The backlash in some Arkansas communities about data centers’ drain on their resources like electricity and water reflects just one element of the public’s worries about this technology
Secrecy may be standard operating procedure when it comes to economic development. But it makes for bad politics and potentially even worse policy, as the fight over data centers in Arkansas makes abundantly clear.
Arkansas Republicans pushing for tax cuts in recent years have portrayed Democrats as the Capitol’s version of Chicken Little, warning that the budgetary sky is falling any time there’s a reduction in revenue
Known in legislative jargon as “special language,” the strings lawmakers attach to budget bills used to be a dirty little secret of the Arkansas Legislature. They were a way to sneak major policy changes in without the public noticing.
