JBC-Special Language

Call them meeting a special language to order this morning thank you all for being here and good morning to you just a couple of things before we get started we have some housekeeping items to go over just a reminder that some of the items on today's agenda like the eight agency and governor's letters have sections and include changes and appropriation personnel and special language just as reminder of this committee subcommittee will only discuss the special language personnel subcommittee will discuss the personnel sections and appropriations sections will be taken up a joint budget. There also be at least one more meaning special language on wednesday twenty fourth upon a german joint budget so if you have language you like to present the subcommittee please get to staff as soon as possible to a joint budget can refer it here as you know things are sort of moving quickly and we're trying to be expeditive in what we're doing so just keep an eye on the website and and the dates may change accordingly so. With that we will i'll just remind members that per the president of this committee we typically only allow members to present their bills in the generally speaking we don't have test money other than what is requested by the members from an agency staff or someone in that nature to come and present so that being said comments by my coach here if any. All right let's get started let's start with item one. Good morning members. The way the package are organized the first things you will see are either agency letters or governors letters remember a mammot and all of them are together so you will see the changes. That are being requested then you will see the amendment that would be engrossed into the bill if it's adopted and then you will see where it will be inserted into the bill wanted engrossed. First item on the agenda is c one it's on page two of your packet is sb twenty eight administrative office of the courts this is a letter that's date of february twenty eighth from mister marty solomon. Are members any questions on this. The. Sphc two. Our members any questions. Seen their questions was the will the committee. The. I have motion to have a second. I have a second all in favor motion carries all right moving on members we're going to move to page eleven this is house bill ten thirty three here's a letter from the treasure of state from mr larry walth. You said did you say c two minute ago where excellently one more week i'm sorry I met seat page two of c that's what I meant but you're correct I do have one question for the courts I hate to back up like that but I would think but you're you're fine do we have anyone from the courts here and sooner apologies I don't know that I should have been paying more change and that's all only. If you would have to see the table interdish yourself for the record. Sam coffin and the director of the vision of finance in administration just one question from me and I don't do you have the packet in front of the idea ok it has nineteen it says adam see page team your appropriation. Sorry so i'm sorry sir you you say it yes ok. One five. Land seventeen. For the purpose of this appropriation. Just called the courts and agency do you consider yourself an agency. That with yesterday were yes thank you sir. Thank you you're seeing no other questions you're excused. Are moving on item too members were going to go to page eleven this is house build ten thirty three it's a letter from mr larry walter regarding the treasurer of state. The special language that we're going to look at is actually on page thirteen and it deals with salaries. Art anyone from the treasure's office here if you would please come the table. And members I just want to point out we visited with. The treasure's folks the second ago just to point out that there was not a date to sunset there so II think we'll be passing over until the next meeting but if you would just present this that we have an understanding of it and we can move forward at a later meeting. Recognize yourself for the record good morning mr chairman and members of the committee my name is stephen bright I am the cheapest staff for the treasurer's office good morning everyone I am holly beaver and i'm an investment account with the treasurer's office. Good morning i'm jackie baker and i'm the hr director for the treasure you're recognized proceed thank you mister chairman over the last year and a half we have found it very difficult as everybody has an all the agency is especially in our agency we have very very specific positions it positions that are specific to finance legal positions that are specific to finance investment positions c p a's that are required by state statune our friends and other agencies really like our employees and we are getting they're getting hit all the time with job offers we have a situation right now that we have one of my employees that is maxed can not go any higher and he has a fifteen or ten fifteen thousand dollars offer from another agency it would absolutely kill us to lose this employee not because of justice institutional knowledge but the impact that he has on every single division we have this improbably four or five positions in our office just because the the specific and the requirements bought law of the requirements of these position and sell we have asked in special language that we and and this is special in what we took specifically from legislative audit that we be allowed to have a break the exceed the maximum salary levels about twenty percent for more than no more than one fourth of our positions are authorized in the appropriation this would have to come back to alc or joint budget and get approval. I and we did speak with the chairman and we related that there was not a several building calls or in end date in we are willing to pull that down and come back to a subsequent community many. I'll be glad to take any questions thank you for presentation I do see questions but just keep in mind members we will be discussing this at a later date but representative of richardson you're recognized thank you mister chair i'm i'm just curious you said that this one position would completely dismantle your organization if the if you were to leave so so what position is this that will break here your organization it is an artist positive what type of id because it is a direct a director of it yes and. In in our agency this position writes code for every single department we were very small agent about thirty employees and this employee not only writes code but also does I mean and we just hired somebody that is helping her mind computer support but he does everything and the code that he writes is so specific and so necessary to operations that it it would be devastating if he were hit by a bike today or he accepted that offer so we're screaming in I hate to say desperate but we just can't I can't take the chance because we don't know of another employee in state government that has the knowledge institutional knowledge or the day to day operations and coding knowledge that he has. Thank you I can actually more offline thank you yes sir. The. Members any other questions. So you know and thank you for presentation bring it back next meeting alright moving right along to item three thank you mister chairman this is governor's letter ten this is for house bill ten forty five for the department of labor and licensing the boards and commissions and this is the section of the special language college. Alright any questions members. So you know questions what will committee. I have motion have a second all in favor say I post. I just have it. Alright item four. Members this is governor's letter number twenty three we are on page twenty eight this is for a house bill ten seventy seven for the arkansas department and human services division of county operations and the special language that we're looking at runs from page thirty one through thirty three. I remember is any questions. See no questions what's wheel committee have motion of second all in favor say I in your post I was happy adam four or sees me five. Members were going to move to page forty one this is governor's letter number twenty seven for house bill ten seventy four also for the department of human services this is for the secretary's office and a special language is on pages forty three and forty four deleting two sections a language. Our members do have any questions. Sender hickey organised. What are we deleting here which which exactly were deleting section twenty. Staff sound or hickey a few moves to page fifty you'll see on house bill ten seventy four there are two sections of language there are going to be deleted. During the inner department of work for services tan of program was moved from department for services two department of human services section nineteen deals with the transfer of the town of black black rant phones and section twenty deals with the restrictions for financial assistance under the temporary assistance for needy families program both of those pieces of language will be moving from the secretary's office. Two counting up that was helpful thank you ma'am and members and I see we have someone else the queue I think this is to be consistent with legislation passed in the session related learnt send your hill you're recognized they can share as we're going through these i'd like to make sure that the say the page in the moral and this do a lot brief analysis of what what we're actually changing as we're going through we're trying to keep up with this in them i'm shuffling pages here in them as soon as you just ask you know say he can give me a little explanation what's going on here absolutely center and staff actually has been trying to do that throughout this process and will continue to do that okay thank you so thank you. Yeah. All right members item six it's my understanding that we're passing over that one. Oh i'm sorry II got distracted we're going to take a vote on on number five do I have motion I motion I have a second all in favor of say I in your post. It passes item six we are passing over. I'm sorry I got distracted on that what's moving to number seven. Representative pilkington. The. The. He would enter yourself for the record and you're recognized thank you may gilmore and represent a very poking ten district forty five here to present my special language the only special language I will be presenting today I know I have a few other items on the agenda but this is the only he's a special language i'm planning on presenting this fiscal session. Your. Proceed thank you as many of you are aware last month the governor announced that executive order addressing the eternal health crisis here in arkansas during that that you had mentioned that the hope is to use existing medicaid programs transition women who after sixty days post pardon would lose their coverage so instead of creating a new program that we would add them to existing programs which would be a no cost of state i'm simply mirroring that what was said in that executive order as a as the legislative branch I want to make sure that we're saying committed to this I am that we're having focused on that we have an administrative policy put in place to help those women transition from one plan to the other there's there's no cost of this as i'm aware there's no opposition to this these are special language and with that and as for a good vote and we'll take any questions at this time thank you representative and staff I think we're on page fifty six if i'm not mistaken is that correct fifty six of your packet members the only questions for the representative. See no questions was the will the committee I have motion I have a second all in favor any post passes thank you representative they can be committed to so we're passing over a number eight. And I believe we are also passing over number nine center patent is that correct. Okay. And we are also passing over number tin. Is representative law here. Item eleven. Okay it was less come back to that one while we tracked down representative word law. Item number twelve. Reserve androuse if you would please go the table members were on page seventy eight this language is for deperman education division of elementary and secondary education from the public school fine this is another code amendment. The. Represent if you would introduce yourself for the record you can proceed. Good morning's share committee representative waiting injuries district ninety eight this morning I have a. Minimum directors and I need to make a limit to my special language as well okay. Which is what strike the date out and allow schools to follow the side on their own wonderstorm okay so you're wanting to make an amendment do your bill a verbal moment coach here did you have something you want to know okay all right center hill you recognize for questions but this is questions on the verbal minimum. What was the purpose of doing this. This is just allowing its local control allowance schools to disadd their own start date. Can they not already do that. It says no right currently I know not every school in arkansas talks on the same day yet not every school starts the same day a take magnetic for instant smart in my district they're starting in july this year so they're changed to a toll twelve month calendar and so but taken the requirement out for a certain specific start date or a generalized start date you're allowed more local patrol allowance schools more freedom to choose in their own schedule. Something that fits their community and and they are specific area to cater into their needs thank you. All right representative we have other questions so real quick before I get to the other questions so your your verbal amendment that you mentioned so you're wanting to strike what exactly the actual specific date yes okay and and would it just be striking that with no substitution. Yes okay all right I have other questions in the senate tucker you're recognized thank you mister this really just following up on the chairs question i'm just trying to understand the verbal amendment. So the the section would just the last words of the section. I would say each school year the first day of the school. Year for student attendance and public elementary and secondary schools shall be and that there's just a period there or i'm just trying to understand the amendment. I just don't I don't get it yeah. Yeah yes we will charge let's make the verbal minute to say striking the actual date to see. Shall be at their choosing or representative we will be having another meeting would you like to pull this down to get that stuff if that's okay with the committee and in the member let let's do that get it right in will break your hickey did you have a question on this. You're recognized just just to call me it I mean I don't know if that they're choosing I mean I guess you need to work with the bureau or the are the department just so the backup because I want to make sure there's not any other statutes out there is it relates to you know I understand you've got a date here but as it relates to you know credit hours or some things for that nature I would so you know maybe you save as political order any other state law or something like that so okay thank you. Percentage thank you all you can get with the chair or staff and will walk through that. The. The. Alright staff let's keep going down the agenda I think we're passing over number thirteen unless I see. Representative brooks which I don't number fourteen we are also passing over. Number fifteen representative under. Which come of the table. Members we are on page ninety the patient numbers are at the bottom of the page this is for house bill ten seventy nine for department of energy and environment division of environmental quality okay and again staff web page was that for members this is on page ninety the bill goes through pages ninety through ninety two it's house bill ten seventy nine a member bill. Version of under your recognize and then if you both would introduce yourself represent less from good to see you as well which you were turned used yourselves for the record good morning mr chair committee I am representative steve unger district nineteen. Robin lunstrom district date team thank you chair for your indulgence and let me sit here your recognized proceed committee i'm coming here today to speak on head on behalf of house bill tin seventy nine. Which is to request funding that would allow the geo science department of the university of arkansas to perform groundwater sampling. In the city of tiny town in the surrounding boon formation. The boon formation is a large section of winestone that most of the northwest arguments are rest on and as part of the larger ozark platoo. The boon formation is a cars formation meeting that is made of cracks and crevices. These cracks and credits is act like water pipes. The water moves fast in a limestone course. But due to the cracks in the hardness of the rock it offers no filtration such as sandstone does. This was brought home to me when I was in college at the university of arkansas back in the late seventies. I happen to be taking a geology class when a tanker truck of gasoline overturned and spilled on what is now highway for twelve worst and tony town. Several mile south of tiny town is the city of johnson which was at that time the side of a small family owned trout form. As memory serves within forty eight hours the trouble were dead due to the gasoline. Our professor used this as a teaching point on the poor filtration qualities of wimestone. And owe by the way this under this poor slimestone in northwest arguments are is that illinois river water shed. The only river water shared a ship's shape sort of like an arrowhead insurance sort of. Oriented with the northeast turb if you can pitch your northwest arguments are the northeast tip is in the center of bitten county around period it did flares out down to the southwest south of period the northern edge is north of salem springs and then the body of it goes into oklahoma and the cheer key nation before it finally tapers off around the skogi we're talking about roughly one thousand seven hundred square miles and home to fifty five hundred thousand people plus their wivestock which is all part of our food chain. Which brings us to the day if you were to visit tony town and I hope you do I invite you to take a drive down arborator's road there you will see and smell amount of trash the size of a small island. This started off is a family owned dump sight many years ago. My family used it we used to fill in my dad's truck with junk and then we paid the man five dollars. And through it in the haller as we said back then. Well fifty years later we are doing the same thing except it's on a multiple city and industrial scale. It has now called the echo this to landfill owned by waste management. A billion dollar company out of houston is a now amount of trash which is composed of household waste construction waste in racidge from the local suggest treatment plant in the form of human fecal matter that is bought on by button by truck and dumped on the ground I have photos here if you care to be disgusted. Between the trash and the poor swimestone is a claim filter. Waste management and eighty have enormous amount of confidence in the clay winner. The coy winer was constructed a long time ago and they have no way of inspecting it. Waste management eighty q have an enormous amount of confidence that clay winer the cities of the citizens of tiny town have no confidence. In the coy winer and you shouldn't either. The bill sponsors are asking for one million forty six thousand five hundred fifty three dollars to come from the hazardous substance remedial action trust phone this trustphone was established by acts four seventy nine of nineteen eighty five. And it is for the administrative cost in expenses of providing for inspection. Identification containment abatement treatment and control of hazardous substant sites so this is not new money this is money coming out of one of the ten different trust phones that e and e stewards. The arkansas national guard performed air quality testing for one day around the landfill on twenty two december and found higher than average levels of sulfur dioxide. This prompted a second four day visit from five to eight february this visit showed higher than average levels of bins. So if this is in the air. What is going into the water. Now the landfill is not supposed to have chemicals in there. This is where this connects with me my first ship in the navy was home port in north of virginia and this is back in the early nineteen eighties. And the issue that dominated the regional news was the environmental impact on the ecological systems of the chester peak bay after many years of industries such as do part and union carbide dumping chemicals in the various rivers that flowed into the bay. Some of the richest commercial phishing grounds in the united states were ruined. Now they're coming back but it took forty years. Currently eighty q monitors the groundwater through a system wells on the site and declares that this is adequate it is not. The study this bill proposes will look at all the creeks and streams in the area that may be affected by the landfill. We have a lot of springs up there our cities names respect reflect there. Springdale cave springs elm spring silence springs. The springs are plural and i'm only mentioning the arkansas rivers and streams. On the oklahoma cheer key nation side of the line there too many the name if you look at and map you'll see what i'm talking about. This study will also look at landowner's wells the university has access to historic water sampling before the landfill was permitted and then can and can compare the before and after. What is going into our water. A large scale study entitled the socioeconomic and hep to logical profile of landfill residents was published in the two thousand six seventeen issue of the international journal of environmental research and public health. Show the people living near a landfill had much higher incidents of luco site hope is luco site hopers. Which is increased whitewood cell count neurotropenia which is decreased immune fighting cells procluding to multiple infections in a media. Well read both sell count leading to poor auctionization another large study published in the international journal with epidemiology look at more than twenty four thousand people over a twelve year period. This study showed a strong association point hydrogen sofid and deaths caused by one cancer as well as deaths and hospitalization for research diseases. The results were especially prominent and children. What's going into our water. For those of us who depend on beaver lake for drinking water. Our regional growth if our regional growth continues on its current projection we will need to look at additional source of water we might indeed those well some day. Is the water safe. Or it can be being made safe we need to know and for this reason committee I ask that you approve this and find this study. Any questions for sender hickey you are recognized thank you mister chair give me a little little more information who actually who actually owns this equal visit this day private or is it owned by the city county what's happened what's the ownership of this town by waste management corporation okay and is located is located within what manicality or county who is the governing entity for that piece of land the city of tony town in washington county. Or they have they requested you do this. Has their their board has their board is best resolution or or what. Well the citizens of tiny town have been complaining about this but has the board it is like are they do they have a city board ever city council i'll get the city council excuse me I said it wrong so is the city council are they involved in this or is this just something that. That you brought forward was something I believed in based on just a background in. I understand that bad listen to your presentation as a great presentation I just must be important i'm just want to know who the governing into the years and it is if this is something that they're wanting to do yes they don't are at end they've passed a resolution saying that. I'm not aware of that okay no they haven't okay so if I may yes what i've said about this and i'm from spring deal my patch of tiny town is just a few acres that happens to be on the east side of highway one twelve. What i've said about this all long is trash is not just a tony town problem it's a regional problem it's a national problem also chemicals getting in our drinking water is not just a tiny town problem is a regional problem and if I may I was stationed as a young navy hospital coreman that camp was you north carolina back in nineteen seventy seven. You may have heard about a basically the poison of the water campus and you probably seen that on television. And so well guys like me as young medics were being trained to do water sample splashing around the swamps in north carolina looking for west nile virus. Little did we know that some of the on based contractors were nothing barrels of chemicals just end of the words that went into our wells. And so due to the higher instance of cancer. There and just thought there is an adole evidence of a cancer cholesterol around the landfill and tony town. It would be nice to get in front of is too wait to get in front of this but we need to do everything we can to protect our public health game met their continuing just a little bit mister chair you're recognized i'm i'm just and back to the to the to the local part you know because from mastering point if if there's an issue up there and this is a private inter and an authority said billion dollars. I mean I don't know if they're their ordinances or something if if you're saying that the ordinances are being violated if they're being violated by this equal vista landfill and it seems to me that that those either the citizens are the governing agencies up there they need to bring suit against against this bland field for a violating those ordinaries so i'm a little bit confused at this point in a while we're down here with the state money. But I was the only wrong if there's a true problem up there than I don't understand why that's not being pursued to the courts. There is it is being pursued the courts. The. Senator hickey that is in my district and I can speak to this directly they have passed two resolutions asking for closing of the landfill and we as a state have ignored that it actually is in our la that if the city the host city rejects this situation it will be shut down and we have cloud right over them despite their request for help time and again so this is actually we need an outside arbiter to come in and do real testing and real research of these walls and take a look at what's going on in this area this will land back in the state of arkansas we will be the ones cleaning up this mess unfortunately if we don't get ahead of it and we all live downstream of something and this is a good example of that it was a word whereabouts used it in the within the court system horse it added within the litigation it has been heard by adq and by a judge and we are awaiting the results. It has gone through this before this is a second round and again we've ploughed right over so the jury still answer thank you mail and thank you sir. Represented me you're recognized. The. Oh i'm sorry representation oh yeah okay thank you sir out of adhere is here as eighty I do not see them right well the question I have for the amount what are they were they're currently doing and I understand what you do but II kind of have a problem that we're picking who's going to do this directly and we're already telling them the amount we're going to give there is no there's no beer in this process I guess it's a little over million dollars and i'm i'm wondering while we're getting the university of arkansas. There to do what eighty should be doing if they're doing it then I don't I just don't know and ask my question thanks sir they're not doing it eighty q is not doing it. They say they're doing it. What they're doing is just inadequate. If the unit so the money came up with is I have been in conversation for the geo size department of the view of a for quite a while they came up with a budget. Understand the scope of work. And their trust worthy if we bid this out to just any old lab. You know I don't know where we're in it yet you know we could get it cheaper but we're not going to get it better and this is the kind of thing we really need to get right also what is written in the language of the bill is requesting research and publication which is something you they could do. In my research on this some of the things II cited at these journals. Actually were back at by evidence by like the national institute of health and and so on but these studies reactually don't and developing countries such as brazil and other places. And in my travels around the world what I believe to be true is in other in developing countries trash is a poor man's game. In the ase of america trash is rich man's game and so there has not been any serious research that I was able to find done in the united states of america on the health impact around landfills and I believe we're overdue for that sir that's the best answer and gave you. The. Senator heel your recognized. Representation to part former question there but you're just going on with this I would like to see there cade the EQ here der to respond to this one maximum accusation that they're not doing their job you're not doing things where they should I think they should be here and if they're not doing it we need to know why they're not doing it so I would really like to see them here for we pursue in father. Okay etc and I don't see anyone in the room out i'll ask if anyone's in the room from the agency and I don't see him. So we can wait to see if we can get them here for another meeting or. I feel like it will pass over to till the next mean just to see I will defer to the to the member table. In the meant internet will pass over okay it in the meantime if you're open well I see that. No one's in the queue are if you if you're going to pass over will pass over. Thank you thank you members. The. All right members we are passing over sixteen that's another urgent of pilkington bill up next we have representative cabinet number seventeen and I believe that is on page and maybe staff bad to tell me that well ordinarily it would be on page ninety eight in your packet but we do have a hand out members can give us a couple minutes to hand out the new version of this amendment. Coach your cabinet you're recognized introduced yourself and proceed what's been passed out thank you mister frank and r state rep district thirty. When I am gonna explain the amendment gave me but the amendment is going to be the whole america it's going with the whole special language it's the same time. On the issue going to see where we're appealing some language and replacing it with another type of language in this languages basically stating they at the turnback money that the cities and counties have been being taken away from them to help pay for the prosecutor attorney salaries will be reduced that they'll only pay twenty five percent of that rather than a hundred percent and that's simply what it does. And i'd be glad to take any questions. Okay it's showing up center flowers is that center just my insurer. Okay senators may you recognized it just just to help educate a little bit better essentially that seventy five percent essentially what they started at back in nineteen ninety nine in the numbers didn't change there wasn't a procedure in place and so that's fallen to about twenty five percent and it we're just going back to what the original agreement was essentially that as my understanding yes that thank you. The. Okay members any other questions. See none was well committee I have motion have second all in favor say I post have it thank you could chair capital. Moving right along to number eighteen members this is a mementous center bill fifty three is for department of transformation and shared services instance also sponsored by representative cavinite and senders solid okay members I was just a former curture cabinet we are passing over eighteen so we will move on down the agenda we are passing over number nineteen I believe center hesters that correct we are also passing over number twenty center hester okay members number twenty one on the agenda. Members at the bounding your page were on page one twelve. This is. For house bill ten eighty six department of correction this is a division of correction supplemental bill. And the special language were looking at is on page one thirteen. Okay. Members any questions. On this sandra hickey you're recognized in the the department prepared for information for me because I had a bunch of questions on this is. You know how the money was going to be used that I don't know if the members have that but they did come back and say that you know they had a certain amount that was behind with the county jails or there had been invoice to excuse me and then their their projecting. For the neck from may in june. Two point four million dollars per month so I think according to their testimony. Uh I would assume that they're going to be anticipated that the next fiscal year that they're going to be at at least two point four two point four million dollars. Every month but if they're here i'd like to like to hear of my analogy of that is correct okay senator we do have someone from the department. The. And if you were both recognized yourself for the record and then you may begin to proceed. Chat brought she financed the officer department of corrections. April davis budget administrative division of corrections. So yes our offer about it sooner hickey some information on county jails. If you just look at the the averages. If we have closely anywhere from eighteen hundred to two thousand a minute. That does put a such that average monthly so I would agree with that statement it would be between two million and two point four million. Shoot me into two point four all right so the next two months you've got two point two point four and from your testimony or from somebody's testimony who was sitting there. And I don't know if this from the safe act or not of course i'm believer in you know in doing that and voted for that so for next physical year july august stimbrocked over november are you anticipating that we're going to have at least. Two point four million a month well singer canada reimbursement that's a fineco playing based on population depending on the amount of people that come and go out of the county jails they're holding for us. That's a hard question to answer as you see and and what I provide you that number fluctuates I mean we started out with. Little over twenty two hundred in july then it dropped down to nineteen hundred in november and it dropped again and december. And now we're back up into the two thousand so it. It's a moving sorry and we were not real sure this is a hard projection to provide just because it is a moving target that population fluctuates daily sure so this is this is the best projection we can provide we pay invoices as we get and I think this will carry us through the entire physical year the my main point with all this is not that I disagree with funding funding the thing my main disagreement is is if you use that number you're at twenty nine million and the budget that was that wording the process of doing that was presented as far as it might have been twenty six million in some change amount which totally operating out from memory what i'm saying is is that budget short by probably at least three million dollars so according to the numbers you have so and I understand same way with me i'm out here rounding it up it may be three and a half me and it may be four million it would be two point eight million but the thing is is that just my polite ride here and am as i've said i'm going to be doing this with all items you know out this is a recurring recurring expense that we're going to have nobody needs to believe otherwise we get a we get a prison build and we put those those prisoners in into that new prison. We may transfer where that money is going it may not be going to county jails but we're going to have a higher experience on the correction side because of the daily so again I think this is a minimal and our budget is light that amount of money so I do appreciate all the work you did and entered my questions on that too so I wanted make sure I said there you were considered thank you sir. This. All right I have a first one any other questions. See nine I have a motion to have a second all right have a second all in favor say I post. All right motion carries bills past we are moving on to. Senator dees. Number twenty two members we are on page one fifteen in your packet this senate bill sixty three and a moment to the department of agriculture. Sir days if you would recognize yourself for the record and then you may proceed thank you senator tyler days district thirty five. Please proceed. Thank you members that commissioner share today II come to bringstone bill sixty three through special languages as a a promise a promise made to my district to my cattle farmers promise at many view of probably made throughout your districts to rain in government spending to lower taxes to fight for agriculture community this this bill addresses a a tax that has been put on cattle farmers for every head of cattle sold there's a dollar cells tax and that we place on there and it's a tax that is related to a good intended focus to help with bruce locus as how it started many decades ago praise lord we are bruce solosis and bang's disease free we happen hasn't been a case in about twenty years and so we're thankful for that but today we still have that tax on our cattle farmers and so while it's good intended I believe we are we we can look to remove that and that burden now the average we have about twenty thousand cattle farmers instead of arkansas in twenty thousand farms the average number of head on each of those farms is only about forty and had a cattle in across the united states only about nine percent of catafarmers have over a hundred head of cattle and so you can see how a dollar for head actually is a larger impact to look smaller farmers we continue see decline in in across the state is catalarmers are not passing down there their farms to future generations and just five years ago we were collecting about eight hundred eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars to dates it's down down closer six hundred thousand two we could see a decline I believe we need to look at ways to support this industry in by adding a burden to our farmers in this way uh does not do that up through farmers in my district. Through points before your information to the department it was found that the way we're using these dollars is heavily in ways that uh maybe not even as it was intended when we started the tax in fact there were some cross pollination of supporting other industries we were using these dollars for for politically avian influence studies and so I believe we fix that but still it highlights that this entire program of of budgeting needs to be looked at I will also say though i've talked with many of the members on this committee who represents all crossed the state and there's conflicting opinions on if we should continue to have this this tax and that supports the industry or doesn't support the industry we've got a conflicting message is there have been trying to work with with farm bureau and are so carolman association and we're working through what that looks like so today with with feedback today i've received in the will this committee I will be miseration passing over this this bill but I want to highlight the fact that we need to work on this with with the going into the next session and I will be bringing back a bill to addresses for future future purposes thank you thank you center once. Okay senders thank you I see that you have left I think there might have been a question but. Or you will you take a question center at. Yeah. Sooner hill you're recognized they sent central days that you're looking through this and studying the so a little little deeper keeping the heap in your mind arkansas does have a shortage of veterinarians that's already been established by something that would have and if we do await this program with the extension of this comes out and they back these cattle free for farmers they're going to have to hire a bit nearing at that point to come out and that's only increased they're expensive drastically we are just in a common case of you said nine percent will go have to hurry to cattle for two hundred dollars this is what it's cost with if they sell the cap that you're that will call from two hour dollars but if they have to hire that veterinary and come out there that's what costs them well over two thousand dollars to do that same program so keep keep that in mind that there are some benefits that they are taking place with the so as your study just keep in man the shortage of it nearby that we have out here because this this back seeing is highly control because if you inject yourself you could actually catch it. Thank you senator hill I appreciate the the example there are also see where we have examples where the USDA is also in helping us with this vaccination process in elimination of other diseases I believe there's some double dipping going on in and i'm constantly trying to find ways that we can put dollars back into our farmer's pockets but that's a great example we need to make sure we interesting and the the total impact. The. Alright but wait we do have another question center if you're open from sender crawl. Thank you it is my understanding though that the usda's information is not mandatory so this is mandatory on what you're trying you're trying to get rid of but usda they don't have to fill it the paperwork so while usa may be doing this. They unless they have the information they cannot. Sure that's a great example I could tell you and I just a cricket bike mine in northwest circumstance bordering two states we've got cattle farmers that are choosing to go to cell in oklahoma choosing to go to cell in missouri and so other states have figured this out in they don't charge a mandatory brush solutions or both roving health tax is I know that we got to keep looking at this because other states are drawing our farmers out at the state of arkansas taking the open city taken job in area and so I know that this is a something worthy to to can you look into. All right members of the centers pulled the stone so thank you for that sooner we will move on a will point out that item twenty three I think there's some discussion happen right now on some some wording that's not correct my co chair is working on that so we can go out of order and move to twenty four while that's been discussed senator patent. If you would go to the table. Members were an item twenty four the agenda on page one twenty seven this is senate bill sixty four is a department of finance and administration dispersing officer bill. The. Sir patent if you would induce yourself for the record and you're recognized proceed john patent center district twenty two thank you mister chair and thank you members. This. Is to renew the phones in a program that we established two years ago. It's a one time money from surplus. It has provisioned in there to return any unused portion back to the general revenue a lot more reserve fund from which it comes. You should have received an email yesterday from. Mr anderson gives a few details about how this was distributed last year the applicants there were about forty five pregnancy help organizations. Twenty nine applied twenty seven were funded. I'm told now that there may be up to. Around sixty of these organizations in the state. The map that we received in that email I hope you've had a chance to review it because geographically it was very well distributed around the state and now probably be even better if we're able to get this funding to increase. The number of people that are eligible. Through heaven the dollars available it does not change the policy. On whose eligible or how they can spend the phones that policies already set and as I said it's been in existence for two years. I think it's important. That. We have. These organizations they they operate on shoe string budget most young most assured lay their volunteer efforts. A lot of private donations going to these are organizations and. The help that we're able to do through this. Grant program that was established two years ago. I think is make is making a difference and will make a greater difference on forward but with that i'll take any questions. Senator tucker you recognized thank you madame chair center paid as I understand the explanation about which centers the money went to my question is what is the money actually paying for at these centers. Well within the act it talks about providing nutritional information and ordered nutritional counseling providing parental prenatal. Baroness providing a list of prenatal medical care options providing social emotional and material support or providing referrals for waking community based nutrition nutrition services. Including but not limited to food banks food pantries food distribution centers so it basically helps. The women access some resources. Discover some resources that are out there and obviously I the pregnancy helps an organization now for me within baseball I mean they help arrange some shelter towns. Food clothing. For the mother and for the child dippers formula vitamins are that's the type of stuff it's going for okay so there's really two parts of that one of which I was going to ask about but so i'll shift to that now since that's basically what you answered these the services that these organizations provide they're not healthcare services correct. I guess that depends on your definition of health care services I think you're eating yourself right but they're not nurses and doctors at these facilities correct there are probably some nurses and doctors that volunteer these facilities I wouldn't know statewide at sixty different organizations but it's not i'm I don't think they're the organization itself would be considered healthcare okay and so that really the first question I was going was not necessarily the services that these organizations provide about what the money is actually covering and so. What i'm gathering from your answer is maybe some of the hard costs like diapers or vitamins or something like that but mostly it's just to help pay to run the facility like overhead rent that sort of thing obviously not when they apply for these grants they are informed and they have to sign acknowledging the fact that this is one time money the end the reason we're here is because it's not something that's going to be carried over from one budget to the next. We had to be able to pull these funds from somewhere outside of of the regular budget that's why it's coming out of this part of surplus obviously we may not have a surplus next time so so the dfa and the people that operate program are very careful to make sure that they understand this is a one time grant and that's something that they can bank on for ongoing expenses okay thank you madame chairman one last question do you know whether these centers encourage the woman who come to them to actually go seek a prenatal health care and at an actual healthcare provider I know the ones i'm familiar with do yes ok thank you. Resident garner here recognized. Is your chair and thank you representative payton I know we've considered a paint now we've we've talked about this alight you know i'm in respect I had some real concerns because of research i've seen about these crisis centers a lot of times it gives them the mom a false sense of security that she is getting health care and these centers are not health care generally they're there for support obviously but they don't have to in fact they can't refer these these per these are parents potential parents to health care officials so my question is what how how can we have some accountability for the phones that are being utilised to make sure that the money is going for something that is going to help material infant mortality and right now we don't know yes yes we do it it's in the framework of the policy that we pass two years ago that when they apply for these phones they have to give a list and a plan of what the funds will be used for and definitely has to make sure that's within the guidelines of the policy that we pass two years ago and then it has to be followed up on improving that the funds were spent according to the plan that they used in their application so there is accountable that we accountability and we do know. Follow it missing your recognize there is accountability that they're doing what they're saying they're doing we have no account ability to know that that patient has been seen by provider by medical provider we have no no idea whether what happens to that to that woman. Apple she's seen there so these that's my question is as is there not a way if we're going to give the money then let's figure out what happens to the money and what happens to those women and make sure that they're seeing someone who is licensed in these folks a lot of them have ultrasounds and they'll do an ultrasound but they are not licensed ultrasound technicians they don't know whether they don't know whether net topic pregnancy is or personal detachment necessarily that they're not trained to do that and so a lot of the research is saying that not only do these crisis centers not help they can hurt if we're not doing it correctly and i'm all for supporting the mom and and trying to take care of the baby I think what they're doing is admirable but I don't think it takes the place of. Health care certified health care and license practitioners and unfortunately the research shows anyway that that's what happens so i'm asking if we can't figure out a way to put in the bill. That we are. Tracking these women are making sure that they're going to. To get good prenail care and it is really making a difference in material internal feedle are maternal infant mortality we know that some of the things like like representative pilk intended to talk about they do that we don't know that these folks are actually seeing physicians or that they're being cared for. Other than dipers and prenatal vitamins that you can get. Over the counter so that's my question is how can we figure out a way to to be more accountable. To the marms and the babies and to taxpayers to make sure that we are doing what we need to do from eternal infant mortality and appreciate the question I appreciate your position. This is two million dollars. Compared to billions of dollars that we spend doing those things that you mention. No i'm not going to tell a lady that comes looking for a packagers for her newborn. That before she can get on she has to jump through certain hoops and submit herself to government tracking to make sure that she's going to other health care providers I mean that is the most anti freedom way I can I can imagine. Of of trying to say that. There is you're looking for any kind of. The. If you come in and you want to know where are the health care providers now we'll go attract you to make sure you go to one rather than just given them the resources to seek out the things you're talking about because there are other government programs. That provide those resources that many times the people in need here don't know where to find them or how to access them and these pregnancy help organizations can can help them discover where they can get those. Resources that you're referring to and I think it at two million dollars I mean this is such a small piece of the puzzle we can't expect it to accomplish. All of the worthy goals that use figure. All right and we have other members in the thank you represent garner center history you recognized. Well thank you recognize me II was gonna say basically the same thing that center pain said he just set it better than I can I appreciate the your position there. Like center house for center hickey you're recognized yes or did didn't you stay whenever you read that a second to go that that provides counseling wouldn't it wouldn't that one of the goals that was within that yes just as a remander in a we did this we did this a few years back on on doing this and we did it after we passed the bill which you do not allow rapid incest in a debt particular term what we had said he is is that since we had done that we needed to provide additional services and I actually led that and I believe our family counsel was behind it. Not reading for them because of our member at they may write me a d for some unknown reason so let's just put get that out there but but for the for this that was a large part of our reason and app and asked still stand on there so it's a proper time i'll be willing to make motion mister chair thank you center hickey any other questions. Alright so mister chair yes and I absolutely in honor of national oxygens they i'd like to say here will right through the gate limit and welcome. Thank you center patent center hickey I think it's the appropriate time we'll see your motion. I'm sorry you'd say them you moved to pass yesterday okay I motion have a second. All in favor post is have it thank you and we will go back to item twenty three assessment coordination there's a an amendment to delete some dates that are in the past so my coach your cabinet will present that members if you give us a couple minutes to hand out the new amendment. This is senate bill fifty four assessment coordination it starts on page one twenty one. And the section that we're going to be discussing it's actually on page one twenty five section ten. Go to your cabinet you recognize to you introduce yourself and perceive one that's been passed out thank you mr chair thank you committee for our friend cavinal state rep district thirty this amendment just deletes some absolute language and it has some dates that only applied for a short time and we're just deleting that section. The. All right members any questions. Matt that's that's why I was asking any questions center so yes. Yeah. The. The. All right I see sender tucker for questions. They're tucker is this on the amendment that that's really my question is represent cabinets the amendment basically the whole thing at this point yes sir yeah okay that's what I was strange thank you so so members I will need a motion to adopt this amendment. I have emotion I have a second all in favor of they are alright that's passed so with that. So that motion deletes. Section ten just for clarity. Right haven't all seen your questions I think that that is that adoption has passed thank you. The. Alright members that brings us to conclusion today release from the subcommittee or sp twenty eight governors levers number ten twenty three and twenty seven SB nineteen house bill ten twenty three house bill ten eighty six SB sixty four SB fifty four so members we will be meeting again on the wednesday the twenty fourth I believe so please pay attention to the calendar and let me know if you have any questions we are adjourned.