Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson brought good news for the area when he visited Texarkana on Wednesday.
The governor was in town to speak at the Governor's Conference on Tourism that was held in the Twin Cities for the first time in its 41-year history.
At the conference, Hutchinson spoke of the importance of tourism to the state's economy, noting nearly 30 million people visited Arkansas last year, spending enough money to add nearly $350 million in tax revenue for the state.
That means a lot more money went into the packets of Arkansas businesses.
All that is well and good. But even better was the announcement that Arkansas would be contracting with Bowie County, Texas, to house prisoners in the Texarkana's Bowie County Correctional Center.
The state will send 288 convicts to the center. These will be minimum- and medium-risk prisoners already approved for parole. They cannot have a record for violence while incarcerated. This deal will mean money for the county as well as LaSalle Corrections, which manages the correctional center. And it will mean more than 20 new jobs at LaSalle because of the new prisoners.
That sounds like a win for everyone.
There are those who don't like the idea of the county profiting from out-of-state prisoners. And we understand that that income could dry up at any time so the county should not base its budget on such payments.
But right now the beds are there, Arkansas wants them and is willing to pay. That's a nice bonus all the way around.