87th General Assembly - Fiscal Session 2010
The Fiscal Session of the 87th General Assembly convened on Monday, February 8, 2010, at 12:00 Noon and recessed on Thursday, February 25, 2010 sine die March 4, 2010. See reports below for weekly session updates.
Weekly Update
87 th General Assembly
** ArAA Bill Tracker - BILL STATUS REPORT **
Weekly Session Reports
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Welcome from DBH Management Consultants
January 28, 2010
Weekly Arkansas Legislative Update
Bruce Hawkins Camie Boggess Amy Hockle
501.208.2300 501.755.6666 870.926.4988
dbhawkins@suddenlinkmail.com camie@boggessconsulting.com amyhockle@hotmail.com
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WEEK 1
February 12, 2010
The first week of the Fiscal Session provided very little in the way of surprises, other than the weather. Most members arrived in Little Rock Sunday night, and DBH was happy to have been asked to host the Session Opening Reception (aka the Super Bowl Party) at Capitol Hill. With close to 100 in attendance, members had a chance to catch up, eat, visit, watch the game and discuss thoughts on this first Fiscal Session. As the snow began to fall Monday, members only had to walk across the street!
The Joint Budget Committee, the Lottery Oversight Committee and the Special Language Sub-committee of Budget were the only committees to meet this week. In addition to the opening Joint Session, the House met in general session each day as did the Senate, except for Tuesday, when their calendar was empty, waiting on actions by the House.
By the end of the short week (during the Fiscal Session, the plan is to only meet Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of each week) the only real debate took place in two fairly heated Lottery Oversight Committee hearings. On Wednesday, the committee heard debate on the issue of granting a request to give the Lottery Commission police powers. A vote was taken to include this in the Omnibus Lottery bill, on a close vote, the Chair ruled passage. The committee met again on Thursday to consider a request from Senator Joyce Elliott to remove the additional requirements currently in statute for students graduating from schools with grade inflation designation. At the end of a lengthy debate which had the Governor’s office, the Department of Education and the Department of Higher Education all voicing opposition, Speaker Robbie Wills and Senator Mary Ann Salmon, sponsors of the Omnibus bill, agreed to take time over the weekend to work with all parties to see if a compromise could be reached. Additionally, Budget Chairman, Rep. Bruce Maloch made a motion to rescind the vote to include the police powers provision in the Omnibus bill. The committee passed this motion.
The reason for so much debate on these two issues is due to several factors, but the primary one is there is agreement that since the Lottery issues being included in the Omnibus bill are not of a Fiscal nature, a 3/4s majority will have to be reached in both houses to consider the bill. Neither of these issues have the full support of the bodies, and will therefore make the bill controversial, and thus jeopardize its passage. Since this is the bill that will contain the amounts of the Lottery Scholarships, members are not willing to do anything to risk defeat.
One issue of special note to the ArAA is the fact that our fine fund appropriation from the Treasurers office, HB 1113, passed out of Joint Budget and has been placed on the House Calendar. We are also watching the Department of Health budget for the Trauma money. This bill has not yet been finalized, but we expect it to be ready next week. If any additional resolutions are filed that we feel may impact you, we will get them to you immediately. We appreciate the continued faith and confidence that you place in DBH by allowing us to be your face here at the Capital. As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
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WEEK 2
February 19, 2010
Week two of the first Fiscal Session came to a close yesterday following a meeting of the Joint Budget Committee upon adjournment of both houses. Joint Budget will meet again Monday at 1:30, just prior to both the House and Senate convening at 2:30. We told you at the beginning of this session that the full houses would only be meeting on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; the exception is being made this week for two reasons. First, Monday is the last day to file bills, so both the House and Senate must be in session for bills to be read across the desks. Secondly, the leadership still believes that this session could be over by the end of next week!
The Revenue Stabilization Act (RSA) amendment to HB 1159 was passed out to the Budget Committee on Tuesday. After a bit of minor adjusting, HB 1159 was amended in Committee and passed out on Thursday. After a visit with Budget Co-chairman, Rep. Bruce Maloch last night, it is my understanding the RSA will be one of, if not the last bills voted on by the full houses. He is hopeful that could happen next Thursday and Friday. Many of the budgets for the Departments of Health, Human Services and a few of the institutions of Higher Education remain in the Joint Budget Committee awaiting action. These will of course be dealt with before the RSA is passed!
As you may have read in the papers, there has been quiet a bit of discussion about the Medicaid Trust Fund and the anticipated shortfalls in revenue in the next couple of years. There was lengthy questioning of Director John Selig this week by several members of the Joint Budget Committee who had learned of a meeting of “all” Medicaid Stakeholders and the new Medicaid Director, a meeting that no members of the General Assembly were invited to, or made aware of, which did not go over too well! One of the last on record comments before committee adjournment Thursday was an announcement from Rep. Gregg Reep that there would be a special meeting of the Public Health Committee on Tuesday to hear from the new Medicaid Director, and that he, Rep. Reep would be introducing Special Language on Monday dealing with this situation. It is clear that this is not language the department has been working on, rather language that Rep. Reep and few other legislators have been working on. This could provide for some interesting, if not tense debate next week!
Our fines fund appropriation has now passed through both houses, been enrolled, and was sent to the Governor’s office for signature yesterday afternoon.
While things have gone pretty smoothly so far, by the meeting of Joint Budget upon adjournment yesterday you began to get a sense that there are a number of issues brewing just below the surface. We at DBH are hopeful that Chairman Maloch is correct and this session will adjourn next week!
We appreciate the continued faith and confidence that you place in DBH by allowing us to be your face here at the Capital. As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
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WEEK 3
The first Constructional mandated Fiscal Session of the Arkansas General Assembly recessed on Thursday, with sine die adjournment scheduled for noon on Thursday, March 4th. The session was well short of the scheduled 30 days, something both lawmakers and the Governor worked very hard to accomplish.
With the exception of the bills filed for the Lottery and a few truly technical corrections from the last session, all of the bills considered and passed fit the criteria defined for a Fiscal Session. The only real surprises or controversies came as members made decisions on where some of the funding would come from. The issue was dealing with the Governor’s plan to borrow some funds from the General Improvement dollars and then pay them back. The Governor has now signed all bills except SB 130, which contains the Secretary of State’s budget for the upcoming reapportionment; rather than these funds coming from the GIF, members voted to get these funds from the Central Services fund. If the Governor vetoes the bill, members will have the opportunity to override that veto when they return for sine die adjournment.
Immediately following sine die, the House is scheduled to meet in caucus in the chambers to elect the Speaker of the House for the 2011 Regular Session. As you know, most Committee Chairmen are appointed by the Speaker, as are the members of the House Select Committees and the House members to Joint Committees. The candidates are Rep. Robert Moore and Rep. Johnnie Roebuck. As we are not ever involved in this race, we can only tell you from members we have spoken with, it appears that Mr. Moore will likely be the next Speaker.
There were some sad moments as we watched a number of long serving legislators cleaning out their desks last week. There were also a few humorous moments as Senator Terry Smith read a narrative he had written, giving the history of the General Improvement Fund, the roll that Governor Beebe played in that history when he was in the Senate, contrasted with the stance he has taken now that he is Governor. It was all done in fun, and it is my understanding the Governor asked for a copy!
Today begins the candidate filing period, and this year stands to be a very interesting year to watch. As we have discussed before, there will be a huge turnover in the House and the Senate; and now with three of our four Congressional races lacking incumbents, this election cycle appears to be like no other we have ever had. It is also our understanding that Lt. Gov. Halter will challenge Senator Lincoln. DBH will send out a report once this week’s filing period is over and we have had a chance to review the candidates who actually filed. Additionally, we will be asking for your thoughts and knowledge concerning races in your area.
We are also expecting the rules for AEDs in schools to be released from the Arkansas Department of Education in the coming weeks, we will get that information out to you in case there are comments that you think need to be made prior to adoption.
Thank you for your continued faith in us, we feel honored to work for you!
RECESSED Thursday, February 25, 2010 sine die March 4, 2010
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WEEK 4
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WEEK 5
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WEEK 6
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WEEK 7
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WEEK 8
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WEEK 9
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WEEK 10
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WEEK 11
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