ALC-PEER
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Unknown speaker
0:00
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We'll call this meeting to order.
William Parrish
Unverified
5:00
I don't know. All right, Mr. Billy. Thank you, Madam Chair. The first item on the agenda are cash fund appropriation increase requests. These are requests by agencies to increase the spending authority for lot items that are supported by cash fund account. The requests are for appropriation only. The agencies have existing funding to carry out the request.
The following requests have received an approval recommendation from DF&A and are sent to this committee for review. First item is a letter from the Administrative Office of the Courts. It's a request to establish new appropriation of $25,000. The new submitting authority will allow purchase of statewide software licenses for Arkansas courts. The purchase is supported by revenue the agency receives from charges to courts. The next item is a letter from the Public Employees Retirement System. It's a request to establish a new refunds line item with an appropriation of $250,000 for the state police retirement system. The system's new pension
administration system allows for direct deposits and refunds, and the previous system required issuing paper state warrants. The new line item will provide spending authority to make the direct deposits. The next item is a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it's a request to increase appropriation by $15,000 for the state cemetery. The increase will allow the department to solve connectivity issues and repair an irrigation will, as well as provide travel appropriation for required federal training. The state cemetery is supported by fees collected from the VA and spousal burials. The next item is also a letter from the Department
of Veterans Affairs and it's a request to increase appropriation by $2,075,000 for the North Little Rock Veterans Home. The increase will allow the department to cover costs related to staffing and residents' needs. The letter notes the Veterans Home has experienced a 40% increase in residents in the past year and the Veterans Home is supported by fees collected by residents, Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, and third-party companies. The next item is a letter from the Department of Agriculture. Per the request of the committee, this item is going to be pulled from this section of the agenda and bundled with item C1 under approval items. The next item is a
letter from Division of Workforce Services, and the agency requested pulling this item from the the agenda and resubmitted at a later date. The last item is B7. It's a letter from State Parks Division. It's a request to increase appropriation by $500,000 for extra help. The increase will allow the division to raise pay in response to the minimum wage increase this year, plus the difficulty the division has in recruiting applicants to remote locations. Parks are supported by cash receipts and interest income generated by the State Parks System. Madam Chair,
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
7:48
those are the cash letters. Do we have any questions? I have one for, I think it'll be Mr. Jake Bleed for the veterans, not the cemetery one, but for the veterans' homes. Sorry, I didn't ask this whenever I saw you a minute ago. I just didn't think about it.
Jake Lee, DFA, Office of Budget. So my question is, was it just an oversight that we didn't think we were going to be adding, and are we going to fix this in budget next time so we don't have to
Speaker 17
8:34
come ask for extra funds? We have been involved heavily, DFA has, in helping manage that home, and one of the major points of emphasis has been to increase the census, the number of folks staying there. We've succeeded in that. That's the good news. the bad news is we have had to ask for additional appropriation to operate that and that's
definitely something we'll be looking at in future budget requests thank
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
8:53
you I'm glad we've increased I mean I don't have a problem with that I just want to make sure that we fix it in budget instead of in
here thank you any other questions okay without objection then we'll consider all these items but oops yes sir yes sir parks and tourism Please state your name.
Cynthia Dunlap
Unverified
9:23
My name is Cynthia Dunlap, and I'm the
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
9:28
CFO. Go ahead, Senator. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you tell me what the total amount of the increase is due to the minimum wage increase? I
Speaker 32
9:38
don't have it broken out by that, but I could get that amount and get that
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
9:44
to you. So you don't know exactly how much the amount is that you're asking for $500,000, and you don't
know how much of that is due to the increase of the minimum wage?
Cynthia Dunlap
Unverified
9:54
It's a combination of the minimum wage increase and the number of hours that we were having to work our extra help staff, some of it because of our limitations with our cap. So I would need to bring that information
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
10:07
to you, broken out in that manner. So these are
Cynthia Dunlap
Unverified
10:11
extra hours that current employees are putting in? Yes, current employees, and yes, when our season increases, when we have to increase our staff during the busy times of the year, but most of them are current employees, like our wait staff
and those people who work continuously throughout the year. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Thank
Speaker 35
10:29
you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Are there any
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
10:31
other questions for any item? All right. Without objection,
we'll consider all of these except for b5 reviewed next items oh yes sir yes sir madam chair we're on item
William Parrish
Unverified
10:52
c for the agenda these are items for approval the first one is a rainy
day fund release request and this is a letter from the governor requesting a transfer of one million from the rainy day fund to a cash account for the department of agriculture funds will be used to support grants and projects in the Buffalo River watershed, which include voluntary best practices for the land, improvements to city and county wastewater and septic systems, and sediment reduction. The letter also states the Buffalo River Conservation Committee will be the entity responsible for identifying projects and distributing funds. Madam Chair, this is an approval item for the committee. Senator Rice, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
11:30
Mr. Bleed, you may have some information on this. In the letter from the governor it says that these funds will support grants and projects within the Buffalo River Watershed including but not limited to things. For a little bit of history that this all encompasses We've got a lot of ag people, and we've got a lot of young ag people that are concerned about their future, that they may become litigants in their livelihood simply doing what they know as best practices because of the CNH hog farm case, which this legislature agreed to.
And I've supported a buyout of a private business that had no violations, that technically had not done anything wrong, but raised concerns with a lot of people. in that there was supposedly along with the 5.2 million dollars state taxpayer money bought a private business to make them whole a million dollars from nature conservancy
we had last month or i believe a month before last i questioned state forestry about $1.4 million purchase of land from Nature Conservancy down in the Hot Springs area and was totally different. It has nothing to do with it. It was for like 420 acres for, I forget what the term was.
The timing was concerning to me. As I did a little further checking, there was another $800,000 bought in 2018. As people learn these things, and I don't know how much we buy, state buys land, I hopefully can check into it, but the timing was concerning to me. the timing right after this all gets settled of turning it around and putting a million dollars
into Buffalo River with some opening here for other purposes. is can you give me some kind of ease to what we're doing to our pro-animal agriculture that is so important to the state of Arkansas that feels like there are groups meaning well
we all want clean water we all want a clean environment but that have seemingly the article in the Arkansas dim gas yesterday was eye-opening and timed it a good time too to open some people's eyes to see what it is and if 400 signatures from northwest Arkansas is going to be important to a state agency because of the volume of them I would remind
this committee that i guarantee you there's plenty of pro-ag groups that would be happy to sign some petitions too but could you could you expound a little bit on what
Speaker 17
15:15
we're doing here sure and i'll do my best and my understanding is secretary ward is headed this way he had another engagement but he'll be here as soon as he can this program is my understanding is purely voluntary the governor made it clear very very early on in the outset this is not a regulatory program program. This is an opportunity, we hope, for folks in the watershed to take advantage
of the funding which has been requested today to get ahead of some potential issues that might cause water quality problems later on down the road. The Department of Agriculture has some existing programs, the unpaved road program for example, that we could use so that if there's a roadway, an unpaved road in the watershed that's being used by those young farmers that they need to operate their business, but that someone comes along and says, hey, there's runoff from that road, and it's going to cause problems down in the
creek bed, this is an opportunity to get ahead of that, create some kind of an engineering project so that that road no longer represents something that could cause a problem down the way, but those folks who need that road can still make the most of it. That's really my understanding of the intent of the program. It's not to create litigation, obviously. It's not to create regulations. It's not to impose anything on
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
16:36
anybody. And what you state are good things, and we're familiar with those some,
but the part in here that says, but not limited to, and I understand they put that in lots of things for leeway. Is this Buffalo, this grant is going to be from the Department of Agriculture to who? Buffalo River Conservation Committee? Yes, sir. Is
Speaker 41
17:01
that the new committee that the governor just appointed? Yes, sir. That was created pursuant to an executive order of the governor. Just recently? Yes, sir. The previous commission is the one that
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
17:12
didn't meet much, as much as they were,
they're supposedly dictated that they had to meet every quarter, and the paper said they didn't meet. Okay. But you understand the reason for concerns throughout this process, not this one thing. It's a culmination of many things that if I was an animal farmer, and I used to be, and my sons are now, I don't blame people being concerned about their future when
we look into some of this.
So, Madam Chair, I guess if the Secretary gets here, we may have some more questions. I will have a motion at the proper time Would you like
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
17:57
us to hold this Until he gets here That's the call of the chair And he is actually right now Just so everybody knows He's not just missing He is in the conference room Of
the governor's office They're doing the farm to school presentation So he should be here in a little bit
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
18:16
He is trying to hurry though Madam chair let me just go
ahead and say this and if he comes and wants to speak, we've got, you know, our committee here, but something that this important and this encompassing of importance, I would ask that we move this to full ALC Friday without recommendation. That way we'd have more legislators
Speaker 47
18:44
we could discuss more then and take it up.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
18:47
The proper motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second. All
in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? No. Passes. So we'll hold this until Friday. Next item. Madam
William Parrish
Unverified
19:05
Chair, C2 is a reallocation of resources for the Department of Human Services. To provide a measure of flexibility, special language, and the DHS appropriation bill allows for four reallocations in a fiscal year to respond to changing client needs
and make the most effective use of resources authorized. This request is a first reallocation request for fiscal year 20, and on the fourth page is a table showing all transfers of appropriation, funding, and positions. Are
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
19:31
there any questions? Seeing none without objection. No, I need
a motion for this one. That's right. I'm sorry. Do I have a motion? Motion. Second.
I see a second. All in favor say
aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Next item. Madam Chair, these are budget
William Parrish
Unverified
20:03
classification transfer requests. These are requests by agencies to make a transfer among the five sub-items of maintenance and general operation. This is in the event a certain line item does not have enough spending authority for an expected expense, but another line item in their M&O has excess or spare appropriation.
The requests are for appropriation only. The agencies have funding to carry out the requests, and there's only one request on today's agenda. That is for the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, and it's a request to transfer $50,000 in appropriation from their professional fees line item to operating expenses. The transfer will accommodate a grant from the U.S. Geological
Survey to migrate the Arkansas Water Use Database from USGS to the Natural Resources Commission. Are there
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
20:50
any questions? Seeing no questions without objection, we'll consider this item reviewed.
William Parrish
Unverified
20:54
Next item. Madam Chair, these are the miscellaneous federal grant appropriation requests, and these are requests by agencies to increase spending authority of federal funds resulting from an unanticipated federal grant award. If a grant expires, state funds will not be used to replace federal funds unless it is later appropriated and authorized by the legislature. The first item is for Parks, Heritage, and Tourism. This is for the Arkansas State Archives and it's a request for 250,552 in federal appropriation and to establish two positions.
They have a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts to send to the Library of Congress a second round of 100,000 pages of historic newspapers. The position titles, class, and grade will be reviewed in personnel later today. This item requires a 25% match which is about 83,000. I spoke with the agency and learned that the match will come largely from in-kind donations from the agency, and that will be staff, labor, and time allocated to the project. A few items will have to be purchased, and the agency will use cash receipts generated from sales of microfilm, photographs, and photocopies to make those purchases.
The next item is for the Department of Higher Education, and it's a request for $228,000 in federal appropriation. They have an additional grant funding from the Corporation for National Community Service, according to the request the appropriation will help align spending authority for the remainder of the fiscal year this item is 100% federally
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
22:19
funded are there any questions seeing no questions without objection we'll consider these oh
sorry representative dockson i didn't see you you're recognized thank you madam
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
22:29
chair i just had a question with regards to the dates on this
says this uh shall be effective from july 1 2018 through june 30th 2019 should it be for next fiscal year or is it for the previous fiscal year aren't we on f am i that jump ahead this is item f sorry it
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
23:01
may be okay so you want to Okay.
All right. So are there any other questions? Okay. Without objection, we'll consider these items reviewed. Next item.
William Parrish
Unverified
23:14
Madam Chair, item F is the Department of Workforce Services' annual report to peer. Special language requires the department to report to peer all transfers made to DHS Division of County Operations. The department transferred $3.3 million in fiscal year 19. The transfers support Arkansas' temporary assistance for needy families program or related programs. According to the report, assistance was provided for participant transportation expenses as well as IT and
administrative costs of the TANF program.
And this report is just for informational purposes. Are
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
23:49
there any questions? Seeing no questions, without objection, we'll consider these items reviewed. Next item. Mr. Madam Chair, the next
William Parrish
Unverified
23:57
items are monthly reports. The first one is the Rainy Day Fund Report, and this report shows Rainy Day Fund income and distributions as of the end of September. Income is listed in the first table. Set-aside projects are listed in the second table. The last table at the bottom of the page shows project distributions and a fund balance
of $32,802,813. If today's Rainy Day Fund release is approved or if it is approved on Friday, the balance will be $1 million shorter or $31.8 million. G2 is the Budget Stabilization Trust Fund Report. It's a report that shows cash flow loans throughout the fiscal year. As of the end of September, there are $26.7 million in outstanding loans, and the cash balance is almost $175 million. G3 is the Tobacco Settlement Report. This report gives a summary
of income, fund balances, investments, actual payments to the state, and on the second page are all expenses by fiscal year. G4 is the State Central Services Fund Report. This report shows the fund balance and disbursements, as well as the expenditures of each agency supported by the fund. And the last report is for the Division of Youth Services. It's a pay plan appropriation usage report. This is a new monthly report based on discussion
of an emergency review of pay plan for DYS in August. The report shows emergency review in July provided $66,000 in additional appropriation for extra help. After making leave payouts, the balance of appropriation was $49,710. Subsequent payrolls removed $29,534 in spending authority, leaving a current appropriation balance of $20,175 as of October 11th. The estimated payroll moving forward will leave an estimated balance of $15,344 on October 31st.
Payroll for the remainder of the year is forecasted at $15,042. And I will note in the reallocation of resources the committee approved earlier in the agenda, DYS is transferring $67,500 from their professional fees on item to extra help. Madam Chair, those are all
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
26:07
the reports. Are there any questions? Seeing no questions, without objection, we'll consider these items reviewed. reviewed other business our next
meeting will be November the 12th is there any other business with that we're adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Cash Fund Appropriation Increase Requests – FY20
C. Items for Approval
D. Budget Classification Transfer Request(s) – FY20
E. Miscellaneous Federal Grant Appropriation Requests – FY20
F. Annual Report from the Department of Workforce Services on State General Revenue Transfers to the Department of Human Services-Division of County Operations
G. Monthly Reports
H. Other Business
I. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC - PEER, Oct 15, 2019 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| B fy20 october cash | Exhibit | 8 | Official source ↗ |
| C-1 fy20 october agriculture rainy_day request | Exhibit | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| C-2 DHS Reallocation | Exhibit | 19 needs OCR | Official source ↗ |
| D fy20 october bct | Exhibit | 3 | Official source ↗ |
| E fy20 october mfg | Exhibit | 5 | Official source ↗ |
| F fy20 october adws tanf report | Exhibit | 3 | Official source ↗ |
| G-1 FY2020 - Period 3 - Rainy Day Projects | Exhibit | 13 | Official source ↗ |
| G-2 Budget Stabilization Trust Report (TBS) | Exhibit | 5 | Official source ↗ |
| G-3 Period 3 Adjusted Tobacco Worksheet Updated September 2019 | Exhibit | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| G-4 fy20 october statecentral services september2019_report | Exhibit | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| G-5 FY20 DYS Extra Help | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
William Parrish
Unverified
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Speaker 17
Cynthia Dunlap
Unverified
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
Speaker 32
Speaker 35
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 41
Speaker 47
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified