ALC-PEER
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Speaker 3
1:30
The chair sees a quorum, the meeting will be called to order. We've got
Speaker 10
1:53
a good number of members here today and in the audience and have a little more on our agenda than normal so we will go ahead
and get started. Mr. Parrish if you would start with agenda item B and I think B1 was pulled so we'll go to B2. Yes
Chair
Unverified
2:09
Mr. Chair. Section B are the cash fund appropriation increase requests. These are requests by agencies to increase the spending authority for line items that are supported by a cash fund account. The request for appropriation only the agencies either have existing funding to carry out requests or will request new funding in a different section of the agenda. The following requests have received an approval recommendation from DF&A and are sent to this
committee for review. B1 has been pulled, so B2 is a letter from Costock Community College of the University of Arkansas. It's a request to increase appropriation by $1 million to their personal services matching line item. The increase will allow the college to pay employee benefits for the remainder of fiscal year 20. I spoke with U of A system and learned that back in the budget hearings, the college attempted to request appropriation levels closer to actual spends. For fiscal year 20, they cut too much. This request will put spending authority back in alignment with need. Next item is a letter from the Department of Education, Division of Career
and Technical Education. It's a request to create a new appropriation section with $2.5 million in spending authority. The new section will allow the division to make a grant to Camp Couchdale. According to this letter, the
William Parrish
Unverified
3:17
grant will cover billing and technology updates and add an agriculture mechanics lab. Funding for this request would come from a rainy day release that we will take up in the next section of the agenda. Any questions
Speaker 10
3:32
on any of those items? If not, they will stand reviewed.
We'll move to item C, and all of the items in C are items for approval.
Chair
Unverified
3:45
Item C-1. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Section C is approval items. the first subsection, C1, is various temporary appropriation requests. And this is a new agenda section for PEER that requires committee approval. In the last budget hearings, there was an emphasis to reduce excess appropriation and encourage agencies to request spending authority closer to the historical spends. For agencies that operate off of cash fund accounts or federal revenue
and have a shortfall in appropriation, there has always been an opportunity to request additional spending authority through PEER, either in a cash fund appropriation increase request or miscellaneous federal grant requests. There was no similar mechanism for agencies to operate from general, special, miscellaneous, or trust fund accounts. In this last session, a new appropriation holding account was added with $250 million in appropriation to transfer to these agencies for various temporary appropriation requests. These requests must first get approval from the CFO, then they also must be approved by LC. There's only one on today's agenda,
and that is a letter from the Department of Corrections Division of Community Corrections. It's a request to increase appropriation by $2.1 million. The increase will allow the agency to pay for expenses above the currently appropriated $3 million spending limit for reimbursements to the counties for housing state inmates. This request for spending authority is an approval item, and the funding for this request would come from a rainy day release that we will take up in subsection C2. Again,
Speaker 10
5:06
as Mr. Parrish mentioned, we'll have the rainy day release to help fund this. This is an increase in appropriation needed for the county jail reimbursement.
Speaker 15
5:13
Are there any questions on this item? Senator Bond Can we get an explanation of why it seems
Speaker 10
5:25
like we're off a lot, right? I think this is historically we've always had to do this but Mr. Bleed, if you'd come forward and give us an explanation Identify yourself
Speaker 17
5:37
for the record, please Jake Bleed, DFA Office of Budget You're right, Senator and that was one of the first questions I asked was how did we get that far off
Over the last few years, we've had to come in during regular sessions to do supplemental requests. So what we've done is we've waited until we got into the legislative session and then did a supplemental. In part, what's going on here is this year we've moved the fiscal session back later in the year because of the preferential primary. So we can't do that. We're going to run out of money. There's also some things going on, which I think Secretary Kelly is here and her staff. She can explain there was some legislation adopted in Act 423 and some other items
which increased the number of folks, state inmates, who are in the county jail system. Right.
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
6:23
And so it says this fund reimburses counties for housing state inmates waiting for bed space and division of community correction facilities. So does that mean something we did in the last session is increase this wait list, at least over the time I've been around, we've been trying to get out of housing as many
Chair
Unverified
6:45
people. Are we back to housing more?
Speaker 23
6:48
Identify yourself for the record, please. Wendy Kelly, I'm the secretary for the Department of Corrections. Senator Bond, this is actually good news. It means the laws y'all passed are working, Act 423, which allows us to send people for sanctions only, turn those beds over quicker, and not send them back to the prison. That's where this increase is coming from. So it's a positive reflection of the criminal justice reforms that
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
7:12
y'all have made. So, well, that sounds good.
But so we're housing where so what you're saying is when we when we revoke them for 45 or 90 days or something, they're staying in the county jail that period of time. So we're paying the county jails. Yes. Yes, sir. OK. And not going back into the state system. As long as they do what they're supposed to in the county
Speaker 23
7:35
jails, then they will get released at the end of that 45- or 90-day period, and they won't go back into the prison system, correct? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions on this item?
Speaker 10
7:52
Again, this is the temporary appropriation request. Do I have a motion to approve? I have a motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Motion carried. That's approved. We'll move to item 2A, C2A. Thank you,
Chair
Unverified
8:14
Mr. Chair. C2 begins the Rainy Day Fund release request. The first item is for the Division of Career and Technical Education. This is a letter from the governor requesting $2.5 million transfer from the Rainy Day Fund
to the Division of Career and Technical Education to make a grant to Camp Couchdale. According to
William Parrish
Unverified
8:30
the cash letter request we reviewed earlier in the agenda, The grant will cover building and technology updates and add an agricultural mechanics lab. Senator
Chair
Unverified
8:39
Stubblefield informed me that he went to Couchdale in the 60s, and I went in the early 70s, and so we both agree that there needs to be some improvements and upgrades. Anyway, are there any questions? Senator Hickey. Yes, and
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
8:52
from the previous thing, I'm in favor of this, but I would like a couple questions to answer.
Who actually holds title to that property? The state. State does, and just one more maybe for the department. Who's going to oversee this project? I
Speaker 35
9:11
know we've got folks both from the Career Technical Education with the Department of Education and also with our Arkansas FFA Foundation, and they might clarify that. I'd like to hear from them. Okay.
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
9:24
It's just I'd like to know exactly what they're going to be done.
Chair
Unverified
9:28
And Jennifer, there are detailed plans made, and they can update. Mr. Eichelberger is with the Department of Education, Career and Technical Education, and then Jennifer Barber-Cook is with the Arkansas FFA Foundation. I'm over here to your left. and again my
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
9:55
my reason for having you up here it's not that i'm against against us doing this
but since it's two and a half million dollars i'd just like to get a little more information see how much work you all have done as far as gathering what this true cost is going to be and then who is going to oversee this to make sure it gets done exactly
Speaker 39
10:17
as we as you all are thinking that it will be absolutely uh well we have a camp director uh mr john jones a retired agri teacher of over 30 years and he sees oversees a lot of the projects that are taking place at camp
with the assistance of course of state staff mr chris bacchus our program coordinator this has kind of been his vision as far as taking agricultural education into the you know the future where it needs to be and so senator malik said it's been around for a long time camp cassell has a lot of tradition um camp hasn't had any major updates since i guess the leadership center was built in 1986 and so we we plan to remodel the leadership center
at agricultural mechanics lab to hold more industry training for our teachers to get our students better equipped to go into the workforce and that all sounds
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
11:15
good just so who within within those organizations have had experience in construction because it appears like to me that there's going to be some some construction projects with this do we have somebody that's had experience with dealing with contractors how are we handling that
Speaker 44
11:36
part I'm Jennifer Cook, I'm the director of the FFA Foundation, and we have a meeting with
Napholtz Construction on January 2nd. They're going to come to Couchdale, and they're going to help us with overseeing a lot of the project. So our plan
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
11:50
is that there will be your general contractor in this? Is that the way it's being
Speaker 44
11:55
set up? Yes, and we will follow their guidance, too, just as far as how to create this Ag Mechanics lab to meet the needs that the industry is requiring from our students. Okay,
Speaker 14
12:10
thank you, ma'am. Representative Dotson, then Senator Irvin.
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
12:14
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On this $2.5 million, is this all one-time capital improvements, or is any of it going to ongoing expenses that we'll have to add to later on?
Speaker 52
12:26
This is a one-time gift. We have other projects that we're wanting to add later, including an ag mechanics lab and additional lodging for students, but this this gift that the governor is giving us will get our phase one completed, which then leaves us another two and a half million that we'll be soliciting from corporate donors and individual gifts. Thank you. Senator
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
12:50
Irvin. Thank you. I mean, one of the questions I have was, I know that there are other locations around the state. Is this, are we duplicating our efforts or are, what I don't want to see is, you know, we having to maintain facilities, you know, in different areas of the state. I know there's facilities that are utilized in Ferndale and other places. So can you tell me, Is this complementary to those locations, or is this a duplication?
And that's my first question. My second question is, is there a bid process for contract for this money? Do y'all go through a bid process if it's a project like this? And what is that process? And then how is that
Speaker 44
13:38
reported back to the legislature? Sure. As far as the first part of your question referred to multiple sites, we are not affiliated with
Speaker 52
13:48
Ferndale or any other camps across the state. Camp Couchdale is strictly an FFA camp,
but with the updates that we have, we're willing to provide that facility for other youth organizations if they need a place to meet if we're not already using it so we've we're so we're separate completely from from Ferndale and we've served over a million students FFA members since the course of its beginning and
Speaker 44
14:17
then as far as the contractor and and for all of the projects and we've worked with an architect I can't remember the architect's name anyways we've
guide our architectural plans and so will we use those with the contractor and yes
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
14:35
right so i was just curious if that was a bid process or how that's determined for a project like this or have y'all already did you have we we
Speaker 59
14:46
currently are in the beginning stages we have the
Speaker 39
14:50
architect drawing we we know uh from what the architect has rendered what it would cost to do the upgrades uh the beginning of negotiations with nabholz is going to take place as far as um we're also
looking you know any kind of industry ties we can make uh that's going to benefit our benefit our students you know we're we're reaching out for those and so um you know we're taking it step by step and and if um the legislature requires us to do a bid process um then then that's what what will follow um yeah and you may not be
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
15:23
able to even answer i i just didn't know if what the process was maybe that's a question mr chair that we need to discuss maybe it's not y'all that can answer that but i think it's important for us to know that there's a process
in place because it's 2.5 million dollars and so i know that um yeah i just think it's important that we have some sort of idea about how that money's being spent and if there's a big process in place and how those contractors are seeing all of that to follow what we do elsewhere in state government. Does that make sense? Senator Irvin, we can get that information
Chair
Unverified
16:00
and have them to continually update us and then we'll update the committee. No problem. Thank you. Senator Stubblefield.
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
16:07
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You said NABBOLTS is the general
Speaker 52
16:14
contractor? They are not the general contractor, they are meeting with us to discuss what we're wanting to do with the Ag Mechanics Lab specifically. They're very interested in us because of some apprenticeship programs that they have for students in the Springdale area, and so they're wanting to be heavily involved with how
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
16:33
we proceed. Were there any other options besides
Speaker 52
16:36
NABOs? Not at this point. They're our launching
Speaker 44
16:39
pad to see what what their ideas are for how do we kind of begin with the end in mind and
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
16:48
particularly with our ag mechanics lab well the reason i ask you this is because i've had some some people businesses in my district that have had some very uh bad results with this company okay short cutting on on different things and building and i expect in fact i spent a whole day last a little over a week ago in one of my towns where they had overseen a project there
and it was just amazing what they had done the things they had done wrong so I think before we turn this over to them that needs to be looked into really we need to
Speaker 52
17:27
see if there's some other companies another option well and and honestly their their desire is to see if they if they want to build the shop for us with their ideas on the types of additional equipment that we would include also. So that doesn't necessarily mean that they will have the end say in everything
that we do. We're simply using their ideas and leadership in what is the industry wanting and then they're in turn will decide if they would be interested in and building this for us. Well, their ideas didn't fare too well in my
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
18:00
district. So anyway, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. Is it fair to say that we're
Chair
Unverified
18:06
still at the preliminary stages, and as far as the bidding or general contractor, that we haven't gotten to that stage yet? Yes. But
Speaker 35
18:15
again, I just ask that you would keep our staff informed,
and then we will pass that along to the
Speaker 10
18:24
committee. Other questions? If not, this is an approval item. do I have a motion to approve? I have a motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? All in favor
Chair
Unverified
18:36
say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carried. The item is approved. Thank you. And before we go to the next item, I just want to take a moment to recognize some folks that have worked on this. Most of you all know that whether there's a blue jacket or a green jacket in the Capitol,
I'm going to try to grab a hold of those young people, both FFA and 4-H, because of the good work that they do. Senator Rapert has been very involved in this, has an FFA background. Senator Clark, Couchdale is in his district, and Senator Clark's been supportive, and we appreciate all that have worked on that, and we'll keep you apprised as this project moves forward. So thank you.
Item C2B. Thank you, Mr. Chair. C2B is for the Department of Corrections Division of Community corrections this is a letter from the governor requesting 4.5 million transfer from the rainy
day fund to the department of corrections funding will be used to provide reimbursements to counties to counties housing state inmates all right and this is a sort
of paired up with the increase in appropriation that we did earlier for the reimbursement for county jail any questions on this item. Do I hear a motion to approve?
Speaker 10
19:47
Motion. I have a motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carried. That item is approved. 2C. Mr. Chair, C2C is for DHS
Chair
Unverified
20:00
Division of Medical Services. This is a letter from the governor requesting 3.4 million transfer from the rainy day fund to DHS. Funding will be used to support Medicaid rate changes for providers of adult development day treatment, early intervention day treatment, and personal care services. And as I understand, the rate change is a consequence of the increase in minimum wage. Representative Dodson, you're
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
20:22
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is probably more of a question for staff, not necessarily on this particular item, but what does this bring the
rainy day account fund balance to and how much do we have left for the
William Parrish
Unverified
20:42
remainder of the year? Rep. Sam Dodson, if all three leases are approved on Friday at
Chair
Unverified
20:47
ALC, the balance will be $10.4 million less, which would bring the rainy day fund down to $16.8 million.
Thank you. Do we have someone from DHS that can answer some questions on this item?
Thank you. Mr. White, state your name for the record, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mark White with DHS. I'm supportive of this, and I know certainly with the increase in minimum wage that it's something not only for these adult developmental day treatment centers, but throughout because
of the impact of the minimum wage. But my question is, how did we arrive at this amount, and was there, how did we come up with the amount that we're doing to increase? I mean, we've got a total dollar amount, but as far as the reimbursement to
Speaker 75
21:50
providers. Certainly. We have been undergoing rate reviews for Medicaid providers. If you recall, the governor issued an executive order earlier this year in which he directed us to do regular rate reviews at least once every four years for all classes of Medicaid providers.
And so these two groups, the adult, the ADDT, EIDT group on the one hand, and then personal care on the other, those are in the first wave of providers we looked at. And so we worked with, we initially distributed cost surveys to those providers to get information about their cost, about what it cost them to do business and provide these services. We took that along with other information and worked with contracted actuaries to come up with the amount of the increases that we are recommending. and then from that we determined what would the budget impact be for these next six months january
1 through june 30 because these rate increases are not something that we're budgeted for as part of our regular medicaid budget and so that's where the the dollar figure came from as well as those percentages for the rate increase can can we get a copy of the rate review we should have those in today the final versions i think they're just correcting some typos and some errors we certainly can provide that to staff to
Speaker 32
23:04
distribute to the members. Thank you. Any
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
23:07
representative? Lademan first. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. White, this group, this DD group that you're talking
about here, I don't know about other people, but I've got a lot of comments from people working in this section that, you know, they're barely making it. You know, they're in financial stress, basically so how long has it been since there's been a an increase in the amount that we're raising the rates for these folks for
Speaker 75
23:36
the addt and eidt providers in their last increase was it was either 2008 or 2009 so it's been at least 10 years since they had an increase
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
23:46
representative douglas thank you mr chair mark good to see you this morning i appreciate this this increase that this work uh we have the total dollar amount uh we don't have a figure here in our information on how much per hour that will increase the the rates could you give us how much increase that this is going to be i don't believe i have that
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
24:17
here who does have those the way i understand it was 1.4 percent is
Speaker 75
24:23
that correct for personal care is 1.4 percent. For the ADDT, EIDT, that was 11 percent was the increase. Okay. And my memory is that it would move it from $18 an hour to, I believe, $18.24
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
24:39
on personal care. Okay. So we're talking about 25 cent an hour increase whenever since the, well, according to the figures I have
in 2016, the minimum wage was $8 an hour. Beginning of 2020, it's going to be $10 an hour. That's a $2 increase per hour in the minimum wage. 2011, it'll be $3 an hour, because 2021 will go to $11. And while we appreciate the effort here to give them something, we've got the minimum wage that has increased three dollars an hour or will have by 2021 and we're just giving them 24 25 cent an
hour increase now according to some providers i've talked to they're losing money right now or just barely breaking even and a lot of these will go out of business i talked to one provider that said he'll have to lay off 625 employees and quit servicing all Medicaid clients. And these people will have to transfer a lot of them into nursing homes where we pay $5,400 a month instead of $1,500, $1,600 a month.
In this Milliman study, the rate increase, the way I understand this, we're giving them $0.25 an hour now, And then, have we any idea what the increase would be, the new base rate from Milliman, to figure into next year's budget? At this point, we don't know
Speaker 83
26:19
that number. This is an interim rate at this point, and we are going to take
Speaker 75
26:25
a second look at that. And it is an interim rate calculated by Milliman as the cost of doing business as of January 1, 2020.
And, of course, as you indicated, there are other changes coming down the pike between now and 2021. one so we are going to continue to look at that we're going to look to see if there's additional data that we can get we did have i believe about 30 providers who had submitted cost data to us for personal care i think we may look to see if we can get some additional data from providers and just take a second look at that and then just to be clear in terms of how that rate is built we didn't ask milton to look at it in terms of what's an appropriate increase rather we asked them to look at what is the cost of providing that service and then so and that was what gives
us the rate and so that's how they approached
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
27:14
it and where they came back with that number okay well i i just have have grave concerns that we're going to have a lot of providers go out of business or quit servicing medicaid clients we're going to have a lot of people unemployed because this group does employ a lot of people throughout the state, and we're going to have a lot of frail and elderly people that want to stay in their homes and are best service there
that are going to be left out in the cold or going to a nursing home, which is going to cost us more money. So I would just encourage us to take a strong look at the Milliman study, try to get that information out as soon as possible because all these providers have to figure their budgets and figure out if they're going to be losing money or not and if they're going to continue to service this clientele. Yes, sir. We'll certainly do that. Thank you, Representative.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
28:11
Senator Irvin, you're recognized. Thank you. I just want to thank Mark and the folks
at DHS visiting with me about this last week and the process that you are going through on rate review i think is really important because if you know medicaid medicaid is this huge huge huge pie and so there's all these pieces to the pie there's all these folks involved in medicaid and so if you don't have a systematic approach to a rate review then you really can't
do justice i think to the entirety of medicaid and the people that medicaid serves um and i think so you know your process and i know what you're going through is really important and i think it's important for us as a legislature to understand that that's the process that needs to be driving this versus another issue that really was not in our control which was the minimum wage issue that was an issue that was voted on at the ballot box that we did not enact
in the legislature it is our reality that we have to deal with but the rate review really does take into consideration i think the entirety of the medicaid budget and our budget within you know the entire state budget medicaid is a huge portion of that so i just you know to i just wanted to make that comment Mr. Chair really not a question but I do appreciate the process that they have put in place and that was through an executive order from the governor and governor recognized that
along with DHS so that you know we can have a fair process because many of these rates have not been increased for some it's been over 20 years for some it's 8 to 10 so they're taking all these factors into consideration, but I think it's a right process and the right way to go. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator. Any other questions? If not,
Speaker 10
30:09
this is an approval item. Do I have a motion to approve? I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor
say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carried. Let me make one comment with respect to the rainy day fund
Chair
Unverified
30:27
releases, and I've discussed this with Mr. Bleed, particularly for those that are announced before even an agenda comes out just a request from the governor's office or from dfna to give the committee a little bit of a heads up and a little reasoning behind those so when we're asked particularly if there are public announcements made we would have a little more information so if we could do that mr bleed i'd appreciate it thank you all right we'll move to item c3
mr chair c3 are the appropriation and or fund transfer requests that require approval The first item is a letter from the Department of Commerce Division of Workforce Services. Special language in the department's bill authorizes the director to make an appropriation transfer after prior approval from ALC. According to the letter, the department requests transferring $150,000 in spending authority from their Trade Adjustment Assistance line item to their Payment to Participant Contractors
line item. The transfer will allow the department to provide reimbursement to participants in the program through electronic payment as required by the federal government. This is item
Speaker 10
31:33
C-3A. Any questions on this item? It's an approval item. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion and second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carried. Next item. Mr.
Chair
Unverified
31:49
Chair, the next item, C-3B, is for the Arkansas Department of Transportation.
This is a letter from the governor requesting transfer of $20 million in funding from the Arkansas Highway Transfer Fund to the department's main operating fund. Funds will be used to match federal aid for scheduled transportation projects. The funding came from interest earnings from the Treasurer's Securities Reserve Fund, as directed by the Arkansas Highway Improvement Plan in 2016. This is the first transfer request to match funds for federal fiscal year 20. The goal of the plan is to produce $50 million in matching funds to draw down all available federal aid. Representative Dotson, you're recognized
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
32:24
Thank you, Mr. Chair These funds does this is this in addition to the surplus funds, the quarter percent, or the quarter of the surplus funds Representative Dotson, it's part of it. There's 20 million that
William Parrish
Unverified
32:39
comes from the Securities Reserve Fund There's 25% of whatever surplus is available at the end of the year, plus two other sources that produce 2.7 million and 6 million So they go into the
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
32:50
highway transfer fund and then this is the first draw off of that yes sir okay thank you any other
Speaker 10
32:58
questions this is our final approval item do I have a motion to approve have a motion second any discussion all in favor say aye opposed no motion carried that's items approved we'll move to
Chair
Unverified
33:18
item D. Mr. Chair, Section D are the appropriation and or fund transfer requests that only require review. D-1 is a letter from the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, Commission for
Parent Counsel. Special language and commission's bill allows the director to make appropriation transfers after prior review by ALC. According to this letter, the commission requests transferring $300,000 from their extra help line item, sending $280,000 to their legal services refunds line item, and $20,000 to their operating expenses line item. Parent counsel was formerly part of the administrative office of the courts and was relocated to the Public Defender Commission. During that relocation, an estimate was made on how much appropriation was needed for the 14 part-time attorneys, and spending authority was moved from legal services to extra help.
That estimate proved to be too high and did not leave enough appropriation to cover contracts and legal services or from mileage reimbursements. This transfer would correct your budget. Any questions on this item? If not, it will stand reviewed. Item E. Mr. Chair, Section E are the budget classification transfer requests. These are requests by agencies to make
William Parrish
Unverified
34:26
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 request is for appropriation only. The agencies
Chair
Unverified
34:40
have funding to carry out the request. There's only one on today's agenda, and that is for DF&A Management Services. It's a request to transfer $5,000 from operating expenses to conference and travel. The transfer will accommodate travel to a required conference for the governor's council on developmental disabilities. And the request notes inconsistent scheduling of the conference is why it was not originally included in the budget. Any questions? If not, it'll stand reviewed.
item F. Section F are the miscellaneous federal grant appropriation requests. 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 Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism, and the agency did request to have this item pulled down due to their ongoing capital campaign. The next item, F2, is for the Department of Public Safety, Division of Arkansas State
Police. It's a request for $2.5 million in federal appropriation and to establish one position. They have a grant from the Department of Workforce Services to make a sub-award for children advocacy centers to provide victim services to children. The position, a grants coordinator, will be reviewed in personnel committee later today for title, class, and grade, and this item is 100% federally funded. The next item is for the insurance department, Department of Commerce State Insurance Department. It's a request for $200,000 in federal appropriation. They have a grant from the Department of Health
and Human Services to provide application assistance for a
William Parrish
Unverified
36:16
low-income subsidy program as well as to do outreach aimed at preventing disease and promoting wellness. This item is 100% federally funded. The next
Chair
Unverified
36:27
item is for the Department of Health. It's a request for $5.7 million in federal appropriation. They have a grant from Health Resources and Services Administration to continue providing medical support and medication services to those living with HIV. This item is 100% federally funded. Any questions on any of these items?
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
36:45
senator ervin just on the health department you don't need to come to the table but if you could just get me some information about the hep c issue and where we are across the state thanks any other questions senator hickey i'm trying to
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
37:05
look through here they're all federally funding to set for which one is it this first one parks heritage and tourism and it was pulled And that one's pulled? Yes. Okay, fair enough. Thank you.
Speaker 10
37:16
Other questions? If not, these items will stand reviewed. Item G. Mr.
Chair
Unverified
37:25
Chair, Section G is the pay plan holding account transfer request. These are requests by agencies to increase spending authority to pay regular salaries, extra help, and personal services matching. The requests are for appropriation only. The agencies have existing funding to make the increased payments. The requests were approved by DFNA or sent to this committee for review, and there's only one on today's agenda. It's on the second page.
It's for the Arkansas Department of Education, Arkansas School for the Deaf. They request to increase appropriation by $85,000 to their extra helpline item. According to the request, the increase is for substitute teachers and staff to ensure student safety and compliance with the Department of Education as well as continuation of the school's statewide services. Any questions? If not, that item will
Speaker 10
38:08
stand reviewed. Our monthly reports, item H. MR. H begins monthly reports.
Chair
Unverified
38:18
The first one, H1, is a rainy day fund report, and this report shows rainy day fund income and
William Parrish
Unverified
38:25
distributions as of the end of November. 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 $27,275,178. But again, if today's rainy day release requests were approved on Friday, the balance will be $10.4 million less, or $16,875,178. H2 is the budget stabilization trust fund report, and it shows cash flow loans throughout
the fiscal year. As of the end of November, there are $28 million in outstanding loans, and the cash balance is almost $173 million. H3 is the tobacco settlement report, and it gives a summary of income, fund balances, actual payments to the state, and on the second page are
Chair
Unverified
39:09
all expenses by fiscal year. The last report is the state central services fund report, and it shows the fund balance and disbursements, as well as the expenditures of each agency supported by the fund.
Those are simply reports, but we'll entertain any questions if you have them. If not, that completes our agenda. Does any member have any other
Speaker 10
39:37
business? Madam Co-Chair, you have anything? Our next meeting will be January the 14th for Pierre. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas
Chair
Unverified
39:45
and Happy New Year. If there's nothing else, we'll stand adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Cash Fund Appropriation Increase Requests – FY20
C. Items for Approval
D. Appropriation and/or Funds Transfer Requests(s)
E. Budget Classification Transfer Request(s) – FY20
F. Miscellaneous Federal Grant Appropriation Requests – FY20
G. Performance Fund/Pay Plan Holding Account Transfer Request(s) – FY20
H. Monthly Reports
I. Other Business
J. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 3
Speaker 10
Chair
Unverified
William Parrish
Unverified
Speaker 15
Speaker 17
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
Speaker 23
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Speaker 35
Speaker 39
Speaker 44
Speaker 14
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 52
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 59
Senator Gary Stubblefield
Unverified
Speaker 75
Speaker 32
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Representative Dan M. Douglas
Unverified
Speaker 83