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Unknown speaker
0:00
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Chair
Unverified
5:30
The chair sees a quorum. The meeting will be called to order. Before we get into our agenda, I do want to announce to the committee that Representative Charlene Fite is joining us by teleconference today. She had surgery on her hand but did want to participate, and so she is listening and will be able to participate if she has any questions, or if there are any questions that might be directed toward her on a couple of the agenda items that she has worked
Speaker 7
6:00
on so welcome to all the members and welcome to representative fight and with that we will move to
William Parrish
Unverified
6:10
agenda item b thank you mr chair section b are the cash fund appropriation increased requests these are requests by agencies to increase the spending authority for line items that are supported by a cash fund account the requests are for appropriation only the agencies have existing funding to carry out the request. The first item is a letter from the Department of Corrections Division of Community Correction. It's a request to establish a new appropriation with $100,000
in the spending authority. The request will allow a division to maintain federal asset forfeiture settlements in a separate account as required by law. The letter says the appropriation will be used for law enforcement and prosecutorial purposes. I did speak with the division and learned they have not previously received these funds, so this is a new revenue source for corrections. The next item is a letter for the Department of Veterans Affairs. It's a request to increase appropriation by 10,000 to their conference and travel line item for veterans homes. The increase will allow staff to travel to a national meeting. These activities are supported
by resident fees, Medicaid, Medicare, the federal VA, and third-party companies. The next item is a letter from SAU Tech. This is a request to increase appropriation by 5.1 million to add a new line item for construction. The increase will allow the college to continue construction of a dorm. This project is supported by a rainy day fund release, and the letter notes that additional requests for spending authority will be made as more funds are released, with a total project cost of $11.7 million. For the committee's information, there was a rainy day release
back in October for $5.1 million to the Division of Higher Education. It's their Development Enhancement Fund Bill, and that was for Fire Training Academy Residence Hall Construction. the next item is a letter for the department of education division of elementary and secondary education this is a request to increase appropriation by 250 000 to two line items for the professional licensure standards board the increase will allow the purchase of fingerprinting machines and to make grants to educational cooperatives to purchase fingerprinting machines the letter notes act 1040 of 2019 requires non-licensed employees complete a background
check every five years. The board is supported by teacher licensing fees and fines for license violations. The last item is a letter from the Department of Finance and Administration Racing Commission. This is a request to increase appropriation by $10 million to a refunds line item. The increase will allow the commission to distribute funds from the casino gaming tax to racing franchise holders per Arkansas Constitutional Amendment 100. The portion of this tax and this fund is dedicated to live purses for racing. The letter notes increases the casino revenue have exhausted their current level of appropriation, and according to their bill,
their current appropriation level is $5 million, which has all been distributed. And I spoke with the department and learned that they are requesting this additional $10 million in authority because deposits each month have grown as the year went on, because of expansions happening at existing casinos, and because of the new casino opening at Pine
Bluff and possibly Pope County. Mr. Chair, those are the requests in today's agenda.
Speaker 7
9:06
Any questions on any of these items? if not they will stand reviewed we'll move to agenda item c and these are approval items
William Parrish
Unverified
9:15
thank you mr chair the first section for c our appropriation and or fund transfer requests there's only one item on the agenda this is a letter from the department of education division of elementary and secondary education special language in the department's bill allows transfers of spending authority after approval by ALC. The department requests moving $6.5 million in appropriation from the school funding contingency section to the declining enrollment appropriation section. The transfer will allow the department to make payments to school districts as required by law for declining enrollment.
Chair
Unverified
9:50
Any questions on this item? This is an approval item. I have a motion to approve. I have a motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carried. That item is approved.
William Parrish
Unverified
10:09
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next section are for Rainy Day Fund release requests. The first item is a letter from the governor requesting a transfer of $1.2 million in funding from the Rainy Day Fund to the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. The release
will be used to provide funding for the Succeed Scholarship Program. That program provides scholarships to eligible private schools for students with disabilities that have an individualized education program or an individualized service plan and students in foster care living in a group home or facility that
meet eligibility requirements. Any questions on this item? If not, do I have a motion
Chair
Unverified
10:44
to approve? I have a motion and a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carried. That item is approved.
William Parrish
Unverified
10:54
the next item is a letter from the governor requesting a transfer of 1 million in funding from the rainy day fund to the division of aging adult and behavioral health services this release will be used to provide funding for senior citizen
Chair
Unverified
11:11
centers all right members now i know a lot of you have worked on this i do want to comment that this effort was spearheaded by representative fight and i'm i didn't ask her but i'm sure that might be the reason she wanted to make certain that she joined the meeting today we do know that these funds will be distributed in the same manner that other as far as which centers get the money
it's in the same formula that existing funding is distributed so this will be a million dollar release from rainy day for senior centers. Madam co-chair. Thank you Mr. Chair. Can
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
11:40
you come to the end of the table for just a second? Thank you, Mr.
Bleed. So, I will say I'm grateful for this money, but I know that we asked for $3 million.
So, can you tell us how y'all arrived at $1 million instead of the $3 million that we
Speaker 19
12:08
asked for? That was a decision that ultimately came from the governor's office. Of course, he has a limited amount of funding available to him.
Speaker 21
12:14
We are obviously mindful of the need that's out there. As far as the exact decision-making process that went in there, I can't necessarily speak to that. but we are aware that there's a need and this is to help answer that
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
12:25
well i think the need is much greater than just one million just so you kind of know that i think that it's more in the need of the three million dollars i am grateful for that um whenever it goes to the
triple a's will it still be divided amongst the area in the same as the same formula yes my understanding is
Speaker 19
12:43
it will be distributed according to the same formula that the current revenue stream is is distributed okay thank you
Chair
Unverified
12:52
any other questions comments senator urban thank
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
12:56
you can you um when the money is transferred to the triple a's um do they then give an accounting back to you as to how that money is spent with the
Speaker 21
13:05
chair's permission i'd like someone from the
Speaker 34
13:07
agency to come help me answer that would you identify yourself for the record please thank you Mr. Chairman Mark White with DHS Jay Hill with Aging Adult Behavioral thank you and to answer your question the they're required to submit area plans to us that identify how they will expend their funds so my understanding is
they'll be submitting an amendment to those area plans explaining
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
13:43
how they'll expend these funds. Okay, Mr. Chair, can I just ask quickly, can you give me a whole overview picture of this funding, just so that we know exactly how much has been appropriated and spent, and do they take out anything for administrative fees or anything? I want to know how much of this actually is going to go to the senior centers for all these different things.
Because every time I turn around, I'm trying to help raise money for my senior centers to provide for our church just gave, I think, about $4,000 to Meals on Wheels, you know, and so in Stone County. So I'd really like to know how this money is being spent. Sure. The AAAs fund their senior centers
Speaker 34
14:36
through a variety of different funding streams that come from us, both funds that come from the state, including federal funds, as well as funds that are raised locally
through private donations, charities, local governments, and other sources. For senior center funding specifically, there was a $5 million appropriation for senior centers across the state. and back in the session you all increased that appropriation to eight million even though the funding remained at five million since then there's been a half million that was added to that thanks to special language that was in the act from unobligated funds from DHS that were swept the end of last fiscal year plus then this additional one million dollars it this there
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
15:19
is a percentage a limit so five five was funded but eight was appropriated correct so the half million so now we're at 5.5 and then this would take us to seven or 6.5 correct is that correct
Speaker 34
15:33
okay it is and then the triple a is also you leverage other federal funds to support the senior centers and so nutrition funding is the biggest piece of that right which is also flows through us and i've got some numbers
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
15:46
on that if you if you'd like i'd like to
Speaker 34
15:52
yes i'd like a full picture sure so for this fiscal year we are projecting a total of 15.9 million dollars in
federal funding going to the triple a's and
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
16:06
that's in addition to state revenue that's in
Speaker 34
16:08
addition to state revenue a 15.9 plus 6.5 yes and then the total state funding uh including not including this money today is at looks at 11.3 million and that's not only senior center center funding but also aging service funding and older worker funding which goes to them some of which can be used for the senior centers but that can vary from triple a to triple a and then they also have
special revenues of 2.3 million and so that puts all together including the million dollars today that would mean total funding stream of just over 30 million dollars okay okay all right mr white
Chair
Unverified
16:46
can you provide that information to mr parish and then he can disseminate it to the committee yes senator rice you're recognized
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
16:53
thank you thank you i would just like to follow up i am appreciative of the money
that's been put in it many legislators have mentioned about
and Senator Irvin just dialed in on the fact there's still a gap in where we had hoped it would be. With the expanding population of seniors, and especially many that we know of and hear of that have nutritional deficits, that the senior centers were able to help, and now many can't or can't do near what you hope they would. I hope there's a continued emphasis that we realize the seniors who many have worked their lives are now kind of on the back burner, and I'm getting in there with them.
I hope the legislature keeps this on the front burner and continued pressure. We can find money to do a lot of things, and these contracts, I know so many things, even when I'm saying multimillion-dollar contracts, I just wish we could scrape a little around the edge and put it in a pot to help those who are vulnerable
of our seniors. So let's all keep that on the forefront. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 26
18:22
Thank you, Senator Rice. Senator Bond? Well, and I was just,
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
18:26
I guess I had in my mind, which could be wrong, part of the problem with the AAA funding has been some declining or leveling in the cigarette. They receive a portion of a cigarette tax.
Speaker 34
18:38
Is that right? Do you have? I believe so. I think I actually have those numbers here. It's on the cigarette tax. What we've allocated in the funding, it's varied over the years, but anecdotally I've heard that it is declining over time.
Chair
Unverified
18:55
Thank you. Any other questions? Now, I do have a motion to approve on the floor. If there's no further discussion, all in favor of approving this item, say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Motion carried. That item is approved. Thank you. Thank
William Parrish
Unverified
19:21
you. Next item. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next section are miscellaneous federal grant appropriation requests. These are requests by agencies to increase spending authority of federal funds
resulting from an unanticipated federal grant award. The first item is a request for the Department of Human Services. It's a request for a little over a million in federal appropriation for the Division of County Operations. They have a grant from USDA to provide employment and training services for SNAP recipients, and this item is 100% federally funded. The next item is also for Department of Human Services. It's a request for $1.3 million in federal appropriation for the Division of County Operations. Similar to the last item, they have a grant from USDA to provide
employment and training services for SNAP recipients. However, a separate request is made to place appropriation in a different fund to make subgrants from this award. This item is 100% federally funded. The next item is for the Department of Public Safety. It's a request for $450,000 in federal appropriation for the Arkansas State Police. They have a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to implement an in-car camera and back-end video storage system. This item is 100% federally funded. The next item is again from the Department
of Public Safety. It's a request for $53,000 in federal appropriation from the Arkansas State Police. They have another grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to buy servers to continue development of the e-citation system. This item is 100% federally funded. The next item is for, again, the Department of Public Safety. It's a request for $60,000 in federal appropriation for the Arkansas State Police. This is also a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to buy servers to continue development of the e-crash system. This item is 100% federally funded. The last item is for the Department of Education.
It's a request for $3 million in federal appropriation for the Division of Higher Education. They have a grant from the Health and Human Services to update the database and provide professional development for the Career Pathways Initiative program. This item is 100% fairly funded.
Speaker 25
21:23
Any questions on any of these items? Representative Dodson. Thank
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
21:28
You Mr. Chair. This is for the State Police.
Speaker 57
21:45
identify yourself for the record please alan fitzgerald chief
Speaker 58
22:03
information officer department public safety jenna castleberry assistant controller department
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
22:07
of public safety thank you um so this is on item three which is the 450 000 for uh the dwi camera system i guess is this is this something that's going to go into all the patrol cars
or is it do we already have cameras in place and this is just a back-end backup system
Speaker 57
22:28
what can you go in a little bit more detail on what this does yes sir uh yes we have uh in car cameras on every single one of our units right now we've had them in place probably about six years right now this is for the back-end storage and arrays for that currently we have approximately 42 download servers throughout the state we're needing to basically replace those because they've reached their end of life so we're actually going to consolidate actually 42 servers down to two
we're going to house one in the little rock area and one in northwest arkansas okay and and this
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
23:03
covers both of those two two locations in their entirety so we'll we'll have that for the next half dozen years or whatever until the next end of life yes sir okay thank you any
Chair
Unverified
23:13
other questions just on the state police item right now or any of the state police items all right thank you any questions on any of the other items on a agenda item d
Speaker 7
23:28
if not then these items will stand reviewed we'll move to agenda item e
William Parrish
Unverified
23:32
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Section E are the pay plan holding account transfer requests. These are requests by agencies to increase spending authority to pay regular salaries, extra help, and personal services matching. Their first item is a request for the Department of Education, the Educational Television Division. They request an increase appropriation by $17,000 to their extra help line item. According to the request, it is to maintain various programs in
operations and our staff I'm sorry our staff spoke with the department and learned extra help was needed due to two field engineers retiring and they are currently under a hiring freeze the next item is for the department of health Arkansas psychology board it's a request to increase appropriation by 32,000 to the regular salaries and personal services matching line items according to the request the increase is needed for fiscal
year adjustments pay plan implementation and performance increases any questions on either of those items if
Chair
Unverified
24:32
not they'll stand reviewed we'll move to the quarterly reports
William Parrish
Unverified
24:36
thank you mr chair the first report is for the dhs interagency and division match fund transfers and this report shows the quarterly interagency division match fund transfers as required in special language the report shows over 3.1 million transfers from the individual divisions fund accounts to the corresponding grant payment accounts the next item is for the office of Attorney General cash settlement fund and this report shows the quarterly cash account activity. The report details eight settlements and shows the balance of
cash funds on the first page and on the next page and on the following pages are the cash receipts and distributions. Next item is for the Arkansas State Police. It's a report that shows asset forfeiture expenditures for each quarter of the fiscal year. The second page of the report shows $178,000 in expenditures for the second quarter out of the TPC0100 fund. That's the fund for federal asset forfeitures. And on the third page, it shows, I'm sorry, $14,000 in expenditures in the second
quarter out of the TPC0200 fund. That is the fund for state asset forfeitures. The next report is for federal grant applications, and it shows all federal grant applications by state agencies in second quarter of fiscal year 2020. The next report is also for federal grant awards and this report shows all federal grant awards state agencies in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020. The last quarter report is from ADEQ. It is a status report on the Bella Vista
hazardous waste removal and this report is required by special language passed in the last session. The agency received $20 million in additional appropriation and the ability to receive $10 million in loans from the Budget Stabilization Trust Fund to remediate the underground fire site in Bella Vista. According to the report, total expenses incurred by the state to date are $1.3 million, with $193,000 of that incurred in the last quarter. All expenses will be paid out of the Hazardous Substance Rebeal Action Trust Fund, and a loan from the Budget Stabilization Trust Fund is not required at this time. The Bella Vista Property Owners
Association assumed ownership over the project and completed fire suppression in June and is currently working on restoration plans. The report states the agency is actively investigating potentially responsible parties who could be held liable to the state for cost of the remedial or recovery actions at the site. It notes that the administrative order for Thomas Fredericks that we reviewed in our last quarterly report was rescinded in January. The report continues that the agency will continue to seek cost recovery when the investigation is complete and there's a final accounting of all expenses incurred by the state.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
27:20
Senator Irvin. Yes, thank you. I just have a question on the, did you say the appropriation
for this was $20 million? And we've spent $1.336 is total. Is
there any, is anybody from ADEQ that could answer, is this $20 million appropriation necessary to continue or will that be adjusted thank you mr chair and
Chair
Unverified
27:50
we'll let mr bleed or whoever take
care of that of course i think the property owners association took over a lot of that after we
Speaker 7
27:57
thought the state might have to do but let me let
Speaker 21
28:00
mr believe clarify my memory of that was we put that budget in place when we were expecting for the state to have to take on a lion's share of that right since that time the property owners association did step up so uh you're correct in thinking probably we're a little higher than not but we're not out of the woods yet so I think we do do regular reports on this and if this is something that we need more information on I'm happy to get ADEQ to
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
28:23
reach out. No my question really is financially like if it was necessary
to continue that 20 million dollar appropriation or is that going
to be adjusted because of the change in circumstances that you just talked about? Sure and we can get
Speaker 19
28:35
back to you on that My guess is the answer is probably not, but it's a very difficult and expensive situation up there. So it could very well be that we
Speaker 21
28:43
may end up on the hook on it. So I need to look into
Speaker 45
28:48
it further. Okay, if you could just get that
Chair
Unverified
28:50
to the chairs. We'll deal with that in fiscal session, so you'll have that information, and we will certainly debate it then.
Speaker 70
28:56
Yep, that's fine. Thank you. Senator Ingram. I just want to refresh my memory, not on the financial part, but was this a property owner that had a piece of property that people dumped the waste on without their knowledge? Remind me of the circumstances of this. I will do the best I can. The agency
Speaker 21
29:22
is obviously going to be the best source for this, but my recollection from
the time is it's something that i think was common knowledge uh there were records showing and this goes very very far back uh but as far as how exactly we ended up in the situation that we're in with what whatever was placed there and and and then how it was handled would really need to come from the agency i'm afraid any other questions on any of
Speaker 72
29:48
the reports all right identify yourself with the record please
Speaker 74
29:58
michael grippe department of energy and
Speaker 70
30:07
environment sorry the question senator go ahead michael refresh uh our memory on this was this illegal dumping
Speaker 76
30:13
that took part uh took place on an individual's property that he was unaware of uh when when it took place we're
Speaker 70
30:22
we're talking about Cherokee Village or Bella Vista excuse me
Speaker 77
30:28
another Cooper community I'm sorry please don't let there only be one yeah
Speaker 79
30:32
uh my understanding that the property was uh part of the uh Bella Vista property owners association
Speaker 81
30:39
and at some point they sold it to a private individual after they'd used it for a number of
Speaker 76
30:48
years And the individual they sold it to was responsible for putting this fill in that ultimately
Speaker 81
30:55
caught on fire? I can't answer that.
Only because I don't know how or what part of that caused the fire. It just started and it
Speaker 70
31:06
spread throughout the landfill. But do you know whether it was the
Speaker 76
31:11
landowners that they were aware that this was being placed on their property? my
Speaker 79
31:20
understanding that over the years that the property owners association owned it it
Speaker 81
31:27
was used as a dumping ground if you will for the citizens of that area okay that's that's all
Speaker 5
31:36
i need thank you and on the the back page of our report it basically states that deq is still
Chair
Unverified
31:41
investigating i guess who the responsible parties are so that we can seek any cost recovery that's correct any other questions on this particular item our apologies thank you or on any of the other reports all right those are simply reports so they'll be filed and we'll move to our monthly
William Parrish
Unverified
32:05
reports thank you mr chair the first monthly report is a rainy day fund report and it shows the
rainy day fund income and distributions as of the end of january income is listed in the first table set aside projects are listed at the second table. The last table at the bottom of the page shows project distributions and a fund balance of $20,069,652. Should today's rainy day releases be approved on Friday at ALC, the balance will be $17.8 million. The next report is for the budget stabilization trust fund and it shows cash flow loans throughout the fiscal year. As of the end
of January, there are almost $25 million in outstanding loans and the cash balance is just under 176 million the next report is from the tobacco settlement and it gives a summary of income fund balances investments actual payments to the state and on the second page are all expenses by fiscal year the last report is for the state central services fund and it shows the fund balance and disbursements as well as the expenditures of each agency supported by the
fund any questions on any of these reports
Chair
Unverified
33:13
if not they'll be filed our next meeting is March 17th would that be correct any other questions or comments any other business to come before the committee if not thank you for your attendance and for your attention if there's nothing further the meeting is adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Cash Fund Appropriation Increase Requests – FY20
C. Items for Approval
D. Miscellaneous Federal Grant Appropriation Requests – FY20
E. Performance Fund/Pay Plan Holding Account Transfer Request(s) – FY20
F. Quarterly Reports
G. Monthly Reports
H. Other Business
I. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 2
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 7
William Parrish
Unverified
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Speaker 19
Speaker 21
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 34
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 26
Senator Will Bond
Unverified
Speaker 25
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 57
Speaker 58
Speaker 45
Speaker 70
Speaker 72
Speaker 74
Speaker 76
Speaker 77
Speaker 79
Speaker 81
Speaker 5