As I watched the livestream of yesterday's House proceedings, where state representatives voted to pass three tax cut bills, I couldn't shake the feeling that history, of a sort, was being made.

All three of the bills passed by the House -- HB1002, HB1052, and HB1056 -- were opposed by Governor Mike Beebe. He didn't just voice disapproval of them. He sent the highest-ranking officials of the Department of Finance and Administration to oppose the bills in committee. He took advantage of the state capitol's "Razorback Day" to talk about how the tax cuts, if passed, could cause college tuition rates to rise this fall. He even sent higher education officials into the halls of the House to personally lobby their representatives against the tax cuts.

And the House still approved all three of the bills, two by overwhelming margins. The third and most controversial -- eliminating the capital gains tax -- survived a procedural tactic designed to delay and eventually kill it, and then the House voted 53-43-1 to approve the bill.

That never would have happened in the previous legislative sessions during Beebe's time as governor. Let me repeat that: It never would have happened during Mike Beebe's first term in office.

In April of last year, in the first issue of our magazine, we hosted an op-ed with the provocative title of "Arkansas' Iron Curtain." The article argued that during his time in office, Governor Beebe has consistently worked to stamp out tax relief proposals:

The [Senate and House Committees on Revenue and Taxation have] been the graveyard for many tax relief measures, and according to one legislator, this bill massacre has been caused by the controlling influence by Governor Mike Beebe. "Nobody wants to be on those committees," the legislator says. "There is no freedom. You do what you're told or else you're marginalized. It's the governor's iron curtain."

You may quibble with the term "iron curtain," but after yesterday, you can't argue that Beebe doesn't try to strong-arm the legislature. He and his spokesman as much as admitted it in remarks to the media, after the House voted.

Of course, to say that Beebe is against tax cuts in general is simply not true. He has engineered two cuts in the sales tax on groceries -- from 6% to 3% in 2007, and from 3% to 2% in 2009. He has proposed taking it from 2% to 1.5% this year and has pledged to eliminate it completely before he leaves office.

Beebe also said that of the three bills the House passed against his will yesterday, he liked two of them -- the proposals to cut the manufacturers' utility tax by one-half percent, and to provide income tax relief for heads of households. In a different year, he said, with a better economic climate, he would support those proposals.

The question is up for debate, though: Why do we need a better year? As House Minority Leader John Burris (R-Harrison) pointed out yesterday, the combined $60+ million price tag accrued by these three bills still falls well short of the growth in state revenues that Beebe has projected for this year's budget. In other words, the state wouldn't have to cut any of its current spending in order to make room for these tax cuts. Arkansas could afford these bills if it kept spending at a flat level.

It has already become clear that this legislative session features two opposing philosophies on the state budget: Beebe's (supported by most Democrats), and the Republicans' (supported by a few conservative Democrats). Beebe's philosophy is that the state budget can afford neither tax cuts nor spending cuts. He has (legitimately) challenged all who propose tax cuts to show where state revenue should be cut in order to make room for the tax cut.

The Republicans' philosophy, meanwhile, is that enough spending cuts can be found to make room for some tax cuts. They already won a minor victory in spending earlier this session, when they eliminated cost-of-living pay raises for judges and prosecutors. The cost-of-living raises for all bureaucratic-level state employees are still on the table, and it's likely that all but the low-income earners will go without raises, thanks to the Republicans' vigilance.

Beebe has earned a reputation for fiscal responsibility, but the Republicans have shown thus far that they have more imagination than he does in figuring out how to cut the state budget. Can they move past state employees' salaries and find a more substantial area for cuts? We'll see. If they can, they have the chance to steal Beebe's conservative thunder and display their own commitment to smaller government.

Even if they can't do that, though, they have already shown that they have the muscle to pass tax cuts against Beebe's opposition. They've ripped open Arkansas' iron curtain and ushered in a new era in state government.

Photo credit: KFFB.