Joint Budget Committee
Video
Transcript
19 documents
Bills discussed (41)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1033
Act 98
· 5 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “…e first is a refund of local sales and use taxes that's for house bill 1033. they're arresting an increase of30 million dollars”
|
AN ACT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE TREASURER OF STATE - REFUND OF LOCAL TAXES … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1033 is now Act 98 |
|
HB1034
· 5 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “amendment JAR133 on house bill 1034. would you”
|
AN ACT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE TREASURER OF STATE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL … | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1048
Act 99
· 4 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “…o counties and the next bill they're requesting to amend is house bill 1048 that's assistance to emergency medical assistance and local…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE TREASURER OF STATE - ASSISTANCE TO LOCAL LAW … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1048 is now Act 99 |
|
HB1050
Act 100
· 4 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “…nd use taxes the second bill they're requesting to amend is house bill 1050 that's for distribution of amendment 74 funds to counties t…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE TREASURER OF STATE - AMENDMENT 74 PROPERTY TAX … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1050 is now Act 100 |
|
SB32
Act 79
· 4 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “amend senate bill 32 which is jar 139 for substitute court reporters this is for…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS - COURT PERSONNEL APPROPRIATION FOR THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB32 is now Act 79 |
|
SB31
· 3 mentions in agenda, transcript
Matched: “…of State – Letter dated April 8, 2026 – Amendment JAR143 3. SB31 – Administrative Office of the Courts – Letter dated Februa…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR. |
|
SB53
Act 82
· 3 mentions in agenda, transcript
Matched: “…c Safety Quarterly Report on Executive Protection Detail 2. SB53 – Auditor of State – Letter dated April 8, 2026 – Amendment…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE AUDITOR OF STATE - DEPUTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB53 is now Act 82 |
|
HB1021
Act 31
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “that's on page eight house bill 1021 is on page eight. Also on page 81024 moving to page nine Ho…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY - MID-SOUTH APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1021 is now Act 31 |
|
HB1026
Act 33
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “…ight. Also on page 81024 moving to page nine House Bill1025 house bill 1026 and house bill 1027 Page 9 House Bill1028 House Bill1029 an…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY - MOUNTAIN HOME APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1026 is now Act 33 |
|
HB1027
Act 34
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “…1024 moving to page nine House Bill1025 house bill 1026 and house bill 1027 Page 9 House Bill1028 House Bill1029 and then page 10.”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH - HEALTH SERVICES PERMIT AGENCY APPROPRIATION FOR THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1027 is now Act 34 |
|
HB1065
Act 102
· 2 mentions in agenda, transcript
Matched: “…JAR131 HB1033 – Refund of Local Taxes – Amendment JAR130 5. HB1065 – Department of Education - Division of Higher Education –…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1065 is now Act 102 |
|
SB11
Act 5
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “Page6 is 11 Senate bill 11 Page712 and 13 are ready page 8 Senate Bill17 then we're go…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH - ARKANSAS MINORITY HEALTH COMMISSION APPROPRIATION FOR THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB11 is now Act 5 |
|
SB25
Act 9
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “now senate bill 25 Page 11 issenate bill 27”
|
AN ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE AT MORRILTON APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB25 is now Act 9 |
|
SB52
Act 81
· 2 mentions in transcript, agenda
Matched: “…through 20. This is a request for an increase of $19,000 to Senate Bill 52. I believe the reason for this is for increase in bar licen…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ARKANSAS PUBLIC DEFENDER COMMISSION APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB52 is now Act 81 |
|
HB1006
Act 95
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…artment of Inspector General - Amendment LCW096 7. GL #18 - HB1006 - Department of Labor and Licensing – Boards and Commission…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND LICENSING - BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS APPROPRIATION FOR … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1006 is now Act 95 |
|
HB1007
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…Mountain 20. Amendment KMW079 by Representative Mayberry to HB1007 – Department of Education – Division of Elementary and Seco…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION - … | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1013
Act 96
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ng Officer 19. Amendment HAR141 by Representative Maddox to HB1013 – University of Arkansas Community College at Rich Mountain…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE AT RICH MOUNTAIN APPROPRIATION FOR THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1013 is now Act 96 |
|
HB1018
Act 122
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…Administration 12. Amendment HAR139 by Senator Caldwell to HB1018 – University of Arkansas East Arkansas Community College 13…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS EAST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1018 is now Act 122 |
|
HB1022
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…uality 14. Amendment CJW027 by Representative Beaty, Jr. to HB1022 – Arkansas Development Finance Authority 15. Amendment LCW0…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE ARKANSAS DEVELOPMENT FINANCE AUTHORITY APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1029
Act 36
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…use Bill 1026 and House Bill 1027, page 9, House Bill 1028, House Bill 1029, and then”
|
AN ACT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE TREASURER OF STATE - CITY-COUNTY TOURIST MEETING AND … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1029 is now Act 36 |
|
HB1051
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…areer and Technical Education – Amendment KMW085 5. GL #6 - HB 1051 - Department of Finance and Administration – Regulatory Div…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION - REGULATORY DIVISION APPROPRIATION FOR THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1052
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…– Division of Agriculture D. Governor’s Letters 1. GL #1 - HB 1052 - Treasurer of State – State Turnback for Counties and Muni…”
|
AN ACT TO MAKE AN APPROPRIATION FOR STATE TURNBACK FOR COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES BY THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1053
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…sas-Fayetteville 2. Amendment HAR138 by Senator Sullivan to HB1053 – University of Arkansas at Little Rock 3. Amendment KMW089…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL … | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1054
Act 101
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…essment Coordination Division – Amendment JAP067 4. GL #5 - HB 1054 - Department of Education – Division of Career and Technica…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - DIVISION OF CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION APPROPRIATION … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1054 is now Act 101 |
|
HB1064
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…strative Services 18. Amendment JAP082 by Senator Tucker to HB1064 – Department of Finance and Administration – Disbursing Off…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION - DISBURSING OFFICER APPROPRIATION FOR THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1066
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ollege 13. Amendment WFP037 by Representative Pilkington to HB1066 – Department of Energy and Environment – Division of Enviro…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT - DIVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY APPROPRIATION … | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1068
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ervices 11. Amendment JAP066 by Representative Cavenaugh to HB1068 – Department of Finance and Administration 12. Amendment HA…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Correctly enrolled and ordered transmitted to the Governor's … |
|
HB1078
Act 103
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…sing – Boards and Commission -Amendment KMW080 8. GL #19 - HB 1078 - Department of the Military – Amendment BSS054 9. GL #26 -…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF THE MILITARY APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that HB1078 is now Act 103 |
|
HB1079
Act 64
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…f Elementary and Secondary Education-Public School Fund 21. HB1079 by Representative Tosh – Department of Corrections – Divisi…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS - DIVISION OF CORRECTION APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 … | Tosh | Notification that HB1079 is now Act 64 |
|
SB18
Act 8
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “…8, Senate Bill 17. Then we're going to move to page 8, also Senate Bill 18, page 9, pass.”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT - LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS BOARD APPROPRIATION … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB18 is now Act 8 |
|
SB19
Act 76
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ration – Regulatory Division – Amendment JAP068 6. GL #17 - SB 19 -Department of Inspector General - Amendment LCW096 7. GL #…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF INSPECTOR GENERAL APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB19 is now Act 76 |
|
SB2
Act 74
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…– State Insurance Department – Amendment CJW030 3. GL #3 - SB 2 - Department of Finance and Administration – Assessment Coo…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION - ASSESSMENT COORDINATION DIVISION APPROPRIATION FOR … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB2 is now Act 74 |
|
SB20
Act 132
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…griculture 9. Amendment LCW088 by Representative Bentley to SB20 – DHS – Division of Medical Services 10. Amendment LCW100 b…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES - DIVISION OF MEDICAL SERVICES APPROPRIATION FOR … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB20 is now Act 132 |
|
SB21
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ical Services 16. Amendment LCW101 by Senator M. Johnson to SB21 – DHS-Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Servi…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES - DIVISION OF AGING, ADULT, AND BEHAVIORAL … | Joint Budget Committee | DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR. |
|
SB27
Act 10
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “it's Senate Bill 25, page 11, it's Senate Bill 27”
|
AN ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE AT BATESVILLE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB27 is now Act 10 |
|
SB3
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…Services 17. Amendment JAP081 by Representative Wardlaw to SB3 – Department of Shared Administrative Services 18. Amendmen…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF SHARED ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR. |
|
SB36
Act 135
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…Attorneys 8. Amendment BSS053 by Representative Bentley to SB36 – Department of Agriculture 9. Amendment LCW088 by Represen…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB36 is now Act 135 |
|
SB41
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…s and Amendments 1. Amendment HAR137 by Senator Sullivan to SB41 – University of Arkansas-Fayetteville 2. Amendment HAR138 b…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS - FAYETTEVILLE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR. | Joint Budget Committee | DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR. |
|
SB43
Act 136
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…n of Correction 22. Amendment HAR143 by Senator Caldwell to SB43 – University of Arkansas – Division of Agriculture D. Gover…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS - DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB43 is now Act 136 |
|
SB58
Act 138
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…s at Little Rock 3. Amendment KMW089 by Senator Sullivan to SB58 – Department of Higher Education - Division of Higher Educa…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - DIVISION OF HIGHER EDUCATION APPROPRIATION FOR THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB58 is now Act 138 |
|
SB7
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…r Counties and Municipalities – Amendment JAR129 2. GL #2 - SB 7 - Department of Commerce – State Insurance Department – Ame…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE - STATE INSURANCE DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 … | Joint Budget Committee | DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR. |
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Unknown speaker
0:00
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
- Hello, Chairman. - What's going on now? - Yeah. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family. - I'm getting to the family.
Thank you.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
4:00
Members, if you could, go ahead and take your seats. we're going to get it started. With that, chair sees a quorum. If you need to lobby,
go ahead and go outside. If you can, grab your
chairs. Let's go ahead and get started. All right, first up, B1, this is the report on the executive protection detail. Do we have any questions on the report?
Senator Mark Johnson, you're recognized for a question.
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
5:17
Well, it would actually be a motion, but if you'll come back to me after other questions, I'll be happy to make that then, Mr. Chairman. I can't. Hold on. He's talking to me right
now. Can you say that one more time? I said that I have a motion related to one of the items in the reports. I just didn't want to skip over it. So if you need to come back to me after your questions, I'll be happy. When we get to
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
5:37
that item, hit your button, and I'll make sure that you get recognized. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. All right. Thank you, members. Any questions on B1? All right. Seeing none, the report's filed.
Members, what I want to do, we have a large number of bills that we're going to be able to take up today. And I just want to make sure to kind of give you an advanced heads up on those, thank you, of what we're going to consider. So if you'll go to your House and Senate packet there in the back of your folder, let's start with the House packet. And these are the bills that are ready to go. If you can, follow along, circle them, and understand that we're going to take those up for a vote today. These are essentially what we drafted per recommendations coming out of the pre-budget meetings.
so again these are ready to go and we've got a large number that are not going to have any changes or requests for changes and so we're going to move on those so on your house packet page six is the first bill and i'm going to move pretty quick on these after i start this one off so if you got your house packet page six house bill 1012 that's ready to go house bill i mean page six House Bill 1014, 1015, and 1016 are ready to go.
Moving to page 7, House Bill 1019, House Bill 1021. That's on page 8. House Bill 1021 is on page 8. Also on page 8, 1024. Moving to page 9, House Bill 1025. House Bill 1026 and House Bill 1027, page 9, House Bill 1028, House Bill 1029, and then
page 10 page 10 house bill 1030 1031 1032 moving to page 11 house bill 1038 39 and 40 page 12 10 42 10 43 10 44 10 45
page 13 house bill i can't even see it anymore you made
these small enough now i'm going to show my age. House Bill
1046 on page 13, also page 13, 1047, 1049. Jumping all the way to page 15, 1056, 1057, 1058, 1059, page 16, 1060, 1061, 1062, 1063.
Three more pages, page 19,
1067, page 20, 1069, 1070, 21, 1071, 1072, 1073, 1074, page 22, 1075, and 1076, page
23, resolution 1004, and resolution
10.05. All right, now we're going to go to your Senate packet. All right, our first page is page 3, Senate Bill 5 and 6.
Page 5 is Senate Bill 9. Page 6 is 11, Senate Bill 11. Page 7, 12, and 13 are ready. Page 8, Senate Bill 17. Then we're going to move to page 8, also Senate Bill 18, page 9, pass.
All right, Senate Bill, or page 10 now,
it's Senate Bill 25, page 11, it's Senate Bill 27
and 28. Page 12, Senate Bill 33, 34, and 35 are ready to go. Page 14, Senate Bill
37, 38, and 39. Page 15, Senate Bill 40. Page 16, Senate Bill 44, 45, and 46. Also in 16 is 47. Moving to page 17, Senate Bill 48, 49, and 50.
Page 18 is 54, 56, and 57. those are the bills that are ready to go if
there's one of those that you'd like to hold please let staff know and we'll get those removed from what we're going to consider today and then also if you just have questions but are okay with the vote then you can kind of prepare yourself for questions if you have questions on a particular bill all right with
that we're going to start section b and you're recognized thank you
Chair
Unverified
12:27
mr chair item b2 is a letter from the auditor
state requesting to amend Senate Bill 53. It is amendment JAR 143. This is a request to increase the appropriation for special deputy expense allowance by $370. They state that there was a minor shortfall that occurred when the office converted to ASIS. Do we have any questions on the amendment? Seeing no questions, what's the
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
12:51
will of the committee? We've got a motion to adopt or adopt the amendment we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none all those
in favor signify by saying aye all those
Speaker 40
13:06
opposed motion carries b3 mr chairman item b3 is a request for the
Chair
Unverified
13:10
administrative offices of the courts to amend senate bills 31 and 32 the first request is to amend senate bill 31 that is jar 138 it's a request for court interpreters it is a request to increase that appropriation by 94,750 they state that that's needed for rising market cost in mileage transportation and lodging the second bullet point in their letter is in a request to
amend senate bill 32 which is jar 139 for substitute court reporters this is for 106,929 they state this is also for mileage
Speaker 44
13:37
transportation and lodging needs all right thank you members do have any questions on the
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
13:43
amendment to senate bill 31 or the amendment to senate bill 32 All right, seeing no questions, we've got a motion to adopt Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 31. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.
All those opposed? Motion carries. We've got a motion to adopt the amendment to Senate Bill 32. Do we have any questions? Seeing no questions. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none,
all those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. B-4, and I'm going
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
14:27
to recognize before we're going, I think, Senator Johnson. I recognize for motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we hold Amendment J-A-R-133 on House Bill 1034.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
14:38
Would you like to pass over that today? Yes, sir. As far as discussion. All right, we're going to pass over the
Speaker 53
14:48
amendment to House Bill 1034. yes sir item number four we will be
Chair
Unverified
14:53
holding jar 133 for house bill 1034 the remainder of the letter does request to amend three other bills the first is a refund of local sales and use taxes that's for house bill 1033 they're requesting an increase of 30 million dollars to refund the city's share
of local sales and use taxes the second bill they're requesting to amend is house bill 1050 that's for distribution of amendment 74 funds to counties they're requesting an increase of 50 million in appropriation from the uniform tax rate trust fund to support the redistribution of property tax revenues to counties and the next bill they're requesting to amend is house bill 1048 that's assistance to emergency medical assistance and local law enforcement they're requesting to increase 10 000 each for emergency medical for the arkansas ambulance association and 10 000
increase for local law enforcement for the arkansas association of chiefs of police and the remainder of the letter was part of
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
15:49
the motion to hold mr chair all right thank you members do any questions on the amendment to house bill 1048 amendment to house bill 1050 or the amendment to house bill 1033 all right seeing no questions what's the will of the committee
we've got a motion to adopt the amendment to house bill 1048 any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye
all those opposed motion carries we've got a motion to adopt amendment to house bill 1050 in discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries we've got a motion to adopt the amendment to house bill 1033 in discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed
Chair
Unverified
16:38
motion carries b5 item b5 is a request from the arkansas higher education coordinating board for northwest arkansas
community college this is a request from their cash fund appropriation it's an increase of 12.8 million and they state at the bottom of the letter that this is due to increased construction costs for repairing campus facilities from a tornado that occurred in may of 2024. all right thank you
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
16:59
members dwayneby questions on b5 seeing no questions what's the will of the committee We've got a motion to adopt the amendment to House Bill 1065. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye.
All those opposed? Motion carries. Members on our member bills and amendments, the vast majority of these are going to go to committee, special language. And so I'm going to read those off just by C1, 2, 3, so on. of those that are going to special language they don't need an
action besides moving them to special language okay so first so we'll do that first so see one two three four five
Skipping down to 8, 9, 10, 11, then 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, skipping to 20. Those will all go to special language without objection. All right, special language. We have one bill that's going to go to personnel, and that is C-12.
All right, and that leaves us with, just so you can circle them, 6, 7, 19, 21, and 22 that are ready for action today. Okay, again, so that's 6, 7, 19, 21, and 22. and you're recognized for C
six sir Tucker I can't see
I think you're on the other side maybe not
Chair
Unverified
18:59
yes sir Adam C six is an amendment to the Public Defender Commission it is on page 18. It is item C6. It is on page 18 of your packet, pages 18 through 20. This is a request for an increase of $19,000 to Senate Bill 52. I believe the reason for this is for increase in bar license fees for attorneys. Okay. Members,
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
19:20
do we have any questions on C6? Seeing no questions,
what's the will the committee. We've got a motion to adopt the amendment. We've got a second. Any discussion
on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, motion carries. C7. Mr. Chairman,
Chair
Unverified
19:41
I'm C7 is very similar. This is also an amendment by Senator Tucker to Senate Bill 53 for auditor of state deputy prosecuting attorneys. This is on page 21 of your packets, pages 21 through 23. This is a request for deputy prosecuting attorneys for the same reason it was bar license for attorneys
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
19:59
have increased all right thank you members do we have any questions on c7 the amendment seeing no questions what's the will of the committee
we've got a motion to adopt we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by
saying aye all those opposed motion carries it's going to take us
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
20:29
to c19 representative maddox are you here Senator Rice, you're recognized. Thank you. As my understanding, Representative Maddox
couldn't be here this morning. This is $12 million federal money that they just needed to increase where they could take that.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
20:44
This is appropriation only. There's no general revenue attached to this appropriation and direction to spend general revenue, so it is appropriation only. page 64 is where that's at in your C packet all right thank you members do we have any questions on C19 it's a 12 million dollar appropriation only all
right seeing no questions we've got a motion to adopt we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries it's going to take us to c21 representative tosh you can go up front and grab it from your seat out here is either way is fine
Speaker 74
21:36
sir you can you can present it up front or down about your seat whatever you'd like to do okay
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
21:49
All right, gentlemen, if you could just recognize yourself with the committee and you're welcome to present your amendment sir
Speaker 81
22:24
state senator Dave Wallace district 19 state representative Dwight Tosh district 38
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
22:35
members see page 73 mr. chair we're
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
22:39
here to ask for five hundred thousand dollars this year five hundred thousand dollars next year for a system called Ghost. This system will go in our prisons, two of our prisons, I think this time, as a test trial
and it is a jamming device that will block all cell phone usage within that prison. This is designed to keep our inmates and it's estimated that one of every four inmates has access or has an illegal cell phone, and they're doing unbelievable harm in actually running their operations on the outside from within their own prison cell system. Georgia did this a couple years ago and has had tremendous success with it.
They actually had the largest RICO conviction they've ever had in the state of Georgia by the use of this program. The
program is designed that it will not interfere with some of the staff's cell phones. It will not interfere with emergency operations. It's designed to identify and block illegal cell phone usage.
And I will now turn this over to my sidekick, the best
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
24:10
buddy. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Senator. And that was well said. And I might just add that this is a public safety issue. Let me rephrase that. This is a public safety crisis. You know, about one in every four prisoners has access to these illegal cell phones, and they're running their criminal operations from their jail cell.
And I think all of us would agree that they're in jail for, excuse me, they're in prison for a reason. And now they're continuing to be able to operate their criminal activity outside those prison walls. And that is totally unacceptable. It, you know, as the senator said, Georgia implemented this program about a year ago. Since then, they've confiscated approximately 12,000 illegal contraband cell phones inside their prisons.
There has been like 1,000 appeals to the FCC, with the FCC upholding all of those appeals and finding that there is no harm and no foul in what the Georgia Department of Correction is doing with this software and able to stop this contraband. You know, these individuals that are in prison, they're finding ways. The value of those cell phones inside those prisons at that economy price with inside the correctional facilities is anywhere from $2,500 to $7,500.
It's basically, in my opinion, from my experience, this rises to the level of organized crime. And I think it would be a very valuable tool for us here in the state of Arkansas So if we give our Department of Corrections the opportunity to use this software and the way that is designed to work is that these are mobile units. It's a pilot program. It'll be in effect for two years and then we'll come back to the table in two years and we'll see that if the million dollars that we invested in this program, if we receive the dividends that we wanted to get out of it.
I truly believe that we will based on what Georgia has been able to do. But what they'll do, they'll take a mobile unit, park it. We're only going to target two of the correctional facilities at this time. There's two larger facilities in this state, which is Varner and Cummins. And those units will sit there, and they're able to take that software and be able to focus that just on that grid so that it will only get those illegal contrabands inside those prison walls.
Now, for those that's inside that facility that has a right to have access to a cell phone such as the director and whoever else he chooses, there's a white list, as they call it, where they can put that cell phone on that list and it will not be targeted. But what this system does, it doesn't just suppress the phone. It actually will terminate that inmate from being able to use that phone. And if any information that they sent out before, I think it's about 20 minutes by the time that that system picks it up,
that they're able to terminate it, any text messages or voice messages that are sent out during that 20 minutes can be retrieved. And obviously that information will be shared with the proper law enforcement agency across this state. and it would be up to them if they want to continue to pursue an investigation based on the information they've received. And so with that, we have Director Payne here in, I believe he's here today. Yes, sir. And if there's any questions or what's going on inside the walls of our penitentiaries
and why this is such a serious issue and it's critical and it needs to be addressed, not only for the safety of our correctional officers, but also for the citizens throughout our communities across the state of Arkansas. So with that, Director, we'll wait and see if there's a question that we can't answer, and if not, we'll bring you to the table. So with that,
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
28:20
Mr. Chairman, we're ready for questions. And, Mr. Chair, I'd like to add one more thing. In the state of Georgia, they've already confiscated 10,000 illegal phones.
None with zero appeals to MCC, federal FCC approved. So they're taking these phones. The inmates are appealing to the FCC, and the FCC has backed the state of Georgia up on every one of these 10,000 confiscations. All right, thank you. And also just a reminder, members, it's
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
28:49
appropriation only. At this point, the funding may or may not be coming for it. But at this point, this is just established the appropriation, but not a direct transfer or anything like that.
With that, we'll open up to questions. Representative
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
29:06
Wooten, you're first on the list. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you both for bringing this bill forward. Isn't this a serious problem, and it gets worse the longer
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
29:20
we delay doing something? Absolutely. Absolutely, Representative. It is a serious problem, and, you know, like I said, the quicker we can address this, the safer everyone will be.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
29:32
And they're using, one follow-up, they're using this as criminal activity also, not just cell phones, but they're using it for criminal activity. Absolutely. They're continuing their criminal
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
29:45
enterprise from inside the prison walls. You know, they got caught, they got there, but they continue to operate their, basically, like I said earlier, organized crime. You know, the racketeering from fraud to, you know, zeroing in on our senior citizens from inside those cells with scam calls and trafficking, whether it be human trafficking, drug trafficking.
They're doing it all with these cell phones inside those walls. And, you know, if they get caught, they're already in jail.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
30:20
So, exactly. That's my point being that they're already incarcerated, and as long as we delay, we're abiding or helping them to further their criminal activity while they're incarcerated. That's absolutely correct. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank
Speaker 93
30:35
you, Mr. Chairman. All right. Thank you, Senator Hickey. You're recognized for a question.
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
30:44
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Love the thought of this. Just one question, and Representative Tosh, I heard you say text and voice messages. Since we're going to put a million dollars towards this, does this totally disable the phone? Because I understand, you know, these prisoners might try to find a workaround, try to go through messenger, social media, e-mails, and things to that nature.
So does it totally disable it, or does it just focus on the text and the messages?
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
31:11
No, sir, it does not. Or voice.
Yes, that's a good question. It does not, this software and what this system will do, it will not just suppress the phone. It will actually terminate the phone. And from the time that software picks up that signal inside the correctional facility, I think it's about 20 minutes. And during that 20 minutes, any text message or phone calls that they make before the Department of Corrections and go get the phone, but that information is retrieved and passed on to other law enforcement agencies across state.
But, yes, to answer your question, it terminates that phone where they can no
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
31:56
sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. Senator Overn. Thank you.
Hi. Thank you. I'm just curious. You referred to a software. So is there one company that does this or multiple
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
32:09
companies that does this? my belief is there's multiple companies and that comes from my experience my experience in the
business world i've been on many female operations where different companies at different disasters did the same thing i've
been in these large tents where they were jamless and we couldn't talk outside until the meeting was over with and it was done at multiple sites i believe it is more than one one company that has this technology. Okay, thank you.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
32:38
So my question may be for the department because I wanted to know how this would be procured, if this would be sole sourced or if this would be RFP out for bid. Could you come to the, I think that's important information. Sorry.
Is that okay, Mr. Chair? Thank you. So I just want to make sure that we're not bringing forward a piece of legislation written specifically for a certain client or vendor.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
33:05
If you could just recognize yourself for the committee and you're welcome to answer the question. And I think there's probably going to be another question you should get a hold of.
Is it something that y'all intend to try to fund with your existing revenues or revenues, but your existing budget? Thank you. Yes.
Speaker 117
33:20
Thank you. Uh, Lindsay Wallace, secretary department of corrections.
Speaker 119
33:24
Dexter Payne, director for department of correction. Either one. I think either one of us can answer the question for you, senator ervin um it would be a traditional rfp i think they've met with one vendor i think director payne and i over the last couple of years have met with multiple vendors who can do this so we would need to put a traditional rfp out for this and to answer the additional question that the chair posed we do not have funding in our existing budget for this so we would need funding for that as well okay and
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
33:54
where what source would that funding come from i don't know the answer to
that anyone else want to take a stab at that where that funding source might come from at
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
34:07
this time i was hoping you could answer that so we're here i
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:11
look in my purse i'm not sure if i have a million is it's one million right okay all right thank you thank you all right thank
Representative Kendra Moore
Unverified
34:24
you representative moore thank you mr chair and i don't know if this should be directed to the bill sponsors or the department but if we were to
appropriate funding for this piece of legislation would this be a one-time allocation or is this a subscription service that you pay for on an annual basis or would we actually own the technology in my understanding what we're doing
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
34:45
is a one-time for a two-year process after that we will need to come back or someone will need to come back and ask for if if if the state decides we want to use this technology, we'll have to come back and ask for more permanent funding.
Speaker 132
35:05
All right. Thank you. Senator Flowers. Thank
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
35:12
you. My question is, I have a couple, at least. The mobile unit, is that 24-7? Yes, ma'am. That's correct.
And the other concern I have is, isn't it illegal for inmates to have cell phones at this point? Yes, ma'am. And so you mentioned that there would be a referral on the text messages or whatever as a, I guess somebody's going to determine whether it should be prosecuted beyond.
But there will be prosecution just for having the illegal cell phone, would it not? It could be, yes, ma'am. Mr. Payne may
Speaker 137
36:06
be able to answer. Yes, ma'am. That's our goal is to get prosecution. But they obtain these illegal cell phones through illegal channels, through drones, visitors, staff. They bring them in. So our goal is to prosecute them. I would love to prosecute every last person that has a cell phone illegally inside of our prisons.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
36:27
Well, if they are captured using from this mobile unit, there should be a prosecution. Am I right? Yes, ma'am. That's the goal. Yes,
Speaker 118
36:38
ma'am. But I'm not the prosecutor now. I can't prosecute. But
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
36:46
you have to refer it. Yes, ma'am. Okay, and the other one is, I appreciated those two prisons in my district being in this, whatever you call it, trial, but I want to know why.
I mean, are you having – do you see problems across all prisons in the state of Arkansas and Commons and Varner are the greatest in number? Yes, ma'am. Those two facilities are the greatest in number,
Speaker 137
37:21
the trial there because they're right beside each other. Right. And we can use the technology to cover both facilities at the same time. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
37:34
Thank you. Representative Richmond. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm over here to your far right. I don't care who answers this. We may not even know. But a while ago in the discussion mentioned that it takes about 20 minutes for this system to work and pick up. Does that create a situation where the inmates would know, okay, I'll talk for two minutes. I can get away with two minutes, and they won't be able to track me or find this, or one minute.
I can come up with a code where it takes me 30 seconds and make this system, you know, basically worthless. I don't think so, but I just want to hear if you know anything
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
38:19
about that. That's a good question. And what I was referring to when I said 20 minutes, by the time that software identifies that there's an illegal cell phone inside that correctional facility, it has a 20-minute in there that gives the director or whoever to identify that that is an illegal cell phone.
It's not one that's on the list that should be inside the prison. And then they have 20 minutes to be able to go down and recover that phone, and
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
38:50
in 20 minutes that phone is completely terminated. So as far as you know, there is no minimum time that somebody uses that phone. The system will identify that there is a contraband phone being used, and then it just takes the process to affect that 20 minutes. But they can't, as far as you know, they cannot create a workaround where, okay,
I'm on the phone for 30 seconds because I've created this code, X means this, Y means that, whatever it might be, or different words and stuff, as far as you know,
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
39:23
they can't do that. Exactly, and if they attempt to text or use that phone during that 20 minutes before the Department of Corrections can get there and before the phone is terminated through this software, obviously that information, what's valuable about that is if you can retrieve that text message or voicemail, that's not all bad in the fact that it will lead you to someone on the outside of those prison walls
that's involved with this uh criminal activity all right thank you
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
39:53
thank you mr chair all right thank you uh there was a question on i mean i'll speak to funding maybe if we didn't have an answer for that if it's not in your budget i mean this isn't an rsa item this is i mean as you know directed by the preparation of trial i mean there's various places that that request could be made and obviously it would have to come back before the legislature to ultimately be approved for a transfer to fund the program. So that's my, I'm just, uh, if it's not in,
if it's not something you're planning on doing inside your own budget, then that's, that's where it would automatically have to come from. Uh,
Speaker 148
40:29
representative Grambling. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Uh, just a couple of quick questions, just data specific. So beyond the thousands of cell phones that have been, um, confiscated, uh, is there any data that shows a drop in other crimes, both inside and outside the prison, related to programs like this? I know, obviously, it's in Georgia. I don't know how long it's been in Georgia,
but can we see any data that shows because we've started compensating cell phones, we've seen X, Y, and Z happen? Is there any causal data or correlated data because of it other than just antidotal stuff
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
41:06
yet? Representative, that's information we'd have to get from Georgia, but I don't have that information. I know Georgia has really applauded this program and, you know, the safety for its officers and the effect it's had throughout its communities that obviously the senator alluded to it a while ago
that it got involved and it led to one of the biggest RICO cases since that law, federal law, was enacted in 1970, which it covered over eight states or ten states. And so it's been very successful in Georgia, but to be able to be specific to answer, you know, what other crimes are down, I'm not, I can't do that. I mean, just to be clear, I think broadly I understand, like, being a school
Speaker 148
41:45
teacher, I don't want kids to have cell phones when they're not supposed to have them. I could see where kids aren't, or other people aren't supposed to have cell phones when they're not supposed to have them could be helpful.
So I just wanted to see if there's more data to support so we can either, this is good or this is bad, and this
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
42:12
is why. So thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Representative Rye. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen and ladies, let me ask you this. Cell phone use is against the law in that prison. Isn't that right? How are they
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
42:26
getting those phones in to their representative Tosh? Well, Representative, they obviously, drones are being used.
That's probably the primary way that they're getting them inside the walls of our penitentiary. Obviously, there's other means that they're using also. I know, and I'll just share this with you real briefly. I know of one case here in Arkansas. Obviously, the state police here conducted this investigation at one of our correctional facilities. an inmate, not an inmate, but somebody on the outside actually took a football and they unseamed that football and filled it full of contraband cell phones and then they re-seamed
it and I guess they had a pretty good arm on them and they were able to throw that thing over into the yard and of course, you know, they already had an illegal cell phone the inmate did inside and they'd let them know, hey, it's in the yard, go retrieve it. So it's, we could go on and on with, you know, cases like that and incidents like that, but But that's how those phones are getting inside our correctional facilities. Not any lack of work by our Department of Correction. It's just that these criminal minds are innovative, and they find ways to get those phones in.
And usually it's drones or like the example
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
43:42
I just gave you. Thank you, Representative Tosh.
Senator John Payton
Unverified
43:47
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator Payton. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm over here to your left. I guess I've got a question. If you're monitoring, if this machine software is monitoring a certain perimeter around the prison, is it catching all cell signals and text messages from employees and people outside the prison that have nothing to do with the criminal activity?
Is it gathering all that at the same
Representative Dwight Tosh
Unverified
44:15
time? To my to my understanding, if it's such a the grid will be just on on those correctional facility grounds, not not in the surrounding area. Now, if someone enters that, like if the director is there or the secretary or and they they're going to be their cell phone will be put on a list and that software is not going to pick it up.
If I entered that facility, it would identify my cell phone if I'm there for a reason. And then it's my understanding that, you know, if we go to the director, he said that's not one of an illegal contraband. And they know who it is, and obviously we're not affected by it. So I think there's a lot of safeguards in there to prevent exactly what you're talking
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
45:03
about. And Senator Payton, I can speak from personal experience. I've been inside those FEMA tents larger than this area or in buildings larger than this room we're in now
and be totally blanked out. I walk outside 20 feet away from that tent, I could talk. So they can pretty much define the area they're able to. So is this software going
Senator John Payton
Unverified
45:24
to block it out or is it going to monitor it? Because my understanding was it was going to monitor it. I used the term
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
45:32
block out because I was the person being blocked. so okay let me ask you it is monitoring as well so if they've got these illegal
Senator John Payton
Unverified
45:43
cell phones are we no longer searching their cells for contraband I mean how is it we miss that when we search their cells and their their person it seems to me like we should be able to find a cell
Speaker 159
46:01
phone senator Payton yes sir we still search and through them over the last
Speaker 137
46:06
seven years or so, we've probably found about 6,500 cell phones. So we search and we find them. But of course, we can't find them all because they're hiding contraband, you know, in places that,
you know, we may not know they're hiding them there in that spot. It's not necessarily inside their cell. They break lights. They hide them in their toilets. They hide them everywhere. So it's not necessarily a simple fix that
Senator John Payton
Unverified
46:32
he's going to have it in his property where we're searching. Well, this software is designed to catch the cell phones, but if they're that good at hiding things and we're that bad at finding things, I would think there's other contraband other than cell phones that is also important. I'm just concerned with how much we might gather or monitor information from people who it's unwarranted.
And I'm concerned as to why we can't solve the same problem with searches of their cells and their persons. But anyway, thank you. I might respond to that. There's
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
47:10
always a workaround. If our Department of Corrections could have solved it, they would have probably already solved it by now. I know from personal experience in the military, you can search and you can dig all day long,
and there's some things you're not going to find, but you sure won't find all of it. So this is just one more tool in the tool
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
47:42
bag for the good guys to use against the bad guys. All right, thank you. Senator Hickey. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry to come back and
belabor this. For the agency first, would you consider this to be like a high or a medium or low priority as far
Speaker 137
47:55
as a safety issue? But, Senator, I personally feel like it's a high priority.
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
47:59
It's a safety issue. Well, that's all I needed right there. Yes, sir. I'm going to go a little different on this. It might surprise some people. So I heard you all say that this is a pilot program just for two prisons, and I'd want to do some definite due diligence. And as the chair said, this is appropriation only. Do we have any figures, if we were to include the entire prison system and that we might get some economies of scale because if it's just appropriation and we've got to come back to figure out funding on this
through restrictive reserve or however we want to do it later, I just wonder if we should put a higher appropriation number in there, let you all do some more due diligence on that, and then this body can actually look at it if we might want to try to do it across the system. Again, if we've already had some other states that have done these pilot programs and we know what the flaws may be, again i'd want to do our due diligence and just do the contract year to year but could we look at something like that or would that be out of the out of the ordinary to request something like that
that we could bring this back and i know what you are just trying to do a million but you know this thing uh i think i think most everybody in here can see the need for that and i
Senator Dave Wallace
Unverified
49:26
just wonder if if we should go that route. Senator Hickey, that's a great question and a great point. My gut
feel is go slow, see what we've got,
see how it works here in the state of Arkansas, and then come back another time for more money. Okay,
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
49:41
up to you all. Of course, I'm going to vote for it either way. But again, it's just since we're going to be in session here, if we did have a higher appropriation and maybe through DFNA, we might could appropriate, I understand, through ALC if we had to do something else. I don't know if we could do something that large. But again, it was just a suggestion that maybe we do a higher appropriation. And then if we just wanted to fund a million of it fined or if the total cost was something that we felt like we could, then we should.
But anyway, I'll leave that up to
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
50:14
you all. Thank you. On that, I mean, just so that I'm kind of tracking, too, this is a legislative proposal. It is not one that's come from the board, and it's not come from Director Payne. I mean, you may think it's a high priority, but you've never proposed this to the board or anyone else to be able to implement. I mean, inside your own appropriation and operations, they have the authority to do this today. They're choosing not to do it today, maybe because of the prior, I won't even go down the political rabbit hole there.
But there was a, you know, this hasn't been a priority, even though the man that, you know, sitting at the table says it should be a priority. That's just a question of general priorities. It doesn't, do you all have enough appropriation authority if this was something that you were to prioritize, not the funding, but the appropriation to implement? i don't think you're cutting it close on your spin versus appropriation is my point especially in operations where this would fall under this is try to kickstart something that
they've been unwilling to do up until this point that that's really what we're talking about and why the two gentlemen are sitting at the
table it isn't a question of appropriation authority it's a question of commitment yes sir i
Speaker 119
51:32
think the answer to that is yes i will say the fcc right now is working on amending their rule that would allow us it's great to pull the data out and do all of those things but it would be better if we could just turn these cell phones into a block when they won't work within the
facilities so i think we've kind of been waiting and hedging those bets to see where the fcc ruling It's working its way through public comments right now, and that would really be the best approach is if there is a cell phone in there for us to just be able to jam it, but we've never been able to do that before. And this is very expensive technology, especially if we were to roll it out to the entire department. That's my understanding. Director Payne, I think, has met with a whole lot more of these companies than I have, and he may want to add something to that.
Speaker 137
52:18
No, I agree. It's quite an expensive process. It's something that we have wanted to do. We just didn't have the proper funding
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
52:25
to do so. Or maybe a board with the commitment. Representative Wooten, you're recognized. I think,
members, there was an issue where everybody went blank. So let me try this again. Representative
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
52:41
Wooten. All right. There you go. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I agree with Senator Hickey.
I've had the unfortunate occurrence in my life to be the three of them as a trooper to control a riot. And what has always amazed me in any of the state institutions of correction is the ability of the inmates to thaw through any effort on the part of the security staff to prevent a problem.
They can hide stuff. They can do whatever they want to. To Representative Richmond's question, the second that phone pings, The second it's activated, that system is on it. The 20 minutes is the time it takes for the personnel to get in there to retrieve that phone and take care of that prisoner. Now, I'm telling you, this is a real problem, and it's a technological problem that we need and they need.
The Secretary does, and Mr. Payne, needs all the help they can get. And we can find millions of dollars to spend on other programs, but we can't find a million dollars to spend on a program that protects the security staff and it protects the citizens and it protects, most of all, law enforcement in case we forbid we do have another ride.
But there's always a possibility. And this group needs all the help they can get. But is it not a fact that when it pings, when a phone is activated, it emits a signal, a ping, as it's called in the technological world, is that not a fact? And they can identify that
Speaker 76
54:56
phone. That's absolutely correct, Representative. Thank you.
Speaker 177
54:59
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator Johnson.
Speaker 178
55:04
So, Secretary, you just kind of alluded to it. I mentioned this probably two years ago. And so this will not jam the signal because of the FCC regulation right now. This will just identify the equipment. Am I incorrect? stating that? That is my understanding, yes. Jamming is, that's what I was told, jamming is
Speaker 119
55:34
the federal prisons have a little bit more flexibility than
we do, but the FCC chair was here with Senator Cotton, it's been several months back, talking about amending their rule to allow more flexibility with states, but that process is quite possibly longer than our rulemaking process, and it's working its way through the comment period, i believe right
Speaker 178
55:55
now so he's the intelligent he's on the intelligence committee on in the senate and chairman of intelligence is representative crawford and they've been working on that since since i've mentioned this yes sir but it's it's a jammer that is not the possibility at now
but hopefully in the future it will be yes sir that jammer will be a lot less expensive will it not
Speaker 119
56:19
that i don't know the answer to director pain
Speaker 137
56:21
you may know yes sir uh senator from my understanding it'd be a lot less expensive than this once we get
Speaker 178
56:27
jamming technology so that's that's all the more reason to do this as a pilot so you can handle the situation for a short period of time and then hopefully in the future you can have a list of cell phone identification that don't jam and you can jam in the future thank you all right thank you senator urban thank you and again
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
56:50
along those lines you said you've met with vendors why haven't you pursued it if you've met with vendors before about the specific why hasn't been hasn't it been pursued or incorporated into your budgets what was the what was the hesitation from the department or from the board that said no we're not going to do this we're not going to work this into our budget that we didn't find that it was a priority is there a reason why we didn't pursue it i'm talking about i'm sorry my question
was sorry to the agencies if that's okay because it was their budget that and they said that they had met with vendors not i'm sorry that that's a question
Speaker 137
57:34
for the department the uh some of the technology that we've seen with the vendors uh didn't necessarily meet what we thought we got technology that would tell us it may stop 60%, 70%, 50%, and it just seemed kind of costly to spend the money on technology that wasn't going to be close to 100% and stopping, solving our problem.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
57:54
Gotcha. Okay. And then, and then
follow up with that, like there's a way to write this to where it doesn't come out of restricted reserve, but that it would actually, then you could dictate that it would come from their operating budget did y'all look at doing it that way that would be for your the legislators did you look at changing their budget to say we want you to to approach this with a pilot and use this line item from your own budget instead of an ask from
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
58:28
a restrictive reserve no i did not okay
and senator that would require special language for that you know to be put in place and again there's there's nothing even with this appropriation that if it is a priority of the department of corrections that they not and they could use operations or their funds that they do receive to be able to pay for this now right yeah i mean and if they're not willing to do that or if it's not
the priority then this you know there's other avenues which
an example would be restricted reserve
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
59:01
right and so then the last question would
just then be um if i hear you know pilot programs and i understand that i think it's a great idea great concept if it will work but also if you're negotiating with somebody in a vendor and you're going through a process again if it's not you know will we and you may have you've already had these conversations with vendors is what you said the agency did you have discussions with
vendors um with people that have the software that you would get um a better deal if you went with more than just one prison or two prisons yes ma'am
Speaker 137
59:41
we've had those discussions uh we would get better uh lower cost overall if we did the entire state but that's a large sum
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
59:50
of money gotcha okay well i just i i think i mean it's very much of a commitment from the legislature to address
this problem as as best we can i appreciate the questions for me if it's within the budget
then i would urge us to try to use the budget for the department of corrections for the priorities that this legislature has set forth and I think that's why they're sitting at the table because they see this as a very big problem a big issue my challenge would be let's try to work within the budgets of the agencies that we've given you money we know you've got operational funding for that and so it's not just a partnership with your board of correction and with the department it's a partnership with the legislature and if the legislature has made this a priority I
understand your response. I appreciate that we're trying to wait for that rule to be changed, but if we're waiting on the federal government, we could probably make it to Mars before they could at this point. So, you know, my challenge would be let's try to do this where we're not having to go to restricted reserve and give you more money to do the job that we need you to do now with the money we've already given you.
That's my ask. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Johnson.
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
1:01:10
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Wallace and Director Payne, thank you for working on this. And Senator Wallace and Representative, thank you for bringing this to our attention. I agree with Senator Hickey on his thing. If it's good at one or two locations, it's probably good system-wide in all your facilities. I just have a suggestion. We're really talking about money. We're not talking about technology because, A, we've got to wait until the FCC allows you to use certain technologies.
and B, technology changes, and, you know, these people are pretty innovative and all that. But I'm wondering if you have maybe checked with our Attorney General who has lots of settlement funds that can be used for certain types of crime-fighting things. And, again, I trust you all to pin that down, but I just was thinking about the opioid initiative that he is working on. Obviously, a lot of these criminals in your custody are probably in drug dealers and their business they're running through this is probably drug related.
So perhaps that might be an alternative to funding because, you know, I want to get this done. I think we all agree that it's a problem, both technologically and security wise. But I just I want to offer that as a and that was just one that popped in my mind. Y'all got a lot smarter people over there than me to help find something. But I know there's a lot of federal money to fight this type of crime and the organized crime side. So, anyway, thank you for bringing this. And I would suggest that maybe you talk to General Griffin about that.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:02:53
All right, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. All right, members, that wraps up all the questions. Again, sponsors, thank you
for drafting the bill. That's appropriation only. With that, this is an item that needs a motion do pass. So I need a motion do pass, House Bill 1070. We have someone else? No, they're just saying do pass. Okay. We've got a motion do pass, House Bill 1079. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing no discussion, all those in favor signify by saying aye.
Aye. All those opposed, motion carries.
All right, they're just going to bring
us to our governor's letters. Members, Senator Caldwell, you're recognized to present amendment to Senate Bill
43. Members, this is Section C, still page 75.
Unknown speaker
1:04:01
- You want to pass on please? - No, he's coming.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:04:31
I'm good with either way if you want to hit your mic present there you can or you can either place it's fine with me.
all right senator caldwell you're recognized to present your amendment to
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:05:14
senate bill 43 uh thank you mr chair committee this and forgive me i don't have my readers on this morning but the university of arkansas division of agriculture i have tried since uh 2022 to increase their budget division bag affects every county in the state through the extension
office and the division bag is much more than just the extension offices but every county does have one your extension agents for each and everyone else it's so i am asking for an increase in their budget and you've got it forgive me i can't read the numbers i left my readers in the apartment this morning all right thank you uh i understand
that senator members there's a four million dollar increase is what the request is
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:05:59
uh to the department yes sir all right senator history
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
1:06:04
recognized for a question um is this like the last
one if it passes it's just appropriation or if this passes it's increasing their
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:06:15
budget they will get the money this is appropriation sorry this is appropriation
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:06:19
only there is you know nowhere else that there's been additional i i had asked for for this back last
session and it didn't pass in the Senate. I tried to get this put in when we were looking at the executive branch pay increases $113 million and we didn't put that in and we turned right around
and forgot to put the benefit package in for the executive branch. We came back and added $26 million. And so, but again, it's appropriation that they need. They have not had a significant increase in their budget since 2018. How much room do they have in their appropriation versus spend
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:06:52
now? I would have to get someone from the division to come
Speaker 212
1:06:56
answer that. Okay. Do we have anyone from the division?
Speaker 215
1:07:14
Good morning. I'm Jeff Weaver, the director of government affairs for the University of Arkansas Division of
Speaker 216
1:07:19
Agriculture. all right so the the question was so this is
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:07:22
a four million dollar appropriation only increase what what how much appropriate how much room do you have right now in your appropriation versus your spend i think we're approximately 10 million so you've got 10 million dollars worth of room so this four million dollars what is it going to provide for the uva or division then if you've got 10 million dollars with a headroom what's the
Speaker 218
1:07:42
four million do so so it's going toward salaries
mainly we haven't had an increase in general revenue for a while and i know this is not an increase in general revenue but we need to have the room
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:07:55
just in case we were to get it and so
Speaker 221
1:08:02
there's no room in your salary right now yes sir there's some okay how much two million
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:08:08
dollars are you asking between appropriation and yeah right so this is an increase in appropriation of four million dollars okay which would lead me to believe that you don't have
enough appropriation for additional spend right and the additional spend would come through general revenues most likely because it's ongoing and so it would be you know a revision to the governor's balance budget and potential change or would be you know incorporated into RSA how
much room do you have right now for increases without the four million dollar increase? Between
Speaker 225
1:08:44
cash and authorization? Yes. About 10 million dollars. Okay
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:08:51
so what does the four million dollar increase
accomplish if you already have room in your appropriation
for an increase? Am I not maybe I'm not tracking correctly and maybe I've got a complete misunderstanding of the process but you
Speaker 228
1:09:12
know senator I mean I we were hoping to get more money than that honestly there's one
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:09:21
thing when we do RSA and we would delegate the state's
revenues and how those are allocated and there's another thing that you're doing
right now which is when we said appropriations which are the caps on what can be spent okay i i don't know how to say it again so i'm not going to members are there any
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:09:40
other questions yes all right senator hester you're recognized for a question yeah i i
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
1:09:45
guess senator colwell i really appreciate you've been advocating for this for for quite some time but if we're going to have a discussion on higher ed funding and need from my perspective you know
northwest arkansas community college if they received eight million more dollars they are still the lowest funded school by credit hour and it's not even close if we gave them eight million more dollars so if we want to have a discussion on need for higher ed then that has to start with uh you know northwest arkansas community college um from from my perspective we can all say we have needs most of them are wants um but if we just want to talk about needs or how maybe the uva ag should go visit with NWAC on how they make it work because if they received eight million more dollars
a year they are still the lowest funded institution of higher ed in the state per credit hour and it's still not
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:10:41
even close. In response to that Senator Hester the division ag is kind of the stepchild of agencies out there because when higher ed gets additional funding that does not necessarily go to division of ag when the department of ag gets additional funding which it got through the governor's executive pay that does not go to division of ag and you have to
specifically make the funding go to division of ag so the higher ed while it is somewhat part of higher ed it's not really and while it is somewhat part of agriculture department of ag it's not really it sits over here as a stepchild and uh it has to be funded uh i have a document that i printed off that uh i took to uh then candidate uh uh sarah sanders not governor before this was before she was ever elected but after the primary and of 72 different items i felt like we need to
work on in state government and and one of those items was the funding of the division of ag so this has been going on for years and uh uh we cut back again when when uh uh fuel goes up electricity goes up all this other stuff goes up uh they have to take that out of their uh existing uh budgets and it's just extremely difficult sometimes uh to uh uh uh tally where they are
compared to where they've been and what other agencies have received money so you know and I appreciate your example but then on higher ed they're really not part of higher ed they don't they don't get the benefits of pay increases to the department of higher ed they don't get the benefit of pay increases or funding increases to the division of agriculture and yet they are in every county that we have here in Arkansas every legislator sitting in here today has someone in
their county that works for division of ag promoting agriculture domestic food consumptions and things of that nature 4-H and the other things that the extension office does and yet we always punt whenever we come back to try to get them more money they actually need about 10 million dollars a year more to get back on a level playing field from where they've been for the last five or six years i agree
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
1:13:16
mr chair my last question you know i um we continue to look
at them because i i agree and you continue to put it up that there's there's certainly needs and um um you know i started looking at expenses they've had and particularly i've seen some capital expenses over the past year or so for parking lots and bridges and things to a research facility they said they don't use anymore so i think there are things to look at and hire you know a department of ag on um if they're actually using the resources they have for what they claim their needs are thank you all
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:13:55
right thank you and then we've got senator johnson
Speaker 178
1:13:57
thank you chairman so i've been trying to get this separated out budgetarily for the last three years so we can track this and have went nowhere because it is part of a multiple multiple not just higher ed but multiple systems in government compiled into the this division of agriculture it needs to be separated out so this body can track it and we can oversee it and see the need
and so we can direct the money because the university can increase the salaries of all these matches that the extension has to do and they don't have an appropriation of where they can match because it's not in their budget it's it needs to be divided out budgetarily so this body can oversee it properly like we have in other things and I'm sure the need is there tell me under this program program is it program
technician is that is that the extension agent that's in my county is that the program technician there's 120 of them i think that would be some of them senator that that would be so yes so i mean you have a a lot of this money is going towards uh uh research and and scientific things and and where since uh since a lot of agriculture has went private that we don't
do effectively the research that we've done, but our agents that are boots on the ground are not getting the increases that they need in my community and every community here. Internally, you know, that's just from a 30,000-foot view on my side of the agriculture spectrum uh but uh you know our our agents and our offices that are local and are are are really
important to agriculture producers we don't need to we don't need to lose that and my opinion it needs to be separated out budgetarily guys so so the need can be seen and felt by this body and and over oversight proper oversight uh i have no problem with this appropriation and would like to see the funding done uh in this this session
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:16:49
all right thank you uh so i'm going to ask senator caldwell the question is all right so there's 10 million dollars with a headroom in
the appropriation right now versus spend this would increase that to 14 million dollars with a headroom What is the additional $4 million going to accomplish that the $10 million doesn't accomplish today as far as appropriation level? Do you want to answer that, Jeff? Yes,
Speaker 218
1:17:18
sir. I think I know what you're getting at.
So if we were to receive more funding through general revenue, then we would have a little more space in the appropriation. You have $10 million. So
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:17:27
are you going to ask for $11 million so that you're exceeding? No, sir. Okay, are you going to ask
for $10 million more? We're asking for four right
Speaker 218
1:17:42
now. That would make the headroom 14, right? No, all you're doing is asking for a preparation authority right now.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:17:50
Yes, right. That's all that this amendment is doing. I understand. You're bumping something out that you've got $10 million worth of headroom in right now to $14 million worth of headroom. If you're going
to ask for $11 million, then I understand the reason for the additional four. If we're asking for $8 million, then I don't understand the need for the increased appropriation. We're asking for $10.5 million
Speaker 225
1:18:11
now. Okay, this is all good to know.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:18:14
Now I'm understanding things that's never been explained to me before. So you're asking for $10.5 million, they've got $10 million worth of headroom,
and this would give them an additional $3.5 million worth of headroom in
the appropriation. Okay, now that makes sense. Senator
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
1:18:32
King. thank you mr chair so like ag culture is the number
one economy so this is a bigger picture too right
Speaker 218
1:18:42
of arkansas absolutely so um we're divided into basically two different sections uh we have the research side um and you know the research over the years has grown yields
found efficiencies in farming things like that and then we have the co-op extension side which which 4-H falls under, and also LIDAR and things like that. On the extension center, I mean, like the senator said, you have one in every county, maybe two or three. We co-op with the quorum courts in the counties, and, you know, right now they're
Speaker 248
1:19:13
doing a fantastic job supporting the farm economy right now that is in dire need of help. Okay.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:19:23
And then, hold on just a second. Senate members, if you can take your conversations down a little bit, I
don't want to lose control of the committee as far as members being able
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
1:19:34
to hear. And with that, you're recognized, Senator King. And then the last is just basically a comment to what Senator Hester was talking about, higher ed funding and not getting it out there. So when I first came in, higher ed was 16% of the budget. This last proposed is just 12%. So if higher ed was at 16%, higher ed as a whole would be getting over $250 million more.
And since this is a budget session and watching money, you have to understand how much your vote impacts how much. So if you're complaining about your college getting less money, you probably need to look at yourself first. Senator Davis.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:20:14
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we really had this debate last session with the state employee pay plan, what we realized is that employees with the extension office are under the higher ed budget, so they were not included in the state employee pay plan.
And this may be a question for higher ed, I don't know, but I think higher ed is the one that makes the recommendations for non-formulary entities. And so my question would be, did higher ed make the recommendation for an increase, and if not, why? And are there any other institutions or groups that are asking for a large increase outside of what was presented from higher ed and what was agreed on? and then like I said this may be a question for higher ed since they're the
ones that propose the non-formulary budgets but I'd be interested to know what they recommended and why they maybe didn't recommend this increase and why you guys are going outside of it outside of that to ask senator there is one
Speaker 218
1:21:22
important point that I'd like to make is that even Even though the University of Arkansas is in front of our name, we don't receive tuition. We don't have bonding authority.
We don't have the ability to increase our revenue outside of federal competitive grants and things like that, which are not things that you want to base your salaries on. They're temporary. They come and go. You know, in the last few years, we've increased our competitive grants, and then they fell off quickly. we're building that back slowly but surely but but the grant situation has completely flipped on us in the meantime but again we we wouldn't want to
Speaker 248
1:22:01
put day in and day out employees on federal grants
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:22:04
really so is your request above and beyond what higher ed recommended for you as a non-formulary it is okay but what were the discussions like coming to that decision for them to make that recommendation for the department to make that did you have conversations with them
Speaker 218
1:22:24
about it we did i mean we we told them that we wanted to get uh increase in authorization and and in general revenue they knew that but they don't necessarily do everything we ask them to do when it comes to
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:22:35
requesting funds yes i'm familiar based on the institutions in my district um as well but But I was curious if maybe
somebody with higher ed could come up and shed a little more light on those
Speaker 259
1:22:52
conversations. All right. Thank you, Senator. We have someone coming.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:22:56
I'm not going to cut you off. Yeah, I asked if he would come up and maybe shed some light on their conversations as to why higher ed made the recommendation that they did for the Ag Extension Office.
Speaker 262
1:23:09
If you could just recognize yourself with
Nick Fuller
Unverified
1:23:11
the committee. Nick Fuller with the Division of Higher Education. So at the point of the fiscal session request, when the institutions made those, the Division of Ag asked for an increase of $8.7 million. So it's a little bit higher now at this point. But they had made the request for 8.7 increase in funding, and that is what we recommended. And that was based off of the request that was sent into our office. Now, whether that's included in a balanced budget or anything, that is beyond our scope as making a recommendation from a coordinating board,
but we did make the recommendation for an increase
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:23:46
of $8.5 million. Okay, so you made the recommendation for $8.5 million, and you're requesting an additional $4 million on top of that. Is that how I understand it? So that's $12.5 million in
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:23:59
increase? They're asking for $10.5 million now. they were asking for eight point whatever it was five i think is what was said now they're asking for 10.5 the difference is they have about 10 million dollars worth of room in their appropriation and the 8.5 would not have necessitated an increase in the appropriation because they want to go to
10.5 which is i don't know where the number came from versus what y'all presented it seems a bit odd that two million
dollars jumped but uh now they're asking for that which would they would need additional appropriation authority to go above what is currently there
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:24:36
so is that 20 and a half million no
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:24:39
they're asking so they currently have 10 million in room yeah
they have 10 million in room and they were asking for an 8.5 million dollar increase preparation level stay the same
nothing needs to happen we discuss whether or not that that increase does occur now they're asking for 10.5 million is what i understand they only have 10 million dollars left in their appropriation and so they're going to fluff it another 3.5 million above what they need if they were to receive the full
10.5 but they were made a request to higher ed for 8.5 it was you know agreed to now they're coming before us
and saying they need 10.5 which is two million dollars more than the
original request that was agreed to if i'm tracking everything
correctly and head nods say yes that is tracking
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:25:30
and so where's the four million dollars is that the original request
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:25:35
the four million dollars is an increase in their overall appropriation by senator caldwell and that's what we're considering today which would give them about 14 million dollars more than they need two-day in appropriation okay
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:25:51
yes and that's in addition to the 10.5 that they're asking for
and in addition to the 10 million that they have now that
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:26:00
in their budget two things are happening and i think it got a little confused about how it was explained earlier you know i think it was explained that we're asking for four million dollars in new funding that's not what this is This is $4 million in increased appropriation, which means they have more money or more ability to spend money so long as it is given to them, okay? And so that's what today is. I think it was originally said they were asking for $4 million in new funding.
That's not correct. What I think we finally fished out was they originally asked for $8.5 million, and then today, for us, they're asking for $10.5 million of new funding, not appropriation, funding. That's new dollars to actual spend. They need the authorization to be able to do that through an appropriation. And because they're going beyond the 8.5 to 10.5, you would need additional appropriation if you
were to try to spend those dollars.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:27:01
Okay. I believe I understand now. Thank you. Senator
Senator John Payton
Unverified
1:27:07
Payton. Thank you, Mr. Chair. senator caldwell i appreciate you bringing this appropriation suggestion or however you want to look at it i understand that there's some headroom and there's extra appropriation in almost every agency we deal with but when you bring a bill or an amendment like this it puts the focus on something and i love the fact that we actually have the focus here on the county extension
offices which since I've been down here for 13 years has hardly had any mention but in my lifetime in Clebron County we've we use the extension office a lot and we're in the hills we're not the big delta multi-thousand acre farms we're 20 and 40 and 80 acre farms and you can go to the county extension office and get help with soil sampling if you drill a well you can you can get you're water tested uh if we're if we have a drought like we have right now and you're trying
to re-establish your pasture land they'll help you with with that if you have a noxious weed you need identified and you need to know how to how to eradicate it they can help you with that they have equipment seeds drills that they can that they rent to the small farmers because these drills are very expensive and a farmer with 40 or 60 or 80 acres can't afford to own one but the county extension office will rent one to you so in the fall you can plant winter rye or winter wheat
and have some winter grazing for your cattle the county extension office throughout my lifetime has been an important help and an important aid to small farmers and i'm not i'm talking about the local golf course getting help you know from the extension and it's knowledge it's information it's contacts uh you can go to used to you can go to the county extension office and they'd come
out and survey for a pond in a valley where you're going to build a pond and and they do the survey and give you a plat of that i don't know if they still do that or not but folks i really appreciate the fact that we have a focus here for just a little bit on what the extension service does i was a 4-h shooting sports coach and over the three or four years i did that had over 100 students come through our program and the county extension service
was the key to that because they manage 4-h there's just a lot that is done through the extension service that most of us wouldn't appreciate if we hadn't experienced it one-on-one if we can do an appropriation and it's and just like the chair pointed out it's not any new money it's so that's going to come from somewhere else it's just appropriation and we can somehow give
an indication with our vote on this right here that we support the extension service and we'd like to try to find some more money to keep it going and keep it up to date i'd appreciate
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:30:36
y'all voting with me to pass this amendment thank you and we'll
get to for and against in just a minute so senator magruder you're recognized for a question i'm representative
Speaker 274
1:30:47
whatever sorry thank you sir thank you so much for uh for the opportunity to ask this question uh i heard uh
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
1:30:54
something in regards to salaries, in regards to this. Could you please elaborate on that for me? Yes,
Speaker 218
1:31:02
sir. Our last general revenue increase was before COVID, and it was realized really at the beginning of COVID. As you know, salaries have increased over time just because benefits have increased and there's more pressure on paying people more money. Frankly, they can go work in their local school district as an ag teacher and make more in nine months than they can make with us in 12.
And in terms of the research, people who are very specialized in what they do, seed breeding, efficiencies in production and things like that, it's very competitive for those people. If we're competing with Mississippi State, Clemson, Texas A&M, et cetera, it's very competitive, and we are not competitive in salaries right now at all. So are you saying that you
Representative Jessie McGruder
Unverified
1:31:49
have lost some people to other states because of our salaries? Oh, weekly. Weekly? Yes, sir.
Well, thank you. I know I visited with the office in Lee County, and they shared some of their concerns about salaries and how they had employees who couldn't afford things within the community, and Lee County is a very impoverished area, and that's a major concern of mine. So I wasn't aware that this was going to salaries. Thank you for elaborating on that for
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:32:20
me. Representative McGruder, one thing. uh mr weaver touched on was being able to go back to the local high schools uh the pay increase that
we gave teachers through the learns act has made the uh local offices non-competitive with the schools again they could go to the school and make fifty thousand dollars on a nine-month contract versus what they make now at the extension office on 12-month contracts and that's one thing that's us in a bind again they haven't had a a quality pay raise since before covet either so that's another reason we're asking for this additional funding thank you thank you mr chair i'm just
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:33:01
going to make sure that i'm tracking so when i look at this amendment here there are no changes to line on a maximums to
salaries whatsoever no sir there's not so let's talk about paying creep okay you're not changing those and if you're not you understand my question we feel like there's enough room from the line item maximum to
Speaker 225
1:33:23
what people are being paid now if we were to get an increase we feel like there's enough
Speaker 218
1:33:28
head room to to make that work it is i'll let y'all
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:33:45
so just to make sure I'm tracking though we just kind of
talked about how we're not paying people enough even though you've got your maximum set at a point that are that you're good with paying to be competitive you're just not utilizing your maximums is there places elsewhere in the budget we should be looking when we're not prioritizing maybe the pay for employees.
Speaker 218
1:34:17
I understand we're, I mean, we're behind in deferred maintenance. We are not building new buildings that we don't have the funding for. We received a $30 million earmark from Senator Bozeman to build a new food science building. The Northwest Arkansas, or the Northeast Arkansas Rice Research Center was built primarily with promotion board money from the rice promotion board uh so we're trying to be good stewards of the money
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:34:43
okay all right okay thank you senator david there's just some there's a lot of
contradiction in what we're saying and i'm starting to get frustrated with it but i'm going to stop because we've labored enough and i don't i mean i kind of i don't think this is intentional in any way for senator caldwell he was requested to make an increase of four million dollars appropriation he's done it may not have realized that you already had plenty of headroom for the 8.5. Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't. I don't know. May have understood that the line of maximums that are in this appropriation are at an appropriate level to be able to be, you know, make pay and
be competitive. I don't know. But Senator, I'm going to try to hit someone that's not had a question. Can't do that. Senator Davis.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:35:28
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My line of questioning is a little bit in that vein with positions. I remember when we looked during session, when we were going through the state employee pay plan that there were vacancy in positions and there was also quite a bit of room to pay more what we were just talking about um there were there were i don't know that there were very many if at all employees that were at their max and so there was plenty of room to be
able to pay employees more um so when you're talking about you know being able to be competitive and pay you certainly have that ability currently and have had it for the last several years so so i guess that's my question too if if you're getting an additional i assume 8.5 million based on higher ed's request so you'll have the money and you already have the room to take people closer to their maximum and make them more competitive then what is the need for the additional appropriation request if you'll be getting actual funding requests and we'll have
both the money and the appropriation to be able to spend it and pay people competitively. Well, so to answer your
Speaker 225
1:36:39
question, you're correct in all that. We don't have the general revenue to make
Speaker 218
1:36:44
those, get close to those line item maximums for the most part. What this would do would allow us, if we were to get funding, give us more headroom for, you know, private gifts or things like that so we wouldn't have to come back to you to ask for more appropriations space.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:37:01
um okay so the additional the the four million dollar appropriation request is in case you guys get private gifts to be able to maybe spend on buildings or something else but you're asking for eight and a half million maybe ten and a half million hard dollars actual funding to be able to pay your employees more and get them closer to their line item max well i
Speaker 283
1:37:28
think i think most state agencies have a little space between
Speaker 218
1:37:32
the cash they receive from general revenue or the RSA and their actual appropriation and that's
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:37:43
what we're trying to maintain. Okay.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:37:46
Thank you. All right. Senator Irvin. Thank you, Mr. Terror. I'm right
here in front of you. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Just a question. You have a $76 million capital improvement appropriation on page 7.
Is that primarily funded by what, federal, state?
Speaker 218
1:38:03
What is that? I think that's for the food science building that I mentioned before. Okay. So that's a $55 million building. We received a $30 million earmark. We've saved money over several decades to replace a 1958 building that's really fallen apart, and that's what we're going to do with
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:38:26
that particular amount. But, again, it's state and federal, or how is that
Speaker 218
1:38:29
funded? It's mostly federal. Okay. But some of it is our money that we've saved.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:38:34
Okay. So it goes back to the last issue that we just had. Like, I guess for me, if I'm saying
this is an important thing is that we need to pay our people more, if I'm the legislator, I would rewrite your appropriation bill. And I would say, we're going to decrease this by $4 million and increase this salary line item by $4 million. And I would take it from within your budget. That's what I would do.
And it's the same issue that we just had previously. If that were me, I would say instead of a million dollars out of restricted reserve or wherever, I would make you use the money that we've given you for the priorities that we feel like needs to be a priority. We have the ability to do that as legislators. We can rewrite your appropriation and say, we think you need to spend it here and not here. And I guess for me, I support the previous efforts for that, and I support this.
But at one point, we've got to understand as legislators that we can rewrite your appropriation to where $4 million is moved within your appropriation. and redirected into what we believe should be the priority you you have that we have the ability as legislators to do that which is what I would have done on the Department of Corrections so again I guess
for me I would say to you like rewrite your appropriation figure out if you're
really losing and I agree with Senator Payton we need our county extension offices I'm not sure that a food science building that you're talking about, as great as that might be, helps me in my district, but my county agency does, my county, you know, extension office does, and the people there matter more to me than a big fancy building. It just does. And so we've got to understand our ability to rewrite appropriations and not continue to ask for more. And that that's my point in and
i'm for these issues i am against the process does that make sense it does but i'm still going to vote for the appropriation but i would pull it down and rewrite it that's what i would do but that's that's just my two cents worth as being a member of this committee and being on budget and i was vice chair of joint budget for many many many years we've got to understand you we've given them a huge amount of money direct them to way you want it to be spent instead of giving more money more money more money or more flexibility or more
ability to spend the way they want to spend no we should direct that
that's my two cents All right,
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:41:36
thank you. Representative Rye. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me ask this, Senator Caldwell. I know that there's two budgets. There's this budget here, and then there is a local county budget. What percentage of this budget for the salaries is actually paid for on our level here, and what percentage is paid for by the counties?
Speaker 225
1:42:00
Representative, so the county's, the cooperative part of the extension service is working with the
Speaker 218
1:42:06
quorum courts in the counties. So I think the county's help determine the staffing levels at each county, and they also offer us office space. But in terms of salaries, they pay about a third of
Speaker 288
1:42:18
it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:42:27
question. Representative Wooden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I agree with Senator Payton that this is a vital service that's provided to my constituents and people throughout the state.
Are you telling us that your service is provided presently, and I've been a benefactor of it for years, Are you telling this body that your service is threatened? Absolutely. And it's a fact that we're not competitive in pricing and salary and compensation? Yes, sir. And so it needs to be addressed in order to be able to continue the service,
to provide the service to the people of the state of Arkansas. It's not necessarily higher education. Is that correct? That's correct, yes, sir.
Speaker 218
1:43:23
We are two-thirds of the land-grant mission, so one-third of it is obviously teaching. The other side of it is research and extension, which is a code word for outreach. And so what you're talking about in the counties is the outreach, and we're losing people because we can't pay them.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:43:41
I realize that we have problem areas in higher education, colleagues. But this is something that reaches out to the people of this state and provides an important service to the 40, the 50, the 60-acre farm. Not necessarily. They're a big help to everybody. All the plantation owners or whatever you want to call it, 100,000 acres or so in East Arkansas, if they need the service, it's there.
It's provided. And so, like I said, I realize there's other difficulties in topics of conversation about higher education, but I also know that they haven't received the funding necessarily that they needed. Now, what you want and what you get is two different things, and I agree with Senator Irvin and Senator King, we have to be cautious, but at the same time, the outreach that this
program has is of benefit beneficial to all state people all of them whether they're a homeowner or farm owner or whatever is that correct yes sir absolutely thank you thank you
Speaker 177
1:44:57
mr. chairman all right thank you senator Hester yeah checking
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
1:45:01
you guys have about 1,500 employees in UVA AG if we if we did this because a lot
of this discussion has been has been around our extension services if we gave you this money is that for the extension services or you could use
Speaker 218
1:45:18
it for anything you wanted well we would we would use it for extension and researchers and and staff and you know administrative assistants and across the board and we're and we're we're down about i think we're about 1250 employees right now even though we're authorized for maybe the
Speaker 220
1:45:35
1500 and if And if you wanted to, you could use this
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
1:45:39
money for a parking lot at a hunting area. I mean, it's for salaries.
Speaker 218
1:45:50
I mean, we're increasing the salary lines, so it would go towards salaries.
Senator Bart Hester
Unverified
1:45:55
That's all this money would go to is towards salaries. But it wouldn't just go to the extension offices, which seems to be the priority. I mean, I kind of like where Senator Irvin was going. If that's the priority, we ought to be very specific on what these funds
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:46:10
should be used for. Thank you. and that is not correct again we're talking about multiple things we're talking about appropriation the appropriation increase right here is for salary and match it's going to and it can be used for additional spend for everything that's above that so all those salaries you see
there as long as they're not the line amount of max i mean we should probably be asking who's what where how and how much but when we get into rsa and we're which is where we're talking about the additional money that you're actually requesting, the 10.5, it can go for everything. Okay, Senator, so that was not correct. If they get an increase in RSA, it can be used for everything. Now, we've given them more authority to spend here, which they've already said they've got
plenty of room, but anywhere else they could also spend those dollars that we've authorized with appropriation. So it would not just be limited to what this conversation is in this room by any means. all right with that i think
that takes us to the end of our questions senator caldwell you're recognized for a motion thank you uh mr chair i move for
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:47:21
a do pass we've got a motion do pass
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:47:23
we have a second we've got a second any discussion on the motion
seeing no discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye all
those opposed no motion carries All right, members, that takes us to Section D, our governor's
letters. And when we make a motion for adoption, what we're saying is that we're authorizing, you know, a bill to be drafted or an amendment to be made, one of those two things.
So with that, we're going to start on our governor's
Speaker 36
1:48:03
letters, governor's letter one. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr.
Chair
Unverified
1:48:06
Chairman. Item D, these are governor's letters. D-1 is Governor's Letter No. 1, which is an amendment to House Bill 1052 for the Treasurer's State, term back for counties and municipalities. This amendment increases $150 million for real property tax reduction. You'll see that at the end of the letter, they state that this is increased in the Homestead Property Tax Credit. All right,
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:48:27
thank you, members. Do we have any questions on D-1?
All right, seeing none, any motion to adopt? I've got a motion. I've got a second. any discussion on the motion seeing
none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries d2 mr. chairman
Chair
Unverified
1:48:44
item d2 is governor's letter number two which is a request to amend senate bill 7 commerce state insurance department this is an amendment for a reallocation of 23 000 from the operating expense to the conference and travel and the letter states this is for up
Speaker 63
1:48:57
to provide for the department's annual sponsored conference all right thank you
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:49:02
Members, do we have any questions on D2? Seeing no questions, what's the will of the committee? We've got a motion to adopt. We've got a second. Any
discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed,
Chair
Unverified
1:49:17
motion carries. D3. That's for Governor's Letter No. 3, Mr. Chairman, which is a request to amend Senate Bill 2, DFA Assessment Coordination Division. This is an amendment to add $100,000 to their operating expense line item. They state that this is necessary to support contractual services associated with the analysis and review of real property appraisals all right
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:49:34
thank you d3 members do we need any questions on d3 all right seeing no questions we've got a motion to adopt we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing no discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion kick motion
Chair
Unverified
1:49:56
carries d4 item d4 is governor's letter number five It's a request to amend House Bill 1054, Department of Education, Division of Career and Technical Education. This is an increase of $1.5 million.
It increases their operating expense appropriation, allowing the agency to provide professional development to students and counselors for college and career advising. All right, thank you. Members, do
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:50:13
you want to have any questions on D4? Seeing no questions, we've got a motion to adopt. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion carries d5. Thank Mr. Chair
Chair
Unverified
1:50:29
Adam d5's governor's letter number six this is a request to amend House Bill 1051 DFA regulatory division there are two requests here the first on the first
page is an increase of 300,000 in their regulatory federal appropriation and their operating expense and this will align the agency's budget with the federal grant award then on page two of the letter is a request to amend their racing commission casino gaming section appropriation this would
Speaker 40
1:50:55
be an increase of $5,000 in new overtime and an increase of $10,000 in their operating expenses for a total of $15,000. They state that this is necessary to increase overtime and operating expense appropriations to address rising supply
Chair
Unverified
1:51:08
costs and support continuous 24-hour casino operations.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:51:11
Thank you. Members, we have questions on
D5. We do not. We've got a motion to adopt. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. All those opposed, motion carries. D6.
Chair
Unverified
1:51:26
Mr. Chair, on D6 is Governor's Letter No. 17, which is a request to amend Senate Bill 19, which is the Department of Inspector General. This is for a new line item of $5 million for program integrity. It states that it's needed to conduct independent fraud investigations in accordance with professional audit standards.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:51:42
All right, thank you. Members, any questions on D6? Seeing no questions, we've got a motion to adopt. We've got
a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all
Chair
Unverified
1:51:58
those opposed motion carries d7 Mr. Chair Adam d7 is governor's letter 18 it is a request to amend house bill 1006 for the department of labor and licensing boards and commissions the request is to delete three separate appropriations for the appraisers abstractors and home inspectors and combine
those into one appropriation which you'll see there on page two and this is a response to act 949 of 2025, which was passed by
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:52:22
the General Assembly. By Senator Bryant. Members, any questions on
D7? Seeing no questions, we've got a motion to adopt. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none,
all those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. D8. Mr. Chairman, D8
Chair
Unverified
1:52:40
is Governor's Letter Number 19, which is a request to amend
House Bill 1078 for the Department of the Military. The amendment is to delete the Fort Chaffee Readiness Center appropriation its entirety the letter states that that appropriation has been completed and the portion of construction project is done all right thank you
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:52:58
members any questions on d8 seeing no questions we've got a motion to adopt we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by
saying aye all those opposed motion carries d9 mr.
Speaker 40
1:53:14
chair out of d9 is a governor's letter number 26 this is the request
Chair
Unverified
1:53:18
for reappropriations for various infrastructure projects for the 2027 fiscal year this letter has been revised the revision is on page two it requests special language to be put in the department of corrections appropriation bill which sets out fund usage restrictions on the request for the 73.7 million dollar reappropriation for prison expansion mr. chair all right thank you Senator
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:53:44
King, you're recognized for a question.
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
1:53:50
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So to be clear, originally this was the $75 million that was supposed to years back to expand Calico Rock, the 525 beds. Is that right? That's correct. And is it still designated to that or some of these funds? It's currently today the $75 million is going towards, just clarify for
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:54:11
us. Yeah, Governor Hutchinson actually put an end to the Calico Rock Project. And then this has special
language added on page two that stipulates that essentially it's recidivant.
I don't have it memorized in front of me, but it's for anything to do with the Department of Corrections capital improvement-wise, with the exception of something happening in Franklin County. Yeah, I
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
1:54:33
understand that. And so just basically it's just, and I don't have a problem with stopping
this or anything, or I'm not stopping it, but it's just to
start the discussion of maybe having a different use for this money other than the Calico Rock expansion. Yes, I
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:54:50
think the previous was for capital improvement projects in general, which it still could be used for,
but this would tie the hands of how it could specifically
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
1:54:58
be used. Okay, so it's just to start the discussion of a different avenue with this money then. Okay, so it's probably a little too early to talk about special language if a facility is built that we need to at least make sure there's enough water to flush a toilet twice a day, or is that probably later I need to bring that up? You're
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:55:16
a sitting member, and you're welcome to bring all the special language you'd like. I'm just trying to be funny on this one. There you go. Thanks. Try harder. I'm kidding. All right.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:55:29
All right. Members, do we have any other questions on
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:55:35
D9, Representative Wooten? Yes, Mr. Chairman, Where are we relative to the situation in Charleston in the 3,000-bed stadium? It'll be a stadium and a prison. Can this $75 million be used, or is it already earmarked for that facility? The governor in the letter
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:55:56
has proposed special language that would prohibit from being used in Franklin County.
That's page two of Governor's Letter 26
in your packet. All right, I've
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:56:07
got that. Yes, sir. So it cannot be used up there? Yes, sir. All right, thank you. Thank you. All
Speaker 101
1:56:14
right, Senator Hickey. Just clarification from this,
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
1:56:18
should we not run this Governor's Letter through special language first before we pass it in here? This is to allow us to get it drafted,
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:56:27
and then there will be a whole separate process that we'll go through with that.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:56:33
Thank you, sir. All right, Senator Irvin. Yeah, and just looking at this, there's going to be special language for all these
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:56:44
different appropriation bills. Is that correct? I think it's just that one. The rest of them are just reappropriations. This was a reappropriation too, but there was the idea to include special language for it. I
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:56:53
got you, but what's attached is what I'm asking for.
Senator Ronald Caldwell
Unverified
1:56:56
That's the only one that's got special language attached to it. The rest of them are just reappropriations
Speaker 193
1:57:00
for all the projects. Okay, got it. Thank you.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:57:04
All right, thank you. Members, any other questions on D9? All right, seeing none, we've got a motion due pass. We've got a second by Senator
King. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. And
Speaker 41
1:57:29
that's funny. All right, D9, D9. you mean d10
Speaker 40
1:57:31
d10 d10 d10 mr chairman item d10 is governor letter number 28 this is a request for
Chair
Unverified
1:57:38
supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 26 there is a summary if you go about three pages you'll see the letter and in the booklet you'll see those listed there um you may go there are for the committee's information there are five requests that are requesting fund transfers there's dfa for the pregnancy transfers from general revenue allotment reserve which is a surplus transfer that is for dfa for the pregnancy resource centers for 3.5 million for dhs for senior centers for 2 million for department of commerce assistance grants for 10 million
for energy and environment use tires for 2.5 million and the last request for fund transfer would be uams for pregnancy and strokes and the for 5 million so that would be a total of 23 million in fund transfers, Mr. Chair. All right,
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
1:58:28
thank you. Members, any questions on D10? All right, seeing no questions, we've got a motion to adopt. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed? Motion
carries. All right, members, now we're going to move to our house bills, and again, we read through these earlier um i'll just start it off this way hit your button if you've got one that was in the list in the house bill packet that you'd like to pull out that you've not come by and talk to staff about
there was only one we got what was that one you know what bill number that was
so they can follow house bill 1016 which is arkansas tech has
been pulled so we're not going to consider it
today all right all right members if it's okay with you i'm going to i think i'm going to take this one page at a time so for instance this first run will be page six I'm going to read the three house bills if there are questions if you could hit your mic we'll take questions if not the motion will be a due pass on each of those items that I read and we'll do that by page so we don't
get too far ahead but maybe we can condense it down just a little bit if that works for everyone all right all right so go to page six in your house bill packet house bill 1012 1014 1015 and that's it members we have any questions on 1012 14 or 15 all right seeing none we've got a motion do pass for house bill 1012 1014 and 1015 we've got a second in discussion on the motion
seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries we're gonna move to page seven there's one bill on page seven that is house bill 1019 do we have any questions on house bill 1019 seeing none we've got a motion do pass we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 8 we We have two on page 8, House Bill 1021 and House Bill 1024.
Do we have any questions? Seeing no questions, we've got a motion to do pass on House Bill 1021 and 1024. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed, motion carries. Page 9. Page 9 is House Bill 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028, and 1029. If we have any questions on House Bill 1024, 25, 26, 27, 28, or 29, seeing none, we've
got a motion to do pass on House Bill 1024, House Bill 1025, House Bill 1026, 1027, 1028, and 29. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed, motion carries. Page 10. Page 10, we have three bills, House Bill 1030, House Bill 1031, and 1032. Do we have any questions on House Bill 1030, 1031, or 32? Seeing none, we've got a motion due pass.
We've got a second in discussion on the motion. Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, motion carries. Page 11, we have three bills, House Bill 1038, 1039, and 40. Do we have any questions on 1038, 1039, or 1040? Seeing none, we've got a motion to do pass on those three bills. Any discussion on the motion? Or second? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. All those opposed, motion carries. Page 12.
Page 12, we have four bills. House Bill 1042, 1043, 1044, and 1045. Any discussion or any questions on those bills? Seeing none, we've got a motion to do pass on house bill 1042 1043 1044 and 1045 we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 13 we have three bills house bill 1046 1047 and 1049 any questions seeing no questions we've got a motion to pass on
house bill 1046 1047 and 1049 we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 15 we have four bills i believe house bill 1056 1057 1058 and 1059 any questions on those bills seeing none we've got a motion do pass on house bill 1056 1057 1058 and 1059 we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing
none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. All those
opposed, motion carries. All right. Motion carries. Page 16, we have four bills,
1060, 1061, that almost got me, 1062, and 1063. Any questions on those bills? Seeing none, we've got a motion to pass on 1060, 1061, 1062, and 1063. we've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none. All those in favor, signify by saying
aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Page 19, one bill. House Bill 1067. Any questions on 1067? Seeing none, we've got a motion due pass. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, signify by saying aye. All those opposed? Motion carries. Page 20, two bills, House Bill 1069 and 1070. Any questions on those bills? Seeing none, we've got a motion due pass on 1069 and 1070 we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all those
in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 21 we have house bill 1071 1072 1073 and 1074 any questions seeing no questions we've got a motion do pass on house bill 1071 1072 1073 and 1074 we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 22 we have 1075 and 1076
any questions on 1075 or 76 seeing none we've got a motion to pass house bill 1075 and 1076 we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 23 we have house or house resolution 1004 and house resolution 1005 any questions on house resolution 1004 or house resolution 1005 seeing no questions we've got a motion do pass we've got a second any discussion seeing no discussion all those
in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries all right we're going to move to
our senate packet page three senate bill five senate bill
six any questions seeing none we've got a motion do pass we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page five senate bill nine we've got a mo we've got any questions we've got a motion do pass we've got a second any any discussion
seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page six senate bill 11. any questions seeing none we've got a motion to pass we've got a second in discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries that was a good one page seven what was that i need to go back and look all right all right page seven senate bill 12 senate bill 13. any questions seeing none we've got a motion to pass we've got a second in discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those
opposed motion carries page 8 senate bill 17 senate bill 18 we have any questions seeing no questions we've got a motion do pass in senate bill 17 and senate bill 18 we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 9. nope
nope page 9 is DCFS it's not ready okay
we're skipping page 9. all page 10 we've got senate bill 25 any questions on senate bill 25 seeing none we've got a motion
to pass we've got a second in discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries senate or page 11 senate bill 27 and 28 do we have any questions seeing no questions on senate bill 27 28 we've got a motion to pass we've got a second any discussion on the motion all those
in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 12 we have three bills senate bill 33 senate bill 34 and 35 any questions
seeing none we've got a motion do pass we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 14 three bills senate bill 37 38 and 39 do we have any questions seeing no questions we've got a motion do pass we've got a second any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 15 senate bill 40 we have any questions on senate bill 40 seeing none we've got a motion to pass we've got a second any discussion on the motion
seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all those opposed motion carries page 16 we have three four bills uh senate bill 44 45 46 and 47 any questions on those seeing none we've got a Motion do pass for Senate Bill 44, 45, 46, and 47. We have a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, motion carries. Page 17. Senate Bill 48, 49, and 50. Any questions? Seeing no questions, we've got a motion do pass on 48, 49, and 50.
We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, motion carries. Senate Bill 18, I mean, I'm sorry, page 18. Senate Bill 54, 56, and 57. Do we have any questions on Senate Bill 54, 56, and 57? Seeing none, we've got a motion to do pass. We've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, motion carries. All
right. With that, members, we wrap up our work for today.
Speaker 313
2:09:30
What do we have coming up? We've got claims, needs upon adjournment of house management. Personnel meets at 8 tomorrow and JBC at 9.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
2:09:38
Okay, claims at adjournment of house management, that's about as far as I can get. If you are on house management, would you
let us know when you adjourn? Because I don't think we're going to be waiting to see when you get out exactly. So if you can, let our members know when you adjourn so we can come on over. With that, we're adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Reports and Communications
C. Member Bills and Amendments
D. Governor’s Letters
E. Consideration of Bills Referred to Joint Budget (House and Senate Captions)
F. Other Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
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Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Senator Mark Johnson
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Chair
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Senator Terry Rice
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Senator Dave Wallace
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Representative Dwight Tosh
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Representative Jim Wooten
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Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
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Senator Missy Irvin
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Representative Kendra Moore
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Senator Stephanie Flowers
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Representative Marcus E. Richmond
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Representative Johnny Rye
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Senator John Payton
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Senator Ronald Caldwell
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Senator Bart Hester
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Senator Bryan King
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Senator Breanne Davis
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Nick Fuller
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Representative Jessie McGruder
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