5 Million of the $6 Million to build a tunnel (or, skybridge) linking the state Capitol with Big Mac.

Justification for the expenditure is the huge amount of paperwork, files, etc., that have to be schlepped across the street, from their offices to the Capitol. Here's where Meredith comes in. She wryly suggested that "they don't realize that today's computers and printers can comunicate across vast oceans, so communicating across a narrow street and a narrower drive-thru should be a snap."

Governor Mike Beebe has weighed in with an even better solution - umbrellas. Our governor is nothing if not practical. We'll see who wins this argument. My money's on Mike.

Stay tuned.