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Video: Asa Hutchinson Talks Tax Cut, Marijuana, Trump

2 min read

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday spent some time with reporters reacting to Tuesday’s election results, talking through elements of his $50 million tax plan and outlining the implementation of Issue 3, the medical marijuana act.

First, Hutchinson said he’s asking lawmakers to approve spending $3 million from the state rainy day fund to jumpstart the process of getting the marijuana measure in place. Finance officials say the state Department of Finance & Administration will receive $525,000 and the state Department of Health will receive about $2.5 million. 

More: You can see DF&A’s analysis on how it will implement the plan here.

Even though he campaigned against it, Hutchinson said the people of Arkansas voted for medical marijuana, and he plans to implement it accordingly.

Hutchinson also said he was surprised by Donald Trump’s win — he’d suspected FBI Director James Comey’s Sunday statement about Clinton’s emails had given the Democrat fresh momentum.

And he said that the new administration could give states like Arkansas more latitude in implementing health care reforms under the “Arkansas Works” program. He said that, under a new Trump administration, Arkansas could go back to the federal government and seek waivers it had been previously unable to get from the Obama administration. 

The governor also said he would not be interested in joining the Trump administration. Earlier in the day, the Wall Street Journal reported that the governor was on the Trump team’s short lift for attorney general.

You can watch Hutchinson’s complete news conference here:

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