ALC-PEER

You need to order. With that he have anything to add senator all right with that we're going to move right ahead and we're going to move down to Adam bate. Thank you madam chair in section be these are the various temporary appropriation quest there's only one on the agenda for the department of commerce the insurance department it's for sixty one million appropriation and to make premium payments to property insurance carriers for the Arkansas multi agency insurance trust in the Arkansas Public School insurance trust the letter explains that policy premiums have significantly increased requiring additional spending three to make the payments this request and the ones for appropriation only letter also notes that later in the agenda the department will have restrict reserve fund transfer requests on behalf of school districts and those are items E. nine through eleven. Thank you any questions members. CNN I have a motion for approval motion second. With. Senator Bernie recognized thank you madam chair just a quick question is this a one time of at one time payment or is this going to be included in future calculus through education funding formula. This is actually going to get this is just the appropriation I understand and and they funding you'll see that it is a specific findings not part of the foundation formula and there will be some discussions later on in the year about how to address this problem. So it's going to be so so this is beyond a one time funding and it'll have to be considered an ongoing increases in education funding. Now. If we can bring up some of the Department cation but education just like everyone else is experiencing significant increases in insurance costs that's related to the storms in the continuing storms that we've had here in Arkansas the last year in back to sing some insurance companies pulling out of the state I think there's some discussion about how we move forward and it's going to have to be fixed I mean I would say I was going to save my comments towards later on in the actual expenditures but the system they have is broken while everyone else experiencing increases their increases are significant and I think there's a number of factors or far outpace other insurance increases I think there's some factors that have to be considered the way that it's managed at this point I think is broken in the entities that are managing it aren't doing a sufficient job and and you know hopefully this is just a one time mandate let them get through this but there has to be some real real reform in the process okay no I I appreciate that and I don't disagree with that I'm just looking at the funding mechanism and how it's going to treat it today versus meeting for thank you. Senator Chesterfield you're recognized yes thank you madam chair of the chairs and Dismang are we looking at something like we did with EBT. Taking a long look at this I have seven one of the committees to look at it and study it over a period of time so that we're better able to meet the needs of of the school districts yes there is a study and I'm not sure who's all engage your part of that committee or whatever maybe that's looking into that but someone else will know the answer if we I mean I I keep answering questions like on the board of education or DFA probably one of those entity should go ahead and come on up we get someone is a little knowledge than me to. Not everybody all at once. One department of insurance education or. That knows the answers come up please for all the above. If you will introduce yourself for the record. You McDonnell's secretary of commerce good morning. L. McLean Insurance Commissioner. Randy Robinson St risk manager. Thank you you're recognized. And I heard the question and you know we officer the insurance department Department education and we we do understand that there is a proposal to to do a to look at the in state in a public school insurance program in total and can that the legislature's considering hiring a tune up or fee for a consultant is to look at the broader picture address some of the concerns you dressed so Senator Dismang. If I'm a manager you're recognized thank you Going forward as we dealt with EVD R. EDT whichever one of the alphabets of cities. We saw a need to change what we were doing are you looking at changing what we're doing with this formula so that as we go forward we know that our school districts will not have it will not have a deleterious impact on our school district going forward I don't see anybody from education here and I hate to put you on the spot but have you had a study and is that is this going to be a coordinated effort among the groups that when we see the table. Well I think the hiring the consultant will give that information will look at the model that we have and we the insurance department runs as a master program for a small number of school districts Arkansas school board association has the majority of the school districts and in their program the model is very similar for use private insurance brokers to to meet the needs of of the of the of the districts so that is the current model the bait and are some districts to secure their coverage on their own through an individual agents and brokers and in the fall all the programs have worked you know a very stable and a very stable manner for a number of years both the programs of the market conditions have really hit hit this hit both all the programs all commercial property in particular very hard in Arkansas so I think it's time we to to look at the other options and that that that they could be out there that and that that a consulting could could help with Mr Melcher is there some is there a committee that's currently going to do this so we want to do this through the regular process if a committee if a Speaker Shepherd it's going to explain the process and I'll if I can recognize him and that way he can explain it for certain thank you. The Speaker Shepherd you're recognized thank you thank you madam chair so with regard to the the school insurance and the Very significant increases that have been experienced just to kind of provide an update that the Department alerted when this I believe when they initially became aware what they were looking at alerted us a word leadership to what they were saying and so we've had a series of meetings with the between house Senate leadership the Department in school board association and and the governor's office about those increases and what What are some possible as steps we could take to hopefully mitigate some of those increases in the short term but probably more importantly look to what we can do to improve the situational in the long term and so I think everybody's probably seen the release of of the request to do about thirty percent increase I think this all play the recommendation that we also that we settled on but then additionally last month it in council I believe it came from the executive subcommittee we approved an R. F. P. to retain a consultant to look at what's going on in the insurance field particularly related to a school insurance it reminded me and I think others of what we faced when it came to employee benefits a few years ago where we were getting these increases and we want to step back take a look and hopefully I think we've we've done some really good work in that area so that's where we're at at this point in time looking to provide some assistance for the increases but then also to brand consultant on board to look at the whole state of of insurance would as it relates to school insurance to see are there some you know there may be some structural changes that need to be made as to how we handle that there may be other recommendations but but in one of the things that we did ask about that a couple things I think are also important that the Department I believe with their program had been able over the last few years to to hold those increases to a minimum and in fact some cases were providing some discounts so they think they've done a good job at least from what I've seen in being able to You know stave off some of the increases that otherwise would have would have occurred but ultimately those those things kind of catch up at this point additionally one of the things I ask about is what are we seeing in surrounding states in in it seems with with with almost no exception in virtually every aspect of property insurance you're seeing very significant increases so I just kind of provide an update at that everybody should be aware of the of the thirty percent which the governor governor's office had announced but then additionally what we did as Legislative Council last month should also provide hopefully some long term solutions administered thank you Mr Speaker motion at the proper time. Thank you a representative Fortner you're recognized. Thank you madam chair and and thank you Speaker for the explanation of. The the I have I have two questions one initially when we hire when I heard it what we heard about this there was a figure of eleven million dollars and thirty percent of did this number that we're looking at today come from the realization that eleven million wouldn't cover thirty percent. You wanna answer. No actually this is just the appropriation and we got to realize that not only the public schools have an increase but so does Iran all the other people to go into this fund so this appropriation had to be increased so that they could go ahead and pay and be able to have the spending authority to pay this increase okay so this then in fact this is not just the public schools this is everybody that's affect correct. And thirty percent is only going to the public schools okay and. R. which is every school district going to get thirty percent. On that list. I'm all let representative Wardlaw explain a little bit more about that let's just lay it on the jet. Thank recognized representative Fortner of. Wardlaw sorry I'm here for you of. Yes and as representative Cavenaugh say and there's more than just the schools involved here Department higher ed and state agencies I think it's my understanding that that's correct secretary Hugh you guys cannot the other side that is is there is one school district and I think gems not at the table but it's been bill that was not buying insurance out of the out of the pot and date we have instructed that they will get the thirty percent of their forty percent increase their increase was not near as high as the other school districts in the two pots so the answer your question is yes and the other answer is there's a lot more involved next reason not appropriation had to be raised to such an extraordinary amount to pay those premiums I wasn't aware of higher ed and I don't know of any of the members or where higher end being out involved in out until early last week for higher ed is any member in here can tell you have been screaming pretty loud so last week and a half so it's a lot more a lot bigger than first of a knowledge but I think there's an effort to fix that and Executive Council is going to be Thursday and finalized ours be so that we can get that study started so that by the time these premiums come due in July of next year hopefully we'll have this addressed okay thank you I just I just wanna make sure I'm all for it I just wanna make sure that all of the schools get at least they're at thirty percent okay thank you. Senator Dotson you're recognized. Thank you madam chair I'm not sure exactly who this question might be for but it's more involving that I guess the discussion might be staff but What is the breakdown of this for I guess the higher ed and and then other state agencies eight if it's not just. K. twelve public schools and then another question I have another question that popped up based off somebody else's comment after them I believe they actually have the information if you want to go ahead and. Yes Sir the the higher ed portion is is a included in the state agency's program the Arkansas multi agency insurance trust of their rate to answer another question did not go up as much of this year because we were we increase their rate a little bit last year. but the car is in the office and the in the multi agency trust their portion of the their total increase or the total appropriation request. increase of off of the what you see before you the sixty one million is twenty million dollars. So that's just for the state agencies the forty forty one as for the forty one is for the public school public schools twenty percent for state agencies and hire it yes. So twenty percent will go to state agencies are at thirty percent for public schools twenty million okay perhaps. So is it the same thirty percent percentage is going toward hi read in no so there's no there's no funding assistance for higher ed at this time. So what is the twenty million four. The twenty million additional appropriation for the state agencies just to pay the premium cost pay the self insured retention layer that we have paid for expenses associated with running the program with our information system and we also have included in that appropriation not only property that the vehicle and the cyber insurance programs so it's all in one Fund okay and then based off comment I heard that Bentonville schools was not as high because they weren't part of can can somebody explain why they weren't. Part of the the pop I guess that we're talking about here. Yes Sir Bentonville they were not part of either one of the the two large programs because they had Gotten their property insurance to just an independent. okay so they shop around anywhere got a better deal than what the yes schools are not required to participate in either of the programs they they are allowed to. Tucker their insurance through either of the programs of the private means okay thank you. The representative Wardlaw you're recognized. So I want to clarify something and I think a confused some folks while ago there is no effort in any of these requests to give any money any funding to higher ed we are only raising the appropriations so they can pay their bills so they can pay their premium with their money so on make that is crystal clear as I can the only funding mechanism here is for K. through twelve so I want I want to say that one more time the only funding being transferred is for K. through twelve there is no money being transferred here for higher it only appropriation increase for higher ed so they can use their money. And I'd be happy taking questions Mr madam chair. At representative Wardlaw. Senator Hester. But when I do it I think it's going to be Senator Irvin because it says has to be cleared. Thank you madam chair just a request from the insurance department and I'm of voting member of the subcommittee and if you want me to support your request if you would please reach out to me before hands before I come to this meeting with information that we've just discussed here today I think it would be helpful and beneficial and that goes not just for you all that for anybody else that's on this agenda we are available by phone and we would appreciate phone calls and information before we show up its meeting about the types of things that we're going to vote on if it's important to you. Thank you I certainly understand. Senator Hammer you're recognized thank you more over here a quick question so Bentonville has her own insurance policy they went out shops and evidently they got a better price than all the other schools is that a fair characterization. I would I would say yes that's a fair characterization okay I'm not saying they're priced or. An estimate on what what they're. Values would be would be in our program but okay fair all right then the the question at hand after that I'm sorry walking kinda late to discussion but. If if the others what one of the other schools not done the same thing is Bentonville and are we about to give money to support a higher cost of insurance to the majority one one has found it less than what the rest are paying for that's what I need some help understand maybe I just don't understand so help me understand I'll and I'll just add to the been bill we don't know where they started either they had a lower increase but they could have been high already because they are out there on their own didn't have the economies of scale and so we have without having to get their policy I don't really know why there's was a a lower increase but and regulate you take it from there. And I have I've I've requested some information on the program that that the Bentonville schools are are under I want to make sure that it actually needs state law because the program that that the that the insurance department runs the school board runs we meet state law from the rules that were promulgated by the Education Department but we also Bentonville. has reached out to other districts and told them about their program so yes center there will be some other schools that are looking at that program and we've we've given the appropriate loss histories and values to the school districts that have requested it in order for them to look at that program I know that that program does have some specifics and some of the school districts are not gonna be big enough to participate in that because they have a minimum threshold of of insured values before you can even come on the program from my understanding but again I've not seen the actual programs matic yet not but I've requested from the broker okay my last question would be this based on the action that you're accessing the committee which I'm a member to take action on today would be more prudent to let the committee that was referenced while go together this to see that there is a better. Way as far as financial cost versus doing what your bill what you're asking for us to do today not just like like to your sponsor please. At the center I don't I don't know that I think it's better questions for for the for the committee but there there's lots of lots of data together but we we do have yeah premiums to pay for the for our member school districts my better do right away so they're going to need the help to to pay pay their their premiums them in in the next you know few days okay thank you yes senator Hammer those premiums are actually due the first of the month so we don't really have a lot of extra time on this right now okay thank you you're welcome a center Chesterfield recognized yes I'm going to make a motion but I would like to see the break down of where you're going to send the money. You have it handy. Back at before council it does think it's only in the agenda attachments yes senator Chesterfield and that the actual funding part when we get to it it does have the breakdown of how much a school to get that is in the back and forth I move do pass. Hold on just second I do have who is in seventy four. Speaker Shepherd you're recognized thank you madam chair one one follow up question I think this is aye probably been asking answer but just I just wanna make absolute certain. Districts that have already paid because of the timing of it if there are districts that have already paid then they still are gonna get reimbursement for their thirty percent of that's my understanding what was intended but I just wanna make sure that absolutely and confirm that thank you. All right senator Chesterfield afield get on up. Except your motion share your will do pass thank you I have a motion to pass for approval second all in favor say aye. Thank you with that members were going to move down to Adam state we're going to cover direct federal awards first. Thank you ma'am sharing section see these are the American rescue plan appropriation quest and the first three items are requests for preparation for an award made directly to the agency from a federal department or office first one C. one is for the department of health is for one point seven million this is to support the public health response to infectious diseases funds will be used to support program staff of the SEC prevention program of the infectious disease branch doing needs assessment for disease intervention specialists implementation of S. CT self testing case investigations and make a sub grants hire train and retain disease investigative personnel that will serve an estimated two hundred thousand persons thanks items on page three this is C. two Page three this is for the department transportation it's one point one five million is to make grants to eleven rule transit systems for preventive maintenance and operation systems and to the Arkansas trances Association to provide training for the role systems next item is on page nine.