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During what can generously be described as a discouraging year for the image of Arkansas legislators, the president-elect of the state Senate has taken a praiseworthy step toward transparency and accountability. More than eight years after the state House of Representatives began live-streaming its meetings, Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, wants the upper chamber to finally do the same.
Hendren, currently the Senate majority leader, will assume the job of president pro tempore of the Senate in January, when the 92nd General Assembly convenes.
And if he has his way, Arkansans will be able to watch their state senators in action, both in the Senate chambers and in committee meetings, without making the trek to the Capitol and searching desperately for a place to park.
There was a time when this sort of access was cutting-edge. Nowadays, refusing to point a webcam at a legislative proceeding is inexcusable. It can’t even be explained as mere tradition, like the coat-and-tie dress code in the House of Representatives. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, using research by the National Conference of State Legislatures, noted that the Arkansas Senate is already one of only eight state senates that aren’t already providing this service to constituents. (Audio has been available, but our experience suggests that’s almost worse than no online access at all. It’s not like listening to a ballgame.)
To do live-streaming right will not be inexpensive — Hendren is expecting to spend about $1 million to change the Senate’s culture to something “we can be proud of.”
We assume he knows that live-streaming alone isn’t enough to restore the public’s faith entirely, but it is a step in the right direction. And since a couple of nonprofits that engaged in paying kickbacks to legislators were worth more than $1 million in taxpayer dollars, restoring public trust is not going to be cheap.
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