The Arkansas State Highway Commission is fighting a proposed constitutional amendment to require commissioners be elected, but Arkansas' senators in Washington think it’s a good idea.

According to the Associated Press, members of the state Highway Commission and several state legislators fear popular election would drag the commission deeper into politics. But opponents, including the Arkansas Trucking Association, want to make the commission accountable to the people. (See "Arkansas Truckers Want to Revamp Highway Commission," 10/18/2000.)
However, U.S. Senators from the state, Tim Hutchinson, a Republican, and Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat, released a combined statement earlier this week supporting the proposal, saying electing commissioners would make the group more accountable to the public it's supposed to serve.
The amendment would also increase the commission from five to eight members, reduce terms to four years instead of 10, and give the governor, not the commission, the responsibility of choosing its chairman.
Citizens for Safe and Efficient Highways, whose members include the Arkansas Trucking Association, proposed the changes and were quick to praise the senators' actions.
"These are the people responsible for bringing tax dollars back into the state. To have their support shows the credibility of this idea," spokesman Bill Vickery told the AP. "By allowing the public to have input, we would destroy the politics of the back room and make things more accountable."
Highway Commission chairman John Lipton said legislators 50 years ago wanted to remove politics from highway planning and funding, so they set up the current arrangement.
"They found the system had a way of patronage road building that we've been able to be divorced of," he said.
However, Hutchinson noted that, under the current system, members' terms are longer than any other state office, and they have sole discretion over huge amounts of money.
"It was established to insulate itself from political influence, but experience has been it may have been insulated from the influence of the governor, but it has not taken politics out of the expenditures of highway money,” he said. "It has really made it very tempting to not be responsive to the voters that drive the highways and pay the taxes."
"Arkansas taxpayers pay for our roads and bridges and they should have the opportunity to elect the people responsible for spending their money," Lincoln said in the statement.