IN YOUR VIEW | Pay for Play?: Should Arkansas be paying state workers to receive vaccine?

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Thursday he will end the COVID-19 state of emergency at the end of the month.

The governor said people still need to take voluntary precautions and urged residents to be vaccinated against the virus.

As part of the vaccination effort, Hutchinson announced executive branch state employees - more than 25,000 overall - will be paid a $100 bonus to be vaccinated by July 1. The money will come from federal dollars distributed to the state through the American Rescue Plan.

The governor said he hoped private businesses would offer incentives for their employees to be vaccinated as well.

Arkansas has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the country and our own Miller County has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state, with just over 9% of residents having received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Which begs the question, if state employees are going to be paid for vaccinations, what about the rest of the state?

We want to know what you think. Is Gov. Hutchinson right to pay some state government employees to be vaccinated? Should the payment extend to all state residents?

Send your response (50 words maximum) to [email protected] or visit texarkanagazette.com/question by Wednesday, May 26. You can also mail your response to the Texarkana Gazette Friday Poll, at P.O. Box 621, Texarkana, TX 75504 or drop it off at our office, 101 E. Broad St, Texarkana, Ark. Be sure to include your name, address and phone number. We will print as many responses as we can in next Friday's paper.

Last Week: Discouraging Work?

Last week's question was about Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ending the $300 a week unemployment supplement. Is Gov. Hutchinson right to end the $300 weekly supplement to unemployment compensation? Or is the extra money still needed?

Yes, end it. - R.M., Texarkana, Texas

From facebook.com/txarkanagazette

End it. Get back to work, people.

Should have already ended!

Yes. End it! Folks need to go back to work.

End it! Make them work for it nothing is free!

Should of never started.

Yes without a doubt.

End it or include all the people struggling and continuing to work!

Yes absolutely he is right to end it.

People have had to many handouts. It's time to get off your butt and go to work.

End it. Make people go back to work!

There are jobs out there go fill out a application and go to work.

Yes because people need to get off their behinds and work just like everyone else. Too many places have hiring signs for people to draw unemployment.

They should have done that long time ago that's the reason people don't wanna work. Small business are going out of business cuz people don't wanna work.

Absolutely!

Yes.

What is the min. wages again in Texarkana?

End it. Make all these people go back to work.

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