Senator Bryan King

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:16:34)

control of spending a bunch of these political appointees that's getting paid the job that the real people are actually doing the job not these political appointees and get serious about these high-paying jobs and start we are financially next year right now revenue spending wise i don't see how we keep up and we're headed to the red unless the economy turns around which i

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:16:04)

172. There is some serious problems going on with this. There is a reason why in Arkansas in 2015, there's a study I'll show with you. We spend more per capita than the rest of the states around us, meaning we're the most wasteful spending government around us in the surrounding states. Florida is like $3,000 or $4,000 less per capita than we are, if you really want to look at that. but in 2015 three people made over two hundred thousand dollars now it's 172 if we don't get

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:15:29)

And as I mentioned, the ProFury thing is costing us $40, $50 million more and paying him a quarter of a million dollars a year. But in 2015, folks, three people made over $200,000. Now, I'm not talking to the people down here that do the job out in the field and everything like that, that deserve raises, the prison guards, the nurses, all those. Representative Mayberry's got a nurse's bill that I'm for, spending more money on. 2015, there were three people making over $200,000. You know what that figure today is in 2025?

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:14:57)

In 2025, 854. If you want to look at this figure right here, and you're looking at core state government and spending money, and once again, we are spending money, whatever you want to be. Learns, whatever, spending money, correction, spending money. Our revenues are going down. DFA predicts next year that I think is concerning, and I'm a farmer and pessimist, that revenues are going to get back to normal, which I don't know in this world today. We really don't know what normal is anymore, to be honest with you. If you look at the tariffs in agriculture about us continuing spending, we're not doing a careful enough job in spending.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:14:25)

You talk about two million dollars, you're almost half a percent of giving a COLA to every state employee. But if you want to look at these figures where we have not done the job that we should have done is the absolute explosion in these high-dollar house salary jobs, which a lot of them are just political appointee jobs, that it's actually the career people doing the job. And I'm four raises on nurses, and I'm four raises on prison guards and spending money on that. But if you look, in 2015, in core state government, there were 217 people making over $100,000 a year.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:13:54)

Now it's 40%, so you're talking $140,000. So Joe Perfieri that I mentioned earlier that's making $180,000, he's almost making a quarter of a million dollars and just cost us 40, 50 million dollars on a dumb decision that should have been a no-brainer. So that's what, that's a quarter of a million dollars. In four years, you're going to pay him a million dollars. And the one thing about waste and fraud when Elon and all this is catching on is if you waste a million dollars, you really wasted two million dollars. Because when you waste a million dollars, it takes a million dollars of good to get it back to good.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:13:23)

If you're giving this amount of money, then there should be some more equity and fairness in looking at the whole situations. Even though I'm in a rural area where somebody making the same salary It's not the same as somebody making more in Benton County, even though I talked about Benton County last time. The biggest thing that I look at in state government that I've seen over the years is the explosion of jobs, of high-paying jobs. When you talk $100,000 a year job salary-wise, you might as well add $40,000 of it because it used to be 27% for salary and benefits.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:12:52)

We don't need, I don't like New York consultants trying to consult us down there. And this is, once again, another issue that I have. Nothing against Senator Davis, because any big project is never going to be perfect. So it is not against Senator Davis. But if you look at the 6,000 employees that are not getting a raise, they say at market rates, well, that may be a market where it's high cost of living. I live in a rural area. So somebody making the same amount of money will be making more than somebody in Pulaski County that could be doing the same job. That's one of the questions that I have that I don't think can raise.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:12:33)

Thank you, Madam President. You can tell last time I was against Moore, it's about an explanation like Senator Caldwell,

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:12:39)

why I'm a no-vote. Basically, if you look at personnel over the years, it should follow a little bit what is going on here in Arkansas. I mean, one thing is the 6,000 people that are not getting a raise at McKenzie, which I do not like.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (1:09:17)

for a question? So in this, my understanding is there's, what, 5,000 or 6,000 state employees that are not getting any raise at all? Correct. Okay.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (53:32)

literally cost taxpayers $40 to $50 million more that we could expand it right then rather than go down this path of this mega prison and cost us more money. So I'd ask for a no vote and let's stop this process and look for a more physically responsible way that's actually going to lower crime. Anyone wish to

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (52:59)

which has never been explained. I cannot imagine letting go of almost a billion dollars without any detailed specifics The reality is this prison for the amount, if you look at other states and everything, whatever they want to promise, you know what? They'll be lucky to be 2,000 prisoners up there in six, seven years. You'll be lucky to have 400 or 500 people working up there. You look at 2,000 prisoners with the amount of money, that's 400 and something thousand per bed. There are a lot of options that are better than doing this. And for Joe Perfieri to shut down that Calico Rock expansion

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (52:29)

that contribute almost one out of every four inmates, they're not passing jail taxes. Every one of my counties, Senator Stokeville, Franklin County, passed a jail tax. Is this a crisis with state backlogs? Yes. But it's only when they don't pass jail taxes we're going to let these three counties continue to run over us with prisoners. Why would any county in the future pass a jail tax expansion or new jail? Why not just do like Benton County? Keep dumping more people in the state system. This will bankrupt us, just not in this process alone,

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (51:58)

and equalize the pay in deputies so they're not losing. Every county out there, all 75, county deputies make less in cities. My plan will actually equalize that pay and let them keep from losing deputies. So many times they pay for the training, two or three years later, they're gone to a city or somewhere else. There are a lot of things that we can do, folks, that we need to debate and look at before we step into this mega prison, mega financial disaster death spiral that we're going to go into. Let me add, the three counties I mentioned, Benton, Washington, Sebastian counties

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (51:25)

Little Rock is 7,500 officers short right now. We need to be hiring public safety officers and paying our public safety people and these officers more and get more people in and doing positive situations out here to actually reduce the crime. That is the only option that we have to get out of this. Going down this mega-prison, mega-financial death spiral built upon lies, deception, and gross incompetence is not the first step in the process that we should do. We will never get out of that. The other part of my plan is to help county sheriffs

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (50:55)

or stay to their court date. They have a public defender in the process. Then they have a court date. And then they get sentenced to incarceration at cost us. And then you turn around and have to rehabilitate them and then turn around and have probation parole, which we're not funding. They are overworked and overburdened and underfunded, and they will be five years from now. This, keeping people that have the serious crimes and, yeah, it's going to help out some, but it will not step into the crime rate.

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (50:24)

your court system overburdened, your jails overburdened. The only way to financially get out of this, instead of this financial death spiral, that one side wants to go down, is to reduce crime before it even happens. Because once you reduce crime before it even happens, you save so much money. because if you have a high crime rate, which we already have a high incarceration rate, embarrassingly, once you arrest somebody, you have to haul them to jail. You take them to jail. Guess what? They have a booking. They have a stay in jail until they either get bonded out

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (49:50)

The Calico Rock expansion was a no-brainer. Easy decision. You know, they would sit there and say, well, what are we going to do if we do nothing and not get nothing? That's ridiculous. I've heard that threat all the time down here. We've got other options, and I would love to have the Senate floor debate at some time, my option versus the other option. If we don't start controlling the crime on the front end, we will never get out of this mess. If you have high crime rates for a while, the next steps are you have public defenders overburdened,

Meeting — April 1, 2025 (49:17)

That decision alone, folks, cost taxpayers 40 to 50 million more dollars in building in this mega prison, mega financial disaster when you talk per bed. We could have been 525 beds already two years down the road had Joe Perfieri not shut down. I'll share the transcript of the meeting. That's what we're getting into right now. When you start this process, going down there and look at what else happened. This has been riddled with lies, deception, and gross incompetence. And you want to trust people like this that make a decision?