Joint Budget Committee
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Speaker 4
0:30
we're going to call joint budget together everybody getting their seats all right members it's
our intent today to finish up today so we will not come back tomorrow and that all
depends on the members okay when we do have questions I'm gonna go to the members of the committee first and then the non-members will ask questions and for that we're gonna start off with Department of Human Services. Ms. Walls,
Lila Walls
Unverified
1:20
you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Lila Walls of
Chair
Unverified
1:28
the Bureau of Legislative Research. I'm going to present the appropriation for shared services and then follow with the presentation for the Secretary's office without stopping.
The appropriation for shared services is on page 50 of your manual. This appropriation pays for personal services for the Secretary and it's funded by interagency transfers from other divisions. For fiscal year 27, the legislative recommendation is for nearly $356,000 with no changes from current appropriated levels. Next up is the secretary's office. Their department summary is on page 52 of your manual. This appropriation pays for, I'm sorry, this division houses the core business functions for the department and has total authorized appropriations
of approximately $86.6 million with 650 positions utilized across the department. There's four appropriations that are funded with general revenues, federal funds, and other funds. The legislative recommendation for this division is approximately $86.7 million with no significant changes, so I'm going to discuss the operations appropriation briefly. On the second to the last line on the appropriation section in the summary, it says DHS admin paying account, also 896 is the number at the beginning. This is the operations appropriation for this division. It's funded with
general revenue, federal funds, and other sources that are determined primarily by the department's cost allocation plan this comprises the majority of the divisions total appropriations at nearly 70 million dollars and this concludes my portion of this presentation thank you miss walls department
y'all have anything to add just ready for questions good morning
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
3:03
chair yes sir we would take questions we have nothing to
add okay do we have any questions for staff or the department
Seeing none, I'll take a motion for executive rec and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Any opposed? It is adopted. Miss Walls I think
Chair
Unverified
3:26
you're going on aren't you? Yes sir. Thank you Mr. Chair. Next is the Division of Aging, Adult and Behavioral Health Services and their department appropriation summaries on pages 62 and 63 of your manual. This division provides support and protective services to physically disabled adults, older adults and adults with behavioral health issues and also coordinates the state's substance abuse treatment
and prevention efforts. In fiscal year 26, the division has total authorized appropriations about $318.9 million with 1,197 positions and 13 appropriations funded with general revenues, federal funds, and various program support. Let me stop you. Our mic system is low. I'm just talking about the volume, so get it as close to your
mouth as you can. We have members having trouble hearing i'm sorry thank you all right do you want me to start over or continue
no you're going go ahead from there yes sir
Chair
Unverified
4:14
the total legislative recommendation for this division is
approximately 318.9 million dollars with no significant changes and i'd like to direct the committee to appropriations that may be of interest we're going to talk about their operations appropriation which is about halfway down in the appropriation section it says 896 division of aging adult and behavioral health this is the pay salaries and operational expenses for the division including the operations at the state hospital and Arkansas Health Center. And it's funded with general revenue, federal funds, and various program support and comprises about half of the total appropriation amount for the division at $148.5 million.
The line directly below that is listed as 898 is the division's grants-paying appropriation, which is the primary appropriation for services to older adults across the state, including funds that flow to senior citizen centers. It's funded with general revenue, federal funds, and various program support for a total appropriation of 56.6 million dollars there are also two appropriations that don't have expenditures at the top because they were moved here via governor's letter in 2025 those are the appropriations on line four for the medicaid tobacco settlement program and on line eight
which is the independent choices grant the actual expenditures for fiscal year 25 are listed in the pages for the division of provider services and quality assurance which is where those appropriations came from and this concludes my presentation for this
division members we have any we have some questions we'll start off with the representative kavanaugh you're recognized
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
5:56
hold on thank you mr chair thank you um thank y'all for coming not
that you had much choice but but thank you for being there. Page on 67 and actually 69. It's dealing with the drug abuse and treatment
and the mental health grants. I noticed that we're projecting a big increase in federal funding. Is that money that we're expecting for specific programs? So I think
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
6:42
that the amount you're looking at, We're not expecting any increases in our grant funds that are coming in for either of those. We have block grants that we get biannually, and then we have three discretionary grants. So we are not expecting increases in any of those grants at this time.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
7:01
Okay, well, the reason I'm asking is your federal revenue shows your actual was 27.9, but you're asking for 56.7 in federal funding. So are we expecting a jump in federal funding to that amount? So
Speaker 31
7:21
I think the way this is working is that we always are spending basically a year behind because it's in a federal fiscal year. And so when that money comes forward, so right now we're paying from our block grants
from the previous federal fiscal year, and so we're always bringing that forward. So we need that space. We also are looking at sometimes we do get increases and sometimes there are changes. We also occasionally get technical assistance grants that we have the opportunity. So we want to make sure that we have the opportunity to go after any grants if they come up. But we are not expecting. There are sometimes changes in both of those block grant amounts. But they are formulary grants and we don't know about that in advance.
Typically, we get very little notice. Thank you. Thank you, Representative
Senator Rice. Hold on. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're recognized. Thank you, Director
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
8:34
Mann. If you would go back over, I heard you say seniors. I'm sorry. I'm having a little trouble hearing.
what was the seniors you were talking
about whoever whoever was given that
Speaker 8
8:55
i'm sorry yes that was for the appropriation summary for um um eight nine eight which is for includes the funds that
Chair
Unverified
9:01
flow to senior citizen centers and that's on page uh hang on just a minute 78 of the manual itself and it has different line items that are included in there and senior
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
9:14
citizen centers is one of them okay and mr chair i you know i can get back in the queue but i've got questions on on that with you an hour later all right okay and
director man can you tell me on On the senior centers, on division of adult and aging, are we going backwards on those?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
9:47
Thank you for the question, Senator Rice. I will start, and then Director Hill will correct me if I get
this wrong. It has been bumpy due to— You can just pull that mic towards you. It will come over. Yes, sir. Here, how about I just scoot up? Is that better? Yeah. Yes, sir. It has been bumpy with government shutdown and potential shutdown and then
the flow of federal funds timely after the shutdown. We are back to normal levels is my understanding. I'm looking at Director Hill to shake his head yes.
So I do not believe we are going backwards.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
10:22
I think it's been timing. Okay. And on senior centers specifically? Yes,
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
10:30
sir. Some of the Older Americans Act were halted during the shutdown, so it did impact some of the functions of the senior centers,
but not the senior centers in
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
10:41
total. Is there going to be make-up money for that
Speaker 60
10:48
time? So, Senator, those funds have been received.
Speaker 62
10:51
When the shutdown occurred, the funding for the Older Americans Act comes in several different streams. It's all under Title III. The majority of it's under Title III. two of the specific lines of funding the agency exhausted for supportive services and for congregate meals. Once the government, once the shutdown ended, those funds were received. The AAAs, Area Agency on Aging, who are the pass-through for the funding that goes to the senior centers, have received that funding, and so
Speaker 59
11:19
we are not in a deficit from what we expected to receive.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
11:23
Okay, and this is not addressed at any of y'all, particularly at the table, but I want to say this for the state of Arkansas. I continually ask. I have for the last few years and tried to advocate for our nursing homes, our assisted livings, our senior centers, just seniors in general because they deserve our respect.
And if we as a state and a nation can't show that, but yet we can give extra millions of dollars to households that have incomes that can private school with or without any assistance of the state, and I'm not saying I'm against that, and we're not doing enough for some seniors, and that's shameful in my book. So I wish we would think about that in this budget session and see if we can't do something.
We've got senior centers that have shut some mills down. And if we can do anything and we can hire these consultants for megabucks, let's put some money and show some respect to people that lived before us and worked hard and have done everything they should and try to help them out a little bit. And, again, I'd address that you all appreciate what you do. I appreciate the fact that I think you're concerned, but you're only going to do what we tell you to do and what we put money out there to do.
So, Mr. Chair, I'll offer that for all to chew on. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Representative Clowney.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
13:15
Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're recognized. Thank you. I am looking at page 73, and I was kind of getting settled when y'all were doing the overview, so apologies if I missed this already. But I'm curious about these numbers for the Medicaid Tobacco Settlement Program. I'm seeing there was zero spend in 24-25, and then it was in the budget last year.
Agency requests for the upcoming year is zero. Can you just walk me through what's going on with
Speaker 60
13:38
those numbers? The Tobacco Settlement Funds came to the division in the 25 session. Previously, this program was housed with our Division of Provider Services Quality Assurance. This supports the Options Counseling Program. Sorry if I'm not close enough. These funds support the options counseling program. Oh, let me stop you right now.
The more mics we have on, Ms. Eubanks, you turn your mic off. You're not using it. It kind of helps pick it up. Thank you.
Speaker 60
14:02
So the funding since 25, this is the first subsequent year that the funding has actually been in Division of Aging, Adult,
Speaker 82
14:08
Behavioral Health Services, which may be why you're only seeing it is now.
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
14:14
Okay, and then what about the agency requests being zero for the upcoming
Speaker 8
14:25
year? miss miss walls the agency requests that are listed here are the agency requests that
Chair
Unverified
14:29
were also in the 2024 regular session budget hearings so there were not got it this was not a thing then
so thank you and there are but there are expenditures in these appropriations they're just in a different division of the department
Representative Nicole Clowney
Unverified
14:44
so even though they're in the 26 27 column yeah They are about the 24-25 year? Well, the expenditures
Chair
Unverified
14:49
for that division, because they were made for another division, for the Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance, those expenditures are in their section further on in the manual. And if
Speaker 89
14:58
you'd like me to, I can refer you to those pages. Let me try to clarify.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
15:08
We are moving these expenditures to the Division of Aging and Adult Services with Behavioral Health. The previous expenses will be found located in another division, DPSQA, Provider and Quality Assurance. I see. Okay. Thank
you. Yes. Are you through, Representative? Okay. Representative
Speaker 758
15:35
Wooten, you're recognized for a question. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to follow up on
the comments made by Senator Rice.
The senior citizens have served the state well, and the centers are not being taken care of financially like they should be. And I don't see any big increase in your budget for the senior centers.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
16:14
No, sir. There are very little increases in our budget for anything this year. We are operating within our means, and we are serving our citizens as adequately in the past couple of years with a flat budget. And so that's what
Speaker 758
16:30
we are striving for. Well, is the request coming from the federal government to
hold the spending down, or is it coming from the governor's office? Mr.
Wooten? Yes. On the last budget, outside the RSA, we put an additional $2 million for fiscal 26 and 27,
so they do have additional funding coming, but it's
Speaker 758
16:54
outside the RSA. Okay. All right. Just to
kind of get you up. I'm getting an awful lot of complaints relative to families, developmentally challenged centers and that
type of thing, Relative to employment, what is your total employment in your department?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
17:20
Total employment in the Department of Human Services is approximately 6,603 employees.
And I think you were referring to the HDCs or the Human Development Centers, which is housed in our DDS budget. So we have approximately 2,500 employees of that 6,600 delivering direct care. And it is an ongoing practice. We do turn over a lot of those positions. So we are consistently hiring CNAs and working through that hiring and training process for the HDCs.
Speaker 758
17:58
Okay, what is your total employment for the total of
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
18:02
the department? Yes, sir. For the Department of Human Services, total is 6,600 and maybe three or it's a little over 6,600, about 6,610 at the most. Okay,
Speaker 758
18:12
of those, how many vacancies are over two years old?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
18:16
Of the vacancies that are two
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
18:26
older. I think, according, Mr. Eubanks just said,
we have about 95 positions that fell in that two-year or older category. Just
Speaker 758
18:35
95 out of 6,600? Yes, sir. Positions? Yes, sir. But what
worries me about that is the fact that how many of those are budgeted? Well, we
Speaker 125
18:53
have a combination of budgeted and unbudgeted, but we have budgeted about 6,600 positions. See, that's what worries me.
Speaker 758
19:01
I don't know that the secretaries and the division directors and others are keeping up with the number of employees that positions are over two years old and they're budgeted. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
Chair
Unverified
19:20
Representative. Senator Flowers, you're recognized for a question. Hold on.
Speaker 130
19:31
There you go. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
19:39
trying to figure out the summary for, and I'm on page 62, the Department Appropriation Summary. The funding sources, it seems like there's not the highest amount coming from general revenue. How do we know where each of the funding sources,
I guess the special revenue is spelled out for tobacco and meals on wheels, transportation, and I don't know if that's a part of this summary or not, but I'm trying to figure out what does the general revenue and all these other funding sources pay for. Is that delineated?
Speaker 136
20:40
Yes, ma'am. So we will use the state revenue listed here and match it with
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
20:46
the federal revenue to provide the services for the aging and adult services and the behavioral health services that are that are in this division that includes the um ash the psychiatric hospital it also includes the arkansas health center which is the state's nursing home and then it includes federal grants for aging and older americans and includes grants for substance abuse and mental health okay so you're just there representing the
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
21:15
Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health. What about these other programs, community alcohol safety, alcohol and drug abuse prevention? Do you all administer that too? Yes,
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
21:29
ma'am. We do administer the community alcohol safety and the alcohol and drug abuse prevention
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
21:38
programs. Well, what does that involve? It's about $2.5 million. Where is that funding source?
Is that your federal revenue
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
21:50
grants? Our Community Alcohol and Safety Program is a program that is for providing services for individuals who have gotten a DWI or a DUI, And that comes from AOJ funds, and then there's some funds where the individual who's received that ticket pays in for receiving a
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
22:16
service, basically a class. Okay, so the administration of justice funding, that's allocation of 55% back in 26 and 40% projected for 27.
So where is, is that fund a part of the state revenue, the general revenue, or is that a cash fund? And there's zero for that. Where is that reflected in the funding
Speaker 147
22:58
sources? That's funds that we receive disbursed to us from another state agency.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
23:05
So that would be a transfer? Yes. Interagency transfer? Yes, that's
correct. But you have zero in
Speaker 156
23:28
this table on page 63. I believe if you look at the individual pages, so
Speaker 147
23:35
if you look on page 65, you will see the allocation there on the line that ends 470, State Administration of Justice.
Right. There. So that's where that is, rather than in
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
23:55
529,000 agency requests and executive and legislative recommendation also, is that all that's received to...
Speaker 165
24:05
That is our projected allocation pursuant to the footnote, that's correct. For
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
24:11
the community alcohol safety program? Yes, ma'am.
So does that reflect the defendant or
whoever's been ordered to go and get these services? Their fees that they pay,
where are they represented? I don't know. That
Speaker 165
24:32
would be in another agency's budget. We're just the end recipient of this percentage of those funds. But you do receive them.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
24:44
Yes, those funds come back to us through the provider of that service.
So when those come to us, it comes in in a different fund, and then we send that back out. So we combine those two pots of money, the
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
24:58
AOJ funding and the funding that we receive from the provider, and then we send that
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
25:05
back out to the provider to provide those drug court or those
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
25:10
drug alcohol education programs. Why wouldn't it be reflected in
your budget as to a funding source, as a funding source?
I mean, where would you find numbers of how much is
being paid by individuals that are receiving these services? It is in
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
25:38
the various program support. That's where it's coming in, on page 65 on the various program support line.
Does DFNA want to come forward? You got it? All right.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
26:07
You look very complex, though. I was a little worried about you. I don't see anything that's being recommended, and the last historical data was from 2024-2025 for various program support. That was a million dollars.
I'm trying to understand where is that money
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
26:38
reported? Senator Flowers, I think we're going to have to take that one back and get you some more detailed answers because we receive that money as a transfer and then we use it to provide programs and those programs are eligible for beneficiaries, recipients that have received DWIs and then we pay for those courses.
And after that flow of money, those further details, we would have to take back and get some further details for you. Well, I'd like to see how
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
27:13
the funds are traced. Yes, ma'am. It should be reflected in how many people are using that service, because that's not a whole lot of money for that program. You're operating all
over the state, aren't you? Yes, ma'am.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
27:28
We are operating all over the state. Those programs are provided in group settings, so they're not individual education programs.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
27:35
And so they are running those classes as people in those areas receive those court orders to attend classes. So they're being run regularly in each of
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
27:48
those areas. And the same thing for the alcohol and drug abuse prevention, which receives a recommendation much greater than the community alcohol safety. And I would think there has to be some referrals for the alcohol and drug abuse prevention as well.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
28:09
Yes, ma'am. So the alcohol and drug abuse prevention is to pay for treatment services, both prevention and then treatment services. So those treatment services include outpatient counseling, residential counseling. And so if someone is identified at that point and needs treatment, then they come over under that drug alcohol program, or their
Speaker 192
28:35
insurer pays for that treatment. And so the
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
28:39
$49 million there, that's reimbursement,
or at least reflects the cash fund source,
and there's zero on that at funding sources at the bottom.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
28:55
Yes, ma'am. That specific alcohol and drug abuse prevention is primarily federally funded.
So this is our, the executive recommendation is our request for appropriation to be able to deliver those treatment services.
And the money comes from the feds? A lot
of it does. The majority of it
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
29:18
does. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I'd be
interested in knowing how many people are served under those two programs, the community alcohol safety and alcohol and drug abuse prevention.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
29:32
We can get that to you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Oh, one other question I had. Brief. Okay. Well, this one is short. It was a follow-up about the tobacco settlement questions that you got from the representative.
So why do we still have this page
73 if some other agency is administering? I'm trying to understand
why there's no agency request, but there's a legislative recommendation and an executive recommendation. So, Senator, the program is
Speaker 60
30:14
not administered by another agency. It is administered in the division. It moved
Speaker 62
30:19
to our division to Aging Adult Services Behavioral Health
from Provider Services Quality Insurance, which is just another division within DHS. But the program is operational and they do work
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
30:33
every day. So your agency then is satisfied that whatever is not accounted
for specifically laid out under agency requests is rolled up in some, is that shared services? What are we talking about? I don't
understand. And where do you find the $1.3 million in terms of your agency?
Speaker 165
31:00
Go ahead. That was originally contained in provider services and quality assurance under our biannual budget. Then in the course of those hearings, we filed a governor's letter requesting that the program appropriation and funding be moved to aging behavioral health so that the services would align better. And so it's a lateral transfer from one division within DHS to the other. I just don't
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
31:30
understand why we need then page 73.
Why aren't those numbers? Senator.
Okay. Why don't you let the staff
get with you and you're going a little farther in detail. Right. And I think they do that better
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
31:51
one-on-one. Okie doke. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Petty, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions are around the mental health grant and more specifically the veterans mental health grant. I noticed that there's a fairly sizable anticipated federal revenue increase in the mental health grants, but my question is more around the veterans' mental health, and I'm wondering, it's on page 86, it talks about not having a funding source yet,
And I'm wondering if the anticipated increase in federal funding is a possible source for funding some of the veterans' mental health grants. Because at least at this point, it shows there's no funding source identified. Can you comment to that in
general? So for our mental health, and that's a block grant, and that's that we receive that biannually,
and we spend all of that currently
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
32:56
on community mental health centers. So that goes out to community mental health centers, and then there's required federal set-asides for certain programs for that as well. so we have
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
33:08
to direct some of that to different programs supporting people with serious mental illness and for children and youth with serious emotional disturbance
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
33:17
and so those funds come into us and then we send them out to the community mental health centers largely to pay for services
for individuals that are not insured largely what we have now of individuals who are not insured are those that are in our forensic system. So when people go to jail, their Medicaid is turned off or their commercial insurance, and so we have to provide services for people either in jail as they're moving towards our state hospital, so all of that money is committed and spread across the state,
covering all 75 counties and all 71 jails. Follow-up,
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
34:05
Mr. Chair? Okay, thank you for that explanation on the mental health portion. Can you comment on the veterans' mental health? There's an appropriation request for $5 million that I think we'd all probably like to find funding for, but have you internally identified any potential funding sources or had any conversations about that?
Speaker 31
34:25
It originally had some funding attached to it.
That was before, so Jay's talked to me about that.
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
34:31
and we have not had any additional funding for that program and again you know with our mental health block grant we've
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
34:38
had to allocate all that money to those services and so we don't have additional funding for that i would just like
i would just like to add that this was a member's bill that was appropriation only and has
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
34:56
not been funded right i i realized that i just was wondering if you guys had had any success identifying from other sources funding and I'm assuming the the
regular for lack of a better description mental health grants they don't exclude veterans this just this members we just haven't identified a funding source yet yes sir that is correct okay thank you thank you
Mr. Chair thank you Senator Senator Tucker you're recognized
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
35:27
thank you mr. chair I'm going to ask y'all about CSU funding it's on page 88 I see Paula she's not
shocked to know that that's what I would be asking about I just see where I'm just curious I mean is the funding going to run I see the legislative recommendation the executive recommendation is five
million each um in the budget this last year it was three million two hundred forty thousand uh but is the funding going to remain
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
35:59
consistent or what's our situation so currently we have two csu's uh in operation right um and so we are funding those two csu's
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
36:08
at the level that they had been funded at in previous years um and um we are looking at that full crisis continuum and making sure that we can provide crisis services and really doing that analysis of why those CSUs were not successful or why they were not able to stay open. So really thinking about how do we use that crisis funds to get us to that goal that was originally set that we had for the crisis stabilization unit. So we have that money for crisis services.
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
36:41
Okay, but so the funding for Craighead and Sebastian County is going to remain consistent? It is for next year. Okay, and I know, I mean, what happened in Pulaski County is the provider left, and I know the county is still, you know, looking for a successor provider, and if they were able to identify one, would they be able to pick their funding back up?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
37:04
Yes, we've worked with them on that successor provider, We've had many conversations with potential providers, and no one's been able to come to the table.
I will say that we are doing, you know, we have some crisis funding that
Senator Jim Petty
Unverified
37:19
came through another source, and we are looking at analysis of that and to see how we can best support Pulaski County in using crisis funds in the most expedient way. So we're looking at that, working with MEMS and doing some other things
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
37:34
with ambulance services and then care coordination to make sure that people are getting to the
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
37:40
right source. Okay, great. Okay, that all sounds good.
I guess my, I mean, one thing that just caught my attention is that if you look at the budget page on 88, it says, you know, it's got $4.8 plus million in excess appropriation, you know, with nothing in GR or whatnot, and
just from a financial standpoint. That may be similar to what some of the other members have been asking about on other appropriations, but I'm just curious.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
38:16
I'll begin, and Paula will correct me. We have funded that with a combination of state and federal monies, depending on the grants that have come through. So we will continue to do that, but this general revenue is very tight and flat for crisis. We try to match money and use it. We have added some Medicaid services for 23 hours or less, trying to have the ability to grow those crisis services. That has not seen the uptake that we would like it to take,
which is why we are continuing the crisis study for the whole continuum of what
Senator Clarke Tucker
Unverified
38:56
needs to be there. Okay. But either way, the funding will be there one way or another is what you're telling me.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Senator Irvin, you're
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
39:11
recognized. Thanks. Just a really simple question. On the community alcohol safety grants, not to beat that one, but on page 65, you have a pretty – you have a fund balance there.
If there is a fund, and I'm not sure if the AOJ funding that comes over, is there a mechanism to where if you already have enough funds in your fund balance that that transfer is not necessary, that you have the ability or mechanism to do that? Or to not have the transfer from the state AOJ fund or redirect those funds?
Speaker 147
39:54
those allocations are in special language so we get what is allocated to us
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:04
okay so the aoj funding that you get is is through special language yes okay um and is it i'm just curious that maybe we could look at that just because if we have an ample amount of money in a program utilizing a fund balance and we can redirect or allow for the ability of a little bit more
flexibility with the AOJ fund that maybe we should look at revisiting some of that special language in my opinion just because there could be other areas which have been identified I think by several other of my colleagues where maybe we could look at how we can better utilize these funds Instead of having them just sit in a fund balance, how do we get them out the door? And so if you've got a fund balance and it's not necessary for us to receive a transfer from AOJ,
how can we give the flexibility to your agencies to make that determination? You could bring it back for us, obviously, a peer or something like that. But I'd like to be able to see some flexibility there where we're not just stacking money up in a fund balance that we don't need if we don't need it. Does that make sense? So if you will look at that for me, I'd really appreciate it. And then my second question is on the patient benefits. Was that legislatively created? I mean, it's not much money, but it's kind of interesting to me.
But what page are you on? Senator, what page are you on? I'm sorry, 79. The patient benefits. It's cash and treasury. So it looks like it's donations and interest in parking meters proceeds.
on page 79 i'm just wondering if that was legislatively created or how is that determined how is that you know i would who gets i would
Speaker 147
41:57
need to take a look at the history on that and
can definitely get back to you but
Speaker 169
42:03
you're correct it is supported with just the funds outlined here some donations and things
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:10
of that nature okay so you know i i just this one doesn't seem like a real clear um use of money to me or how it gets um used or applied for or thank you senator so the funds those
Speaker 60
42:27
funds are divided between both the state hospital and the arkansas health center
Speaker 62
42:32
primarily what we use that for or for personal needs for residents when they have no that they have no revenue source they have no family for instance we often get admissions that come
Speaker 60
42:43
to us with literally what they're wearing got you and nothing else and so we're able to buy some of the just the very basic needs that okay they have just for the residency the long-term residency whether it's at the hospital or at the at the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:58
at the health center okay well I appreciate that in my opinion again my opinion when it says patient benefits that means patients in every
single part of the state and anyone I just think maybe let's be a little more specific about exactly what the need is and how we title that maybe just because I think that's worthwhile and I think that's worthy and if people want to donate to something like that let's be specific that these are these that this is a fund specifically for that and let's title it that way in my opinion just because patient benefits just seems like well what's that well can I apply for that you know or can my patients apply for that and if I'm it just seems wonky to me so let's just try to I
I appreciate it it's a great thing I myself may want to donate it to it but I wouldn't know what it's actually going for and so if we can be more clearly defined in it maybe people will continue to donate to it because that's a worthy cause that's a worthwhile thing they've I know this because you've got people that are lingering in county jails and then they get to ash they have nothing absolutely nothing and this is a fund from what you're saying that provides for just they're very basic things that they need and maybe a comfort a blanket yes ma'am we can provide you
Speaker 62
44:16
with a summary of how those funds are utilized
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:18
yeah that would be awesome and let's just kind of look at trying to be more intentional and focused on how we're talking about this and how we label it so that the the state knows and that people know hey this is available and you can make a donation to the cash treasury and people can be taken care of i think
Chair
Unverified
44:38
that'd be a really cool thing. Thanks. Thank you, Senator. That's the last member of the committee. We're going to non-members now.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
44:47
Senator Love, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So actually, Wendy just
pointed out something to me. I want to go back to the senior centers. What page are you on? i'm on page 78 okay so the senior centers um i'm looking at for 2024 2025 the actual was a little over seven million dollars the
budget was at five million so we're looking at now we're looking at about a 10 million dollar increase so no sir
Speaker 60
45:19
they're appropriated for 10 million their budget The state general revenue line is for $5 million.
Speaker 62
45:25
The excess appropriation does give us some room to expend additional funds when those are received. For instance, each year there's a suite up to $500,000 of general revenue from the agency. That goes to the senior centers. As the chairman mentioned, there was an additional $2 million that was granted to senior centers outside of RSA, both this current fiscal year and for the upcoming fiscal year. And so the excess appropriation allows us that bandwidth to be able to infuse those funds that are designated for senior centers outside of the base $5 million that is funded to the agency.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
46:01
I guess my question is, because I noticed that it was funded outside of RSA, why are we
not putting that funding inside of RSA? That's not a question for them. That's something we did. Well, then, Mr. Chair, I wanted to come to you. Why is it that we're not funding it within RSA? Well, I mean... Is that going to be one-time funding? Well, it's
not one-time funding because we did it two years.
That's something we'll revisit in the next regular
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
46:39
session. Okay. All right, so I would think that we should be funding it within RSA. all right so let's go to the senior hunger program I noticed that there was no I think the senior hunger the senior
hunger the meals and wills yes there so
Speaker 62
47:07
those are two different programs the senior hunger program there was an appropriation grant to the agency but there was no there was no funding attached to that
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
47:15
okay was that a member's bill what's the case okay yes sir all right so that would be a separate from the meals on wheels i see that we that we requested the 2.4 million
Speaker 247
47:28
dollars for meals on wheels correct is that yes the meals on wheels is funded primarily through cigarette
Speaker 62
47:34
tax those and it is not a it's not a tax based on amount of sales it's a per pack tax it fluctuates from year to year it is
appropriated at 2.4 i believe but what you see the funding request really follows the trend do you do you see
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
47:48
us do you see us receiving the 2.4 million dollars is that is that why you you projected that i mean
Speaker 62
47:56
like where did that number come from that's more of a historical projection for appropriation but what we've seen in the really the last several years is a relative is a steady decline even if it's gradual in the number of cigarettes that are sold in
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
48:12
the state okay so i guess i'm still at the at the the point the 2.4 million dollars you put for the
appropriation do you do you foresee that amount coming in or you not receive that amount coming in where did that number come from why did you all put the 2.4 million dollars versus what would the projected actual be so that we could look we
Speaker 272
48:35
could look to see if we needed to fund the meals and wheels program
Speaker 62
48:43
so the budget request is what the projection is is what we do project to receive an actual funds from the
Speaker 60
48:50
from the tax revenue we would love to have obviously
if i say loved i guess i shouldn't say we want more people to smoke in the state i
Speaker 269
48:58
won't say that don't say that don't say that but i understand what you're yeah jen is like no don't say that
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
49:04
no no i understand what you're saying i just wanted to know if the if the 2.4 million dollars that you're that you're putting for the budget do you anticipate that revenue coming in is that an actual projection not based on our projections no sir okay so where did that number come from why why are we using the 2.4 million dollars and not a number that's more representative of what's
going to be generating in sales
Speaker 247
49:31
tax? That has been a historical request. It was, at one
Speaker 62
49:35
time, that was much more closer to what the tax revenues to the agency were. Okay,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
49:40
so are we falling short on the Meals and
Speaker 60
49:46
Wheels program? No, sir. The Meals and Wheels program is not the only funding stream that funds meal services, home-delivered meals. Those services are also provided through our Title III funding through the Older Americans Act.
Speaker 62
49:58
And so our senior centers, our AAAs, also have funding streams under Title III C-2, which funds home-delivered meals as well. Meals on Wheels is a
Speaker 283
50:09
supplement to that program. Okay. All right.
Chair
Unverified
50:14
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator. Representative
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
50:21
Vladimir, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just so you catch up with me here, I'm looking at page 150, and my question is about employees kind of adding to what Representative Wooten asked earlier about you have, I think, 95.
Hold on. Sorry. We haven't got that to
Speaker 66
50:44
division yet. Well, I just want to look at the numbers. Well, just hold on to that thought, and then when we get there, you can ask a question. Well,
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
50:53
I'll forget the page number. I still got a question. Okay, go ahead. Representative Wooden asked about how many people you had or positions that were over two years old. You said 95. So when I'm looking at this page on DD over here, you're down 164 employees there.
And my question is, and I know that we've got issues with positions that we cannot fill because of the requirements of the position. I'll give you an example. In Arkadelphia, at the Human Development Center, I think they have 12 R.M. positions, and you only have five filled, and you're doing contract nursing. I know that the work center up in Boonville was shut down. Representative Ladyman, we haven't got
Speaker 66
51:36
to that part of the budget yet. You're asking questions before we even review it yet.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
51:42
I'm just giving some background, Mr. Chairman, so I'll just ask my question. these positions that are open, are they open because we don't need to fill them? Are they open because they're CNRAs, RNs, physical therapists that you cannot fill because there aren't people that will take those positions? So which
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
52:08
combination. I don't know if I can answer it in total that positions are either hard to fill
or they are, well, I don't know what the second part of your question was, but we are filling those positions regularly. Recruiting and retention has picked up in several different areas after the pay plan, and so we are trying to see that level out specifically with nursing. But it's also an ongoing discussion point because we do hire a lot of CNAs that are turnover, And so we are always recruiting and trying to retain.
If we cannot fill those positions due to staffing ratios, we will
go to the staffing contracts so that we do not jeopardize the health of
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
52:55
any of our beneficiaries. Well, I mean, the point I'm trying to make is some of these positions you can't fill because in Arkadelphia you've had those RN positions open
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
53:06
for years. I have not been able to fully come. I cannot answer specifically to a position in Arkadelphia. I can talk in total
for DDS and other areas of the agency
that we are always trying to recruit and retain. Okay. All
Chair
Unverified
53:21
right. Thank you. Senator Disman, you're recognized. Just a quick
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
53:25
question. I think it's just something I'd like to see as we continue to have a conversation about what we're going to do with our senior citizen centers and our Meals on Wheels programs and all those sorts of things. I mean, those aren't state agencies, And I know that some cities, counties make it a priority to, you know, add funding to those programs.
And, I mean, I hate to give you all the homework, but I think it's important that we have a bigger conversation about who's willing to engage and creates and sets a priority for those programs back home and who does not. I understand there are limitations on how much money cities and counties have, and some are in poorer areas than others. But I think it would be really, really important for us as members, if we can, get the numbers of what is being contributed by each city and county to the various, whether it be senior citizen centers or Meals on Wheel programs or the combination of the two,
so that we understand, again, how they prioritize their needs in those areas. And then that will help educate us on should that be matching? Should it be, you know, what should that look like? And I don't know enough to know that maybe already be the case. I mean, if, you know, a city wants to, you know, make it a priority in its budget to send $50,000 to its senior citizen center or the county does every year, do we match that? Or are we actually, you know, do they, when we send $50,000, do they pull back $50,000?
And then we've actually then created a funding issue for the senior citizen centers because we're contributing. So, again, in a bigger picture, as we move through this, and we fortunately, as the co-chairs said, we've got a little bit of time. Hopefully, we can get our heads wrapped around of what we need to be doing. So, again, I hate to create homework, but if that's something we can get, I think it would be
Speaker 125
55:14
great for the members to see. Yes, sir. I think we can try to obtain
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
55:19
some information and be more than happy to come back and even potentially bring our partners that work on those projects also.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
55:25
Yeah, I mean, the feds are, you know, trimming down their fund
spend. We're being asked to backfill that. I mean, and there should be some responsibility at the city and county level just to make sure that they have got skin in the game and they also do care about what it is we're working on.
Thank you. Thank you, Senator. This is our last question. Senator Rye, I mean, excuse me, Representative Rye. Well, no, Lee Johnson wants to ask
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
55:53
keep this as brief as possible. Well, I just have a question, Mr. Chairman.
Where is the line item within this that covers the transportation back and forth for the folks that they're picking up and taking to the senior citizen center for their lunch and plus meals on wheels? They tell me that there's nothing there at all, and it's been this way for years. I mean, what can we do to make
sure they have the proper transportation?
Speaker 60
56:24
so transportation is included under their title 3b services those are the
supportive services that the area agencies are funded to pass that funding through to each senior center it's it is dispersed on a set federal funding formula so that everybody gets all the senior centers get the amount of money that is proportionate to the population but transportation is something is really one of the
Speaker 73
56:47
primary uses of that defunding for for for all of our counties yes sir but
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
56:54
it's not happening and and it needs to happen because why do you want to
have a program if they can't even get there to it it's in it's
Speaker 60
57:08
in lepanto okay and representative i'll address that with our senior centers and i can get back
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
57:17
with you with some follow-up information help us with
this please yes sir thank you mr chairman thank you Representative, that's the final question.
We have a motion to approve executive rec and a second.
Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? It is adopted.
Thank you all. Ms. Walls, we're going on to family services. Yes, sir.
Chair
Unverified
57:46
The next division we're going to talk about is the Division of Children and Family Services, Their appropriation summary is on page 100 of your manual. This division provides support services, foster care, adoption, and protective services for children and families across the state.
For fiscal year 26, it has total authorized appropriations of about $315 million with 1,420 positions and six appropriations funded with general revenues, federal funds, and various program support. Total legislative recommendation for this division is about $315 million with no significant changes. discuss the operations appropriation briefly on the third line in the appropriation summaries the operations appropriation for this division it's funded with general revenues federal funds and various program support and does fund the people who are the frontline workers and the rest of the
operations of the division at nearly 148 million dollars this comprises almost half the total appropriations for this division I'd also like to point out to the committee that there are two line items that are both labeled foster care the appropriation that's listed online too is for payments for foster care placements of children who are currently in the care of the state the appropriation is almost entirely funded by general revenue there's another foster care appropriation that's listed online for this one not only supports payments for kids in foster care but also adoption subsidies for
harder to place children once they've been adopted and services for foster children 16 years and older to help them prepare for independent living and adulthood and this appropriation is funded by general revenues and federal funds and this
concludes my presentation for this division members do we have
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
59:28
any questions representative rose you're recognized yes thank you mr. chair you mentioned that there
were no significant changes appreciate your presentation
Just a quick question. I was looking at the 24-25, 25-26, and then the 26-27 requests. And it does seem that there has been an increase over those past three years of whether it's budgeted, actual, or recommendations. I was just curious if you could explain that from 24-25 actual to the recommendation 26-27. It's about a $30 million increase. Could you touch on that? what what what that is from and what
that is funding yes sir thank you for the question i'm
Speaker 125
1:00:16
i'm going to start and director wright and um and miss
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:00:21
eubanks with time will add in we have um added some things for state
residential treatment we are trying to also increase some of our adoption subsidies did I get that right director right what
Speaker 323
1:00:36
you see is an increase so there is the funding is there and the request for the
Speaker 324
1:00:43
appropriation remains there because of the flexibility that we need within our
budget because we cannot plan for children who are entering and exiting our system as well as the services that we need to provide to prevent foster care you also see that we are continuing to increase the number of adoptions that we're doing and when we do that and the child qualifies or the sibling group qualifies for a subsidy that is a state that the cost that is a cost the state continues to bear if it is a federal subsidy or a state subsidy so you see that continued increase happening brief couple follow-ups the first miss walls
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:01:23
I think it was you in the original presentation. You said that there was no
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:01:27
funding change No, no significant funding change. Should I interpret that correctly or or did we miss something?
Chair
Unverified
1:01:34
No, sir, there's no significant changes in the levels of appropriation that this agency is asking for Appropriation and funding are very different things. So
Speaker 19
1:01:42
they're not asking for additional appropriation at this time Okay, I follow I follow
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:01:53
One other question that I have, if it's okay to – I don't want to jump too far ahead on page 106. I think that this is kind of what makes up your funding here, so I hope I'm not deterring. There are the professional fees. I look back over the past 10 years, and it had been relatively level, maybe some minor changes into the last couple of years. I'm going to look at the 25-26 budgeted amount, which was $15.5 million, and then the authorized amount was $33.2 million.
You guys went ahead with the same kind of request and recommendation for 26-27. I was just curious if you could speak to kind of the doubling of the professional fees that are listed between the
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:02:48
last year or two. So this is all of
Speaker 324
1:02:52
our new staff training, onboarding of staff, as well as travel, vacant operating expenses, our salaries, and our friends.
So this is where all of the pay plan and all of that went into effect for us. And so the professional fees is around our new staff training. And so as we continue to onboard and hire and train staff, and then if they exit the agency, we start again with training. so that would be what
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:03:21
that is so those those are the professional fees are the expenses for training and onboarding new staff and personnel
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:03:28
yes and then other and then the
other costs that go into that as well including um there's
Speaker 324
1:03:35
the operating their fringe etc okay and i don't
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:03:39
mean to belabor the point you mentioned operating but that's a different line items i was just trying to figure out where is are these are these grants or contracts with with vendors
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:03:49
or training specific groups yes okay sorry no that's fine all right thank you representative painter
Chair
Unverified
1:03:59
you're recognized for a question thank you mr chair how many vacancies
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:04:04
do we have in this department since that was a topic of
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:04:16
conversation last department let's let's ask it this department
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:04:19
approximately 113 what's the average length or the highest we have out there last one was like two years or plus and if you don't have it you can get
Speaker 349
1:04:30
that to me I'm just I would like to know that oh I have it right here I'm sorry so we have
Speaker 324
1:04:37
nine positions that have been vacant for two years or longer okay and
Speaker 351
1:04:41
the other ones are less than that yes okay thank you thank you mr. chair
Speaker 352
1:04:46
thank you representative i'm sorry can anyone follow up to that none of those nine positions were budgeted so that's why they remain vacant
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:04:56
representative meeks you recognize thank you i'm far far right here just just a quick question how many children do we currently have in the foster care system i don't need the exact number but roughly how many do we have and do we see that number increasing staying steady declining what's kind of been the trajectory of that over the last couple years
yes sir um actually as of monday
Speaker 323
1:05:17
there were approximately 3 400 children in foster care that is a slight increase not by much but that number has
Speaker 324
1:05:23
continued to maintain in that range for the last several state fiscal years so it's
Speaker 362
1:05:29
been fairly steady then yes okay all right thank you thank you
mr. chairman I'm sorry we had a little conversation up here senator Irvin
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:05:45
you've got a question do you yeah thanks okay page 109 the
children's trust fund that one um yeah that was legislatively created so my question is looking back at what was legislative created in the 1980s and and seeing if it's a good use, I'm sure it's doing good things, but is there the ability to combine this with something that we already also are doing that will address the same issue or same problem?
Is that money better spent somewhere else right now, or are we doing this somewhere else and then this is just legislatively created and directed and it's a good thing don't get me wrong but you know things have changed a little bit since 1987 so do we need to continue to just
have a separate program or should that be rolled into something that we are also doing somewhere else so we
Speaker 324
1:06:47
are using those funds for what we call our true primary prevention so those are programs
that you would not need child welfare involvement to access. And so one of those programs that you may have heard me talk about before is the Baby and Me program that we partner with the Arkansas Department of Health and EULER on, and that's for mothers going to the WIC office to get services. And so we are using that to do primary prevention that could prevent agency involvement, which is a good thing, right, if we can serve families before they have to touch child welfare system.
We have also used some of that funding for community schools. So there's some in Little Rock, there's one in Batesville, and they have put together some programs that care for families. So I feel like the money is doing what it's intended to do, which is that true primary prevention. We also invested that, invested those funds that we had because the law says we have to hit a certain cap before we can spend the money. And so we have invested those funds so that money can grow interest.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:07:56
Okay. Okay. So, I mean, I'm not, I'm not arguing that it's not a good thing. I think what I'm, I'm asking is the mechanism of that fund and then could it be absorbed somewhere else in another, I'm just looking at administratively, like how we can simplify some of these things. Does that make sense? Yeah. That's my, that's more my question. Do the same things with this money. I'm not advocating to change. I'm saying administratively how if we could combine it.
I'm always looking for those opportunities, it seems like, where we can combine it. Or I don't know if we get any federal match for this or not. But I think it's something that we should look at. Maybe
Speaker 370
1:08:41
just look at it and you can get back with me. Yes, I was going to ask if we could take this back and
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:08:47
look at that within the agency and move forward. I'm for what you're doing with the money. not changing that i'm just looking at the
administrative issues yes and then making sure that we can if maximize the opportunity i love that we're investing it and getting interest
but let's look at the financial you know analysis of that and see if there's a way that you could put that money somewhere else where we could draw down federal matching funds for it does that make sense
Speaker 758
1:09:18
okay thanks yes it does thank you representative wooten you're recognized for a
Thank you. My question is on page 106, and it follows along with the question earlier.
Why would we have an
actual expenditure of $18 million and then a request of $33 million? That's on conference and travel expenses again. I think that's the same question, but I
don't understand why we asked for twice what we had expenditures.
Speaker 323
1:10:07
Also, those are also all contract types as well. So that gives the flexibility for my placement types as private, like private license
Speaker 324
1:10:15
placement agencies, growing foster homes, that kind of thing is the placement contracts for kids in foster care. So that's why you also see that. It's the flexibility and the appropriation. Well, it's
Speaker 356
1:10:29
going to double. Yes, sir. I don't understand.
Speaker 758
1:10:39
We have had it. This is throughout the budget, Madam Secretary. it's throughout the
budget it's almost double represented yes of course you know this is an appropriation and just because they've got an appropriation
doesn't mean they're gonna have the funding to suspend it and we we have this this is not unusual to have a higher appropriation than we have funding so I would I've got for represents rose some detail on what they're spending on this professional
Speaker 758
1:11:12
send it to you too. Okay, well they brought up foster care. Can I ask a question relative to that? Cool, right ahead. Okay. Foster care placement. Child's placed a month. A month later, it's taken away. It's given to a non-biological grandfather. He works. his live-in girlfriend takes care of the girl during the day.
Is that something you all agree with, you
agreed to? That's what my question is. Representative Roe, I mean Representative Wooten. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm going to let you have
the latitude, but we're working into policy now and what people think,
Speaker 758
1:12:05
not budget. So go ahead. But we're talking about a child's life. I understand that. I understand that.
Okay. But my question, from a budgeting standpoint, does the state save money or does it cost money?
Does that grandfather get paid for taking that child in and we reach out from a given home and take a child away? And we've already placed her. She couldn't walk. She can't really talk. So did we save money doing that? And that's what I thought. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, sir. All right, that's our last question.
I need a motion for Executive Rec. I have
a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? It is adopted. We're going to County
Chair
Unverified
1:13:06
Operations. Ms. Walls. Yes, ma'am. Sorry, thank you Mr. Chair. The next division is the Division of County Operations. Their appropriation summary is on page 115. This division is primarily responsible for administering local office locations across the state, determining and redetermining eligibility
across multiple need and asset-based programs and enrolling eligible applicants in those programs. For fiscal year 26, it has total authorized appropriations of $327 million with 2013 positions nine appropriations funded from general revenue federal funds and various program support and the total legislative recommendation for this division is 327.5 million dollars with no significant changes i'll discuss the operations appropriation briefly on line four of the appropriation section is listed as 896 division of county operations is a line for the operations program it's funded
through general revenues federal funds and various program support and has an appropriation of 194 million dollars which is nearly two-thirds of the total appropriations for this division mr. chair this concludes my
presentation all right we've got some questions representative Kavanaugh you are recognized thank
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:14:15
you mr. chair my question is going to be on page 132 the summer EBT I just
want to make sure I understand what's going on with the summer EBT we have a
legislative recommendation no agency requests and an executive recommendation is that because that is in another area but we do have actual expenditures
in 2425 and 2526 yes ma'am thank you for the question I will start director Franklin
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:14:48
will correct me if I get it wrong this was a new program two years ago so it has not been built into the biennial budget yet we wanted to make
sure it was successful and as we continue to see success and refine that program I believe it will become part of the biennial budget request or at least the agency will request that in
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:15:11
future bienniums okay so you're not asking for it but the executives recommended it be part
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:15:17
of your budget well it was not part of our original budget request when we did this manual two or three years ago and so we've always come to y'all with I think a various temporary appropriation to fund it and it's it's highly federally funded I think I believe it's
a total of 55 million dollars but it's less than three and a half to four million dollars of state general revenue
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:15:42
yeah most of its federal yes but I guess what I'm saying is if we're gonna we need to adopt I guess it's gonna be for staff. We need to
dock executive rec on this. Okay. Thank you.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:15:59
Senator Flowers, you're recognized for a question. Thank you. I'm looking at the grants paying account
and SNAP program, one for employment and training and other the farmers market program. Does Is that what
is proposed or recommended, taken to consideration, change of policy in terms of the requirements for individuals to participate in those SNAP programs?
It seems like there's more being
recommended for those programs for the 2026-27 biennium as opposed to earlier 2024-25 and 2025-26, it's getting an increase.
So how does the policy change end
up causing an increase? Thank you
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:17:28
for the question, Senator Flowers. Some of the money that funds the SNAP Employment and Training Program is formula funding that is shared with all states, and it's 100% federal.
In addition to that, we work with providers who actually provide the employment and training services, And they provide half of the funding to match with federal funds. And so sometimes this number changes based on the budget of the providers and what funding they have that they can match. And so, I mean, I would say there is an upcoming policy change that we'll be bringing before the legislative body
to implement mandatory employment and training. these past couple of years it has been a voluntary program but I don't foresee any changes in this unless we add providers who are going to be able to expand the services and then we can use their match that they provide to ask for increased federal funds. Well employment and training program isn't
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:18:38
new is it? It's not new we've had it for many
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:18:48
why the doubling of the recommendation if before it was authorized the same amount but actual was half of that
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:19:06
almost well and we are preparing to implement mandatory employment and training and so we have I mean the appropriation request has increased for this year just to help make sure that we
have the flexibility and the appropriation as we implement this
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:19:26
program so our policy change would serve to increase our expenditures in
the snap program I thought the whole point of the policy change for these requirements would somehow gonna decrease the amount of money we're spending this is
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:19:53
specifically for the snap employment and training portion of the snap program this is not about the snap this
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:20:03
this doesn't include the overall snap program So it's the Employment
and Training and the Farmers Market Program. 898, that line
898 snap is not only Employment and Training, but it's the Farmers Market Program. I mean, have
you all, that's paid with 100% federal funds.
How much is that? Why don't we have a breakdown when it's a double service or program that we're talking about when we're looking at these numbers, these totals recommended? Senator Flowers, we can
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:20:45
get you that detail and bring it
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:20:49
back. Yeah, I mean, is it half that we're spending? that we are wanting to
appropriate the $5 million plus on just the employment and training.
And is that going to be outsourced? We're going
to have vendors providing the employment and training? How is that working?
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:21:11
Yes, ma'am. We do work with providers for SNAP employment and training, and they actually provide the employment and training services on the agency's behalf.
Speaker 135
1:21:23
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair
Unverified
1:21:26
Thank you, Senator. Representative Garner, you're recognized. Yes, sir.
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:21:31
I couldn't find anywhere in here.
I know we've talked before about the education for the SNAP changes. That goes through community services. So the folks that the requirements are changing in SNAP, where do the funds come to educate them so that they know that those requirements are not ex parte, whatever the term is, but they're required for two months or three months before?
Where does that money come from, and do you have enough? I'm really concerned that June is not time enough for them
to make those changes in order to stay with SNAP benefits. So where do I see
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:22:22
that in the budget, or is it? That would be part of our administrative costs. You would see that in our operating expenses, our salaries fringe, supplies and things. We educate our clients, particularly in the SNAP program where there is a requirement for an interview with a caseworker,
And that interview is a conversation between the clients and our staff, and new requirements are talked about, rights and responsibilities are talked about, upcoming changes, penalties for not complying with those changes. We do have that discussion in the eligibility interview, and beyond that, we would include information in our notices, and we would work with our DHS comms team for other things like social media and do those types of things. stakeholder outreach and engagement with our operating expenses.
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:23:12
And you think you have enough to
do that, to make sure that that's happening? And then I would also ask just to make sure that we have that information so that we can post to our constituents through social media or whatever. I'm glad to help with that, but
Chair
Unverified
1:23:31
we need that information. Thank you. Appreciate y'all. Thank you, Representative Meeks. You're recognized. Thank
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
1:23:37
you, Mr. Chair. Just a quick question. I notice you've got the very first appropriation, the City Aid to the Aged, Blind, and Disabled.
It's an appropriation for $4,000. It doesn't look like it's been used. It's the first one, Appropriation 396. $4,000, not a whole lot of money in the grand scheme of things. But I'm just wondering, A, what that would be used for, and B, if this is still needed, And if it's not needed, is there
an opportunity to maybe do a little house cleaning here, just
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:24:11
eliminate it? Thank you for the question, Senator Meeks. This appropriation has been in our budget for many years,
and it ties back to an agreement between the state and the Social Security Administration around SSI and state supplemental payments. So to try to make this concise, there is a declining number of individuals that may be eligible for this service that Social Security is paying on behalf of the state. And that appropriation existed in case the state needed to reimburse Social Security for those expenses.
Basically, at this point, we have a credit with Social Security, so we have not had to dip into this fund. I do believe that it is something that if this appropriation were to be eliminated and we did happen to have this expense, we could come to the body with the various temporary appropriation requests in the future. Okay. All right. Thank you. Representative Painter, you're
recognized. Thank you. I'm going to ask the same question I asked last time. How many vacancies do you have?
We have approximately 206 vacancies. How many of those are two years
Speaker 419
1:25:27
or plus? Two. And they were unbudgeted.
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:25:32
And they're not budgeted? That's correct. I like this trend compared to the first team that
Chair
Unverified
1:25:40
came up here, so thank you. Representative Rose, look like you've got
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:25:49
the last question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I've heard, I
don't know, varying whether it's opinions or understandings
on some of the TANF funding or the block grant and transfers and all these things, it seems like there has been a changing of where those dollars are being allocated. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, did some of these TANF dollars used to go to the child advocacy centers at one point in the last year or two yes sir they were they
Speaker 125
1:26:28
were one of the sub grantees
that did receive money they were approximately seven sub grantees in the past um
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:26:35
year yes sir and and
Speaker 339
1:26:39
now they are no longer receiving those none of the sub
Speaker 125
1:26:44
none of the seven sub grantees are receiving any new funding they were all granted time only
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:26:51
extensions to expend money that had already been granted to them through June 30th so we treated all the subgrantees the same
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:27:01
so if I understand correctly from here forward TANF dollars absolutely do not go in
any form of a grant to child advocacy centers? At this time currently, we have
Speaker 119
1:27:16
not sub-granted any new money to any sub-grantees. Can you,
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:27:23
you know, within relative proximate amount of time, I'm not trying to drag this out, but could you just share a little
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:27:34
bit about why? So it's when TANF money
transferred to the department of human services i believe that was on july 1 of 2023 there were
reserves and tannif granting or tannif spending excuse me you get grant
you get a block grant which is about 56.5 million dollars a year and i believe you have up to three years to to spend it or is it two years you you receive it annually i think you have two years to spend it so reserves had been built up when it came from dws to dhs there were already sub grants obligated and as
we worked through that process we quickly not quickly i should say um we discovered that we were over obligated so as we have worked through that process through last year we have pared down sub-grants to outside entities. We narrowed it down to seven. We sub-granted them in six-month increments to make sure that we had enough money to sub-grant them. In May of last year, we told
all seven sub-grantees the second half of the year, July 1 through December 31st, everyone would have a reduced sub-grant to make sure that we had the funds to pay those sub-grants. I believe it was a percentage reduction they took that percentage reduction they due to extenuating circumstances one of those being the government shut down and receiving funds we granted time only extensions so that the sub grantees would have the ability to expend money January through June of this year
if they had not already expended it through 1231 of 25 so that
is where we are now so now so So quick answer to a long explanation, I apologize, is we now do not have many, if any, reserves, which I
think we've talked about with various committees while sitting at this table. So we are living within the block grant of 56.5, which is granted to the state of Arkansas in quarterly increments. So we are trying to spend only what we receive.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:29:52
Well, thank you for that. And I do appreciate it. and I know
it's not a short answer, I'm also just, you're having to, whether it's prioritize or triage where some of this funding goes, and I can appreciate that, and I understand that we don't have the full actual for what was spent in 25-26, but I do see where, you know, the federal revenue. It looks like there's federal revenue, TANF transfer for 24-25. Looks like moving forward
there is no TANF transfer. So I'm just trying to determine, you know, if DHS and county ops saw fit at one point in time to fund these child advocacy centers in appropriate ways. I think if we went around the table here everybody would say yeah those those centers do need funding uh if there's any way to see that to to come back as a priority in your in your TANF uh expenditures how you how
you disperse those funds how I guess the question is how to get them to maybe a higher priority on the list of of sub grantees and I'm sure there's other sub grantees who you're
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:31:12
no longer funding either. That is correct, sir. We are not doing any new sub-grant funding to any of those seven or any other sub-grantee, so we've not done any new money or any sub-grants to anyone else. We are trying
to get TANF stabilized and to have some reserves. Reserves are recommended as a best
practice by the federal government to have almost a full quarter in reserves, and we got very dangerously close to zero and and so at this time i don't have an answer for you i understand i hear your request but
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:31:46
i don't have an answer at this time i think i'll finish with this um the the prioritization that you guys have to come to in making these decisions that's done that's done through your team or through your office it's it's not something that we have in any legislative
capacity where we're weighing in on that. Is
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:32:06
that correct? Actually, there is some special language that does designate how some TANF funds are spent. I believe that is for education and then CPI.
I don't mean to stop you. I
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:32:20
just mean specifically on the decision-making with the sub-grantees. Is that an in-house? Yes, sir. It is
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:32:29
you so much for the explanation and the detail on that.
Speaker 432
1:32:33
Thank you for the latitude, Mr. Chair. Representative Hammer, you've got a question? Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. What is the current reserve balance in
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:32:50
the fund? We will have to get it for you. I did not bring it this morning. I'm sorry
Speaker 432
1:32:57
to say. I brought everything else, I think. Okay. If you don't mind getting that, maybe give it to the Chair so the Chair could get out to committee members so we could know that. And then the second thing is, based on your projections, the full effects of the adjustments that are coming down from the federal government,
that being factored into the entities that you've decided that would be the recipients of the money, do you anticipate that the reserve fund and the money coming in is going to be able to be sustainable based on current trend? because the FMAP number changed, I know. So just hit on that real quick, if you would.
Speaker 125
1:33:34
I have a clarifying question. Are you asking about TANF, or are you asking about an FMAP?
Speaker 432
1:33:39
I'm sorry, TANF. On TANF and on the reserve, you know, what you have in reserves on the TANF funds,
the adjustments coming down from the feds and the organizations that we're obligated to now, do you think that we've leveled off and we'll be able to continue to build a little bit of reserves?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:33:58
I believe so, but I just want to be clear and transparent. The block grant for TANF has not changed of the annual amount of 56.5. We've just spent down
our reserves to where we are now level setting on annual spending. Right, and
Speaker 432
1:34:13
that's what I wanted to hear was the adjustment period for what you inherited
and the organizations that are obligated or dependent and all the adjustments you feel now we've worked through that transitional period. moving forward we ought to we ought to see some consistency then yes sir is that fair yes okay thank
Chair
Unverified
1:34:38
you all right we're going back around second time Reverend Garner you got a
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:34:42
question just to follow up from earlier I think when we talked earlier Mary you said that the snap shift cost would be 25 million and
And then yesterday, Secretary Hudson mentioned
$18 million. Can you just
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:35:00
clarify? Yes, ma'am. The SNAP administrative cost increases from a 50% federal match to a 25% federal match, which is going to increase the cost for the state. And the estimate for that is about $24 million. And I believe what Secretary Hudson was referring to yesterday in the $18 million would be for three-quarters of the year,
because this cost does not take effect until October 1st. Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. And if I may, I need to correct a number that I gave to Representative Painter. I told you two unbudgeted
Speaker 109
1:35:53
positions. They were three. They were three. all right our
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:35:58
hopefully our last question will be senator flowers okay it's short
i'm just wanting to inquire about your statement that we the feds want us to have a reserve fund
is that for the tanf benefits snap benefits what is that for and do they distribute the funds to the state and then they want us to hold them and not use them to have this reserve what is
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:36:32
is that it yes ma'am I was specifically referring to TANF funds in that statement of reserves and that has been a best practice verbalized from our federal partners to DCO
to hold in reserve for unexplained contingencies. A great example is when the federal shutdown went for 44 days. TANF was not funded until well 30 days after the government shut down, and we did not have a whole bunch of reserves to continue paying any of our obligations that we used TANF for. So that is why that is a recommendation. Are
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:37:16
the TANF funds that we receive as a state that's pursuant to some formula from the feds?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:37:25
Yes, ma'am. I believe it's a formula for the block grant that's applied to all 50 states. And a portion of that is TANF? No, ma'am. Our TANF grant is $56.5 million a year, which is distributed quarterly to the state. And that's what
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:37:41
they want us to hold, a reserve of at least a quarter. That is their recommendation, yes, ma'am. And so that's delivered.
It's in our state treasury. That reserve, is that what? No, ma'am.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:38:00
No, ma'am. We don't have a current reserve. We are trying to level set and
not overspend in that area. So I think moving forward, there will be lots of discussion of what should be held in reserve. And the reason we don't have anything
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:38:17
in reserve is because of the shutdown? No, ma'am. We
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:38:21
don't have anything in reserve because we had been over-obligated and we honored those obligations.
And we've made reductions when we've had
to make reductions in new grants to sub-grantees. So does the state have an
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:38:34
opportunity to request additional funding from the feds? No, ma'am. We do not. It is a formula.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:38:41
It is driven by a block grant, and it is distributed. If we were to request or had a way to ask for more money, that would mean a reduction to another state. And I don't know how well that would go.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:38:57
Well, on page 115, it has restricted reserve fund $2.9 million. That was in 24-25. Yes,
ma'am. That was tied to summer EBT, I
Speaker 452
1:39:10
believe. And so it's all gone. Is that right? Yes,
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:39:16
ma'am. That's an annual expense
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:39:19
to administer the summer EBT program. Okay. Thank you, Mr.
Chair. Thank you, Senator. That being the last question, Senator Bride's going to make a motion for Executive Rec. Is that correct? Senator, you going to wake up? We
Speaker 378
1:39:42
have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say
aye. Any opposed? It is adopted. We're going now to development disabilities. Ms. Walsh. Yes,
sir. The next is the division of
Chair
Unverified
1:39:58
developmental disability services and its appropriation summaries on page 138. This division administers programs and services for people who are intellectually and developmentally disabled through community-based services and programs and at the five human development centers. It has total authorized appropriations for fiscal year 26 of $220 million with 2,490 positions and eight appropriations and it's funded with general revenues federal funds and various program support and the total legislative recommended recommendation for this division is
220 million dollars with no significant changes i'll discuss the operations appropriation briefly it's the second one from the bottom eight nine six division of developmental disability services this supports the operations of the division including management and operation of the five human development centers and it's funded with general revenue federal funds and various program support and at 199 million dollars comprises most of the appropriation authorized for this division and that concludes my presentation for
the presentation any questions I bet I know what representative
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:41:07
painters gonna do thank you mr. chair same thing other directors be prepared two how many vacancies do you have and how long
Speaker 463
1:41:23
so currently we have a little over a hundred budgeted positions that are vacant that we're actively recruiting and hiring for what's what you have how many are two
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:41:31
years over we have two and those are budgeted you said
Speaker 463
1:41:40
they are one is for a psychologist and
Speaker 147
1:41:42
one for an APRN. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And then they had 23 that were unbudgeted. So they had 25 positions total within the division, only two of which were budgeted. Thank you. Representative Eve, you're
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
1:42:02
recognized for a question. Thank you. Just a quick question about the Human Development Centers. And I don't have the book open, but can you tell me if you have any money that's dedicated toward refurbishing or rebuilding any of these facilities and if so
what is what is your balance in that fund if
Speaker 463
1:42:18
you have that fund so currently we have around nine million dollars in the fund balance that is committed to some new construction that we're doing at the boonville human development center what about the one in jonesboro jonesboro we're currently building a new wellness center and that's also in the budget and that's specifically on page 154. Okay, and
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
1:42:42
then what about the others like Arkadelphia and Conway?
Speaker 463
1:42:45
So we are currently working on several projects for the other centers as well. A lot of that comes out of 1DE, which is funding in the
Representative Les D. Eaves
Unverified
1:42:58
Secretary's office. Does that, I don't know what 1DE is. Is that a separate fund
Speaker 463
1:43:07
balance or? I'm going to defer to Ms. Stee on what that is
Speaker 147
1:43:13
named exactly. That's a line item, and we have that line item within the Secretary's office
so that we can manage across our three divisions that have facilities, and that is appropriation, and then once there is funding, then that appropriation flows out to the divisions with the funding, It's committed once we have appropriate construction beds and go through the procurement process. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
Chair
Unverified
1:43:46
Representative you're recognized for a
Speaker 758
1:43:49
question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
How many nursing positions do you have open at Conway and
archidelphia and Jonesboro Yeah, I'll have to get
Speaker 463
1:44:05
that for you representative Wooten. I know from a previous question I did find out real quickly on the archidelphia. We have two open are in positions One is currently being worked and one is currently being reposted But I can find out those others
Speaker 758
1:44:21
for you. Okay and follow up if I may Has the compensation increase that has been approved for nurses, has that helped in the recruitment?
Speaker 463
1:44:33
Yes, it definitely has helped in the recruiting licensed professional nurses. Thank you.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:44:45
Representative Rose, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kind of piggybacking on Representative
Eves and Representative Painter's question, There had been some discussion over the last couple of months about the work program, I think it was, at the Boonville Development Center. That it had consolidated, those positions had to be moved, short-staffed, whatever it was, and that that program was either paused or closed.
Can you speak to that, you know, if those positions have been staffed, if that program's reopened, if it's active, if it's being planned to be reactivated, if it's not
Speaker 463
1:45:23
activated? It is. It's been reopened since December, early December, the active work training program at Boonville. And
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:45:30
so that is staffed, and the plans are to keep it staffed. Should it open, you will restaff? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you so much. All
Chair
Unverified
1:45:42
right. Representative Painter, we're back to you.
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:45:46
Thank you. Secretary Mayhem, do you mind getting the committee, out of all the vacancies you have, the total amount of
dollars that you're budgeting for those vacancy positions? Thank
Speaker 494
1:45:58
you. Yes, we can get that for the committee.
Thank you so much. With that being the last question, I'll entertain a
motion for Executive Rec and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Any
Speaker 496
1:46:15
opposed? Thank you. We'll go now to Medical Services.
Speaker 8
1:46:21
Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. Division of Medical Services Appropriation Summaries on
Chair
Unverified
1:46:25
pages 156 and 157. This division administers the Medicaid program. For fiscal year 26, it has total authorized appropriations of $10.5 billion with 92 positions and 14 appropriations. It's funded with general revenues, federal funds, and various program support. Legislative recommendation for this division is for total appropriations to continue at the same level at $10.5 billion with no significant changes. I'd like to direct the committee to appropriations that may be of interest.
On line 7 in their department appropriation summary about midway down is 896 Division of Medical Services. This is their operations appropriation, and it supports the administration of the Medicaid program and is funded through general revenues, federal funds, and various program support at $12.7 million. The seven appropriation line items that are below that, they're listed as 897 and 898, are the line items that combine to form the Medicaid grants appropriation, which pays for the bulk of the Medicaid program.
These items are funded with general revenues, federal funds, and a variety of other state funding sources. They're listed separately to more transparently show funding, as some of the funding sources are unique to each item. And this concludes my presentation, Mr.
Chair. Bermers we have any questions Good gracious senator Irvin just
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:47:49
a quick one. What's our current F map?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:47:53
Current F map, I believe is 69 point 23 and
In October 1 it will be
going to 70.52. Okay,
thanks Senator flowers you got
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:48:11
a question Hold on. Now you're ready. So from the appropriation summary where it recites reports reflects the federal revenue compared to the general revenue,
it looks like 5 to 1 or 6 to 1.
Is that a match? I'm on page
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:48:40
156 yes ma'am it is a match it is approximately 3 to 1 the current fmap rate is at 69.23 and we usually have a blended fmap rate of close to 70 percent because admin is at a different fmap and so it's basically
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:48:59
a three-to-one match so the our kids B program eight nine seven that's for
operational expenses administering the program no ma'am that is for our our kids
Speaker 501
1:49:11
be program is for our chip program children's health insurance and so that is the children who are their income is a little bit too high to qualify for medicaid but we provide them services through a program called our kids be and it is at a slightly higher match rate than medicaid
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:49:31
but the feds give what to that is that reflected in that six million yes ma'am they
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:49:37
are their match rate the match rate for that program is
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:49:41
around 80 percent about 80 percent yes ma'am and so the other she said was three to
one so this is about three to
Speaker 188
1:49:50
one two it's a little bit higher my math skills
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:49:55
aren't great so it's more like how many kids are being
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:49:59
served in our kids be program as a February 1st our our kids be program served
approximately 44,000 children in the state of
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:50:11
Arkansas is that based on those who apply or how do
we determine who's eligible and who receives services that is the number that
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:50:24
are eligible to receive services so they have they have applied and they have received eligibility notification I don't have a number
of who has sought utilization of any
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:50:38
services so normally that would be
recipient of services would be someone presenting at a doctor's office or a hospital and don't have the money to pay is that it no
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:50:52
ma'am they would have an an RKIDS-B card or documentation that they are on RKIDS-B or on Medicaid, and if they go to the doctor or the pharmacy or to the hospital, those entities will bill Medicaid by their recipient number to then be paid for the services rendered.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:51:12
So they seek to qualify before going to the doctor, but if they appear at a hospital emergency, do they sign them up there? What happens? They can
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:51:24
sign them up there. Yes, ma'am. If they are not insured, the respective entity that they are seeking care from can call the county office or
work with others to help obtain qualified applicants to receive services.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:51:42
Do schools, do public schools provide assistance for signing up for the
Our Kids B program? The schools
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:51:53
do assist with eligibility. It's not just limited to Our Kids B. There are services delivered in the schools for Medicaid, and the schools do
Speaker 447
1:52:05
help administratively with eligibility. So
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:52:09
are any of the operating expenses listed here in this summary
transferred or distributed to public schools? Yes, ma'am. Some of our grants
Speaker 501
1:52:20
line is distributed to public schools. They bill us for services. They do not have a separate line. They'll show up where those services are billed, either in Our Kids B or in the Medicaid
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:52:34
grant. But they enroll as providers and bill us for services. Well, I'm curious to know how much of DHS budget you're with the medical services, right?
Is that division now? Yes, ma'am. So how much of the monies that the funds that you receive are distributed out to public schools? We can get you the number of how much of the
Speaker 501
1:52:57
federal dollars. The schools typically pay the match rates for most of their services, so we can get you the federal dollars plus what they're paying, plus anything that we might be adding to that. And
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:53:08
what the feds give the school, it passes through your office? Yes, ma'am. It does pass through our office. Okay, I'd like to see that. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Yes, ma'am. Representative Collins, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
1:53:25
So I'm looking on page 184 at this transfer from PY, residual general revenue of $294 million. Is that the set-aside from when we last—OK, that is not the set-aside. All right. Well, I see you shaking your head. What is that, then?
what is that 294 million and I guess the other question is while you're thinking about that did we when we did do that set aside last time when we were doing this process of I believe it was 200 million dollars did all of that money end up coming in and where did that where does that show up here I'll begin and director Pittman
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:54:17
or in the current year that we are in there is a hundred million dollars set aside for medicaid we have
not used it we have not we have not worked through the executive channels to come to this body to request that that amount of money so we've not touched
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
1:54:31
it okay and then as far as what is that 294 million transfer from py residual general revenue yes sir that came from the tmp 0900
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:54:43
the trust fund account so that was just a transfer from
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
1:54:47
the trust fund account to what would then be spendable essentially yes sir it was it was a
Chair
Unverified
1:54:54
transfer in to pay the bills okay thank you representative kavanaugh
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
1:55:05
you're recognized for question thank you I just have a quick question going to nursing homes in distress do we how many have did we have to help with closure and do we have a number how
many are in the stress at this time so that is actually
Speaker 523
1:55:29
administered that fund is actually runs through my division but is administered by um director smith so i'm going to let her answer that
Speaker 525
1:55:40
question thank you good morning martina smith at this time we do not have any nursing facilities in distress or working towards a closure and we have not had any closures of our facilities since 2024 okay thank you all right representative
Chair
Unverified
1:55:57
painter you gotta know you got a quick question yes
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:56:04
very quick my madam director just how many vacancies you
have we have 12 12 how many of those are budgeted or not
Speaker 527
1:56:14
budgeted those 12 are budgeted we have seven unbudgeted vacancies.
Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Representative Leidyman, you got
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
1:56:29
a quick one? Well, my hope. Director Pittman, I think you can answer this question. I just, on page 188, it talks about infant infirmary, and we only spent
$13,000, and there's $327,000 budgeted for that. What is that, and why aren't we spending more money, and can that help our infant mortality rate? Yes, sir.
Speaker 527
1:56:52
So infant infirmaries are pediatric ICFs, institutions, for those with IDD. Those services are primarily paid for via the PASS, and so what you're seeing there, that very small number, are the few children that were waiting on eligibility for PASS, and they had emergency Medicaid or something like that.
And so we paid for those services through fee-for-service pending that. So we should continue to see that number decline, although we don't anticipate it ever reaching zero.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
1:57:22
All right. One quick follow-up, Mr. Chairman. Go ahead. Next page, 189. Same kind of question. You know, we didn't spend any of that money, and there's $2.1 million. Can you explain what that is and why we're not spending that money? Yes,
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:57:40
sir. This line item is actually the Child and Family Life Institute. It is used with funding Children's Hospital.
Speaker 534
1:57:46
We do use it. Okay. Thank you. All right. Representative McElhinden, you had spoke today. I
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:57:58
haven't. Thank you, Chairman. I know, weird to see me quiet. So just a quick follow-up from Representative Painter. those positions that are budgeted but are not filled are you feeling those with contract employees and do you have a feel for the difference in cost to do that no ma'am we
Speaker 526
1:58:14
are not filling them with contract employees many of them we're actually advertising right now are in the process
of hiring we're about to onboard two new employees actually so we're not using contract employees to those
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:58:34
chairman thank you uh senator flyers we're coming back This is very quick. It's just additional information that I'd like to see when you get the figures for the monies paid to schools. Where are the schools?
Are we talking about, I'm trying to determine if it's a certain part of the state where you're seeing more need for these funds to schools and whether they support services for individuals with special needs. Is that a part? Is that what the money is
distributed for or just what? I'd like to know.
Speaker 501
1:59:21
Yes, ma'am. And we can get you information on how much money is being spent in each area of the state any school that provides services is eligible to receive medicaid dollars for the services they provide they are primarily for children with special health care needs and those with special with disability or with medical needs so they typically will have an individualized education plan that requires occupational therapy or speech therapy or or some other type of service or they'll have a help we're working on providing services
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:59:49
through school nurses so we'll be able to provide medical services
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
1:59:54
as well. And so you said any school
does that include private in additional
to public or public charter schools? No ma'am just public schools. Okay thank
Speaker 758
2:00:09
you. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you. Representative Wooten we're
back to you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm on page 156, and I'm just curious. On the 648 Medicaid expense, it's got $4 million actual, $4.6 million actual.
It's got a budgeted $41.2 million, and then authorized is $140 million. And in the request, it stays at $140 million, and we only actually spent $78. Why is that? Yes, sir. That fund in combination
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:00:58
with several funds listed below is how
we pay for all of our claims throughout the year.
And so that one is level. And sometimes during the year we will bring y'all requests to
Speaker 119
2:01:15
move line items around depending on the expenditures. So we've left that one
Speaker 758
2:01:26
flat for next year. So we budget $41 million. And then we're authorized $140 million. I mean, it's the same question, but why the difference between $70 million, $41 million budgeted,
and $140 million recommendation by the legislative, executive branch, and the agency? Why is that? Yes, sir. So the two lines
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:02:00
medical services, prescription drugs, and then medical services, those three lines make
up the appropriation for our tobacco settlement funds. So this is appropriation only.
Speaker 758
2:02:14
Okay. Then let's look at line
one. Actual expenditures was $14,000. Budgeted $4 million. authorized four million why why why do we do that yes sir so this is our appropriation for
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:02:33
our nursing homes if they close this is
um this gives us the flexibility we've as director smith said a few minutes ago we've not had a nursing home close in over a year but if one does become in jeopardy
to be closed we can use this line item and this appropriation to hire to help us with the receivership to make sure the
Speaker 758
2:03:01
patients are taken care of while it's
undergoing change? Well, are we going to have $4 million needed? Do we need that? I mean, I can't keep, I can't get my arms around why we're budgeting $4 million and we're expending $14,000.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:03:22
Yes, sir. We have asked for that appropriation to be $4 million to give us the flexibility if a nursing home or multiple nursing homes close. We also have a small window, as Ms. Walls mentioned to me, that we can use some of this money for training. We have not gotten clearance from CMS to do that, but if we do get that training, we will be coming and using some of this appropriation to fund that.
Speaker 758
2:03:47
In other words, it's anticipation in the event that that occurs. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you
Thank you All right need a motion for executive record medical services
have a motion and a second any discussion All in favor say
Speaker 305
2:04:06
I Any opposed stands approved we will go to quality assurance you're
Chair
Unverified
2:04:18
recognized this is the on page 194 is the appropriation summary for the division of provider services and quality assurance this division provides administrative support and oversight
of providers enrolled in the medicaid medicaid waiver and our kids programs and licenses surveys and regulates child welfare agencies on behalf of the division of children and family services in fiscal year 26 it has a single authorized appropriation i know there are three line items but there's they only have one appropriation and it's for 19.4 million dollars and this is the operations appropriation for this division it has under 86 positions it's funded with general revenue federal funds and various program support and the legislative recommendation for this division is for 19.4 million dollars with no changes now the appropriations that are listed
on lines one and three for this division are the two appropriations that we had that transferred to the division of aging adult and behavioral health services over those many years ago or moments ago anyway as part of a governor's letter during regular session 2025 they appear here to show the expenditures in those appropriations prior to their shift to the division of aging adult and behavioral health services and this concludes my presentation for this
division all right any questions okay representative painter let's have it
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
2:05:38
all right same thing director how many
Speaker 525
2:05:42
vacancies you got we have 51 vacancies 15 of which are unbudgeted any over two years four over two years one
of which is unbudgeted thank you thank you mr. chair thank you seeing
no other questions we need a motion executive rick we have a motion and a second any discussion all in favor say aye
any opposed stands approved and our last one is the youth services miss walls
Chair
Unverified
2:06:14
thank you mr chair the final division is the division of youth services their appropriation summary is on page 201. this division was created to handle the problems of youth involved with the juvenile justice system through a variety of community-based and residential options for case management, diversion, and rehabilitation of at-risk youth. In FY26, it has total authorized appropriations of $83.2 million with 121 positions and five appropriations funded with general revenue, federal funds, and various program support. And the legislative recommendation for
this division for fiscal year 27 is for total appropriations of $83.2 million with no significant changes. I'll direct the committee to appropriations that may be of interest. On line four is the operations appropriations the second last one I'm sorry is the residential services appropriation this 34.6 million dollar appropriation is funded primarily by general revenues and is for the cost of running juvenile treatment centers and the final appropriation in the summary is the operations appropriation which supports the operation of this division it's 14.4
million dollars and is funded through general revenues federal funds and various program support and this concludes my presentation for this
division and the department all right members any questions all right representative flowers you
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
2:07:38
are excuse me senator flyers you are recognized for a
question community-based sanctions what what is that if DYS fails to abide by
court order? What is that? It's on
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:59
page 201. So those are from juveniles that are not compliant with court orders or conditions of supervision. Those are sanctions that the courts impose and then
they are distributed to us so they're they're fines or
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
2:08:18
penalties yes ma'am well are those funds
shared with county government does a administrative office of the court get any I mean
We'll need to take that one
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:08:35
back. I just, I don't know if the courts get, I don't know where they are
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
2:08:42
funded through sanctions or not. Well, I'd appreciate your research in that. Yes, ma'am. And
exactly what is community-based sanctions, because community-based, you're not talking about an individual juvenile.
You're talking about community. I mean, I don't understand the whole phrase there, community-based sanctions. Is that court sanctions? Is it DYS sometimes goes into court and they fail to comply with the court's order? So is it, what is this? This is
Speaker 165
2:09:16
part of our community-based diversion program, and we work with a number of vendors out in the community and have contracts with them to avert custodial placement with our juvenile treatment centers.
Speaker 169
2:09:30
But we'll get you more information on the revenues
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
2:09:35
here. Yeah, and the whole idea of community-based sanctions, there should be some description or definition of what that is. I don't understand what that
Speaker 165
2:09:48
phrase is. This is part of our continuum of options for judges in local communities prior to committing juveniles to our juvenile treatment center. So this is actually diversion programs that juvenile probation officers and juvenile judges ask families to participate in as part of their court involvement.
So these are actually prior to them coming into placement at a secured facility. So these can be anything from probation, these can be other interventions such as after school and things, monitoring, mentoring, things like that in the
Speaker 169
2:10:33
community that are provided by contract providers in communities. Well, under
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
2:10:40
the funding sources, would any of the sources be from individuals that appear in juvenile court?
Speaker 172
2:10:51
No, not that I'm aware of. It's general
Speaker 169
2:10:54
revenue. It's state general revenue, 100%. So
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
2:10:57
it's not a kid or family paying fees or penalties for contempt? Not here. No, not in
Speaker 169
2:11:05
our budget. Okay. But would you agree
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
2:11:08
is somewhere that? That's the part I would have to get
Speaker 169
2:11:14
with administrative office of the courts about, but I'd be happy to make that contact and get you that information.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
2:11:21
I'd like to know if any of your budget comes from fines, fees, costs
that are received in juvenile court or ordered in juvenile court. Yes, ma'am. None of that is
Speaker 758
2:11:46
Thank you. Revenant Wooten, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm on page 201 still.
You have 121 positions authorized by 120. The agencies are requesting 122. How many of those 121 are vacant? Yes, we have
Speaker 169
2:12:12
a total of 23 unfilled positions. So roughly 10%,
Speaker 758
2:12:16
a little over, 20%. Correct. About 20. Okay. How many of those are over two years?
Speaker 147
2:12:26
We had eight positions that were over two years old, and of
Speaker 758
2:12:38
of the eight all right down under funding sources under performance
performance fund we have zero amount but we but actual but we have budgeted 625,000 but we're
not requesting any what is that a change what is a
Speaker 199
2:13:02
change, but. That's correct. We don't budget performance fund in the future. We just utilize what we
Speaker 165
2:13:22
need in the current budget year based on
Speaker 169
2:13:26
field positions and things like pay plan and things that are unanticipated. so we asked for performance funding in the current budget follow-up where does
that funding come from from the performance fund held by and dispersed by DFA thank you
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
2:13:56
thank you represent the painter you got a quick one yes and I'm I'm sorry, I think Representative Wooden stole my question. You don't have to ask it, Ian. No, you got me there. No, out of those vacancies, how many of those are two years or older?
Speaker 564
2:14:10
There were eight of those, six of which were
budgeted. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Supposedly the last question is Representative Gonzalez-Wortham. You're recognized. Yes, thank you, Chairman. and thank you
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
2:14:23
for answering my question I'm not exactly sure if this is the right setting for the question but I'm going to ask it because it's related it may be an education question it might be a question for you so I'm just going to ask it so when you have students who are
in juvenile detention centers or they're in inpatient mental behavioral settings or other settings other than treatment centers, et cetera, other than they're in school, they're not in school, and you have students who are not yet reading on grade level, or they're English learners, or they are in special education, they're receiving services. How are
those students served in settings outside of the school district?
Speaker 199
2:15:20
Thank you for the question. I can only speak to Division of Youth Services, not the other settings. However, Division of Youth Services, we are considered a
Speaker 165
2:15:33
school district, and we do participate in planning educationally for each juvenile that we have on our campuses. and those are supported through different mechanisms some of whom are on traditional tracks and they do earn credits that transfer back to their high schools of origin when they go home
we do have some youth who are on GED track often pursuant to the judge's court order and that may be a condition of their release from DYS or return to home and lately we have had a big focus in education on career exploration as well as actual job training and certification. We're super proud that several of our juveniles who have completed their formal education have gone on to get things like their CDL and truck driving as well as some welding certifications and things
like that. We do support special education through we have some special education teachers and things like that to support our juveniles who come to us behind on reading level. And we do know statistically that many of our juveniles served have special education needs and often are behind in their education for various reasons. Okay, thank you. Representative Annette, do you have a question?
Hold on. Wait a minute. Just light back. Push back on. There
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
2:17:11
you go. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question to piggyback off of Representative Gonzalez-Worthing. How many of these students in DYS are on IEP?
Speaker 571
2:17:19
I don't have that number with me today, but we definitely have that data as well as
Speaker 165
2:17:26
some other data I'd be happy to share with you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Chair
Unverified
2:17:34
You got another question? All right, Representative Gonzalez, you're recognized. Yes, piggyback off of
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
2:17:41
Representative Annitz. I would also like to know the number of English language learners that you're serving. Thank you. Absolutely. Be happy to provide that. Thank you.
Speaker 199
2:17:49
All right, members, being no more questions,
we'll take a motion for Executive Rec. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in
favor say aye. Any opposed? The stand is approved.
Rep. Garter, you've got a personal point of privilege you want to do
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
2:18:11
right quick. You're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Very quickly, I just want to thank DHS and every agency in the room presenting today for, I want to thank you publicly for answering my questions on the First Amendment issues. One of the questions I did not ask very clearly, obviously, So I am sending out another letter to the agencies that if you don't mind answering those for me and getting them back,
then we'll have a little more clarity in some of the information that we need. I just wanted to thank you all, and I'll keep you posted as we look at that information, and we'll gather back after that. But I will send another letter with the information that we need, and we'll go from there. but thank you very much appreciate y'all all right members it's
been a long morning just to let you know the chairs have taken down
the calendar there will be no calendar tomorrow
we will finish this afternoon and before i bring it we're not going to bring education up with 10 minutes so we're going to come back at 12 45 and we're going to finish today no matter how long it takes. We still got education, public safety, and the health department. So we'll break till 1245, which we'll start and pick back up. Thank you.
Unknown speaker
2:19:54
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Speaker 581
3:46:24
department? all right all right members if
you get to your seats we're fixing to start in one minute
All right members, we're back from recess. Ms. Walden, you got the Department of Education Public School Fund. please proceed. Thank
Speaker 584
3:47:24
you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, members. Katie Walden, Bureau of
Legislative Research, Fiscal Division. As Mr. Chair stated, I'm going to be reviewing the public school fund appropriations with you today. Those include the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education appropriations, the State Library, State Aid, as well as the Division of Career and Technical Education. So while these appropriations begin on page 212 of your manual, if you'll look item c in your packet staff has prepared a summary of each of these appropriations for you members you should have this in your
Speaker 496
3:47:55
packet has c on it kind of a cheat sheet if you will go ahead
Speaker 584
3:48:03
thank you mr chair and i'll just kind of go over with you how this is organized so we took all of the appropriation lines in the public school fund budget and we organized them by in alphabetical order and you'll see if you look on your left there's the page number where you can find the detail describing each appropriation the line item and then all the rest of the information that's already in the budget manuals associated with that line as i said i'm going to begin with the division of elementary and secondary education public school fund this is all state aid
distributed to local districts charter districts education service cooperatives this is where all the adequacy funding is there are 70 appropriation lines in this appropriation section And there are also 49 positions appropriated, and that includes 45 positions in the app scan and four
Speaker 587
3:48:56
in the Office of Education Renewal Zones. On page three of the schedule,
you'll see that the total for the public school fund, the total request and the total recommendation is for $3.5 billion for FY27. there are no change level requests associated with this amount and so that's really it on
Speaker 584
3:49:25
the public school fund there are no change levels it was 3.5 billion last year it will be
Speaker 586
3:49:31
3.5 billion requested in 27 i'm happy to answer any questions
if the department is ready to come forward we would love to see you today because we have
questions you got anything you want to say on opening statement you ready to go into questions i defer
Speaker 590
3:49:58
to the chair if you want to go into questions i'm okay with
that all right our first question will be uh speaker evans you're recognized sir thank you mr chair secretary good
Speaker 654
3:50:15
sheet c with the breakdown of the various appropriations um there's 190 million dollars that is set in here for minimum teacher salary and raises now if i recall that originated back with the learns act i believe in september of 2022 there was a I'm going to use the word census that was done on all the 400 plus or 207 plus
school districts across the state and what we were doing is any teacher that was not at 50,000 we provided funding to them to get them to 50,000 and as long as they met some of the criteria that was set aside and learns they would continue to get that funding am I correct with that that's correct yeah and so since that time um i just have to think that uh there has been movement and so since september of 22 have we gone back whether through you know an e-school and e-finance
or however we established that initial baseline have we gone back and recalculated that to make sure that the schools who have taken on teachers who that teacher was getting that funding at school a but now they're at school b and that that school is getting that funding have we have we taken another snapshot in time yeah so today
Speaker 597
3:51:38
snapshot in time it would require a legislative change for us to do
Speaker 654
3:51:46
that that would require legislation to ask you
Speaker 602
3:51:49
to go back and take another snapshot yeah so the way that the statute is currently written it established that first year as a as you put it the the census or the snapshot in time on at which the salary funding is based and so if we were to base the funding on a different time period that would need to be
Speaker 654
3:52:12
reflected in the statute. Okay but is it safe to assume that there have probably been teachers that have moved to different districts because of recruiting
better benefits better options less travel uh possibly move to charter schools that were not included uh and then we're actually still sending potentially sending funds to
Speaker 604
3:52:28
a school that no longer has those teachers absolutely and i think you know even as enrollment changes we've got some
Speaker 597
3:52:35
districts that are growing as students so they're adding more they're adding right yeah we have maybe some districts that are you know declining enrollment may not have as many teachers so that's definitely happening. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, sir. All right.
We're going to, as a practice this yesterday, this morning,
we're going to members of the committee first, then the non-members. Senator Flowers,
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
3:53:05
you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I guess it's, it might be answered by Ms. Walden. When you presented, you, I thought I heard you say this
um exhibit c includes adequacy 2. go ahead
Speaker 584
3:53:26
yes ma'am the appropriations for all the adequacy
recommended items are included in this schedule so that
Speaker 586
3:53:33
includes state foundation aid all the categoricals as well as the supplementals that are listed when you make your adequacy recommendations and they should be named corresponding with what
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
3:53:46
is listed in the matrix okay so we we then could look at this c and expect that the recommendations at at the minimum should be part of the adequacy
Speaker 608
3:54:01
we establish this is the appropriation recommendation for 27 so how does it how do we use this to determine adequacy are
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
3:54:13
we are we gonna get another report or something for adequacy that's going to be
in the fall of the year
for the next biennium this is the second year of this biennium so they were working off the
adequacy that was done I guess a year and a half ago
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
3:54:40
okay so this this is
like supplementing are just this is
the appropriation this is not the recommendation this is
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
3:54:54
the appropriation okay it says appropriation request and recommendation so I'm trying to figure out
so we won't have to just determine
Speaker 543
3:55:05
adequacy funding during the fiscal this this year is that
Speaker 613
3:55:15
to weigh in on this like Greg Rogers Parma is Department of Education correct the adequacy recommendations that were done in I I think it's 24 that set the foundation funding for 26 and 27, as well as the categoricals. That appropriation is contained within this budget. So we do have adequacy in this budget. And
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
3:55:34
so we're just appropriating it for the next fiscal?
Correct. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And I guess my other question right now, Mr. Oliva, Secretary Oliva, you might be able to answer. concerning the educational renewal zones and in the description it says is not limited to but what a purpose is for improving public school
performance particularly the state's most
academically distressed public schools have those schools
all been identified and how many do we have And
are all of them participating in a collaborative agreement or interlocal agreement as is described here between a public school education service co-op or institution of higher learning? So the
Speaker 617
3:56:40
short answer is yes.
When we say which are the schools that we've deemed to be at risk, we look at all the DNF schools. They all have an improvement plan that's reviewed by our
Speaker 597
3:56:54
agency that's done in development with the educational cooperative that they're in with that zone. The ERZ, Educational Resource Zones, is also a partnership that runs through a lot of our universities as well as making sure that they're help providing additional support
Speaker 617
3:57:08
and training in those targeted areas as well. So I think it's, just to describe it briefly, it's like a holistic approach with everybody making sure we're getting those schools what they need.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
3:57:21
How many such zones do we have in the state?
There's six. And schools participating. I guess the question is how many schools are participating or
Speaker 597
3:57:32
school districts? I might have to get you the exact number. I want to say there's about six educational research zones
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
3:57:40
that cover the state, but then we can get you that information for sure. I'd like to have it. Just a reminder that I had asked you, I don't think it was in a meeting, about where these students are or schools are that are likely to retain third graders
that are in these academically distressed public schools. I'm still waiting on that. Hopefully you can get that to me. I know you've got a lot to do, but I'd like to know how these third graders are doing in these distressed school districts, particularly those that have been under state control within the last five to ten years. Happy to get that for you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator. Next member is Senator Irvin. You're recognized. okay thank you just
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
3:58:42
quick if you could just give me an update i think on the leg audit finding number one on the um potential for the duplicative duplicate enrollment uh there was a completion date of august 1 2025 have we gotten that do we meet that and are we doing good there
Speaker 613
3:59:01
on the duplicate enrollment yes so we've uh since that we've gone and um increased our controls one uh one of the things for homeschool now is we've added a a school within abscan so when a student and likes to enroll as a homeschool student it's going to be in abscan and if that student also applies to another school a traditional school or charter school it's going to kick out so that's one of the different layers that we're doing it on there so we're also going through different controls with class wall to make sure that if there are duplicate enrollments whether
Speaker 623
3:59:36
it's in another private school or home school or traditional we are going to try to
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
3:59:42
get better finding those okay and then is it was i mean if if if
we're doing the efa and then we were they were enrolled in a public school is there can we claw that money back or
no from the school since they weren't really
Speaker 602
3:59:58
educating them yeah so of all of the instances of potential dual enrollment that were identified um to my knowledge we did not identify any that were were fraudulent
or falsely dual enrolled um there are many instances in which the student may have left public school and the public school had just not dropped them on the roll soon enough um or the student needed to still be enrolled in the public school because they were receiving special ed services or other services that they are legally entitled to receive and so in order to get funded for those students even for the portion of time that they're in the public school they had to remain enrolled gotcha okay no
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
4:00:36
that makes sense okay and then thank you for that um and then just
a quick question on the sexual risk avoidance program um we have a the recommendation is four million but we don't have an agency request but we do have an exec and legislative recommendation for that um so i'm just curious because there was no actual expense from 2024 to 2025 so just can you just give me an update about that so yeah
Speaker 613
4:01:08
so since since this was the biennial budget request it doesn't reflect an agency's
request in there because that was picked up after the the biennial budget process had gone through legislation that was passed so that's why you see it reflected in the executive recommendation the four million so it's in there it just was not part of the request two years ago i got you so this is new
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
4:01:29
yes okay and so do we have plans for this new program or do we have any that i don't
Speaker 628
4:01:35
know i'd have to check with you i'd have to get the what we have going on with that yeah
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
4:01:40
you don't mind i'm just interested okay thank you appreciate it thanks
Chair
Unverified
4:01:46
Representative Wooten, you're recognized for
Speaker 758
4:01:50
a question. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. Thank you all for being here today. And my question has to do with the salary structure relative to a tenured teacher that has 20-odd years in service. And her salary, it was $48,000. Now it's $50,000 because she's got a $2,000 raise. She's mentoring a teacher that is making $50,000 a year, which is fine.
I mean, there's not a problem with that. The entrance pay was low, but also the other salaries for our teachers are very low. And I know that the district itself has some control over that. But am I correct in assuming that the funding for the pay raise that the initial teachers or beginning teachers received, we're paying that? Is that correct? I just
Speaker 597
4:02:50
want to make a clarifying question, if I may.
When you say the initial salaries that the teachers received, are you talking about the difference between, like, what the learns adjustment was from the $36,000 to the $50,000? What? Okay. Yeah, that was part of
Speaker 758
4:03:11
cover the difference for that. What are we doing to try to make equalization in the salaries for teachers that have, I can cite you one incidence, Mr. Secretary, where I have a teacher that is mentoring a teacher,
a young, an initial entrance to the school classroom. She's mentoring her, and she's making the same amount of money with 28 years as the one that's fresh out of college. And I'm not being critical. I think we needed to do what we did there. But what I'm asking, I didn't see anything in your budget to try to equalize to help the tenured teacher.
It has a long time. -
Speaker 590
4:04:01
So in the point you bring up, I think we've discussed before and with the LEARNS bill
Speaker 597
4:04:06
did with the teacher on salary allocation is ensure that everybody got at least, I think it was $2,000 raised from their previous year and then they cover the difference. But it allowed school districts to develop salary schedules on their own. So maybe we need to follow up with the school district 'cause some school districts now have the flexibility and freedom to be a little bit more creative.
Some districts are saying, we can't find chemistry teachers and physics teachers, so we wanna pay them a little bit different than maybe a different, you know, a math teacher in eighth grade. Some school districts look at years of service. You know, they value that. A lot of districts have incentives in place. If you do mentor another teacher, you can get additional dollars. But one of the ways I think that the more seasoned teachers are getting additional compensations the teacher merit salary allocation and in fact last year because I pulled the numbers we had
almost 4 300 teachers receive teacher merit pay on an average of that payment was around 3 300 so typically we're seeing our more veteran teachers that are mentoring new new teachers teaching in hardest staff areas geographically located challenging areas to staff have have high student growth scores are getting those additional layers of compensation well so that's not going to going to be reflected in their base salary because
Speaker 758
4:05:28
that's additional compensation well my question is and i
appreciate your answer on that but my question is are are you have y'all considered
or have you looked at the state picking up some additional pay in order that some of these salaries can be
raised for the teachers that have 20 years or more in the classroom and are good teachers.
I'm in the interruption. No, no, I'm sorry. But the merit system is good. I mean, it recognizes those who went above and beyond is what I would consider.
Okay, but then you have some that meet the standards that are good teachers, society teachers and they need they just need more pay and i don't see anything in here and what i'm asking have you all thought about that addressing that through more state money going to
Speaker 597
4:06:29
the districts so me personally i'm always going to advocate for more dollars for teachers if we know what the number one impact on um it for investment for getting students to perform better
and learn better is those teachers staying in front of the classroom and there's a lot of research that says you can't pay a good teacher enough money because they're worth every single cent but what we what we have done and what this budget allows is the districts to come up with a compensation plan that works best for the district i don't think the state should prescribe to every single district how they should compensate teachers we're not in every district we want to give that decision making to the folks that are there to the administrators the principals the school boards and the increase in foundation funding gives them some
flexible dollars that if they want to direct it towards teacher salaries they can other areas that I definitely hear from school districts is they want salary schedules in the funding flexibility say for bus drivers or maintenance folks across the board we want to make sure we invest in recruiting retaining and recognizing the talent our schools because they're they're the ones that are making it to happen each and every single
Speaker 758
4:07:42
day well I appreciate that and uh but just let me end my
comments with this remark something's wrong when we're paying the salaries we're paying the teachers and we can pay six to eight nine million dollars for a football coach or we can pay one 17 million to leave i mean it's just it's just not fair it's not right god i know life's not fair so thank you all thank you no
problem senator dismay you're recognized thank you mr chairman
Chair
Unverified
4:08:12
and this is going to y'all probably
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
4:08:16
weren't here earlier but we had a little bit of discussion
about how we're funding senior citizen centers and other things and i guess what i want to make sure that we have i mean to represent wooten's point i mean we are spending districts when i say we it's in the collective we are spending money on things that aren't directly tied to education may be very beneficial for the district to have a football team or a basketball team or whatever it is they may believe in and there's different areas that they want to focus on and you know build whatever it is they want to build but we want to make sure that they're prioritizing their
teachers and teacher pay first you know outside the box you know the difference that needed to be being up for the fifty thousand the state paid for the two thousand dollar bonus the state paid for the merit pay the state paid for those are all things that are outside of their per student allocation and I guess we want to make sure that districts and I'm not saying they did because I don't know didn't use those supplemental dollars that we gave them and not let that coincide with increasing teacher pay elsewhere is there a way and I've always kind of been
curious about that because every time we do a superintendent buyout and we have to pay that superintendent for two or three years that they don't actually work that's less money that's available for the district to pay for teachers right and we can go through a laundry list of payments that are being made for things that are providing zero services or education to children because someone entered into a contractual agreement that was to the detriment of the school district it's just the reality is there a way for us to do a better job tracking how those dollars are being spent on the district level so that the citizens back home can help us
make sure that things are being prioritized that should be prioritized so i i think
Speaker 597
4:10:09
that's a great question and ultimately the answer is yes because we need to have transparency in fact we built a transparency dashboard that anybody can log in and see where the expenses are going at the school district and school level we can make sure the members are aware of it it has an interesting acronym for a name everything has an acronym and education i can't remember the name of it directly but um this is why i feel strongly in accountability and this is why i think even the
legislative delegation was supportive in issuing school district grades typically when we find an f-rated school district that's not one building in a school that's failing when we find failing districts we have failing systems and when you find failing systems students aren't learning and and typically they're not being good stewards of those dollars. And we wanna take a greater control and accountability, especially at the state board level. They've made their intentions clear that when we start looking at DNF districts, what they're doing with their money
needs to be a big part of that conversation because typically what we find is they're not putting the money and the resources where they need to be to protect and improve student learning. So I think the overall arching question is, can we do more absolutely right should do i believe in local control and local decision making a thousand percent but if you're failing kids and communities and we need to be able to call you to the table and hold you accountable one thing
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
4:11:37
i'd like to ask and is maybe for education chairs or
whoever i'm not aware of the program how it works you know what that platform looks like for us to to go into. I'm going to bet our school members aren't aware of the program how it works or how to kind of dig into it. It might be really beneficial for starting with the members of education especially as we're going down the adequacy path to have a tutorial on what to look for and then ultimately I think each member would be it'd be advantageous for members to be able to look and see what was happening because we often just read what's in the paper after it's happened
to see what's what's going on inside of a district um so anyway that that would be my request is maybe we can get with the chairs
of those respective committees so that we're all better informed uh about
Speaker 617
4:12:26
what's happening yeah maybe um as we go through this process that could be an agenda item we'd be happy to to bring the folks in and and
Speaker 597
4:12:36
start walking through and navigate that because um i
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
4:12:38
think that'd be beneficial we are hyper focused on criticizing the state on how we spend education dollars, and it feels like there is almost zero focus on how the districts are
actually spending the dollars after we send it to them. And that may be largely because everything's being done correctly, but I don't think any of us have the tools or knowledge to know, or wasn't aware of the tools even existed, to know how to dig in and find out. So I
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
4:13:06
appreciate that, and thank you. Senator, I would just add that when you said the education committee going through
Speaker 613
4:13:11
the adequacy process. One of the things that we've been working with BLR is reviewing the resource allocations that I believe will be presented to the education committee next week where they go through. I think there's two parts where they're breaking down and actually going
through the revenues that districts have received and the allocation and the resources and how they spent those over the last year, last two years. So that is something that will be incorporated in the adequacy study. All
right, Representative Kavanaugh, you're recognized for a question. thank you mr
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
4:13:44
chairman thank y'all um my question is going to be around declining enrollment and growth enrollment so on our declining enrollment do you know how many is school districts are approximately or currently being given that funding
uh we just we just went through the through in pier last month i want to
Speaker 613
4:14:03
say it was around 120 that had declining enrollment last month that we came and had to get additional
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
4:14:08
appropriation for Okay. And is there any one particular part of the state that has more of that than another? I'm
Speaker 613
4:14:15
trying to go through the list. I don't know. I'd have to look at it. I don't think so. I think you see movement around the state, and it just kind of varies. Definitely, I think in southeast Arkansas, you've seen a decline there, but I'd have to look at the report of all the goals.
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
4:14:29
Yeah, if you don't mind, if you would get that, so I'd kind of be interested in knowing where that decline is happening. Is it related to population shift, or is it another factor that's affecting that? So I'd kind of like to know that. The same thing with the growth. How many are getting growth funding? Oh, I didn't bring
Speaker 644
4:14:48
how many. I'll send that to you as well. Okay, and
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
4:14:51
also kind of wanting to know the same information. I'm trying to see, is it economic factors that's growing it, or do we have another problem with those declining enrollments?
Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Representative Gramlich, I'm glad to see you came back to the right side. You were kicked back over there on the Senate side this morning. I was a little worried
Speaker 647
4:15:25
about you. You're recognized. Well, you've got to dip your toes in to know it's hot, so I just did it as a learning exercise.
Speaker 654
4:15:31
A couple questions. I saw one was, you haven't had this before, but was the school funding contingency for $25 million. It seemed pretty significant. I would assume you're assuming there's going to be some shortfalls. Do you have any ideas what that might be used for? The
Speaker 613
4:15:49
school funding contingency $25 million is just unfunded appropriation to address those shortfalls or something that we see during the year that we can do special languages allow us to do two reallocation resources a year.
And if we needed that additional appropriation, that's where we would bring the letter to the peer committee to be reviewed to move appropriation
Speaker 654
4:16:10
when we had those shortfalls. Okay. And then the next one was the consolidation incentive. I see we didn't have them for $2425. Now it's for nearly $6
million. Are there districts we have identified
Speaker 653
4:16:22
they're going to be consolidating or? Right. That is
Speaker 613
4:16:25
for the voluntary consolidation where we work with them to make sure that we pay up to at least 350 ADM of the foundation funding to help with the consolidation of those,
depending on which one of the smaller district is usually a smaller district moving into a bigger district. So that consolidation incentive bonus is there when they are consolidating two school districts together. So, but I mean, we don't, are there
Speaker 654
4:16:45
districts that are going to consolidate and that's why we have this money? We
Speaker 613
4:16:49
have it there in case they do. We wouldn't know until they started that consolidation process. So that conversation hasn't happened.
Speaker 654
4:16:55
We don't know of any districts that are consolidating in the state right now. Okay, thank
Chair
Unverified
4:17:02
you. Representative Collins, you're recognized for a question.
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
4:17:07
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm looking now at page 241, which is funding sources. I know that you're going through the spending, but it's the public school funding. There was a $3 million in fiscal 25 federal revenue, and then it's budgeted zero for fiscal 26 and not expected in 27. What was that? Why did it go away? Will it ever come back?
Speaker 613
4:17:38
That was a journal entry that we did the last year to use some of our ESSER funds
Speaker 657
4:17:44
when we were doing the free breakfast. So it was just a one-time transfer that
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
4:17:49
we were doing to pay for the free breakfasts. Okay. And then the other question I have is that same
area there. It's something called unfunded appropriation, and it's budgeted for $25 million in fiscal 27. There's a lot of unfunded appropriations. Why does this get its own line
Speaker 657
4:18:05
item? That's the $25 million that Representative Grammich was just asking about.
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
4:18:09
Oh, that's the same thing there? Yes, sir. Okay. I see. Well, all right. And just being called unfunded appropriation, is that the best way to do that? That way
Speaker 613
4:18:19
it would properly reflect our fund balance and our other sources of revenue. Because if we had unfunded appropriation up here, when it falls down at the bottom in there, it would suck up the revenue, so to speak, to show that we were actually budgeting more than we intended to budget. So they show that $25 million unfunded budget lying on there so all the revenue is accurately reflected.
Okay. Thank you. All right, Senator Irvin, you're recognized
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
4:18:52
for a question. Thank you. Is there any kind of mechanism to where superintendents and districts give us a report, they submit a report to us about the way they're spending money? Or is it just us having access to them, to their information, and we generate that?
Speaker 602
4:19:15
So I'll say that they do have to post some of that information on their website,
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
4:19:21
but then I'll let Greg talk about it. But there's no mandate that they come and present it to this legislative body. So, I mean, I'm just following up on this conversation that Senator Dismang had that Representative Wooten started. But, you know, during the, was it ESSER, the federal funding, you know, we, I think Senator Disman, I think he put into place for some pretty high-level accountability for them to come before our committees and discuss those funds and how those funds were going to be requested and then utilized.
And so, you know, and there's, I would 100% agree, and I want to go back to that conversation, because I really think that there's got to be some back and forth communication with this legislative body. because we're we're we are i believe in local control and their ability to have flexibility and spending but i can tell you as a parent going to a school board meeting where the teacher committee you know recommended to the school board a certain amount of raises for the teachers and it
was denied that you know if if you're a parent and if you go to the school board meeting then you know that happened but if you don't there's no accountability for that and so what you know what I'm seeing is where districts are choosing to spend a ton in administration as far as all these different levels of assistance and assistance and assistance to the assistants and not paying teachers and you know that is problematic and troubling to me because we see high salary I mean
huge exorbitant salaries at the levels of superintendent and a super attendance assistant superintendents and principals and assistant principals where that's probably not necessary to operate in some of these sizes of these schools in my opinion and they're not spending that money and they're not choosing to spend that money to increase teacher salaries instead it's going to one or two or five people versus to the teachers but that's a decision that is being made at the local level with the school district so those teachers could have gotten a two thousand dollar
raise but instead it went to upping the salary from 175,000 to now 187,000 so is there any level of accountability to this body about how
they're spending those dollars there's there is none as far as report that they have to i can't think of one right now
Speaker 613
4:22:06
but i think like the there are reports that we are required to turn in which are the asr which does go through
and show all how all the expenditures are done on there um since all districts require to use finance there are reports that we can pull and do that to show how the the allocation of funds is being used as i mentioned earlier with the resource allocation that's going to
Speaker 623
4:22:27
be presented to the committee yeah those are the only two three things that i can think of
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
4:22:32
right now but the impetus is on y'all pulling the information correct not on them actually having
to prepare it and submitting it yes okay and i think that needs to be addressed to being frank with you i think that we should
address that I think that we should demand that I think though this body should say how are you spending those monies and you prepare it and you present it to us because then you're accountable and and that that even just them preparing it themselves and submitting it to us provides a level of oh you know they now know I'm gonna have to present this I to me I feel like that's appropriate. And I think it's worth
Speaker 220
4:23:15
exploring. Thanks. Thank you, Senator. Representative Wooten,
Speaker 758
4:23:17
we're back to you. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman. My question is on page 213. What is the content content standards. It's zero expenditures, but yet we budgeted $161,000. What is that? That is for when we do have the review for
Representative Frances Cavenaugh
Unverified
4:23:39
the content standards to come in, the expenses to reimburse teachers
Speaker 613
4:23:44
for mileage or any expenses they have to come in, because when they go through
the content standard, they do try to get teachers from all parts of the state to come in and
Speaker 663
4:23:58
review content to update standards okay but we didn't spend any money i don't know that they had it last year i'd have
Speaker 758
4:24:06
to go back and look and see when they were doing you do that yes sir next question is right under it school funding contingency is 25
Speaker 613
4:24:15
million budgeted authorized but no expenditures no budget that's earlier when we talked to the representative grandparents but That's the $25 million of unfunded appropriation that during the year, if we don't have enough appropriation in a certain program,
then we have to come back to PEER to do a reallocation of resources to move that
Speaker 758
4:24:37
appropriation to that line item. So it's just unfunded appropriation to use if needed. All right, and then one more question, Mr. Chairman. On the isolated special needs, isolated funding, we spent $45, budgeted $175, authorized $175. And
then two lines down, there's another isolated $2.1 million or $2.2 million, and we budgeted almost $8 million.
So what's the difference in those funds, and why the amount? So isolated funding in
Speaker 613
4:25:16
law, there are districts that were identified as isolated school districts, and they receive foundation funding based on the amount of isolated funding based off their current ADM for those districts listed in there. Once we've met, the law also then says once we've met all the quality for those isolated districts, any additional funding left over that moves down to special needs isolated funding.
Special needs isolated funding is for those districts that are considered isolated by law definition that have additional transportation route miles or square mileage that would make them that they get additional ADM funding based off their isolated status. So that's those two different lot items. One is listed in law by the district that has to get it, And so due to consolidations or school closures, that list is not as many get the isolated funding. So that additional leftover isolated funding, I guess I'd call it, goes down to be used in special needs isolated.
Speaker 758
4:26:16
Okay, so special needs is like transportation. Yes, sir. There's a difference. Correct.
Yes. But isolated district is a whole district. Correct. Entirely. Yes. Thank
you. One more question for you, Mr. Secretary, relative to economic education. There's $400,000 in the budget, but it's my understanding that in special development or in professional development, there will be additional funding for that economic education program.
Speaker 590
4:26:54
So when we submit our governor's letter, there's going to be a request for additional funding to
Speaker 758
4:27:00
support that initiative? But the money that's requested is in another category rather than being in an economic education. It would come
Speaker 590
4:27:07
out of this budget, so we feel like we can cover that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Representative. All right. Representative, excuse me, Senator Flowers, you're recognized. Thank you.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:27:24
I'm looking at pages 233 and
221, dealing with special education services. Do we not receive any funding from the Department of
Education, the United States Department of Education, for special ed services? Senator Flowers, the
Speaker 584
4:27:50
federal funding is appropriated in the DESI Operations Bill, so that's not included in this budget.
It's just in the DESI Operations Act. DESI
Speaker 138
4:28:01
meaning Department of Education? Department of Education, yes, ma'am.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:28:05
Is that going to, so it comes up in a different appropriation bill?
Speaker 584
4:28:13
Yes, ma'am, and that one is not part of the budget presentations for right now, but the bill has been drafted and will be introduced in the fiscal session for this committee to hear.
Speaker 667
4:28:26
Senator, it's funded out of the public school fund.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:28:30
So is that part of this adequacy? No, ma'am. So the
Speaker 584
4:28:38
Department of Education Appropriation Bill has one large federal appropriation. That's not part of the budget that you're hearing today. That budget is separate, and
Speaker 586
4:28:49
you will see that full bill once the session begins when the bill is filed. This is only the public school fund appropriations that you're
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:29:00
hearing today. So what we receive from the feds, Department of Ed, augments
what the appropriation recommendation is for what we're looking at today?
Speaker 551
4:29:18
It's supplemental, I would think. The state funding
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:29:25
is supplemental, yes, ma'am. Well, the state funding or the federal funding would
Speaker 590
4:29:36
be supplemental. So, I think I'm going to make sure
Speaker 617
4:29:39
I'm getting the right question. We will receive federal funding to support public schools and the students in those schools. Those dollars are used to supplement what is the investment by the state.
In fact, there's federal restrictions that says we cannot supplant. So because we get federal dollars, we cannot take away state dollars. So we have the state dollars that we're going to support schools and education. Then we'll receive additional federal dollars to help those students in those schools that may need additional support and resources. My understanding is that federal supplement component is going to come to the committee next week during fiscal
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:30:19
session. Or next month, I apologize. So is the federal funding specific for special education services?
Speaker 617
4:30:28
federal funding categoricals, but there is a category for special
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:30:36
education funding. Yes, ma'am. Okay. The other question I had, you know, I wanted to see if
you had a take on transportation. I don't know whether it's isolated funding or something dealing with
transportation. I learned this past year we have this formula that I didn't understand.
I don't think anybody understands. It was created by somebody in the Bureau of Legislative Research years ago, and I'm hoping to file an interim bill to study it. but do you have any comments about transportation needs in these school districts when we went up there to i think it was white county white river county i don't know i think it was white county
their school district superintendent has to pull monies from other things that they really could use for those other things just to get transportation uh and access for the students to come to school or go to other uh places that the children need to go to yeah so i i think
Speaker 590
4:31:59
um your point is is um well received because we have to transport
Speaker 597
4:32:04
students right and we don't want to
create a system where it's called an unfunded mandate. The reality is, if you're asking what I'm hearing for districts, setting competitive wage to get bus drivers is a challenge in a lot of parts of the states. Every time the price of diesel goes up, the cost of operating buses goes up. Buses aren't cheap. In fact, trying to buy a bus, sometimes you may be on an over a year waiting list to even get buses or replacement parts. But certain part of our states geographically you know you you may look at a map and
Speaker 617
4:32:39
it says it's only three miles away but it it takes 45
minutes to go three miles because of the way you got a route and that's part of the challenge of why you have the enhanced transportation to try to recognize that there's some challenges especially in more of our isolated more rural areas that have really long bus runs the cost of transportation is significant
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:33:06
and it seems to increase is the department going to make any recommendations to add additional funding for transportation especially now that we're in a war and gas
prices are going to go up and are going up is there what thoughts do you have about helping these school districts maintain their ability to get students to and fro? Well, I think that's one of the
Speaker 597
4:33:33
great things about LEARNS is there was a set aside and the legislature put a pot of money that allowed districts to apply for a specialized transportation monitorization grant. And it was, I want to say it was around a $50 million, or $5 million, sorry,
about a $5 million categorical that we put out calls to school districts to find, is there ways to be more innovative? And we have found some districts that have really embraced that. And I think to answer your question is, is if we can find places like, I know like even educational cooperatives are helping some districts with scheduling and routing and getting more sophisticated software to be more efficient. If we can identify some of those best practices, we wanna share that with other districts, but that's just one of those little innovative pieces
about learns that we're seeing in action and we're starting to see the results, which can help that. So anytime we can find ways to modernize or be more efficient in transportation, we can reduce those costs. It would address like what you were saying you saw in White County.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:34:38
- How many school districts do you have that have applied for those transportation modernization grants? - It was pretty
Speaker 590
4:34:46
significant. I'd have to get you that list.
Speaker 630
4:34:48
I don't know the number off the top of my head. There's a lot of interest in that.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:34:54
Well, it appears it just says budgeted $5 million for fiscal year 25-26.
We don't know how much has been spent of that. Yeah, we can get you
Speaker 602
4:35:10
the exact amount. we've only awarded I want to say about a little over a million and a half based on the over 100 applications that we received because it's not only school districts that could apply
you had early childhood centers different organizations community organizations that could apply for it so we received several hundred applications but to date we've only awarded less than 2 million because again we it's directed towards modernization and so a lot of what we saw requested was to purchase more buses and while there is a need for that we really wanted to direct these funds towards what are ways that we can look at different transportation to the secretary's point being more efficient finding alternate ways to transport students or
software that can help you readjust your schedules and things so we
Speaker 625
4:36:05
have not spent all of the funds that were
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:36:09
previously allotted. And the funds that you mentioned, Mr. Secretary, about that have been set aside, will those be able to be tapped into by school districts that will have rising gas costs? I'm not sure I
Speaker 600
4:36:28
followed that. Can you restate that?
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:36:31
I heard you say that there is some set-aside for transportation. I don't know if you said transportation or just some set-aside.
Speaker 597
4:36:45
Yeah, I think that's the grant we were talking about. But then some school districts get additional categoricals
Speaker 617
4:36:51
for enhanced transportation. So that enhanced transportation categorical is to go to those districts to help
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:36:58
offset those costs. That enhanced transportation deal, that's that one I was speaking of about the formula?
Yes, ma'am. Well, will your department give that a look? I mean, if you've got feedback from other school districts about the difficulty, and some of them that had been receiving that enhanced transportation funding, They went to zero, or it was decreased quite a bit. So, I mean, it seems like the department would want to make a recommendation
if they're hearing from school district, as I heard from that one up there. I forgot the, I think it was White County. I think
Speaker 597
4:37:51
so. I would think we'd want to look at that. And we'd be happy to work with BLR and see how we
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
4:38:00
can kind of capture that feedback and see if there's any recommendations, absolutely. Okay. Well, thank you. And the last thing was about the joint
use agreements. I see it's only $5 million that has been requested or recommended.
And how are we doing with, especially, you know, I always thought that these joint use agreements would be great, especially where you have health issues, obesity, diabetes, and things like that with the students and the parents of students in the district for physical exercise, track, walking way, or whatever. But I've only seen that joint use agreement maybe one time used in my district over at DeWitt when they put in a walking track.
But it seems to me like if we are looking at things holistically, we would look at not only the academic achievement of the student, but the health, the physical well-being of the student and their parents. So, you know, I asked of the department many times in the past about why don't we see these joint use agreements, especially in areas where the state has taken over school districts.
And even with the idea of retaining third graders, it seems to me like if there was a joint use program between the community and the school district that would focus on that child's well-being in the classroom and outside, it would seem to me that that would help strengthen the ability of the child and the family, the parents, to be more engaged
with student achievement academically. Senator. And that's
it. Would you agree? I would agree. Not you.
Speaker 611
4:40:13
I'm asking the secretary. Well, I'm trying to
Speaker 630
4:40:20
move this along. He can respond. I agree, and we can have further conversation on that.
Speaker 220
4:40:26
Thank you. Thank you, Senator. All right.
Lila Walls
Unverified
4:40:32
Representative McElindon, we're going to non-members now.
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
4:40:35
All right. So thank you, Chairman. I had a quick question for you on the maternity leave. I assume that ginormous jump is because of Act 904. Is that correct? Yes, ma'am. And then does that cost include the cost for subs that will be needed for that period of time, or is that cost picked up
Speaker 602
4:40:57
by the district? So we reimburse for the cost of filling in for that teacher. So obviously through foundation funding, the school district is already getting the funding for the teacher's salary,
But whether it's a substitute or a contract for someone else, a stipend to another staff member, however they are choosing to fill that position, we reimburse for the cost to fill it. Okay,
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
4:41:18
so just to sum that up, the
district is not paying any of the costs for the increase in maternity leave. Correct.
Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Representative. Representative Duke, you're recognized for a
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
4:41:33
question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question has to do with the master principal bonus and the National Board of Professional Teaching, I think page 225 in the larger manual, 228.
So on those bonuses, they're the same question.
Are you all tracking to see if when they're being awarded these bonuses, is it improving our students and our test scores? Or are we just putting the money out there and hoping that it does that because they've done this program or so forth? Is there any accountability on this was successful, so we want to continue to do this in the future?
Speaker 590
4:42:15
Do we revisit that? The short answer is yes. And when we
Speaker 597
4:42:21
look at kind of that teacher merit program that was implemented with LEARNS, we've been moving more of those dollars and resources. We wanted to kind of grandfather folks in, but we're moving more people into the evidence-based program where they're doing the master lead teacher program that has an evidence-based component on if students are learning and making the national boards and master principals part of the teacher merit program.
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
4:42:45
So we do want to track that. So we are tracking their test scores, which is what
we're measuring by, that it is tracking with the people who are doing these programs that we are incentivizing to do this. And we're seeing long-term
Speaker 597
4:43:00
that this is effective use of our money. That's correct. Now, we're in the third year of the teacher merit program. So long-term, that's the goal, right? That's the anticipation. But in the short-term, when we look at the teachers that are eligible to earn up to $10,000
and we're seeing repeat teachers, those are your master teachers. Those are the ones that we want to help mentor and lead the other teachers because you're not getting those kind of results on accident. There's something special happening in your classroom. And that
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
4:43:29
system is in place for the future, so that that is going to be continual to make sure that that
is reevaluating and the money just doesn't stay there assuming that it's doing
its job. That's correct. Thank you. Representative Gonzalez-Wertham, you're recognized for a question.
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
4:43:48
Thank you, Chairman. My question has to do with English language learners. The description on page 220 talks about, it's the fourth paragraph. English language learners serve students identified as not being proficient in the English language. This categorical funding program helps school districts provide specially trained staff, instructional materials, and training for teachers. Summer training academies are offered to teachers desiring additional training in teaching and
assisting these students, and there's been funding set aside at $384 for each identified English language learner in the 26-27 school year. My question has to do with the training academies and the professional development for teachers. Those that have been involved in offering the ESOL, English as a Second Other Language Institute, had received a three-year contract, but that third-year contract was eliminated.
That particular ESOL Institute initially had been the ESOL Academy that started 30 years ago. That particular training is one of our most comprehensive trainings for teachers who serve English language learners. So that training has been around for 30 years. Teachers do receive their ESL endorsement. They're taking the four required graduate level classes. And actually Arkansas is probably one of the leading the way in terms of how we train teachers of English learners.
several other states have actually used our model to train their teachers because it is comprehensive so I've been receiving a lot of questions related to that related to why we are removing a comprehensive training program that has really been doing a lot of good and it's not just in service teachers that attend that it's principals it's coaches coaching staff in the in the teacher coaches, instructional facilitators, counselors, because they all, if they are serving even just
one English learner, they need to be up to date and know what to do. Lastly, oftentimes that individual, if they're representing a building in their school district, oftentimes they end up being the ESOL coordinator or the ESOL lead in their building. And so there's a lot of concern. I've just had a lot of questions related to eliminating this, and I just wanted to see if you could maybe explain why and what are we going to do in place of that.
Speaker 597
4:46:40
So thank you for the question, and thank you for always having a special lens on our English language learners because we know we've got to make sure, especially in certain regions of the state where there's large populations, we're doing everything and we can support those students and families. so we always appreciate you keeping us grounded on doing this right for students the the summer academies that you talked about are happening again this summer but i but i think the question that we need to ask is is that the best use of our funds to support teachers and students in
these programs because when we looked at the overall categorical and we pulled that together at the 385 dollars a student it's a almost 1.8 almost 1.9 million dollars so we had rfps out with four universities to do this summer training and what we're finding is most of the trainings not providing direct support to students in those teachers so i'll give an example one of our summer trainings we had 28 participants that cost 256 000 we're spending over nine thousand
dollars a teacher to get trained is that the best use of our funds when we're spending on average if you look at the total program we trained 289 teachers last year at almost $6,400 a teacher so I think the question that we're saying to ourselves that's a lot of money per teacher for training how are we supporting students with that can we do that more efficiently can we hit more teachers would we be better off just giving these dollars straight the districts to do the professional development at the local level and impact more teachers and support more students
So I think the short answer to your question is we're working on developing the plan. We'd love to bring you in and have a seat at the table. But the way we're doing the institute now, I don't think we're getting a very good return on that investment. We're making hotels very rich. And I think we should be working with
Speaker 573
4:48:36
students in classrooms and not spending the summers
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
4:48:39
in a fancy city and giving people nice meals. May I continue? Yes. Okay. I understand in terms of the cost, and that cost is more than likely going to be a little bit high because they're receiving graduate-level credit at either at U of A, Fayetteville, Arkansas Tech University, UCA, Henderson State University, and John Brown had been a part of that.
So those are for graduate-level classes, which the tuition and fees for graduate-level class is higher. And the hotels, we're bringing in faculty, specialized faculty, and also helping for doing the training and also for teachers that live more than an hour away so that they can attend that ESOL Institute. my understanding is that's not going to happen this summer.
Speaker 597
4:49:33
I checked it on today. My understanding is the institute is going to happen this summer and we want to plan something different. But at $6,400 a teacher, they shouldn't get a college credit. They should get a master's degree, right? So I think, like, we need to just start asking those questions about how are we making sure that we're supporting students and those teachers so that they don't have to travel. Because right now this program is limited to folks that have the capacity to travel and spend 10 days in the summer we're hearing from a lot of teachers that says we need training I can't give up my summer how do you get people in our school
so it's it's about finding that
Representative Justin Gonzales
Unverified
4:50:07
balance I understand and I think that's a great point and I think we're very much aligned in trying to find multiple pathways to provide the teacher training for our in-service teachers but also for our administrators counselors etc that serve the students. However, it would, is it possible when you're working on restructuring or when you're looking at how we're going to deliver these services in a different pathway to include
some of the individuals who had been part of the 30 year plus, you know, years of doing the institutes because they have, they have a wealth of knowledge and can give you a lot of feedback along with, I don't know, there's probably at least 75 or more ESOL coordinators statewide that could give input as well. Just an idea. I think we have to. I mean, we need to listen
Speaker 597
4:51:02
to the experts that are working with the students in the classrooms to
Speaker 617
4:51:06
make sure we get these programs right.
So we'd love to engage in that conversation. Absolutely.
Okay. Thank you. All right. We've got one last question. Rev. Zindra Rye, can you make it
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
4:51:23
brief? Sure will. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, backstep a couple of steps. We were talking about school buses. Does that not fall under the 25 mills maintenance
Speaker 690
4:51:35
and operation that comes on the local level, sir?
Speaker 670
4:51:44
I think it can be. Yes, it can. Right? Like, they have that flexibility. Yes, sir. I believe so,
yes. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, members, seeing no other questions, I have a motion
for executive rec and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? It's adopted. Ms. Walden, we're going to the
Speaker 584
4:52:10
State Library. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next public school fund budget for your review today is for the Arkansas State Library.
This is one appropriation amount. This is their aid to local public libraries. It's in the manual on page 243 and page 4 of packet C. This is one appropriation for $6.5 million annually, funded with public school funding. That's general revenue. And money for this appropriation is used to provide aid to local libraries and library systems across the state. The budget is flat.
It was $6.5 million, and it is recommended to remain $6.5 million. Thank you,
Mr. Chair. Pretty straight. Seeing no questions, have an adoption for a
consecutive rec and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And
the last one on the education is career technical. Ms. Walden, you're recognized. Thank
Speaker 583
4:53:11
you, Mr. Chair. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Beginning on page 248 of your budget manual
Speaker 584
4:53:15
and page 5 of your schedule, this is for the Division of Career and Technical Education.
These are the public school funds that they receive to provide vocational center aid, career coaches, coordinated career education services to districts statewide, as well as vocational startup grants. The total budget is $34.3 million, and that's a flat budget from FY26 to FY27. That's the budget for career and technical education, Mr. Chair. Seeing no questions.
We have a motion to adopt from executive rec. We have a second
any discussion All in favor say aye any opposed
We thank the department and we'll ask mr. Coleman to Come up and we'll start
on the Department of Public Safety And just go ahead and save time
just have the department to come on to the table and mr. Coleman whenever you're ready you
can proceed All right, thank you mr. Chair. My name
Dalden Coleman
Unverified
4:54:18
is Dalton Coleman I'm BLR fiscal staff You will turn to page 256 with me. We'll go ahead and get started looking at the Department of Public Safety
Now mr. Chairman, there aren't too many changes to talk about throughout the entire department today with public safety and And the Division of Administration and Shared Services that we see on page 256 is no exception to that. For instance, if you look at the fiscal year 26,
Speaker 695
4:54:42
authorized appropriation totals, it's $22.1 million. The biggest chunk of that is coming out of the public safety paying account at $8.9 million. Nearly the same thing in fiscal year 27. We have a total of $22.1 million again, and near the same amount at $8.9 million coming out of the paying account.
With that, Mr. Chairman, there are no significant changes to this division at all. And I'm happy to
ask or answer any questions. Senator Rice, you go off or are you back on? All
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
4:55:16
right. You're recognized. It's going to be for the department head. Say that again? It's going to be for the department. Okay. Well, go ahead.
Thank you. I appreciate you all being here today.
Can you give me an update on where we are on the intended elimination of the federal surplus program and the entities tied to that, or is it still open for discussion in the budget session? Update me, please. Yes, sir.
Mike Hager
Unverified
4:56:00
Go ahead and identify yourself. I'm sorry, Mike Hager, Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Director of State Police. We're still working with the governor's office in that process. As far as it being up for discussion, we're kind of past that point. We're in the close-out procedure of doing that. It's a process so that we're having to follow through the federal side of the house as well as state on the RIV program or the process, but also the closed-out program with the federal side.
So I can, if there's anything specific, questions you have, I can try to answer those, or I may have to punt to Director Gary or Karen, our CFO, to answer anything. Have you
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
4:56:48
been made aware of a long list of cities and towns that have requested that to continue? Yes, sir, we have. Okay. And would you be in agreement with what in previous meetings that we've discussed that there's been, do I remember correctly,
there's been something around $9 million worth of goods obtained for entities in Arkansas, cities, towns,
fire departments, various things, for roughly a cost of $300,000 or less lost per year? In the last three years, would that be correct? I couldn't speak to those specific numbers. You got
Mike Hager
Unverified
4:57:30
somebody there that couldn't? Senator Rice, we haven't
got to that part yet.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
4:57:37
Yeah, I realize that, and that's the reason I asked. He took the question. So he's the man at the top, and he's the one talking to the governor. So I'm willing to talk to his underling, and that's respectful. But this has a lot of eyes on it. And I realize there's some big-ticket items that are not available anymore. We're told they're not available anymore. But there's a lot of goods that is still federal surplus that has gotten for the state of Arkansas
that if we try to do anything for the cities and towns and fire departments all across the state, we can't touch it with what we could fund them. the other thing i want to know and you can tell aj to do it when he's up here i want to know what's your plans for that facility i want to i want to know up front if you know it is this a plan that y'all are going to do something else and
Speaker 702
4:58:36
that the thing that's standing in the way you've got to get
Speaker 697
4:58:41
rid of this no no is that a fair question yes sir absolutely uh we've heard that speculation i'm
Mike Hager
Unverified
4:58:46
not sure where that started or where it came from but no sir the only plans for that facility right now is to stockpile preparedness program for natural disasters specifically we had heard that the state police wanted to acquire that property for an auto shop and to be completely honest with you we have three auto shops right now that we have a tough enough time keeping staffs funded And so there is absolutely no need or no desire for the state police to use that property at all.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
4:59:17
So if we're not going to use it for good of what it's used for now, would you be okay at the state just selling it and getting rid
Mike Hager
Unverified
4:59:27
of it? That would probably be a better question for Director Gary because I know he is planning on using that to stockpile preparedness items. So I would hate to dive off in that too much. And I also don't know, as far as the agreement that we have, I believe, with the city of North Little Rock, the way we acquired that property to begin with.
I don't know if we're in a position where we could just sell it,
Speaker 705
4:59:52
but if so, that would certainly be entertained. Well, let Director Geary
Speaker 758
5:00:05
answer. Thank you. Representative Wooten, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Colonel, on the number of employees in the Department of
Public Safety, how many do you have total? Counting the state police to everybody.
Speaker 706
5:00:18
Phillip Warner, head of HR. We've got 1,433 field positions. 600 total positions in public safety?
Speaker 758
5:00:24
Yes, sir. And state police, it's 1,001.
Speaker 706
5:00:26
And the state police, is it included in
Speaker 758
5:00:30
there? Yes, sir, but as a breakout, it's 1,001. How many vacancies do you have? right
Speaker 706
5:00:37
now we have 182 vacancies okay how many
Speaker 758
5:00:40
of those are two years or older so at
Speaker 758
5:00:46
looking at those on a regular basis i mean to see if you need
if you need that many how many of those are
Speaker 706
5:00:56
budgeted of those uh honestly most of those are not budgeted that because of the act that you had where they were two years plus that they be surrendered most of those have kind of gone to opm and they're held
Speaker 758
5:01:12
aside so we're not usually utilizing those okay has the on another subject has the
additional uh compensation that that we've done the last two sessions and again this session will anticipate to be done is that helping in
recruiting i know you just had a excellent ceremony for a graduating class is that is that helping you and your retention
Mike Hager
Unverified
5:01:36
of troopers? Yes, sir. Absolutely. It's been a complete game changer for us, and not only recruiting but retention of our current personnel. So absolutely.
Speaker 758
5:01:48
All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator. One more on Senator Ross's questions and comments. I'm hearing the same thing from my cities and counties,
and particularly the small fire departments in that time. So I'm asking you, in your consultation and consulting with the governor, that you share that concern. Thank you, Colonel. Thank you. Senator Disman, you're recognized. Thank you. And then this may circle back.
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
5:02:15
It sounds like we're going to have another discussion about this. Senator Rice has
left the room. I'm not aware of the rumor. I don't know if that was an accurate response that it would be used for, I guess, vehicle maintenance or whatever.
I was just going to ask if Senator Rice could kind of let us know when we come back around to that later on, what is the rumor to make sure that we're all on the same page of what it's going to be sold for. Because if I'm asked, I would like to know a little bit more.
So maybe he'll be back here in a little bit and we can have that discussion. All right. It
Speaker 207
5:02:56
looks like right now the last question is Representative Gramlich. You're recognized. Thank you, Chair. Just real quick, and it's just for my
Speaker 654
5:03:01
own education, I see on 256 you have the not requested for the biennium.
Like, are we going to be seeing that again in a year, or are these going away? Just kind of educate me on that. There's BL1, BL2, BL3. It goes down the list. Karen Perry, Department of Public Safety.
Chair
Unverified
5:03:19
Those appropriations were moved to the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training, so they're later on in the budget manual. Perfect. Thank you. All right.
Do we have a motion to executive rec? I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
All in favor say aye. Any opposed? All right, we're going to the Crime Information Center.
Dalden Coleman
Unverified
5:03:44
Mr. Coleman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Crime Information Center Division Appropriation Summary is on page 279 in your manuals. There is only one change within this division, and that is the ACIC National Criminal History Improvement Program. So the fiscal year 26 authorized amount for this appropriation is $823,000, and you'll see that decrease to $405,000 in fiscal year 27.
That's roughly a $418,000 decrease, and that's simply to align better with federal grant awards. That makes our total for fiscal year 26 authorized $10.1 million, and you'll see that decrease in the $9.7 million recommended for fiscal year 27. Mr. Chairman, that concludes Arkansas Crime Information Center. Any questions for the department
or staff? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to Executive Rec. We have one and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye.
Any opposed? Stand to approve. We'll go
Dalden Coleman
Unverified
5:04:43
now to the crime laboratory. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 294, you will see the division appropriation summary for the crime lab. Now, there are no changes at all within this division. Our totals for fiscal year 26 authorized are $24.9 million, And the same exact thing for fiscal year 27 executive recommendation. Mr. Chairman, I'm happy to answer
Speaker 695
5:05:01
any questions, but there are no significant changes. Members, we
have any questions for staff or department. Seeing none, we'll entertain a motion for executive rec.
We have it in a second. In a second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
Dalden Coleman
Unverified
5:05:26
Stands approved. Next item is the Department of Emergency Management. You're recognized, Mr. Coleman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We can find the Adam Division Summary on page 311 of your manuals. Now, I really only have one change here, just like Arkansas Crime Information Center, and that is the addition of the Arkansas Nuclear One Program.
Act 583 of 2025 moved this from the Department of Health to the Division of Emergency Management, and that's about a $2 million appropriation. If you want some more information on that, you can go to page 334 of your manuals, and you'll see the breakdown of that. Mr. Chairman, that is the only significant change level to this division. I'm happy to answer any questions about any of the other appropriations. All
right, Mr. Gary, you want to come up? I think we've got some questions for you.
And we'll start off with our members.
Chair
Unverified
5:06:19
Representative Wooten, you're recognized. Director
Speaker 758
5:06:24
Gary, I noticed on line item, on the Arkansas Nuclear One, we have almost $2 million recommendation on the executive branch and the agency, but we don't have one. There's no expenditures. What is that for, an emergency up there?
Chair
Unverified
5:06:46
It's on page 311. So this program came from the Department of Health. So Department of Emergency Management did not have any expenses until this fiscal year. Now, say that again. This program moved from Department of Health to Emergency Management. It's being moved to the Department of Health. No, it came
Speaker 758
5:07:10
from Department of Health. It came from the Department of Health. Well, they didn't spend any money, or are we not spending any money?
You're an agency. it's because it has in 24 25 and 25 26 it has no expenditures the expenses are going to be reflected in the health budget manual
Chair
Unverified
5:07:31
for the new board for 24 million here you're showing two
Speaker 758
5:07:36
million that's our agency request mr. Wooten yes we're going to do the department health later those
figures will be in that budget when we get there to it they weren't in this budget
until this year so there's no prior uh actual expense but you'll see it in the department of health when we get to it all right thank you all right thank you sir all right next member of the committee is senator rice you're recognized
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
5:08:08
thank you mr. gary you heard my questions earlier and i know you're well uh up on
the interest and concern about the federal surplus program. Can you give me any update? Has there been any movement of hearing from the municipalities
across the state that feel like this program is worthy of funding?
Speaker 724
5:08:32
Yes, sir. AJ Gary, director of the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management. So just to kind of go back on what Secretary Hager said, we are in the process of working through the closure of federal surplus property. That is not something that happens quickly so uh currently uh we had to produce a or write a plan on the liquidation of the the uh
Speaker 725
5:08:56
the property that's inside the warehouses so we're waiting on approval
of that that will then have to go to gsa and then we'll have to have i believe a public comment period after that so we're still a little ways down the line before that can be totally closed can you
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
5:09:16
substantiate my figures uh from memory is that we were garnering something like nine million dollars worth of goods and coming up about 300 000 short for the last three years is that correct so i i cannot say that
Speaker 726
5:09:32
those are exact numbers i know that uh throughout the years with
Speaker 725
5:09:37
that program we have pushed a lot of items at a great saving to um the localities to fire departments cities and counties um i do know that that over the last few years because of items that are coming in we weren't uh we weren't bringing in enough to uh sustain what we had going with the number of personnel that we had at that time it wouldn't self-fund that is
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
5:10:05
correct i was doing before yes sir are we still the only state right now that that is in process shutting down the
the federal surplus program? That was testimony. I believe that was testimony previous. And then there was maybe one other state considering it, looking
Speaker 726
5:10:26
at what we were doing. Yeah, yes, sir. As far as I
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
5:10:31
know, we were the only ones that are at this process
of closing down. Okay, can you state with this proposed budget, The colonel said that you're going to use it for some other storage.
Do you have a value of that property? Does
Speaker 726
5:10:50
the state value that property? I don't right now the value of
Speaker 725
5:10:56
it. That property was turned over to the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management when the FSP, Federal Surplus Property Program, was moved over to us from I believe it was Workforce Services quite a few years ago. that property is deeded to the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management. So we do have control over that facility.
When the discussion started taking place of FSP closing down, then we are looking at the possibility of utilizing that facility, that warehouse. Throughout the years during disasters, federal surplus property personnel have have helped us with storing disaster related items there at that warehouse. In fact, if we don't really want to talk a whole lot about the covid years, but during that time period, we utilize that warehouse for lots of PPE.
If you all remember, it was very difficult to get items like that, hospital items into the state. So we use that as a distribution center to push out those very important items out to our health care officials and other first responders. We do currently have sandbag machines that are owned by us that we deploy out into the state of Arkansas whenever we had flooding events. Right now they're sitting in a parking lot behind our facility. So, you know, one use for the FSP facility is to be able to store that, to be able to continue to store pallets of water for our water missions around the state that pop up pretty frequently.
Also store, you know, tarps and stuff or tornado damage things. Looking forward, trying to plan for the future as changes in the federal FEMA programs take place. I feel like that there will be more things put on the state of Arkansas, and I think it's going to be imperative that we're prepared for any events that happen that we may have to take on on our own. So we could also possibly use the warehouse for a joint field office when we do have a federal disaster declaration and we're bringing in additional federal resources, we could do the logistics out of that facility.
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
5:13:19
Do you concur with what was mentioned before, that it can't be sold, that it would go
Speaker 726
5:13:27
back to the city of North Little Rock? My understanding of that is deed to the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management.
Speaker 725
5:13:35
So I'm not aware of anything that would prohibit the state from doing what they want with the
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
5:13:41
property. Okay. It concerns me with the amount of money that we had
previous testimony, and I can't remember who from, I'll have to go out and look, that helps the state of Arkansas across the whole state for the amount of money that we're spending.
I realize it's not self-funding anymore because we're not getting the big ticket items, but it's still a pretty good deal. Mr. Chair, are we flagging anything at this time? or we're
going to you can flag anything any item you want to flag i'd appreciate that being flagged thank you you got that all right senator just
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
5:14:20
man you're recognized so i just want to make sure i'm tracking along i asked this question uh when so this rumor that it's going to be used for something
else i think what was that all about i mean what i mean is that accurate senator as far as it uh being used to repair vehicles or was there something else that
Mike Hager
Unverified
5:14:45
i'm missing here so i've received a lot of phone calls from you know different stakeholders around the state from city county and also members of the legislature and i had multiple people say that they had been told that the state police had an interest in shutting down this program
because we wanted to utilize that uh property um for an auto shop for the members that are familiar we have a driving track that's basically right across remount road that sits on camp robinson's property and that we were wanting to utilize that property as an auto shop we actually have an auto shop at the track facility so um i'd been told that another member had indicated that they had heard that we were wanting to house uh inmates on that property and neither of those are are
factual that's that's never been in consideration at
Chair
Unverified
5:15:44
all representative baity you're recognized for a question thank you mr chair i'm over here aj i appreciate you being
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
5:15:50
here director i've got a question uh more on the 9-1-1 rule enhancements and the awin uh budgets i see under 9-1-1 you've got two million dollars in grants that you administer uh and i understand some of the you know qualifications on those counties under 27 5 and some of the restrictions
how often does that money turn over and award it out and replenished
yes sir so just for clarification we're on page 336 uh the 9-1
Speaker 724
5:16:22
rule enhancement fund yes yes yes So $2 million of that, it goes out to the local PSAPs, and that goes out, I believe, annually, in April of every year. So that's sent out to the PSAPs based on that formula that's in legislation.
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
5:16:38
And so your department, you send that out, so that goes to zero? Is there a certain time that you send those out, and how are those awarded out through the counties? And could you provide us
Speaker 724
5:16:51
some of that information? Yeah, so April of every year is when we push that money out to
Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
Unverified
5:16:56
those localities, to the PSAPs in the state. All right. My question, really,
the heart of my question is sending the money out is one thing, but I'm more concerned about, I guess, the speed at which we address requests from the county
for implementation and improvement to their 911 and their AWIN communications. And specifically, I'm referencing Chico County and their tower. There are five emergency services in that county that rely on that equipment. These guys purchased new equipment to put up the tower issues. There have been concerns raised on both sides, and I need that to be taken care of, and I need that to be taken care of immediately and note my hold on this budget until that's done.
Thank you. We'll put a flag on the budget. I guess, Representative Ladyman, you're the
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
5:17:54
last one on the list. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm over here. Director Gary, I had a question, a nuclear question. I mean, a question about nuclear energy. I don't want to scare you off. But Representative Wooten brought this up a while ago. And I know you got this transferred from Department of Health, and that's on a later page.
But the Department of Health had a budget of $325,000, and your budget is $1.9 million total, I think. And really, I think that's a great thing. Your budget breaks down more into the detail on how you're going to do that. You've got different line items where they only had one line item. The Energy Committee was up at the nuclear plant last week and toured that. They showed us their safety protocols, which are very good.
But my question is, maybe you don't know yet because it's new to you, but how are you going to implement this program? I know it talks about training the public. It talks about environmental monitoring. Can you just kind of give us an idea what your thoughts are on that? Maybe you haven't got your plan developed, but what's
Speaker 724
5:19:10
your thoughts on that? Sure. So I'm able to get a little bit of information. We are federally required to train all off-site emergency response organizations, workers who may respond to an A&O-type event.
For the year of 2025, we train 767 emergency workers. We also mail out instruction booklets to every address within a 10-mile radius of A&O. This is done on an annual basis to make sure every home is aware. We have emergency postings located at the parks and boat ramps within a 10-mile radius of A&O with instructions on what to do in case there's an emergency at the facility. We do a lot of outreach, or the team does, to local county fairs, Arkansas Tech University outreach events,
several other small organizations, including nonprofits and any other group or companies within that zone. We're continuing to work on that, continuing to work with the county judges and the county OEMs that are within the vicinity of that facility. We actually, some of that money is pushed out to them, to grants, to help them also prepare. So our team at A&O is working hand-in-hand with them. We are continuing to evaluate this program.
What we want to do is make sure that we're doing everything we can with the funding that we have. I've already, along with my senior staff, have met with A&O energy officials and just kind of talked through some different ideas, some different ways that maybe we can enhance alerting and so forth. So we're continuing to work on that, and we'll continue
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
5:20:56
as much as we can. So with all the discussion advancement in nuclear around the country, executive orders from the president, a lot of other things, you feel like we've either got adequate abilities to respond to these, to make these sites safe, or we can develop those.
Speaker 724
5:21:14
Do you feel comfortable with that? Sir, I do. I do right now. I know there's a lot of discussion. I will tell you, first off, I am not a nuclear expert on any of this. But after this being moved under my responsibility, I've had the opportunity to reach out and try to learn a little bit more. I know there's going to be a lot of talk about additional nuclear-type things, including small module reactors. So I think that's some things that we're already talking about and already trying to look at what will that look like if we have those in the near future
or in the future that are deployed in the state and looking at what we would have to
Speaker 741
5:21:55
do to increase any type of safety or security things in those areas. All right. Thank you, Director. Yes, sir. President
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
5:22:11
Painter, you're ready. Thank you, and this is not a vacancy question, so I appreciate that. director gary can you talk to me a little bit about the 2019 levy mitigation cash fund i get
that that was for the record rainfall and all that but it's just sitting there it hadn't been used so why why are we still dealing with that six seven years later
Speaker 724
5:22:33
yeah so that as you know i i think you know that that was a program that started after the record uh um arkansas river flooding um we had a lot of issues with levies in the state i think it was 10 million if i remember right that was put into that program um so that we have finished we have finished out all those grants have gone out so um you know i believe
Speaker 747
5:22:53
uh miss perry is saying that we're we're ending that
so that's coming out of out of this section so what
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
5:22:59
do we do with the you know it's a little it's minor very minor compared to the whole budget but what do you do with that money since it's you're closing the program you're going to give it back to this you give it back to who or what
Chair
Unverified
5:23:11
how does that work well we don't have the money this is just
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
5:23:14
the appropriation that was left. So after that, we will no longer ask for the appropriation? Correct.
Okay, thank you. All right, members. Seeing no more questions, we'll entertain
a motion. Executive rec, we have a motion and a second.
Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Mr. Coleman, we're going
Dalden Coleman
Unverified
5:23:35
to law enforcement standards and training. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 354, you can find the law enforcement standards and training division appropriation summary the first line item of this table shows the operations portion of the budget for the division at about 4.6 million dollars for both years of the biennium our totals authorized for fiscal year 26 is 6.6 million and right about the same number for fiscal year 27 mr chair there are no significant
Speaker 695
5:24:02
change levels to this division i'm happy to answer
any questions members we have any questions for staff for department if not
we'll entertain a motion executive rec we have a motion and a second
any discussion all in favor say aye any opposed it is adopted we'll move on to uh public safety state
Dalden Coleman
Unverified
5:24:25
police mr coleman thank you mr chair we can find that division summary on page 386 of your manuals uh looking at the totals first field skier 26 authorized total for the division is 136.1
million dollars and just a slight increase to that in fiscal year 27 at 136.1 million dollars I think there's an extra seven inch thousand dollars in there there is one change of note on page 397 of your manuals it's the ASP operations appropriation and there's just a small difference here the department is reallocating 106,450 dollars from confidence and travel to professional fees to better align with program needs and Mr. Chairman that's the only change within state please have it
answer any questions we got a question representative Collins
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
5:25:13
you're up first since you're a member thank you mr. chair just on that last change that one change what is that what are
Chair
Unverified
5:25:29
the professional expenses we're talking about we're need more professional fees for promotional testing we do promotional testing every other year and this is the
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
5:25:38
year that we would do the testing okay um all right
thanks representative ladyman you're recognized for
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
5:25:47
questions thank you mr chairman uh senator
hager this might be a question for you i um i think i'm in the right section here i hope i am um training when we do training for people with folks that come in to get their driver's license you know what's happened in like minnesota and some other places where people have reacted badly to law enforcement officers and bad things have happened i had an incident or a person asked me do we do training for new people getting their license on how to respond to an officer if they
stop them you know what what should i do as a citizen if i get stopped by a police officer do we do that kind of training if we don't could we do that and would that
Mike Hager
Unverified
5:26:37
be a big expense i don't know that well i i can say pretty comfortably that we do not do that type of training as far as in the dl testing in the administration of those testing on the dl examiner side of the house in the past we have done educational programs on what to do if you're
pulled over and uh it's probably time to do that again we could reach out to our communications staff and ask if we could prepare uh something in the form of like public safety announcements things like that to reiterate the do's and don'ts and uh to make the safest encounter for law enforcement and for the public and i think that's an outstanding idea that something we could definitely do well thank you for that answer and you know i mean my
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
5:27:22
dad was a police officer and told me how to act but i'm not sure young people nowadays get that same training and i think it's
something that we ought to consider thank you completely agree yes sir
seeing no other questions we need a motion executive wreck i have a motion and a second any discussion all in favor say aye any opposed stands adopted mr coleman i think that relieves you of your duty today and we'll have miss miss witt come forward and we'll take up the Department of Health secretary's office and if the secretary
will come on up save a little
time and as always when you're called on identify yourself before
Cameron Witt
Unverified
5:28:18
you speak. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Cameron Witt, BLR Fiscal Division. The Department of Health Secretary's Office Appropriation starts on page 414 in your manual. There is a continuing level of appropriation in
this request. It's about $425,000. And the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. And if it's all right, I'll just go ahead and go to the department summary page. The department has 11 ARPA appropriations that are not requested to continue for the next fiscal year, as well as eight other appropriations that they are requesting to
continue. I'm on page 417 in your manual. The agency is requesting changes for two appropriations, their health operations paying account and the nuclear planning grants appropriation, which both reflect a transfer of appropriation and administrative functions due to legislation enacted in 2025, Act 583. The result is an overall decrease in spending authority of about $1.8 million. The detailed
budget summary for those appropriations are on page 422 and 425, which I can go to next. In total, the agency requests about $432 million in appropriations, which includes about $82.7 million in general revenue, and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. So, on page 422, you can see that there is an overall decrease of about $1.5 million,
and most of that is due to the Act 583, Transfer of Appropriation and Functions, while on the next page, the Nuclear Planning Grants Appropriation, you can see that the agency request and recommendation on page 425 is zero and mr. chair that concludes my presentation on the department of health those are all their major changes for this next fiscal year and i'll be happy to take any questions thank you thank you
miss witt uh we do have questions does probably want to
say anything starting off or just go ahead and dive
Renee Mallory
Unverified
5:30:51
into questions mr chair since it's been a very long day and we're standing between y'all and
the door we'll take questions thank
Speaker 757
5:31:00
you excellent answer probably the best one
of the day okay so i passed the first test right all right
Speaker 758
5:31:08
we've got uh representative wooten up first thank you thank you y'all for being here uh my question is straightforward how many employees total are in your agency not not just the health department but
all of it was your encompass
Don Adams
Unverified
5:31:27
don adams health department uh representative wooten we have are you talking about field positions
Speaker 758
5:31:33
at this moment in time no
i'm talking about all your positions how many all allocated positions all allocated we have about 2300 allocated positions okay how
Don Adams
Unverified
5:31:50
many of those are vacant we have 1,838 positions field right now
Speaker 758
5:31:56
so you have a total of
2,300 so you have about 500 vacant positions yes that's across all our business areas not just this one. Right. Yes, sir. Of those, how
many of them have been vacant over two years? We
Don Adams
Unverified
5:32:14
just had that report. OPM ran the snapshot on vacancies over two years, and we had 49.
Speaker 758
5:32:20
49. Yes, sir. How many of those were budgeted? Do you know? Not exactly, but most of them were. Most of them are budgeted?
yes why why have they been vacant for two years well over the
Don Adams
Unverified
5:32:37
last several years as we have vacant positions come open we evaluate whether or not we need to fill it based on needs and on budget and of course we've lost federal funding and other things over the last few years and we've had to take austerity measures to adapt to that new funding environment okay but you're still
Speaker 758
5:32:55
budgeting them well not all of them
and we're going to unbudget a lot of them this fiscal year i asked
the question how many of them are budgeted and you said most of
them of the 49 that's what i'm 49 how much money are we holding in reserve out there that are actually not funded you are they are funded and you don't intend to fill
Don Adams
Unverified
5:33:23
them but the money is there yes sir we have access if they're We pay the roughly $6,000 EBD money.
Speaker 758
5:33:30
There's the issue right there, and I appreciate you sharing that.
Why are we paying health benefits? And I want you to be truthful because that's not right. In my estimation, that is illegal. And that's what I've been waiting for somebody to say. That money is not being applied for medical health on a person that doesn't exist. Is that
not correct? Mr. Wooten, we're not going to just pick on the Department of Health.
That goes statewide. I know it. But he's
Speaker 758
5:34:15
the first one that has honestly stated why that position is funded. and that's not your fault no I'm not saying that's why we budget our fault I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt
Don Adams
Unverified
5:34:28
not saying that's why we budgeted the position so that we could these are you mentioned EBD yes
sir okay we're required to pay that on all budgeted positions whether they're vacant or not and we budget positions we're budgeting the positions
we're allocated and the funding we have to budget but sometimes we don't feel them and we've done that a lot lately because the budget has shifted and so we weren't able to fill them or we determined through our current needs and shifting demand that
Speaker 758
5:35:00
we didn't need to fill them. Okay for the media purposes I
wanted to be very clear that this is a requirement that was passed by the legislature and has been approved by governors for several years and it's not right. Now I know why we're
doing it we're doing it to reduce health care costs for the employees what we ought to do is include that in the cost we're not being truthful with the taxpayers of this state on the true cost of insurance and because it's spread out through all the employees And so what we need to do is assume that cost at the state level. I passed an act five years, six years ago that required all employees over two years to be listed.
And if they're still there, then they'll do away with them. Yes, sir. And now we've put that act in abeyance of waiting some solution to figure out. And the solution is very easy. We just need to adopt and occur in the state at our cost, not the employees' cost. We don't need to spread this among the employees because we're the ones that said you budget them
and you'll pay the EBD portion of it. All right. Mr. Chair, if I could
Don Adams
Unverified
5:36:33
just clarify one thing for the record. The decisions to budget or not budget a position in our agency has nothing to do with what you're talking about. I understand that. I'm not saying
Speaker 758
5:36:45
that. I'm not accusing you all of anything because we've required it, but it's not right. Thank
you. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Representative. Okay. Let's go to Representative Hudson.
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
5:36:58
you're recognized for a question. Thank you Mr. Chair and this is for the department and not for BLR. I wanted to stick to the question of the allocation for employee salaries so I'm looking at page 422 and I just want to I'm trying to make sure that we have this allocation correct. So I know that Representative Garner sent over some written requests for some responsive answers earlier this week with some questions about employee policies my
understanding is that the department responded and said that they could not answer her questions due to ongoing litigation is that the department's position today yes ma'am okay so a is it the department's position that you can't discuss existing policies regarding personnel policies you can't discuss those? So based on what our legal representation has told us, we don't
Renee Mallory
Unverified
5:37:50
need to answer those questions. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So you, you won't talk to the legislature about your personnel policies. I just
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
5:37:57
want to make sure I understand that. If there's a specific policy that you are
Don Adams
Unverified
5:38:06
requesting and I mean, obviously we would be happy to provide a specific policy and there's a question within that policy.
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
5:38:15
Sure. Yes. So here, here's my concern. Um, I believe that Representative Garner's questions, we're asking for very specific policies regarding how the department balances the First Amendment rights of their employees against political pressure from any source, from the legislature, the executive, judicial, wherever. And my concern is, in terms of the budgetary items, that whether or not we have appropriately allocated for,
whether you have any idea of how we allocate for the costs of litigation and potential settlement expenses associated with the these causes of action if we don't have a policy so I'm interested in what that policy is and how it's being applied I apologize
Speaker 771
5:38:59
I'm not sure I'm clear on your question as far as the the
Speaker 772
5:39:03
budgeting piece of that yeah so let me let
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
5:39:07
me give you a hypothetical um you hire a new employee into the department who is an about atheist they post on social media
about the fact that they believe that there is no God and me as a devout Christian I'm very upset about it and I call you and I offer my my thoughts on this hire and tell you that I'm going to hold up your budget unless you fire this employee do you have a policy in place with regard to how you deal with those employees because that is a very specific budgetary item if if I as a legislator telling you that I'm going to hold up your budget because of something I saw on social
media that one of your employees posted. So I wondered if you could
Don Adams
Unverified
5:39:54
walk me through what that policy looks like. We don't have a policy
specific for that circumstance, and we would apply the policies. We do have employee disciplinary policies, conduct policies, code of ethics, those sorts of things and we would apply our standards that we have consistently based on the situation but and you know we would do that to the best of our ability and not have outside influence determine
how we apply that policy okay um could we have a copy of those policies i do believe we submitted the social media policy if you also want a copy of the disciplinary policy we'd be
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
5:40:36
glad to to provide that that would be helpful you know that'd be great and then in the last question do does the department maintain a litigation budget or a
Speaker 68
5:40:48
settlement fund budget no ma'am okay thank you all righty representative
Speaker 432
5:40:53
hammer senator hammer I'm sorry I demoted you I
appreciate the compliment both ways sir you're recognized going back to the
positions that the debate was going on a little bit about a while ago just give me an idea what some of those vacant positions are those like nurses that were waiting to get them hired up or can you just kind of hit the high level
Don Adams
Unverified
5:41:13
on what some of those are that you're waiting on or you're holding them for yes sir it's a variety of
positions across the age some of them are nurses some of them are more general analyst positions and administrative positions clerical positions it's really a variety of different class codes that over the
years you know based on the evaluation that we've made both some fundings and needs you know we we don't fill a position if we don't feel like it's necessary or we don't feel like we have the funding
Speaker 432
5:41:42
to cover it and but all those are all those positions in your are all those percent positions essential it's just you don't have
Don Adams
Unverified
5:41:55
i wouldn't say that if we feel like we have a need in order to provide the core services we provide then we would uh you know move things around we would do what is necessary to try to
fill that position okay and and we don't want any more positions
Speaker 432
5:42:08
than you got to have but at the same time we want you to have what you need so that because you guys have been very responsive to anything i've called and asked about uh you guys have been very responsive and i want to compliment you um want to make sure you got enough but not too many and we trust your judgment that that's where you are um and so anything else you'd want to add to
that no sir we appreciate that okay thank you all right members we're about to land this airplane representative ladyman you got the
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
5:42:41
last question thank you mr chairman i appreciate you recognizing me i'll try to be short um my question is about the full independent practice credentialing on page 435 and the question there is you've got a budget of looks like 350,000 and you spent zero on that credentialing and I know it's been around for a few years now so my question is did you really not spend any money are we do we not have nurse practitioners that are requesting that or kind of where are we at are
Are we acting on those requests?
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
5:43:25
Representative Layton, Matt Gilmore, Department of Health. So that committee has formed its meeting. We've got currently about a little over 1,000 of those individuals out there. We're going through renewals now. This is the first cycle of three-year license. So as far as the expenses and costs, the department's been, and the Board of Nursing and Medical Board have been kind of just sharing that.
We've got a plan now to put some staff there, and we'll be working through those funds we've collected there to help pay for that. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yes,
Chair
Unverified
5:44:14
sir. got some funny people over there no more questions we need to
entertain a motion executive Rick in a second all in any discussion all in favor say aye any
opposed stands approved miss Cartwright you've got two items on f1 and 2 and we'll batch these together under one vote yes I think mr.
Speaker 782
5:44:40
chairman Wendy cart right bill our fiscal item f on today's agenda they deal with special language
Speaker 783
5:44:46
item f1 as we spoke about yesterday through letters that ms barnhill spoke about from opm the pay plan that was adopted in the 2025 session changed the titles and grades for the positions there's a spreadsheet
here there are some pieces of special language that are currently in some agencies bills that reference those old titles and grades that no longer exist and so blr worked with the office of personal management and dfa office of budget those columns on the right hand of f1 those would be the corresponding updated titles and grades in the current pay plan and so if the sub excuse me if the committee adopts this spreadsheet it would direct staff to update those sections of special language with the updated title and grade according to the
the pay plan, Mr. Chairman. Item F2 is also related to special language. It is a request from the Bureau of Legislative Research related to the pay plan. In the 2025 session, the Bureau updated both their personnel section and their special language to correspond to the new pay plan. With that special language amendment, there were some titles that were inadvertently left out of the special language section. Once again, in the letter, that column to the right would add those titles to that piece of special language and get it in line. So, Mr. Chairman, those are the
requests for item F. Any questions for Ms. Cartwright? Seeing none, we'll entertain a motion to adopt F1 and
F2. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. All opposed say no. It is adopted. Members, we appreciate you being here uh joint budget we'll meet again on the afternoon of april 8th when we come back in for fiscal session and i appreciate everybody stayed the time and finished the work we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Department of Human Services --Ms. Janet Mann, Secretary 1/48 215 Lilah Walls
Recess for Lunch
Return from Lunch
C. Department of Education Public School Fund (0505) 1/213 114 Kathryn Walden --Mr. Jacob Oliva, Secretary
D. Department of Public Safety (9913) --Col. Mike Hagar, Secretary 1/256 293 Dalton Coleman
Criminal Background Checks 404
ASP Training and Equipment 406
E. Department of Health (9907) --Ms. Renee Mallory, Secretary 413 195 Cameron Witt
F. Special Language Revisions
G. Other Business
H. Adjournment
Documents
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Representative Lane Jean Chair
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Lila Walls
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Chair
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Senator Breanne Davis
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Representative Frances Cavenaugh
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Senator Jim Petty
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Senator Terry Rice
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Senator Stephanie Flowers
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Senator Clarke Tucker
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Representative Jack Ladyman
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Senator Jonathan Dismang
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Dalden Coleman
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Mike Hager
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Representative Howard M. Beaty, Jr.
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Cameron Witt
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Renee Mallory
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Don Adams
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Representative Ashley Hudson
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Matt Gilmore
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