ALC-JBC Budget Hearings

All right we'll get this meeting started. Morning ladies and gentlemen first item on the agenda is DFS disbursing officer thank if you want to come up we'll. Sure the answer to the question that was posed yesterday. Page ninety five members for anyone searching for your. Location. If you would to. Thank you name for the record and you're recognized thank you any Babbitt the FNA. After the question yesterday we did some research and some looking. And for the A. R. P. A. R. P. federal direct appropriation we believe that we can reduce that down to a total of four billion so reduce that by six hundred million on the appropriation. For a total of four million and then for the A. R. P. federal appropriation which is the one that comes the pier and the steering committee we believe we can reduce that down to one point two billion so reduction of four hundred million so the total reduction approach that total preparation B. one billion dollars so one billion total and and you're totally confident and comfortable in those numbers we we feel like based on our business processes and what we've seen over the last couple years that we feel comfortable with those numbers all right since that was my question currently I don't see any other members in the queue I would need a motion for that updated you get a motion for that updated recommendation. And get a second any discussion. okay so just to reiterate for everybody that they said that four billion on that top line item. The that's currently four point six billion we would reduce that to four billion. And the second line item that is currently one point six billion would reduce that to one point two billion. And then the total overall would go from six point two down to five point two correct Sir okay. That answer that Mr wooden. All right get a motion and a second all in favor aye any opposed motion passes thank you very much moving on to second agenda by Adam department of veteran affairs. Miss walls. You're recognized when you get to the table state your name for the record and Have the Department come come to the table were listening to that thank you. Thank you Mr chair and I'm levels and we're gonna go turn with me to page four seventy one we're gonna talk about the department of Veterans Affairs this morning this agencies this Arkansas veterans their dependents and survivors and securing their rights and benefits under federal and state law and on pages four seventy two and four seventy three is. That departments at their shared services appropriation this appropriation is for the salary match for the department secretary and it is authorized that are approximately two hundred twelve thousand dollars and expended per by general revenues through the miscellaneous agencies fund the agencies requesting approximately two hundred fifteen thousand dollars in both fiscal years with increases of about three thousand dollars for the continuation of personal services matching for adjustments during the biennium and the executive provides for the agency's request and if it's okay with you I'm going to go to the Department summary which if you'll please turn with me it's on page four seventy eight this is most of the appropriations for the department. M. and this as an amongst these is there are appropriations for operating there to veterans nursing homes maintaining the two veterans cemeteries and paying costs associated with military honors and veterans funerals they have authorized appropriations in total of seventy one point seven million dollars with three hundred and three authorized positions there You last across the department and offender primarily from federal revenue general revenue cash funds and they have eleven appropriations total three of these appropriations in the preparation summer you're not being requested and they were requested in the instrument or not requested to continue Sarah M. and then there of the remaining ones they have increases in five and the continuation of current authorized in three and if you'll turn with me to Page four eighty and four eighty one we'll talk about their state operations appropriation. this appropriation provides for the administrative costs of the department is currently authorized at two point one six million dollars with infinite three general revenues to the miscellaneous agency funds the agency's requesting a little bit more than two point three million dollars in both fiscal years with the following changes they're asking for one thousand dollar increase in operating expenses in both years for general operations of the department and nine thousand five hundred dollar increase in conference in travel for staff conference participation and training needs of the department they're requesting the addition of a new line item at ten thousand dollars for promotional items and that is for outreach and promotion of awareness of issues impacting the veteran community including suicide prevention there actually requesting a decrease in their grants and aid line item of about a hundred eight thousand five hundred dollars to better align with their actual expenditures they're also requesting an increase of approximately two hundred twenty one thousand dollars in FY twenty four and two hundred thirty four thousand dollars in FY twenty five personalities and personal services matching adjustments that were made in the insurance and personnel changes including reclassification for this appropriation the executive provides for the agency's request except for the appropriation associated with the request of the cations and the personnel changes. The next we're gonna talk about is on pages four eighty two and four eighty three and it's for Veterans homes this is the appropriation that provides for the care of the residents of the state address homes in Fayetteville in North Little Rock and as authorized currently approximately two twenty one point three million dollars the skilled nursing facilities are funded through agreement for payments from private payers private insurance Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and reimbursement from the U. S. department of Veterans Affairs stay at home per diem program agencies requesting about twenty three point seven million in twenty in fiscal year twenty four and twenty three point nine million in fiscal year twenty five with the following changes asking four hundred and fifteen thousand dollar increase in operating expenses for temporary nursing labor at both Veterans homes a thirty thousand dollar increase in professional fees and services for medical fees and services for veterans at the North Little Rock veterans home one hundred thousand dollar increase in capital. If you would if we can keep our conversations will orders members having a hard time hearing. Continue please a one hundred thousand dollar increase in capital outlay to replace equipment that's needed at the North Little Rock veterans home they're also requesting the addition of that promotional items line item in this appropriation as well to assist with recruitment events at both of the veterans homes and they're also requesting increases of approximately two point one three million in FY twenty four and two point three one million and FY twenty five for salary and personal services matching adjustments that were made in the interim and personnel changes including we classifications the executive recommendation provides for these requests with the exception of the additional appropriation from the re classifications in the personnel changes. The next appropriation is on pages four eighty four and four eighty five and this is the veterans cemeteries cash appropriation and it supports operations and land improvements at the state veterans cemeteries at North Little Rock in bird II and its approx that appropriated approximately three hundred thirty six thousand dollars and expanded with federal revenues they received from federal burial awards for each veteran burial and cash from burial fees for eligible family members who are also buried in the cemeteries agencies requesting one point one eight million dollars in fiscal year twenty four and seven hundred fifty three thousand dollars in fiscal year twenty five with the following changes requesting five thousand dollars increase for both years and conference and travel for staff training in St Louis the addition of a new six thousand five hundred dollar promotional items line items in both years for marketing and education around the pre registration for burial benefits at the cemeteries they're asking for increases of six hundred forty eight thousand dollars and FY twenty four and two hundred and forty eight thousand dollars in FY twenty five for operating expenses in order to comply with national standards surrounding headstone raising and the realignment and for outsourced labor for had stints at any. I'm an increase of approximately eighty thousand dollars in FY twenty four and fifty thousand dollars in FY twenty five for capital outlay for equipment replacements due to the equipment surpassing its useful life and increases of a hundred six thousand dollars in FY twenty four and under seven thousand dollars in FY twenty five for salary and personal services matching adjustments made in the interim and personnel changes including the classifications and executive recommendation provides for the request with the exception of the reclassification is in the personal changes. The next one is a companion appropriation for veterans cemeteries this is this state appropriation and it is authorized proximally eight hundred ninety four thousand dollars and is funded with general revenues to the miscellaneous agencies fund the agencies requesting one point one four million dollars in FY twenty four and one point one three million dollars in FY twenty five and they're asking for increases of seventy three thousand in FY twenty four and fifty one thousand and FY twenty five operating expenses at North Little Rock cemetery to support operations because their expenses have increased the cash funding has not. they're also requesting increases of approximately a hundred seventy five thousand dollars in FY twenty four nine hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars in FY twenty five reseller in personal services matching adjustments made in the interim and personnel changes including reclassification and the executive provides for the agency's request except for the reclassification is in the personnel changes the next one this is the final one has changes this is the military honorable military funeral honors and I'm sorry about that and it pays for costs associated with providing military funeral honors it better and spandrels it currently authorized approximately twenty three thousand dollars and spend it with special revenues from the sale of special military license plates the agency is requesting that they double their current appropriation both fiscal years two forty five thousand nine hundred dollars and this is to permanently raise the stipend paid to military funeral honor guard teams from fifty dollars to one hundred dollars per funeral to help offset travel costs and this request was previously approved in the interim by ALC and the executive provides for the agency's request in this situation as well as the final three that we're going to talk about the requesting continuation of these appropriations on pages four ninety and four ninety one is the northwest Arkansas state veterans home appropriation this is the cash appropriations state part in it provides state matching funds associated with the construction of a new veterans home in northwest Arkansas and approximately thirty five percent of the cost and this is on property that was donated to the state they're currently authorized fifteen million dollars in this has been funded with a one time transfer from the restricted reserve fund they're requesting continuation of this appropriation of both fiscal years and the executive provides for the agency's request. And on pages four ninety two of four ninety three is the federal companion for the cost of the construction of new veterans home in northwest Arkansas and it is authorized at thirty million dollars and it's going to be funded with federal funds and the agency is requesting continuation of this appropriation and both fiscal years as well and the executive provides for the agency's request the final appropriations gonna be on pages four ninety four and four ninety five and this is for and cemetery expansion it's a federal appropriation and provides for the federal funding associated with the expansion of both of the cemeteries and it's currently authorized to two million dollars and the agencies requesting the continuation of that two million dollar appropriation bill fiscal years and the executive provides for the agency's request and this concludes my presentation for this part of the agency. Thank you senator Todd would you are any of your. Three one making statements before we get started in the queue here. Senator the records of Arkansas all just thankful to the government this legislative body and the taxpayers will adequately funded. We have made investments in the veteran enrollment and be a health care expansion in the cemeteries in ensuring that the veterans receive the benefits in which the help earn entitled to again we are thankful to the governor says legislative body and the taxpayers of Arkansas thank you very much on page forty five. Your operating expenses I noticed you have Quite a few additional expenses in the upcoming year. Did those actually bleed over into the following year twenty four twenty five where you reduce the appropriation requests but not down to Your previous authorized levels as twenty two twenty three year. That was some leveling. For investments. Previously. We've had distributor services offices in for city and in hope when those individuals retired we told not to back fill those positions however with the pact Act that was supported by our federal delegation and improves the entitlements to the veterans of the Vietnam era of the Gulf War era and those stationed at camp la June it's important that we re establish goals offices we are re level bills from some legislation some funding that senator Wallace and representative law. Champions last year in the cemeteries we also are positioned for expansion from federal grants that we expect to receive in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four and the challenges with the homes is contracting. That has increased tremendously. So so this is the cemetery one which is it it says the increase to comply with the administrative standards headstone raising realignment. For one time need but do you anticipate that that's gonna bleed over into the second fiscal year I guess it will it we are expecting. Eight grants for North Little Rock in Brunei. We think that that grant will take place February nine twenty twenty three and possibly and North Little Rock however that will allow me to that section compact to be moved into twenty twenty four twenty twenty five thank you senator Chesterfield you're up first. I hadn't seen any lights on until now so I was at I guess I put out my motion to. executive Rick but I do want to say thank you. Thank you to curl Tosh because in the past I've never known to whom I should go when our when our veterans in my area have a hit needs and he's always been there always responsive and I just want to say thank you publicly because we don't say that to our. To our employees enough your service is truly appreciated by me and I would be remiss if I did not say you have never fail to respond and I truly appreciate it I make a motion related to thank you senator thank you senator Senator Hammer Europe next. Thank you Mr chair of one of the questions when asked about was can you point out in the budget where we are doing anything extra or give us an update on prevention for suicide for the veterans in our state yes senator Hammer senator Hammer well the last year and a half we have been collaboration with the department of health with the farm Human Services department of education we have had some federal dollars that we have extended convention particularly in north Arkansas Baxter County and in this case we intend to we dont analysis there are some challenges in hot springs in garland county. Are read operation budget we will extend in reference to information and education in those areas in reference to Veterans Affairs that we administered throughout the state. Okay and follow up Mr good. With regards to staff for the VA homes you know with the nursing shortage can you give self date and you feel you're adequately budgeted to be able to be competitive in recruiting and retaining the nurses and the staff for the for the better homes both North Little Rock in upper northwest. We are categorically not we can not compete with the contracted. Labor rates we know that a portion of that goes to the contractor however with the person at all regulations. We have not been able to provide incentives for recruitment or retention. And do you feel it's time that we address that so you can at how short staffed are you right now then. At the three of the hold their authorized by a hundred one fifty with the census they have that's probably about eighty two FT's sauces they have we have forty one. Staff person bill that are Arkansas employees the rest of the team is augmented by contract personnel at North Little Rock we have challenges and LPNs are ians and CNA's and we're probably at about forty percent staff there also that authorization is over call five hundred and thirty because of cottage. Environment that we have there we probably have about sixty of personnel there. I'd like you and your staff to work up what you think would be a reasonable proposal to address that problem presented to us if you would please because as we look at nursing shortages in other areas you know we've certainly take care of our veterans we'll take care of all populations but it's little bit up disturbing sometimes that were placed at a disadvantage because our government agency so I would like to ask you and your staff to prepare proposal that you think would help address that and presented to the chair of the chairs will receive and push it out to the rest of members so we can we can see about trying to find a solution to fix that thank you senator for opportunity and just send that to staff and we'll get that out to everybody the cashier Senator Elliot you're recognized. Thank you Mister chair I think this might be and my question might pertain to address we're talking about I'm not sure but not on page for eighty four We are you. I'm or you I was just reading here where you were The reclassification that was something that was not granted if I'm reading correctly but I wish to speak about this in terms of personnel to and whether or not we of what you funded as we should be or even if we're competitive so I'm just wondering if that reclassification had anything to do with trying to meet that competitive edge that we don't have for or otherwise just talk to me a little bit about what the reclassification Watson was requested. The Senator operation is mechanical in nature with the construction this happened and central Arkansas we had not been able to compete for skilled labor. And we asked to qualify some of these positions as. Mechanical technicians. At. We have five landscape technicians and we need those classified as mechanical technician for us to compete. Reasonably best still one. Because this competitive as all the in the industry but that would help. Well what do you do you and I don't this may be a sense of questions about that I'm not trying to set up anything other than just trying to get information have any information about why the reclassification was not granted the administration the next administration want to kill the next ministration opportunity to look at these type of actions that's my understanding all right yeah I understand there's there's some sense of we're going to wait until the next governor whoever that might be I will make these decisions. But and this is not you talking this is me talking now. With something like this where we we say all the time how much we appreciate and value the service of our veterans and I'm time and time again it does come up we're not competing to get the folks we need effect if ever they're going to be a group where we would. Make an exception and do this it seems to me it would be for these these veterans and access questions like this because it is commonplace that will we've not put ourselves in a position to be competitive that's me talking not you but I I I appreciate your effort to try to put us in that position thank you very much for your response thank you senator thank you senator representative Cavenaugh. Thank you Mr chairman here to have I just have a quick question is going to be on page four ninety one of four ninety three which is appropriations for the veterans hospital in northwest Arkansas. I know we've got the fifteen million out a rainy day funds and then we got the federal grant for thirty million. We've already received the funds for the restricted reserve have we already receive those funds yes ma'am okay. And have you received the thirty million from the feds money yet no ma'am we tracked. That process with the help of conditionally Womack those decisions of the federal level or made in the April may timeframe but we will be on a high priority because our state as provided the matching fund. In competing with other states. What we have observed are the house is that it may take to federal fiscal years to get to a funding priority okay and that could possibly put us in state fiscal year twenty twenty five starts one July twenty twenty four okay and. We're not gonna start any other project until you actually had the federal funds secured. That the land was donated to it does need some prep and we may have an opportunity to. some federal dollars be presented to do some prep okay all right thank you. Thank you Q. representative Senator Stubblefield. Thank you thank you Mr chairman representative Cavenaugh last. One of the questions I was going to ask current ought I to want to thank you sincerely appreciate all you do for the department of Veterans Affairs more than you'll ever realize but also I want to ask you if your were of the situation happened for Smith were we had a large amount of a veteran's remains that has not been claimed and have not been very could you comment on that and how that happened and. What we can do to rectify that former. I can't speak to it directly I can share with you what we have done at the Arkansas department persons affairs we work with corners to identify remains that have not been identified and. To determine if the veterans if the veterans we asked the corner to ensure that there's no family that has claimed that remains and then twice a year we bring those remains to the North Little Rock cemetery and we give them an honorable interment. We. Have. We we have not been in the northwest Arkansas that happened primarily in central Arkansas that was in this state we had in twenty twenty two we have one schedule for this year however Sir we will reach out to northwest Arkansas in trying to understand that the. I have I appreciate that thank you again for your service. Thank you chairman thank you senator Wallace you're recognized. One of got a couple questions to first of All I Want thank you you've. During your tenure you current Arkansas the a from a okay organization to the absolutely outstanding organization unit team you brought in I. I saw what was like eight years ago I know who is now with thank you for that personally. If we were ranking on the old only our system I'd recommend you for that top lock thank you girl and Sir my my questions are. RVS Ozark county VS cells how many do we have now for the state in is anything else that we as a body can do to help you with that. Senator. Eighteen months ago. You sponsor with representative law and sentence for counted services offices and we're certifies them if they would get certified meaning that they're going to be proficient in the skill set required and if they had the BMS which is the electronic file that they can see that that was following. If a county but the service also has those two. Certifications in DBMS. To appropriation bills legislators provided thank you thank County gets four thousand dollars. a year. A thousand dollars a quarter at the time we had. We had been around. Sixty four percent of the kind of the service officers being certified in the BMS now we have about eighty five percent of them being certified about certified CISM and the BMS that has helped tremendously we do have some challenges in several counties Arkansas my role is Phillips that's one of the reasons we are requested to enter and and Administration has agreed to read stale before city. Disturbances service also and we help operations and funding to do that and the. The. Hope Arkansas and challenges and Columbia County and and Little River severe. And so we're going to restart those offices. This district versus service officer is important we had initially be administration had we put in nine now we're down to six. With suicide prevention with packed Act. There does need to be some re evaluation of those job descriptions. And we're in the process of doing that now. Right now all of those individuals have to be. Skill set of social workers some of the legal background and we need a job description the flex that. So there is some opportunity to we are still studying. Thank you can Tosh Mr thank you Sir thank you senator representative Richmond you're recognized. Call Todd how are you this morning Sir good the again I also want to thank you for the the service that you've rendered to the state and to our country thank you very much you have had an impact on the veterans here in this state and and that's no small thing so thank you thank you the brand and I I do wanna thank we have a great team in Rome our chief of staff Mr Watkins RCF old a bill was sick our director similar operations and Mr chapter director veteran service operations and today we have about forty seven county that the service offices in person about thirty seven own soon there will be training this afternoon tomorrow and Friday morning to ensure that efficiency. This this question I have is concerning military funeral honors and you know after seeing us senator Wallace this morning I thought I'd go ahead advances question now The help put his mind at ease all these things but the participation how hard is it for you to get services the different services army navy marines Air Force Coast Guard maybe two of the team's fourth to render these honors when the veterans are laid to rest Republican astral Ingram she convened a meeting on the twelfth of October would commence army divisi investors service organizations and she has the most current information on there okay you if you would just state your name for the record Erica Ingram chief of staff abba representative when we met we had representatives from the navy the marines of the Army Reserve wasn't present but the air for active duty Air Force on National Guard and then the service organizations and they're running into the same issues I honestly that we are is personnel of the navy has a complement of only six people here of their closest support is that a Millington Tennessee the marines have a complement of four people here and there close is is Gulfport Mississippi are the airforce of course because they're active duty they have more but we're in discussions on things we can do we have had some instances where we did combined and the airforce and the army had worked together we are trying to come to a better resolution in addition to trying additional veteran service officers because of the vision services they're concerned is there have an aging population are for their members so we are scheduled to reconvene in December to I try to determine if there is a better way of hate it for us working cooperate better together and then of course on the Gartside its issue with them using M. day soldiers who have civilian job. I specifically during the time periods of we can derail if there's some type of service off site and we can drill this requested or doing annual training times because all of the units usually do their training during the same time. Follow up Mr good. I'm I'm disappointed about the marine corps being bringing that does the got a reserve unit right across the river over there that Leding offer up a little more participation. Then what you're doing I know that I was nine I had a reserve you look at main and we did funerals all over the state it was expected of us to do those things so I don't know I I just think that may be You know reaching out to them or something might be an idea to help out with that there's not tons and tons of marines dying in this state. So I think that could accommodate the and maybe they should might help with the recruiting. Alright yes Sir I would check out the major stored according to his comment that day that as marines they had not had to ask for another service to assist them but I'm not sure of the number feels that per year okay thank you very much yes thank you representative representative wooden Europe. Thank you Mr chairman three or four quick questions curl up to one of them want to share my appreciation to you and for to the outrage that you and your folks have to the veterans is it so important so vital and and I do appreciate it I appreciate you meeting with major retired major hold on that proposal the. I have three quick questions one of the thirty four Vacancies that you have that or over two years do you know the age of those early three years four years and then what are they are. R. naught just do you know their average age. Senator Will Bond I don't have the exact. Can you for me to provide that it is okay most schools or the area of LPNs. In Arkansas but will have the exact date okay provide and then on the the hundred fifty eight vacancies that you have following up with with the representative hammers question how many of those are made up of numbers you know that the majority the majority of all this is this is actually positions yes it's a market value situation where you're you're not okay on the other questions we had a quote discussion yesterday relative to interest and you have several fund balances and several million dollars but I don't see any of this information that we're given of the interest on that the you are do you do you all do you receive the interest earning all that and how is that money invested we have disability of it. In the anticipation of two. Terry grants. The state in the new federal cemetery process have to purchase the groups in the in the reimburse will discuss with D. F. and a to use some of that. Interest to purchase these cribs and we would get reimbursed okay well my. Question is from an accounting standpoint we're we're. What it would be helpful to us and of and I'm sure you'll keep up with that is the amount of interest that you earn on the funds that you have invested because to me that's of funding sources and not. I mean if you just walk ins can you speak to the please. We we do receive interest those funds are all held at the treasury and the amount of interest is just under two percent per year and for example for the fifteen million that we received from the restricted reserve funding for that northwest Arkansas the construction new home construction. We've. I had about thirty five thousand dollars posted in interest since the funds were deposited in the agency account in August. So it's a substantial amount of money. Okay and that's and that's the exact point the to me somewhere and we had a discussion with DFA yesterday about this within the funding sources under funding sources on everyone these budgets interest income is not shown at all and you just make a point is a sizeable amount of money so would it be difficult for you to do that if if this information changes to to just have a line item in this is interest income is X. amount under funding sources. It will be difficult at all we'll do that thank you very much thank you Mr chairman thank you colonel thank you representative Senator Hammer. Recognized thank you share of one go back to the funeral services and of the honors are given in a meeting like three four months ago in here a suggestion was put forth about possibly using ROTC to be able to to conductor help perform those military honors I know personally a situation occurred down my district where our ROTC actually responded and provided the military honors when there wasn't staff adequate to do it and it really meant a lot to the family is that in the discussion still for the meeting that you've got coming up to consider using ROTC. That was not brought up senator but I took that note and I'll also contact cadet command for the ROTC in Arkansas because I do have that P. O. C. so we'll ensure that he's invited to that if you mind like your report back on that because I know that also those students you know it's good on the resumes for college and they need to get community service time maybe that's of the marriage of the best of both worlds to be able to do that if you would put that on consideration please Sir and and then the second thing is on the up I think they're called BSO's in the county refresh my memory does the county where some of the financial burden for providing either office staff or anything where support for those officers. They do some counties are better than others Washington County Benton County. Of Pulaski County Salim county. They are meant that stale. However there are some counties that our state reimbursement of about and on the number that caused a health in that county about twenty five hundred dollars a quarter that is and if the certified and have the BMS access that is what the county is using to support of that part time. County that the service officer there are some counties to do better there are some companies that don't have the resources for a full time county there's a service officer with the if you want to pass on the ashes question I'll give you a free pass. But is some of the issue that some of the counties don't. Receive the need to be more tended to the veterans by supporting the BSO more or is it may be a question of economics for the county depending on which county it is in the resources for his or spirit of cooperation among all the counties and and what we need to do to maybe help address that issue if you don't have adequate funding or you don't have enough funded in years what you guys suggestions on on what we can do to try to get more systems other counties. I think that in some counties is economics I do think that placing these distribution service offices and re re staffing the Dispenser's option for city of hope will help with that. Okay all right thank you thank you senator representative Cavenaugh you're recognized yes Sir this is a question for staff. If we have an appropriation site like on page four ninety eight that we're getting no appropriation is going away but it still has funds in excess funding and it's not just this department it's in the Department what happens to those funds. Yeah I would I would deferred accounting on that but the it's case by case scenario normally those are swept into general revenue a lot that we serve which is where the surplus goes. in the situation with cash funds like that though they may have to work with the agency since they were collected for specific purpose if you really would be case by case okay thank you. Right see no further questions to a motion. Motion executive record second. signos questions all in favor aye any posed motion passes thank you senator we want to thank this there's two body and the taxpayers of Arkansas. And that was for items two and three on the agenda of. Well. As follows you had something. Was that not for three as well. I haven't presented for that is that disabled veterans service offices and veterans well that's I'm sorry for okay thank you. The sorry yes I think there is a. One was added another one was added the FAA. So your item number four is disabled veterans that's up next. You're ready to present for that yes you're recognized thank you Sir I'm sorry all right if you'll turn with me to Page four seventy four this is the year appropriation for this able veteran service office state operations preparation and the actual preparation is summaries on page four seventy six and this is this veterans in preparing claims US government for compensation and other benefits they agency currently has an appropriation of thirty nine thousand six hundred dollars approximately and this is for the operations of the disabled veterans service office and the one position is associated with it and it's funded by general revenues through the miscellaneous agencies fund agency request is for a little over forty two thousand dollars in both fiscal years with increases of about three thousand dollars in both fiscal years the continuation of personal services matching for adjustments during the biennium an executive provides for the agency's requests and this concludes our presentation for this appropriation. Right seeing no questions the motion Executive rack the second noticing NO discussion any. All the rights any posed motion passes. And that takes us to our last one Arkansas veteran children's welfare item number five this falls you're recognized thank you Mr chair this appropriation starts on page four ninety nine and then they're summary is on page five hundred and one at the appropriation is for the veterans child welfare offer rations and it provides temporary assistance to the minor children a recently deceased hospitalized for medically incapacitated veterans with limited or no income until more permanent income sources established and their total procreation is for a little over a hundred sixty thousand dollars and and it's for the operations of the veterans child welfare office and it's too associated positions expended by general revenues through the miscellaneous agencies fund account the agency's requesting at hundred seventy four at thousand six hundred dollars approximately in FY twenty one and a hundred seventy six point two thousand and FY twenty five with increases of about fifteen thousand dollars in FY twenty four and sixteen thousand FY twenty five for celery and personal services matching adjustments made in the interim and executive recommendation provides for the agency's request and this concludes my presentation for this agency thank you senator Hammer you are recognized thank you Mr could you give me an idea about how many families you help do you happen to have that information a year. We have the ball of miles that that has been about four thousand dollars a year. But the number of families the number of families. When I see this quarterly as I recall number it's been four five families. Okay all right so sufficient to the need and the dollars are sufficient to the need yes Sir okay thank you. Thank you senator sing other questions to a motion. Motion executive rec second without discussion on favor I. Any of those names motion passes members that includes the agenda for this morning personnel will meet in this room in about fifteen minutes so gather your things if you're not in personnel or you're getting and thank you discussions out and special language will be in big mac B. at one thirty we adjourned.