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- October 6, 2026
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
5:30
members will you grab your seats we'll go ahead and get
started representative bro you want to lead us in opening prayer
Speaker 23
6:00
gather here together in your name. Father, I just pray the decisions that we make today, telling the decisions, the ideas that always come from you, everything that you do, so we do this now. Amen. Thank you, Representative. With that, I'll
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
6:23
turn it over to Mr. Paris. Thank you, Mr.
William Parrish
Unverified
6:28
Chair. We're in Section B, these are various temporary appropriation requests.
The first one, B1, is a letter from the Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. This is a request for $200,000 in appropriation. It's to make grants to child care facilities for training and to defray the cost of criminal records checks. This is supported by license fees paid by child care facilities. Next item, B2, is a letter from the Department of Public Safety, Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training. It's for $101,000 in spending authority. This is to conduct leadership and professional development training for law enforcement.
It's supported by a workforce development grant from the Office of Skills Development. Mr. Chair, those are
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
7:11
all the VTA requests. Any questions on item
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
7:19
B-1? Senator Love, you on B-1? Go ahead. Is there anyone here from the Division of Elementary? I
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
7:31
saw Mr. Rogers walk into the room.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
7:36
See if he remembers where the table's at. Greg Rogers, Department of Education. Mr. Chairman, am I recognized? Yes, sir. Okay. Mr. Rogers, just on the child care facilities, because I've received a couple of calls, not
specifically just on this item, but on
the vouchers that are actually administered, are we behind on actually giving out vouchers for child care facilities? Can you give me an update
on that? that I know I'm aware of that we're behind on giving out
Speaker 45
8:24
vouchers. I know that we have a wait list right now and that we're making some changes to try to address the wait list, but that's all that I have right now on that.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
8:35
Okay, is there, is that due, what does that do to, well,
is there, is there, is there a reason why we're behind on it? I don't know that, I don't know that
Speaker 45
8:46
we're behind, that's what I'm saying. I don't, I didn't know that we were behind on that.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
8:52
okay can you give me some information on on absolutely okay all right thank you thank you mr chair thank you
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
9:00
any further questions on b1 seeing none thank you mr rogers can't get somebody from DPS don't take off running
have we always funded this particular leadership and professional development through the Office of Arkansas, Office of Special Skills and Development? No, sir. This is the
Speaker 53
9:45
first time that we've requested funding for this particular
program. The leadership development program was developed about 16 months ago. This is the first time we've asked for funding outside our normal budget to do so. So how have you paid for it the last 16 months we had part a partial grant from the drug council from director tom fisher's drug council that paid for it and when we begin
Speaker 56
10:11
it in 2024 so what's the whole biennium cost on this
Speaker 53
10:15
project uh estimated costs for 25 will be right at 101 102 000 sir you hold on you're requesting
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
10:25
101 yes sir i'm guessing that's for the rest of this physical year correct yes sir that's correct these are gonna be really simple answers i hope you just told me you need 102 for the biennium biennium is a two-year process we're looking at 16 months has already passed what does the total program cost for the
Speaker 53
10:43
biennium approximately 240 000 sir we received 137 000 grant from the drug council last year uh this this will be able to complete the biennium training sir okay any further questions
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
10:54
on b2 thank you guys thank you have a motion to
approve have second all those in favor
say aye all opposed eyes have it move on to
William Parrish
Unverified
11:11
c thank you mr chair we're in section c this is a cares act appropriation request there's only one
item it's from the department of finance administration dispersing officer this is for 4.6 million in appropriation according to the letter It is to allow DFA to return CARES Act funding that had been returned to agencies for various reasons. Staff learned that a large portion of
Speaker 31
11:29
these funds are related to a lawsuit over the CARES Act funding that recently ended.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
11:37
Any questions on item C1? Do I have a motion to approve? No. Do I have a
second? I have a second. All those in favor,
William Parrish
Unverified
11:53
say aye. Aye. All opposed? Ayes have it. Move on to D1. Thank
you, Mr. Chair. We're in section D. This is American Rescue Plan Act Appropriation Request. D1 is a request from the Department of Health. It's for $112,000 in appropriation. This is to return excess or unused funds to the CDC from the K-12 Comprehensive Screening Program.
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
12:11
Any questions on item D? Seeing none, I need a motion. I need a second. All those
in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed? Ayes have it.
William Parrish
Unverified
12:26
Moving on to item E. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in section E. This is the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act appropriation request. E1 is a request from the Department of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management. This is a reallocation of previously awarded appropriation. They're requesting to move $57,000 from various lines, mostly out of capital outlay,
to operating expenses and grants and aid. This is to cover the cost for the remainder of the hazardous materials emergency preparedness grant. And this is after realigning program needs for sub-grant payments and training costs. The second request behind this reallocation was the original request that is being reallocated. Any questions on
out of me? Seeing none, do I have a
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
13:09
motion? Do I have a second? All those in favor say aye.
Aye. All opposed? Ayes have it. Moving on to F.
And members, when we have multiple items, we'll take questions on F1 and then questions on F2. Thank you, Mr. Parrish. Thank
William Parrish
Unverified
13:27
you, Mr. Chair. We're in Section F. This
is a restricted reserve fund transfer request. F1 is a letter from the Department of Public Safety, State Crime Lab. This is a $131 million transfer from the State Crime Lab building set aside. It's to construct a new State Crime Lab. The letter notes that any funds not used will be pledged toward future construction of the building.
And just for the committee's information, last biennium, $200 million was set aside in the Restricted Reserve Fund to build this new facility. In November of 2023, $10 million was drawn down to enter into a contract with a design professional. In January of 2024, $4.4 million was requested to buy land. And then in June of 2024, $5 million was approved to cover contractor costs for construction. Those three disbursements totaled $19.4 million. For the new biennium, that $19.4 million was deducted and $180.6 million was carried over into the set-aside account.
Today's request of $131 million would take the balance down to $48.6 million from the original $200 million that was allocated. Next item is F2. This is a request from the Department of Veterans Affairs. It's an $80,000 transfer from the motor vehicle set-aside, and this is to purchase three vehicles. Mr. Chair, that is the end of the Restricted Reserve Fund transfer request. Can I get DPS to the table, please?
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
15:15
So are we truly coming in $48 million under the projected cost
Speaker 72
15:27
were projecting for the actual construction of the building were $139 million. And the cost that we've come into for the GMP for the project is $136 million. So we are a little under there.
The costs that we haven't factored in yet are things like furniture and equipment and things like that. So we do have a pretty good estimate for that. What is that? We think we can get it done well within $30 million. So that still looks like overall for the total project that we would come in under the $200 million. Okay. senator hickey is your question on this you're recognized thank you and some of
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
16:18
this may be for staff two or three questions just first of all the way you have written this up and with what you just said so you said that we got 131 9 you all are hoping that you can construct it for that but then the next text says any funds not utilized this purpose will be put towards future construction of the building what sounded like to me that you might be thinking about buying furniture fixtures and equipment if there's any money left over if the way you what what if you finished the building you didn't need the money but you've
said that you're going to you're going to put it towards the construction what are you going to do with the money then what are we going to do with
Speaker 77
17:06
that part does that make sense so if it's not used for the construction then it would just move towards the furniture
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
17:12
and the equipment okay and that's my point the way and and maybe mr chair if uh they can state this from there it's just saying you're saying you're going to use it for the construction of the building furniture fixtures and equipment i don't look like that's construction uh so again i don't know if that
needs to be you know said in here or what just to make make 100 sure that that this body's okay with you using it you know for that purpose because the way i see it you couldn't use it for that the way you have it written anyway and maybe just for staff uh this 131 million we're dispersing all this at one time is that kind of been our normal course with this stuff that's coming out of uh the set asides or uh have we kind of been doing it more more in increments
Speaker 80
17:59
For this particular set-aside, Senator Hickey, it's been more piecemeal.
William Parrish
Unverified
18:02
They've only had three disbursements, all of last biennium, and it was $19 million altogether. $2 million here, $4 million there. This is the first large swing at that set-aside account. Okay. One more for
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
18:16
you all, if you don't mind. So here we are. We're going to give you $131 million. Who is overseeing this project to make sure that there's a draw schedule and that we're proceeding and that we're not getting over budget.
And if we were, how would you all at that point come to us or what would you do to say that it looks like that we're not proceeding at the right course? In other words, if we've only got, I'll make something totally up, $5 million for dirt work, and that's what's in our budget, but for some reason it comes in
Speaker 72
18:59
at $8 million. Who's overseeing that? So we've had very clear conversations with the construction company working on this that, you know,
we do not plan to come back to ask you for any more money and that, you know, they need to get this project done for the amount that they've said they will. And they've, you know, made every guarantee that they feel fully confident that they can. We have received an estimated schedule of the cost, you know, of where they think the cost will be each month. So we will be able to follow along with that and make sure we're not getting off course anywhere there.
a lot of the items that the big ticket items have already been ordered they're just things with long lead times so we don't expect you know changes to the cost of anything there and so we will be keeping up with this monthly there are there are month monthly meetings that i'm going to we're getting weekly reports from the construction company on what's happening out there i've been out there multiple times already to make sure that the construction project is going
as planned they are fully on schedule at this point right now they're they're going to be working saturdays if they need to to make sure that we stay on schedule so that's that's so if i'm
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
20:31
hearing you correct you all do have a draw schedule that that you have in hand that says something along the lines that whenever the rough end plumbing is done it's x amount of dollars whenever the slabs poured it's x amount of dollars is that what you're within your statement was that what you're referencing yes we do have estimates of what that cost is going to be at each
milestone correct okay and who and you said you i think who within your office is going to be monitoring that to make sure that we're staying staying in line with
Speaker 72
21:04
all that uh that'll be me at the crime lab along with the dps fiscal team that i'll be working closely with on that thank you sir yes go
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
21:20
ahead uh members and so the restricted reserve set aside the way that that was wondered
or worded that's a capital improvement uh bill that we had passed right and so the
language is for the facility project so it doesn't stipulate whether that be construction or anything else it's for the facility project of building a state crime lab and you know and creating a state crime lab and so that capital improvement can be used for both the construction and the purchase of furniture fixtures equipment and that sort of thing I mean that's that's the way the bill was worded that we passed representative ladyman you're recognized thank
Speaker 89
22:01
you mr chairman i'm over here uh got a couple
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
22:04
questions so you're requesting 132 million approximately how much did you say was budgeted 138 is what you said 139 was
Speaker 72
22:14
what was what we had originally estimated uh for that in a 100 and 136 is what uh their maximum price ended up being so that
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
22:29
million that you're not asking you're not going to spend right now but what's the size of this building
square footage how big is it it's approximately 190,000 square feet how many floors three three four hundred nice feet okay you know I know that during construction of a project that large there are going to be some probably changes needed two lights here you know another outlet here those kind of things may come up that would help the function of the building and you might want to make those changes that would cost extra money on an engineering change or a construction request
Speaker 72
23:12
do you think that is possible uh currently especially for some of those smaller things there is some contingency bit uh built into that i i believe it's currently about 1.5 million to allow and that's within the cost to allow um for any of those minor changes without us having to to come back and and request more funds and then any of that any of those funds that are not used um will either be returned or or used for for the the next step of the process and i i also just
wanted to point out we did we have requested some of the funds uh to to enter into the contract with a construction company so that's why this amount is a little bit less than that maximum price because this just this is just the extra amount to get us to
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
24:05
that maximum price but if you had if you had extra uh requirements that you ran into during the construction the way this is written to me you could come back and ask us to use that for additional construction things that you maybe
missed in the planning process and to me that's totally i mean you're only talking you're talking five percent of the total cost of the project for necessary unknown changes that's in your budget to me that's a good that's just good planning so i i think the way it's written uh that you could use that for unintended changes that you might run into during the construction would you agree with that
Speaker 72
24:47
uh yes certainly if if if that's something that that comes up obviously we don't
want to have to come back to ask for any more money. We want to get this done, you know, right on schedule. Um, but, but like I said, without knowing what some of those costs are going to be as we get towards the end of finishing this project, we can't make our, our best estimates right
Speaker 92
25:08
now. Well, it's been my experience. You'll run into things that you could do now that would save
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
25:14
us money in the future. And we need money available for those kinds of changes. If that happens yes and certainly with the with
Speaker 96
25:20
the amount of funds that are left available and what we're
Speaker 72
25:25
estimating for um for the furniture um you know and that that includes all of you know office uh office cubicles things like that um uh for for equipment for moving uh you know we've got a lot of specialized equipment that has to be specially uh moved it has to come and be disassembled moved by a specialty mover and then reassembled at the new facility um so we're not quite there yet
on estimating what all of those costs are going to be um but we hope to be there um within probably the next six months so we have a good picture of what we think the rest of this project is going to cost but we are certainly going to be the best stewards of the state's money that that we can and keep these costs as low as
Speaker 92
26:14
we possibly can well it's nice for you to come in under budget thank you for those answers thank
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:23
you sir love thank you mr. chair so let
me go back so we can we can clarify clarify
the the construction contract is already in is their contingency built into the that construction figure there is yes okay so you already have what five ten percent contingency built into the contract yes i think they've
Speaker 72
26:46
gotten it down to about seven percent now okay
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
26:50
all right so so so then for all intents and purposes you shouldn't for the construction part even have to come back to us because there's a contingency already built into
Speaker 72
27:00
the contract is that not correct we're certainly hoping to not have to that's correct we're hoping that that contingency will take care of any
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:11
unforeseen issues that may arise okay now the The second part, and I think I might have, Mr. Chair, need to come to staff. So the
$131 million that we're moving out of the restricted to the agency. Now, as of right now, is that in an interest-bearing account? Is it restricted in an interest-bearing account?
Speaker 103
27:34
I'm sorry, sir. I'd have to defer that to the agency for what the properties of that account looks
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:40
like. No, no, no. Well, I'm talking about the restricted account that we're moving it from. Is that an interest-bearing account?
William Parrish
Unverified
27:48
I'm seeing from Secretary Hudson that it is.
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
27:50
Okay. So now the account that we're moving it to, is that an interest-bearing
account? I'm also seeing yes. Okay. All right. Then that was the only concern that I had. It's like, are we moving $131 million from an interest-bearing account to an interest-bearing account or a non-interest-bearing account?
All right. So then that means, how long is this
Speaker 72
28:16
construction project? We expect the full construction project to be completed in July of 2027. And so
Speaker 102
28:22
they began around August this year, so a two-year project. Two-year project,
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
28:27
okay, because that means $131 million over a two-year period of time. I know that it does go down as we draw, but that's still money that you all will be accumulating.
Is that not correct? That is correct, yes. Okay. So then that means that there is another contingency on the money because you all will already have that money. Will you all have the spending authority?
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
28:56
Secretary Hudson, can you come to the table? I think this is going to be better if you answer these fund account questions versus nodding your head off the record. It makes me, as a chair, feel more comfortable anyway.
Speaker 108
29:12
Jim Hudson, Secretary of DFA. Senator, it is interest-bearing, but that interest does not go back to the agency. That's in just the general interest pool, and that ends up in the securities reserve account. Okay. That gets redistributed at the end of the fiscal year along with all the accumulated surplus. Okay, so that doesn't go back to
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
29:29
the agency. They can't spend it, no, sir. Okay, all right.
Speaker 109
29:32
Thank you. thank you mr chair thank you that was simple any further questions on this item or items
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
29:44
seeing none do i have a motion our motion do pass you got a second all those in favor say aye all opposed eyes have it members as we move
on to the items for review staff's going to oh yep go ahead sorry i'm
William Parrish
Unverified
30:00
ahead of the game thank you mr
we're in section g this is an an appropriation and or fund transfer request that requires approval. This item is from the Department of Transportation. It's a $20 million transfer from the Highway Transfer Fund from interest earnings in the Treasurer's Securities Reserve Fund.
The Arkansas Highway Improvement Plan of 2016 sought $50 million. That's from existing fund sources to produce a state match that would draw down all available federal aid. Proceeds from the Securities Reserve Fund are a component, along with state surplus and other sources. The act requires approval from ALC to make the transfer to the department. Seeing no questions, do I have a motion? Do I have a motion? Do
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
30:40
I have a second? Do I have a second? Representative Ladyman, all those in favor, say aye. All opposed? Ayes have it.
Now, I will give you the explanation of the items of review. Mr. Parris is going to go through items H through K at the end. If you have a question on one of those items, you will specify that at the beginning of your question. Otherwise, we will take those without objection. Mr.
William Parrish
Unverified
31:04
Parrish, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're going to start with Section H. This is another appropriation and or fund transfer request, but it requires review. This is a request from the Public Defender Commission, Commission for Parent Counsel. It's for $30,000 to transfer from legal services, refunds, and reimbursements to an extra help line item.
The letter explains they have a contract attorney who will no longer be available. They would use the appropriation for that contract to hire extra help, and special language allows it after review by LC. The next section is the cash fund appropriation section. Item I-1 is a letter from the Department of Education, Division of Higher Education for $100,000 in appropriation. This is to make a grant for the Arkansas-based Youth Mental Health Corps. It's supported by a grant from Impact Assets. Next item I-2 is a letter from Southern Arkansas University. It's for $9.1 million in spending authority.
This is to make capital improvements to the football stadium, women's athletics facility and other related projects is supported by donor funds. Staff learned that this request is 80% of the total project. The remaining 20% will come from university reserves and a related method of finance will be on the review subcommittee on that agenda this afternoon. The next section is section J. These are miscellaneous federal grant appropriation requests. The first item number one is request from the Department of Health is for 2.6 million.
They have a grant from the CDC to enhance the state's immunization information system. Then J2 is a request from Department of Commerce, Division of Workforce Services, Office of Skills Development. It's for 780,000 appropriation and to establish two positions. They have a grant from the US Department of Labor to expand registered apprenticeship as a workforce development strategy. Title and class for the two positions will be reviewed in the personnel subcommittee. Those are all the employees. The next section is overtime. This is section K.
And there's one request from the Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Management. It's for 50,000 in overtime appropriation. They cite work during severe weather events in March and April for the increased overtime. Mr. Chair, those are all the review
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
33:11
items. - Seeing no questions on any of those, they stand reviewed without objection. So we'll move on to
the reports. Members, any questions on the reports?
Seeing none, we have no other business. We stand adjourned.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
Items for Approval
B. Various Temporary Appropriation Requests
C. CARES Act Appropriation Request
D. American Rescue Plan Act Appropriation Request
E. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Appropriation Request
F. Restricted Reserve Fund Transfer Requests
G. Appropriation and/or Fund Transfer Request
Items for Review
H. Appropriation and/or Fund Transfer Request
I. Cash Fund Appropriation Requests
J. Miscellaneous Federal Grant Appropriation Requests
K. Overtime Appropriation Request
Reports
L. Annual Report
M. Quarterly Report
N. Monthly Reports
O. Other Business
P. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 2
Speaker 1
Speaker 7
Speaker 12
Speaker 13
Speaker 9
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Speaker 23
William Parrish
Unverified
Senator Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 45
Speaker 53
Speaker 56
Speaker 31
Speaker 71
Speaker 72
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Speaker 77
Speaker 80
Senator Jonathan Dismang
Unverified
Speaker 89
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Speaker 92
Speaker 96
Speaker 103
Speaker 102
Speaker 108
Speaker 109