www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2006/09/september_s -
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Published on: 3/30/2008
Last Visited: 3/30/2008
"What happened was that a coterie of senators, lobbyists and lawyers close to Wilson nursed through legislation creating a pilot program providing legal representation for children in divorce custody cases.
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"Hutchinson comes to the debate with more reform credibility, frankly, since Beebe was in the Senate when legislators, influenced by Nick Wilson, wrested half the fund form the governor."
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1. Some Democratic legislative insiders cozy with Wilson, the official state rascal, got caught pushing through a measure they then abused to route absurdly lucrative contracts for representing children in chancery court custody cases to a pair of legislators, a lobbyist who formerly was Tucker's top aide and a former legislative staff lawyer.Beebe's best pal, Sen.
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Beebe voted to override after Wilson urged his Senate colleagues to join him in doing so.
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And then you might be so kind as to explain to us how you and Senator Wilson and assorted former allies of Jim Guy Tucker managed to feather the nests of pals to the tune of $750,000 by abusing a program designed for kids, for kids, even after I tried to do the right thing by vetoing this outrage."
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Nick Wilson of Pocahontas admits to knowing about the amendment, understanding it and supporting it.He can't recall if he actually was the one who proposed it at a Joint Budget meeting, but he owns up to having explained the rationale to his colleagues.
* Huckabee line-item vetoed the amendment establishing the priority funding for the Administrative Office of the Courts, saying it was bad policy.
* On the day the Legislature reassembled to override vetoes, it overrode with little notice the governor's line-item veto of the priority funding amendment for the administrative office.The effect was to protect priority funding for that $3 million from which the $750,000 flowed to legislative insiders.
Wilson told me Wednesday that without the amendment, the Finance and Administration Department could have funded only the ongoing programs of the court's administrative office and denied the children's legal aid program if money ran short.
"Hey, there was nothing secret about this program," Wilson said.
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Maybe Clint Reed can get these folks to put an ad about Nick Wilson on TV over here in NE AR. One of the fellows mixed up in all that mess was one Wayne Wagner, whose wife Charlotte is running for a representative seat long held by Republicans.
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