Dear editor:
There are a number of great nonprofit organizations in Hot Springs and Garland County: The Hot Springs Boys & Girls Club, United Way, Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Jackson House, the list goes on and on. While you may give or choose not to give, the important thing is the choice is yours.
There is one nonprofit you may not realize you give to every day, whether you like it or not. And that is The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce. Yes, whether you agree with the usefulness of the chamber or their politics (which basically is endorsing every new tax that comes down the pike), you give them your money.
Don't believe it? You should have read the March 12 edition of this paper. Your Hot Springs Board of Directors approved a $100,000 contract/payment to the Hot Springs Metro Partnership, which will then simply pass all or the bulk of the money the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce because of Amendment 3, which was passed by voters last year.
A Pulaski County court had previously ruled that such transactions prohibited local governments from contributing monies to organizations such as the chamber. In an end run, what cities did was simply establish organizations such as the Hot Springs Metro Partnership to simply pass the funds from one hand to another. Kind of like money laundering, but it's now legal.
And of course the chamber, in a twist that's beyond hypocritical, spent tax dollars advocating and advertising the passage of the law.
There's nothing anyone can do about it, but it should irk each and every citizen of Hot Springs that they are paying for the Chamber of Commerce, whether they wish to pay dues and join it or not. There's a lot of people getting a free ride by subsidizing an organization that I can't see does anything for the average Hot Springs citizen.
It's a sign of the times, however, on Convention Boulevard: If the last year has taught the common resident of the Spa anything, it's that there are a handful of power brokers in this city, and they don't care about the voices or wishes of us lowly residents who are apparently just supposed to live here, accept it and shut up.
Casey Alexander
Hot Springs
Editorial on 03/25/2017