ALC - JBC Budget Hearings
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- October 6, 2026
right we're we're getting started again so we are now live streamed so the next
thing on the agenda is to adopt the rules so in your packets item B are the rules there have been no changes from previous so if I could get a motion to adopt the rules I've got a motion could I get a second? got a motion I have a second. all in favor say aye any opposed hearing none motion passes rules are now adopted.
The next thing is item C an explanation of budget man manuals Miss Jessica Moore if you'll come to the table and give us a brief explanation please. please introduce yourself and you can beginjessica Moore state budget
Speaker 6
3:37
directors department of finance anddministration. good morning everyone I hope today that I can explain the budget
basics and all the fundamentals and then also give you guidance on how to navigate a budget manual. budget manuals are filled with terminology that are very specific accounting codes so I hope after this you feel a little bit more comfortable so the first foundation of budget is appropriation that's your maximum authority to spend by the general assembly that's been permitted for an agency for purpose for specific purpose appropriation of spending authority and by itself does not indicate that funding is available. The next portion being funding that's the resources the financial
resources that are used to support the appropriation that has been granted by the general assembly that could be special revenue, general revenue other funding that will help support that expense the last being commitment items that's our bucket for categorizing our expenditures and those classifications could be personal services your maintenance and operations grants and aid it's the specific of what the agency is utilizing the appropriation for and altogether those formed the budget so before you
you have a set of documents and the first page is the department summary any department that has more than one appropriation will have a summarized view of what that department looks like at the top is the total of all appropriations the bottom being the total funding used to support that agency if you follow with me to page two this is the analysis of budget this is gonna be a high level overview of what the appropriation is specifically utilized for it will tell you what the appropriation how it's
funded and the specifics around that funding and if there is an agency request that differs from the current authorized level it will explain what those items are and the executive recommendation will follow behind. page three is the appropriation summary specific to this appropriation it's the more detailed view of this state appropriation at the top again you still have the overall authority to spend the bottom showing your funding forexx the starting point for all budget
requests is the current year authorized with the exception of two categories and those categories are personal services and capital outlay agencies that determine that they may need capital outlay expenditures in the upcoming biennium will request rest or ation and your personal service matching and salaries is now reflective of your liability to support any field positions or authorized positions that includes any approved merit increases in the implementation of Act499's pay plan. if there's a need for additional detail and explanation there
will be a footnote at the bottom on the appropriation summary and additionally looking at this you can see the picture and the structure going from the past the present and the future the past being the conclusion of the prior fiscal year 26 and what the actual expenses were for that agency the 27 being the budget expenditures for this year that will conclude June30,2027 in 2829 are the expected needs for the department. one other thing to note is that for Fy27 and beyond so the present and the
future the appropriation manuals are structured to assume that all appropriation above will be expensed although that may not be the case as you can see in the actual exp end itu re s and so with this I hope this roadmap helps over the next four weeks if you have any questions concerns you're always welcome to reach out to
me and I'm available Miss Moore, thank you for your presentation. are there any questions? seeing no questions you're dismissed
right. I'm gonna quickly go over common ALC joint budgetgeittee motions
if you have any questions let me know but otherwise I'm sure Miss Cartwright would be happy to help you or or answer those as we go but a main motion is executive committee recommendation. a majority of agencies follow this agency request and AR for agencies that do not receive an executive recommendation and then an
a heckB recommendations and that's for institutes of institutions of higher education legislation legislative recommendation either an executive recommendation or an agency request with an exception example an executive request with the exception of operating expenses at $1 million for fy 28 and Fy29 then fiscal publications aook 10 10 year expenditure history broken out byuny Bbook
selected financial data including collections, distributions and expenditures and then tax handbook is a summary of the history of current taxes and fees levied by the state of Arkansas any questions on that seeing none we are moving on so we're
OK so moving on itemd1 Katie Walden if
you'll come to the table and then Mr Bassett secretary of Department of Labor andliccensing Boards you're you're welcome to join Katy at the table.
OK so let's just have all four of you introduce yourselves and then after everyone has introduced himself or herself, Miss Walden you may begin thank you Mr
Speaker 24
9:50
Chair Katie Walden bureau of Legislative Research Fiscal Division. Tyler Kane, CFO thank you
Chair
Unverified
9:58
Mr Chair Darrelbassett secretary laborbor and licensing Steve Gunthorp chief of staff laborbor and licensing Thank you Mr Chair good morning
Speaker 24
10:08
members as I just said I'm Katty and I'm here to walk you through the department of laborbor
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
10:14
budget today the department of laborbor and licensing is their mission is to foster, promote and develop the health safety and welfare of wage earners in the state by providing services and enforcing laws to improve working conditions and enhance opportunities for safe and profitable employment their full budget request can be found in the 1st 10,000 pages of this book however to save you from having to flip through all those pages
our staff took the boards and commissions and condense their totals into the sheet that you'll find on your desk titled d one this is the budget request I'm gonna go over with you first. So just walking you through this schedule each boarding commission there are 19 for your review today are listed by agency number so you can see them all named on the
left hand side and then moving forward you'll see the page number where each summary is found within the book. as Miss moreore so eloquently mentioned that the amounts listed here are listed under past present and future so it'll be the same as you see it in the budget manuals. actctual actual expenditures for 2526 authorized for the current year and then
Speaker 24
11:30
you'll see the request for 28 and29 in the executive wreck.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
11:40
Finally at the bottom you'll see a total row and you'll see that in 25 and26 they spent $11.6 million total and they are requesting total appropriation of 15.7 million with all of these appropriations combined. there is one board with a an actual change level that is not reflective of just normal adjustments and it is the athletic commission and that is found on page 24.
They previously had a restricted reser amount that they were spending down on to help support the operations of the athletic commission but that funding has expired and so the athletic commission or the they're requesting to discontinue that appropriation. but all of the other appropriations for the boards and commissions that regulate the professions around the states are requested
Speaker 24
12:32
to continue their appropriation levels into the next biennium and the executive recommendation provides for this request.
thank you for your presentation. do we have any questions for the group Representative
Hudson you are recognized I panicked. Thank you Mr Chair and thank you all for being
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
13:09
here. I just had a quick question and looking at the actual expenditures and the authorized expenditures there are several categories where the
actual expenditures in 25 and26 are significantly lower than the authorized amount of money that that the individual departments received. I wondered why in light of the fact that in many of these categories the spending was you know,100,000 or less what the authorized amount is that we're continuing to request money at those levels
Speaker 40
13:52
Representative is there a particular division that
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
13:57
you're referring to? sure. so, um, if you look at the motor vehicle commission it looks like in 2526 actual expenditures were594,000 authorized with705,000 Arkansas manufactured Home Commission actual was303,000 authorized was485,000 the real estate commission 1.5
million actual 1.9 million authorized the and and part of that was the real estate recovery fund which was only45,000 used out of a total appropriation of352,000. so I just wondered if you could kind of walk us through why in light of the fact that our actual expenditures are are pretty significantly lower than what the request is why we need to continue to fund at these higher levels
Speaker 43
14:47
very good questionpresentative and I I'd I'd love to address
Chair
Unverified
14:53
that that's a function of us trying to do more with less we we need to keep the levels there but what we've also experienced over the last four years certainly our goal is always to keep revenue stable and our revenues have been relatively stable our spending has been held flat and that's a function of what you're seeing there and our request more importantly have been targeted what we're trying to do is ring
out the surpluses and the unnecessary redundancies in spending at the same time though we need to have a buffer just in case something happens what you I request is generally been shown to be flat over the last what several legislative sessions we keep we keep that level but at the same time I'm I'm just really pinching pennies and I want them to if they're if they're going to request
funds they absolutely have to be necessary and so yes we're a little low we're a little low and we're spending less than what what's been appropriated but we need that as a buffer just in case and that's that's our philosophy hope that answers your
question ma'am thank you uhpresentative garner you are recognized
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
16:26
thank you Mr Chair. I just have a quick question and that is about the the turnaround time for license fees what boards and commissions have the the
largest staffing vacancies and are those vacancies affecting any licensing turning turnaround you want to just
Speaker 43
16:47
that already I can do it here's the I'll do it because I think rosarner is
Chair
Unverified
16:53
looking directly at me when we first went through
transformationpresentative garner we had people around the building lining up for licenses what we've done over the last four years is we've instituted what we call an electronic licensing platform we it's ELP in short our turnaround times have gone from months to a matter of days because now what we have instead of people coming to our our department and filling
out forms we're doing it online and so what we have seen is a tremendous improvement in our turnaround times as they say from from from months in some cases to now just a matter of days and so I think our const itu en c ies are happy with that they're not having to come to the office now there are problems I'm not going to sit sit here and sugarcoat it and say that we we're not having problems we do have some problems in some of our rural areas that don't have broadband
access and where people are experiencing some difficulties actually getting
Speaker 55
18:03
online we've solved that problem through a number of ways but our turnaround times are tremendous you you you Senator Hill, you are recognized thank you Mr Chair over here is Mr
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
18:20
Secretary kind of going on with what Representativehudson was saying just a while ago
whenever you said you had a little buffer there and I'm looking at the
difference between 11 million688 and 15 million367. that's roughly 25% that's more than a little buffer from the actual expense in 2526 to what we're what we're looking
Chair
Unverified
18:46
at well what we normally experience being a a special revenue agency senator is a little bit different than a normal general revenue agency we the reason that we need buffers in various divisions and
now the buffers aren't across the board we have some agencies that have tremendous fund balances and we have some agencies that quite frankly are struggling and so we don't have a a set amount of buffer across the entire department what we have to do is we have to budget for each of these divisions separately all 19 divisions we have to budget for them separately because we can't share the funds those special
revenue funds as you know senator have to be used for those specific purposes and so while you may see a tremendous buffer in one division you may see others and we have four that are very very tight and so the philosophy the overall philosophy for us to to to adopt a conservative approach to to fiscal management means that we we need to have some buffers there and I hope you understand that and so while
it may be 25% for one division it may be3 for another. I don't know if I'm addressing your your concern but if if not please come back to me and let me know what your concern is
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
20:18
well well I just basically look at the overall your total number that you have down here is what I'm using the 11,688 and the 15367 which is your total figure which would take into account the difference between the the categories that you were referring to and that's one
that's showing a 25% increase on your total from an actual versus where we're at I
Speaker 46
20:41
I understand it is it is kind of what it is senator that's where we are and but
Chair
Unverified
20:47
that's the philosophy behind why that number is where it is. OK thank you sir yes sir Representative Wooton
you are recognized Thank you Mr Chairman. Secretary
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
21:06
I have3 or4 questions if I may Mr Chairman. the first the first question is to M Waldronalron on the on the on the first page this page here OK the they have a fund balance of48 million the 9 million in the column funding above average in other words they were they have a $9 million more than the
than the48 million each year so you have average expenditures of 19 million. this is for the whole department Mr Secretary.19 million average expenders and then you have a revenue of 25 million which is6 million more and then you have a3year expenses of57 million and then you have a balanced funding above a three year
average of $9 million is that is that correct Yes sirirpresentative am understanding that they have an average of 9 million more than they need in funding is that is that what the report is telling us if I'm reading it correctly no sir. so so you received 9 million is that the buffer you're talking about
In regards to the funding average ear average is that million dollars more than you need average that 9 million is that what is that what we're saying
Chair
Unverified
23:00
no sir you're what we're saying is that 1 million represents that's the funding above the three year average of all of the all of the divisions what's the what's
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
23:14
that act t 114 what the report's saying
is that you have $9 million more than you need to meet your annual expenditures is
Chair
Unverified
23:27
that correct no syrup what what you have is uhpresentative who is you have your fund balance is subtracted from your threeyear expenses that give you a a funding above the three year average and your three year average if you look for your expenditure it's 192.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
23:50
3 year average above the funding. yes but that's a negative amount my next question has to do with positions you have uh31 you have 292 positions total authorization or 292 positions31 of which have over two years old,18 of those are in the workers' compensation that's a that's over that's a
over half of them. What what's what's the problem in the workers' comp that you can't fill the positions do you not need them or they're not funded or Kingfield
Speaker 55
24:38
of course I have the director of workers' comp here who could come up and address that specific issue whatpresentative wooten
Representative Wooton we're we're gonna come back to workers' comp OK? so let's let's wait on that
Chair
Unverified
24:54
we're gonna do what Mr chairman we're going to come back to workers' comp. they're coming up later on the agenda. OK all right thank you thank you Mr Chairman Are you finished
Yes yes all right thank you uhpresentative Paintner you're recognized. Thank you Mr Chair. Mr Secretary, again, I want
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
25:15
to go back kind of the questionsing that Representative Ggarner and Senator Hill were going down. so you're talking about a buffer and looking at
the total for 2526 was 11.6 million and then authorized 15 so you have a buffer there then you're increasing Fy wies 2728 and2829x 400,000. so you're looking at rough estimate of3.9 million dollar buffer explain to me why do we need almost4 million dollars of a buffer zone. that's very hard for me to understand. I don't know why we can't do one or two. so why do we need4 million is this buffer zone
Chair
Unverified
26:01
Senator my take on this is that our pay plan we have increases each year anywhere from3% and we've been trying our best to stay within budget and as the secretary stated earlier being conservative in our in our estimating we projected perhaps these additional funds are gonna be needed this appropriation is going to be needed for those expenditures that is going to come in the
future because we have been inundated with increases in our salaries and our friends ben benefits and so we're expecting some of these increases to affect that
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
26:46
balance so we're expecting4 million dollars close to that of increases perhaps maybe a little bit less
Chair
Unverified
26:53
than that but we do expect that we're gonna have some payroll increases and also additional increases in our labor force
thank you Mr Chair. Representative hawk you
are recognized Thank you Mr Chair.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
27:16
Thank you Mr Secretary. I was looking at the professional bail bond company and professional bail bondsman licensing boardard and when you look down towards the bottom it talks about the bail bond recovery and the cash reimbursements that didn't have anything in 25 and26. and then you look towards the 2728 and it goes to 220,000 and then 1.1
million for those two categories did those just
Speaker 108
27:38
not exist or why are we now putting cash and special funds in those categories now when we didn't do it before we're going to bring up our director
Speaker 112
27:58
for bellbonds thank you becau because they're gonna be additional questions to that
please introduce yourself and then you may
Speaker 115
28:21
the bell bonds board would you repeat your question so I'm looking
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
28:26
down through here and in 2526 the the licensing boardard cash reimbursements and the bail bond recovery funds didn't have anything in 25 and26 and then when you jump over to 27 and28, those categories now have
220,001.169 million in those two categories. just wondering like did those two categories just not exist in 25 and26 and now we've created that or why the difference in in numbers moving
Speaker 114
28:55
forward I'd say that in 2526 we didn't have any forfeitures being pulled from the recovery fund and this year we're having to pull lots of assets from that recovery fund from a company that went out of business. I think that's probably where that's coming from is we're having to we didn't pull any last time and
we're having to pull quite a bit this time
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
29:16
so on the recovery fund I mean being that there was no actual expenditures so did they
Speaker 119
29:22
did that other company did they handle the recovery fund that you're talking about sir the
Speaker 114
29:28
recovery fund each bond puts money into this recovery fund and then if a company goes out of business and they don't satisfy their forfeitures with the court systems then we pull that money out of the recovery fund and that's what it was started for was so if a company
goes out the the courts get their money got you
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
29:48
so so this is essentially a new thing since we didn't do that in 2526 then because I'm just looking at the numbers and it has it has a blank space and then all of a sudden we've got 1.1 million in that so thank you Representative painter
you are recognized. Thank you Mr Chair. how many
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
30:07
employees do you have total for the department? across the department of
Speaker 46
30:15
laborbor and licensing secret 95.295 and that's going down as we speak OK thank you. I'm just trying to do the math
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
30:22
in my head with the4 million dollars buffer zone that we're expecting for raises and whatever it may be in in the math so thank you Representative Johnson you are recognized just just
to clarify on that questionpresentative Painter had when you
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
30:35
say I'm sorry you over here in the corner had to pick seats late yeah it's a good spot to be you can hide over
here and just listen and watch. so when you
say you have 209 employees, is that within the division or is that within the department because to me there's two different things so the department so that includes all the employees of any commission any of the 17 boards and commissions y'all oversee? OK, so how many are within the division so in my mind and maybe I have this wrong but in my mind the way the department is divided up is there's a division which received general revenue and then there's all these independent boards and commissions which are receiving special revenue is that oh
Chair
Unverified
31:18
you're you're talking about just the the ones that received general revenue that would be the legacy labor legacy labor what we're looking at
Speaker 134
31:25
laborboor you're looking at69 so there's only69 employees that are actually putting pressure on general revenue all
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
31:30
the all the other employees are coming from special revenue within each independent commission OK thank you SenatorRos you are recognized chairir Secretary Bassett it was I think it was a couple of years
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
31:50
ago was the last report I'd heard but looking at the divisions here on boilerlectrical and Hvac I believe some testimony was that the department was working with industry to enhance some pretty wide gaps in the need of refrigeration training can you give us an update on any of these three agencies or
all these three agencies is the is the
Speaker 55
32:27
yes yes I can I can give you an overview and I have the director would be licensing absolutely no bring alpha yes
Chair
Unverified
32:40
I can. we have what we what we what we're experiencing experience there senator starting I guess four years ago
there was a real disconnect between the state department and the actual people the actual occupation occupations out around the state we weren't dealing with business we didn't we weren't asking what you need in terms of occu of licenses we weren't asking what where are you getting your licenses from we weren't asking questions of the two year colleges you know are you
producing students we weren't really addressing needs of business and industry. and I think that's what you're referring to what we've seen is a pickup in those those licenses and we've seen a a more concerted effort to actually talk to business and industry with regard to those those those those those licenses particularly electrical and Hvac is to a lesser
extent buthvac as well I've I really reorganized that entire division and I brought uhlindsey Moore in to actually do that outreach for us and so I broughtlindsey to the tablelindsey you want to talk a little bit about what we've been doing to try to enhance our our our our presence there in those in those areas address electrical first and then go to
Speaker 93
34:18
boiler yes as a matter of fact I'm lindseyore I'm director of code
Speaker 145
34:28
enforcement. we've been working with this body as well as with our stakeholders out in the regulated community working on development electrical we've increased our approach and put in a whole new approach to apprenticeship working with officerkisvelopment we're trying to bring more folks into the trade we have a national shortage of electricians everyone is aware we're losing 10,000 a month. we're bringing 8000 back in Arkansas with Act746 we shortened up we
reduced licenses but at the same time we increased scope of work which gives these folks currently licensed a better opportunity and then with the the additional scope of work we're bringing folks in that once we're not able to to attain any type of licensure we've got a pathway in the educational pathway for them boiler we've been really proactive working we have another area where we have a shortage of licensed boiler operators. we've been working and we've even approached
Department of Corrections to give a pathway for for folks coming out to kind of help in the recidicism and give them a pathway with an entrylevel job and training and moving them forward we work with the regulated community idsouthboer probably one of the nation's best boiler manufacturers puts on regular classes that we attend and we help school I'm currently working with the Arkansas Boiler association and now sitting on their board in one of our primary goals is to increase
education and increase the the public awareness of the need for this job it's a great career it's it's a dirty work but it's a great career and we need people to come in to do
Speaker 93
36:13
it and we're doing everything we can from our section to help promote that it's it's super and also senator I just want
Chair
Unverified
36:20
to again highlight what we've done withhvac as well I I don't wanna say these were forgotten occupations but they were occupations that the state was not paying attention to and not
trying to grow in a very meaningful way so would you you just go ahead and elaborate a little bit on Hvac and what we're
Speaker 145
36:40
what we're doing with HVvaC. sure we've partnered with the Arkansas HVACR association they are the representatives for the regulated community we're working with them providing trainings we are providing encouragement we're trying to bring folks into the trade the practice the craft again it starts off it's you always have an entry level but then after they enter the we've got
pathways now built where these folks can come on to start their own business to grow the businesses with our larger companies we're working with them we're working with utilities Summit and entergy to help promote the craft and get folks into the thank you
Speaker 139
37:17
for the report and that when we talked your secretary a couple of years ago I I
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
37:22
knew that's where you led me to believe that's where y'all were heading so that's a great report I haven't heard
complaints so that that's one good thing I just want to know well you lit a fire under me so this body to know that you know there was a great need and when government is just taking a fee that doesn't help anybody when you're working with the industry and seeing what what needs and and meet those needs is what makes a difference so thank you for that report. thank you sir
Senator Mark Johnson you are recognized thank you
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
37:58
Mr Chairman Mr Secretary thank you for the
information you share with us for the benefit of everyone else and you and I and your staff have had conversations about doing some things to modernize the process we used to inspect manufactured and modular housing in the state and I'm grateful for the work you're doing and and I think we're moving closer to doing that as you know congreman Hill sponsored some significant legislation that changes some things that the hud level in dealing with
manufactured housing and modular housing for the betterment of of society and helping lower the cost of housing for our people does your request include the things that you potentially would need to help implement these changes as we move along or is something we we might need to look at more carefully in the session well yes sir
Speaker 125
38:56
it does and again that's where we we talk about buffers and we're gonna
Chair
Unverified
39:01
need money for diff d you know
additional approaches that legislation is going to be a boon I think for economic development in the state it's gonna allow us to be able to recruit companies to Arkansas in a way that we've not done before but we can't come back to you and ask you for general revenue in that area because that's a special revenue area and so again we need to have monies available in that area so that we can provide the incentives that are necessary to move forward so I I
I appreciate your work with the with the with the with the congressman and I look forward to some really good economic development announcements in the future as we pursue that so based on
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
39:47
this buffer term you use then you should be ok for for the next fiscal year we'll we'll be we'll be
Chair
Unverified
39:54
fine we'll we'll make it and and if we run close we'll just have to find ways to cut costs because that's what special revenue agencies do we don't have the general
revenue so we'll have to cut costs and but I think we'll be fine. OK great thank you
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
40:10
Mr Secretary thank you Mr chairman you sir Senator Bryant you are recognized thank
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
40:17
you Mrir Secretary of the year of the general revenue that you do receive at the RSA how much of that are you using to attempt to offset some of the special revenues that may be in in decline we we can't so you can't so we can't so if no money can can transfer over
Speaker 92
40:37
no no no money can transfer over the it it's just a no no so so if you have
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
40:43
a a division that has a weak special revenues and you you'd like to raise maybe the fees for that and of course it takes a legislative action and maybe the legislature is not kind to do those things how do you backfill that that division in order to make sure you have the appropriate funding. that's what we have to do without
Chair
Unverified
41:10
without a single payer system where we can share of our fund balances we have to either look at elimination of personnel within that division or we have to look at consolidating those divisions that are that are deficient we have of those right now that may be in that
predicament we have let's see well we have towing and recovery is one geologist is another auctioneers athletic commission and our HVvac divisions are in the in that gray area where they're so close that if we
Speaker 55
42:01
if we if we run into problems then we'll
Chair
Unverified
42:06
have to look at cutting back on services or cutting back on personnel
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
42:15
so the other option would be to come to us next year and ask for increases
Speaker 92
42:20
of those fees we can't because there's special revenue agencies but I mean as far as like you charge Hvax50 dollars for their license and they charge h is not something that we want to consider a fee increases it's not something that we're interested in doing but that would be the dilemma that we would have thank you sir Representative Lynch, you are recognized
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
42:48
yes Secretary first off as you're aware the HBAsCR association is trying to develop an apprenticeship program for entry into that discipline so some point or another they're gonna be contacting your department for coordination on that the other thing is the the continuing education requirements were changed from four hours per year to 8 hours every3 years and that does not match the licensing cycle so
there's confusion in the industry I've had several calls about when is the training required so that's a hope and a wish on my part that y'all would get that lined out and get that communicated to the trade Representative Lynch
Speaker 93
43:32
we are well very aware of that and we're working on it and if if you would allow us to we would respond
Chair
Unverified
43:39
to you directly as a matter of fact we've got a couple of meetings set up just next week to address that issue and so I will have either me personally or have a member of
my staff get back to you and give you
Speaker 55
43:53
a rundown on where we are but we are we're aware of that that
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
43:58
discrepancy that'd be great because Tom Tomhunt's in my back pocket. Well
Speaker 55
44:02
we lovehvac we love electrical and and boiler I mean their their principal clearly you heard me speak
Chair
Unverified
44:08
to Senator Rice about the fire he led under me so we're we're we're attentive to that we're aware of that discrepancy and we're we're dealing with it thank you yes sir thank youpresentativepresentativeladyman
you are recognized for a question and then after that we're going to go to Rep Mcola. so if you've got a burning quick question after
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
44:33
her please get in the queue quickly. thank you Mr Chairman. Secretarybassett you've got some tough I'm over here I'm sorry you've had some tough questions here and I know you didn't get much sleep last night and we're praying for your wife hope she's OKok so appreciate
you being here but may not be a question maybe be more of a statement but we have a subcommittee of council which talks about these things that are in this budget in detail each division is you bring two or three divisions to each meeting and we beat that horse to death for about three hours and many people in here are not on that committee and quite honestly the people there's not very many people show up but we get into great detail and your income stream in these special funds basically comes
from these departments that you oversee and the way you control that income is increase or decrease their fees in a lot of cases is that correct sir your income is limited and each one of these is a different animal. I think that committee does very good work but my question to you is there anything we can do in that committee to help to help answer some of these questions I mean if y'all have suggestions on how
we can do that better I would appreciate
Speaker 92
45:58
hearing that Well Mr Ladydyman I appreciate that I I would just I would just encourage
Chair
Unverified
46:03
you to bring us in there and beat us up for three hours and and find out just exactly what our issues are I welcome that the exposure and that experience we we are limited because we're special revenue that's the only way that we're going to get get these initiatives off off the ground so all I can say is that I
welcome coming in and getting beat up for three hours and that you'll know what we're facing and and we'll be able to explain to you what we need in order to go
forward. Thank you uhpresentative McCuough, you're recognized for a question. thank you
Representative Tippi McCullough
Unverified
46:43
Mr Chair right here I'm you you mentioned not wanting to raise, you know, fees licensing fees and everything. I'm wondering are we accumulating reserves that that we don't need that we're
not spending is there ever any room to lower licensing fees for
Speaker 125
47:03
any of these professions Yes ma'am they're there there is there are
Chair
Unverified
47:08
we have some agencies that have very large fund balances and while I've just given you five of the agencies that are struggling we have other agencies that have huge fund balances what we've been doing to try to
reduce those fund balances I'll give you an example with the accounting for example we're working now on a program through with UCA to actually put accounting into high schools so that kids that graduate from high school they already have credits college credits for for accounting and so by the time they graduate from college the program will actually place
them in accounting firms well we're going to fund that with those fund balances we have architecture which is one of our occupations has a rather large fund balance what we're willing to do is is set up a scholarship program for Arkansas kids who want to get into architecture and provide them with scholarships so we're we're not just keeping those fund balances there we're we're we're we're finding innovative ways to help within that occupation
but I just want to let you know that those huge fund balances in architecture and accounting I can't use them to save these other five that are on the verge of bankruptcy. I can't do that. I would love to be able to but but that did that answer your question ma'am yeah thank you thank you ma'am Thank you so that's
the one do I see no other questions do I have a recommendation an executive a motion to approve the executive recommendation I've got a motion do I have a second? I have a motion, I have a second all in favor say aye any opposed hearing none the motion passes. moving on to d2 Miss Walden, you may begin your presentation. thank you. thank you Mr
Speaker 125
49:27
Chairman I see that we were first and and that's a great honor but in
Chair
Unverified
49:34
state government I know going first often means we get to show everyone else what they're supposed to do so I I
appreciate that yeah Mrbassett plea you're you're a part of d2 as well
Speaker 183
49:50
All right. Miss Walden, you may begin thank you, Mr Chair. The next
Speaker 24
49:56
item I'm going to be reviewing with you today is the department of laborbor and licensing the shared servicevices appropriation and the division.
one moment and this begins what is in your book so your white binder will have this presentation and the presentation's going forward so opening your
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
50:14
white binder you'll see the division request begins on page one
Speaker 24
50:20
of your white binder you'll see some information that DFfa has provided and then the appropriation summary
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
50:25
on page two for the shared services appropriation you'll note that the Hvac board is also on here but you all already reviewed and
recommended that and then the department of laborbor and licensing shared Services appropriation. on pages5 and6 of your book, you'll see the narrative and the appropriation summary for the shared servicevices paying account. The agency uses this appropriation to provide shared services for administration, human resources finance, legal, any other centralized support functions within the cabinet level agency and they're designed to provide consistent management across the
agency. This is funded with transfers from all the various boards and commissions under the administration of the department of laborbor and licensing on the appropriation summary you'll see that their request is for4.5 million dollars for each year of the biennium this includes one change level request that I'll mention to you today they asked for an increase of $277,000 in operating expenses and this is for two purposes. It is to provide for annual software licensing for
their enterprise licensing platform 13 of their boards and commissions participate in this enterprise licensing platform with shared services and also for the my eo tab telematics equipment for vehicle mon it or ing for all the vehicles in the cabinet agency's fleet the executive recommendation provides for this increase and so that includes the shared services appropriation Next I'll move to the division
of laborbour and that's flipping all the way to page55. this is the centralized operations for the division of labor It also includes appropriations for the boiler inspection, electrical examiners. so I'm not going to mention those because those have already been reviewed but you'll see this division includes
6 total appropriations and that includes6.5 million dollars for each year of the biennium. re ak ing down each appropriation for your review today we have first the operations appropriation that is summarized on page 58 of the manual you'll note that this appropriation is funded with general revenue and these are the legacy positions that they mentioned previously that were housed under the division of laborboor and they provide for the required
state match for federal grants and they also include the supervision of the division of laborbor. the agency requests $2.7 million for each year of the biennium and this is a continuation of the previous level and the executive recommendation provides for this request. skipping forward to page62 this is the federal programmes appropriation
it supports several program areas including the occupational safety and healthalthdministration consultation programin safety and
Speaker 24
53:51
healthaldtration consultation as well as census activities the agency requests $1.6 million for each year
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
53:58
of the biennium and this is fully federally funded and the executive recommendation provides for this request. Next we have page66. This is the
wage and hour cash appropriation this appropriation is a cash appropriation the agency uses as a pass through this is to disperse funding, collected from employers when an employer owes compensation to an employee as a result of a dispute. and legal action is pursued by the department. the agency has had an increase in these types of awards in the last biennium and so they are requesting to increase this
appropriation by $200,000 up to400,000 dollars for each year
Speaker 24
54:52
of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides for this request. the final one is the
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
55:02
seminar and conference expenses cash appropriation. This is on page 68 they utilize this appropriation to cover expenses associated with hosting safety seminars trainings and conferences across the state
it is funded with cash revenues consisting of fees collected from participants who attend these events the agency requests a continuation of48,000 dollars for each year of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides for this. Thank you Mr chairir.
yousalden. we have a question from Representative meeks. Representative meeks you are recognized thank you Mr Chair and Miss Walden you may be
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
55:43
able to answer this on page 66
authorized expenditures make sure I'm reading this right, authorized expenditures under the appropriation were $200,000. how it looks like they actually spent350,000 dollars far exceeding their appropriation. so make sure I'm understanding this where they legally authorized to spend that 150,000 or did we grant an extension or what what's going on with that yes sir chairir the agency
Speaker 24
56:23
requested an appropriation a temporary appropriation in peer and they received that authorization through the legislative council during the interim. all
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
56:31
right I I figured that's probably what happened but I just wanted to
verify it. All right. thank you. thank you for that clarification any other questions seeing none do
I have a motion for to OKok I have a motion for the executive recommendation. I have a second by Representative beatty all in favor say aye any opposed motion passes we are
now moving on tod3 and so Mr. Bessetbassett you are Mr. Mark McGuire is with you as well sir OK
I don't think my microphone on so just to clarify take a step back my that motion did pass on the
executive recommendations for the record so M Walden you may
begin. thank you. thank you Mr Chair. My last
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
57:24
presentation for you all this morning is for the workers'
Speaker 24
57:28
compensation commission. it begins on page 90 of your manual the workers' compensation commission administers and enforces Arkansas's workforce compensation law to ensure that all covered employers secure insurance coverage from commercial carriers through self-insurance programs. They also adjudicate all workrelated injury claims by employees against their employers or their insurance carriers.
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
57:47
the department appropriation summary is on page 91
you'll see they have5 appropriations totalling35.1 million dollars for each year of the biennium I'll review these appropriations for you. The first one is refunds and claims it is summarized on page 93 this appropriation is for the death and permanent total disability claims programme this is for benefits to eligible employees or their dependents after the employer benefit is exceeded
this fund has officially closed new claims as of June30,2019 and so the remaining appropriation is for any outstanding claims that occurred prior to 2019. the agency is requesting a total appropriation of $21.5 million to continue to pay those claims and the executive recommendation provides for the request. The next appropriation is detailed on page 95. This is the workers' compensation commission administration this pays for all of their staff, their administrative law
judicial operations and any enforcement of the workers' compensation law and adjudicating claims that may arise it is funded with premium taxes levied on workers' compensation insurance policies. and the agency requests to continue the appropriation of 1el.7 million dollars for each year of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides for that request. on page 97 you'll see the second injury claims fund. This is another fund that is being closed out
this is also previously funded under premium tax authority and it officially closed to new claims on January1st of 2008 and so it exists solely for the prior claim payments the agency request to continue the appropriation at500,000 dollars for each year and the executive recommendation provides for that. Next we have the seminar cash and treasury appropriation this is a cash funded appropriation and it is for the
hosting of the Arkansasorkers Compensation Commission educational conference and this is for employers attorneys and insurance professionals who want to know more about the workers' compensation system Additionally this appropriation provides for the payment of the kids chance scholarship program and it is for children of employees who have died or have been injured as a result of a job-related accident. the agency requests to continue the appropriation at $140,000 and the executive recommendation provides for it
Finally on page 101 we have the building repair appropriation. This is paid using workers' compensation trust funds and this is to fund the maintenance renovation construction and repair of their facilities that belong to the workers' compensation commission the agency requests to continue this appropriation at 150,000 in the executive recommendation provides for it. Thank you Mr Chair. thank you for your presentation Representative Wwooten do you're
recognized if you want to ask a question.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:01:02
Press your button if ok thank you chairman. on the workers' compensation you have 18 vacant positions what what are those positions and how come they're not filled those
Speaker 201
1:01:19
are excess positions that we hold back in case we need to eb and flow depending on the claims we get we don't know how many people per year are going
to be injured on the job so if we have a large amount that is injured in one different year there's obviously a lot of claims we withhold or we hold those positions open in case we need to eb for instance we have several administrative law judge positions that are vacant right now those administrative law judges go out across the state to the areas that the claimants were injured and the here and
they perform hearing s and they hear these claims if we have some sort of event in one year that causes these claims to rise significantly we have those positions available where we can send out administrative law judges to deal with those the other positions underneath that basically support the management of those claims as well follow up if
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:02:29
I may. also you have several trust
funds that that are in in in your agency which I understand the need for where where do you show the interest income? do you have that money invested and we're and where do you show the interest income and what and what category do you expend it
Speaker 201
1:02:58
the answer to your question is yes we have investments that we do based on those those
Speaker 209
1:03:05
funds I don't know where it's captured iss captured in a major appropriation and that's gonna be in fundent355. well
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:03:19
where where do you show the interest income where do you show it is it shown in the trust fund is a show is going into the trust fund or where do you expend it
Speaker 213
1:03:35
it's on the trial balance on the interest it's it's
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:03:41
not shown there's a line item it should yes yes you should one
time we discussed with the analyst in the in Blr and others and in adFA that we're gonna account for the interest income whether it whether it went directly to the agency or otherwise we
sometimes the interest goes to some other area of state government but my concern is where is that money andpresent
wooten we we might have an answer for you we have a report that we can get to you an interest report so wendy we'll make sure we've been told that it would be shown on
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:04:25
the report and it hadn't been on there yet. it's it's not in the
manual weu we will get you a report, OK? thank you thank you
Representative garner you are recognized for a question.
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:04:41
Thank you Mr Chair right here. I've just got a quick question when we close these these accounts for claims where did the new claims come in where we how are we funding any
Speaker 143
1:04:54
new claims that come in once and and I'll just
Speaker 201
1:04:57
address like the death and permanent total disability those were closed to new claims in 2019. there was also at the same time legislation that moved those
claims from being paid from that fund to being paid by insurance carriers employers that sort of thing so that's that's who is paying from the future that's who's paying those claims from then on. the person's insurance and the
Speaker 217
1:05:22
businesses in ok thank you seeing no other questions do I have
a motion for this executive recommendation I have a motion by Representative beatty. Do I
have a second? I have a second all in
favor say aye any opposed motion passes we are now moving on to itemdam D4 Mr. Smith ok soblake come to the table and then general ridges and team you ' re welcome to so to begin if each individual will introduce himself or
herself for the record and then as soon as that concludes then Mr Smith you can proceed with the presentation please. Ill can begin introducing yourself.
Speaker 223
1:06:45
Good morning. I'm Blakesmith with theblr Dianeorm C. Jeffood deputy adjutant general Arkansas National Guard Mr Chairman General Bridges apologizes. he had a family trip scheduled for today. he was not able to move but he told me to put out that he'll be happy to meet with any members individually or come back to another meeting in the future if if y'all need to thank you for that explanation Gibrichardson state engineering officer for the Arkansas Army National Guard. and then
everyone if you'll make sure your microphones are adequately close to your mouth so we can
Speaker 226
1:07:24
hear you. right well good morning thank you Mr Chairman Bblake Smith again withblr and I'll be presenting budget requests for the department
Speaker 228
1:07:31
of military we'll get started on page 103 and that's going to be the department summary the department is asking for 9 appropriations settling roughly 118 million in fiscal year 28 and29 that's a
total increase of about $11 million and if we're going to turn the page over to 105 that's gonna be military call up in court martial there's no change level requested in the executive recommendation provides for the agency request and then we'll flip over to page 108 this is going to be the state military department's appropriation for the Camp Robinson federal training site. this is the appropriation for
all the state's operational costs. this is 100% federally funded they should request appropriation amount of68.7 million in fiscal year 28 and29 which is a net increase of 13.4 million in the agency requests include the following changes an increase of 100,000 in overtime reallocated from operating expenses and the followinging increases are from a miscellaneous federal grant approved by the Arkansas Legislative Council for fiscal year 27 for necessary facility improvements
$8 million in operating expenses and then a note in the budget manual the $100,000 mentioned earlier is moved from the overtime line item which is why the total is36.7 and not36.8 there's 2 million in professional fees 2 million in capital outlay and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. and next we'll turn on to page 110 this is going to be the military family relief trustst fun
and this provides funding for the military relief trust fund which is derived from taxpayer donations these funds go to assist the family members of Arkansas National Guard and reserve components of the armed forces the agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of approximately34,000 both years of the biennium the request includes changes in both years, a decrease of38,000 to the grant grant program to align with funding and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request
and now we'll go over to page 112 this is gonna be the appropriation for the state military cash operations and this is gonna be the funded from the cash and treasury funds that derived from rental fees usage and facilities at Camp Robinson and the commercial harvesting of timber the issue is requesting appropriation in the amount of 1.2 million in both years of biennium an increase of $19,000 in operating expenses an increase
of6,000 dollars in capital outlay for replacement and or purchase of equipment and additional appropriation of480,000 for the joint enlistment enhancement programme which originated from a cash letter approved by the legislative council for fifth year 27 and that is a support program implementation and related operational requirements and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request and next we're gonna move on to page 114. this is gonna be the counter
drug asset forfeiture programme and these the counter drug asset forfeiture program uses funds held in the department's cash fund in the state treasury accounts the department assists in federal counter drugg operations and we seize a portion of the proceeds derived from the cells of seized assets the agency is requesting appropriation amount of 195,000 in both years of the biennium and the requests include the following changes of both ears
as well an increase of35,000 dollars to align with funding and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request we'll move on to page 116 this is the military support revolving fund and this appropriation is used for non emergency military call up to support military training activities for example when they have someone come in and training soldiers on how to chainsaw or maybe other heavier equipment for use here a natural disaster such as a tornado or flood or wherever they might be needed
the funding for this consists of fund transfers and deposits from federal agencies and the agency is requesting a preparation the amount of 202,000 both years of the biennium they show requests following changes of both years a decrease of 17,000 in nonemergency call up expenses to better align with funding and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request and then we'll go over to page 118 this is gonna be Fort Chaffee the appropriation is 100% fairly
funded for personnel in operational costs of the Fort Chaffee training site the agency is requesting appropriation amount of36.5 million fiscal year 28 and29. which is a net decrease of 2.8 million in fiscal year 28 and29 as well they used to request include the following changes of both years an increase of 200,000 in extra help reallocated from operating expenses an increase of50,000 in overtime reallocated from operating expenses a decrease of $2 million in capital outlay and professional fees
and executive recommendation provides for the agency request. we'll go on to page 120 this is for the Nationalguard museum and this appropriation is funded by general revenue for personal services and operational costs of the national guard museum no changes are requested and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request how on page 121 the National Guardmuseum allows for carryover and has a carry forward balance
of about $1000 this carry forward is used to help maintain operations at Camp Robinson and then we'll go on to page 123s this is gonna be for the general operations the state operations appropriation includes administrative functions of the Arkansasilitary department including staffing maintenance and general operating costs for Camp Robinson and for armories located across the state and she's requesting appropriation joel revenue funding in the amount of 8.2 million for each year of the biennium
and the requests include the following changes a decrease of 1.2 million in fiscal year 28 and29 and operating expenses a decrease of 125,000 to capital outlay a decrease of 11,000 in conference and travel and that's a better align with available general revenue executive recommendation provides for the agency request and then the department also allows for carryover and you'll see on page 124 that there's a carry forward balance of $10,000
this carry forward is also used to help maintain operations at Camp Robinson. and finally the Fort Chaffee radienter that's on page 125 is not requesting any appropriation for the briennium with that that includes my presentation thank you Mr chairir. thank youpresentativeRose, you are
recognized for a question Thank you Mr Chair good morning thank
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:14:52
you all for your presentation this morning. I just had a quick question you had mentioned that there was
a a was it $2.8 million decrease and you'd said that there was a 2 million decrease in capital outlay and on page 117 under the analysis of your budget request it says an increase of 2 million in capital outlay it says reallocated from professional fees and I was just a little vexed because it looks like the professional fees is $2 million less than the previous fiscal year and the capital outlay would be $2
million less than the previous fiscal year so I got a little lost in that could you
Speaker 228
1:15:38
break that down for me? so that's due to the waydFA kind of accounts for their requests they Capi LA is one of those deals where every year they would zero out the account so if they would ask for4 million dollars as you would see in the previous fiscal year it would be a4 million dollars ask as opposed to the 2 million that you would see fiscal year 28. However the way we do it is that it's actually a decrease because they're only asking for
$2 million as opposed to the4 million dollars from DFfa if
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:16:06
that makes sense if correctly a 2 million decrease is actually a $2 million increase from zero because it's 2 million less than4.
right I got government math I appreciate it thank you but you did clarify so thank
you thank you Mr Chair. RepresentativeRose, thank you for that clarifying question. uhpresentative Wooten, you are recognized for a
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:16:29
question chairman thank you on the report I have it shows
455 employees and on the on the initial page it shows380. Can you explain it? I'm sure there's a reason for the difference between what I have and this report is dated 105. Representative Woootten I do know that we are surrendering I think
Speaker 223
1:16:55
20 positions on the federal side so I think that'll take that number down a little bit right now we're floating at about410 I think with our
part-timeerss. So I think the difference there is is just the attrition we're having a real hard time hiring security guards for the front desk I mean the front gate and right now I think we're down 11 and so I think that's part of it as well so I think between just natural attrition and the 11 that we're having trouble with getting for security guards at the gate. I think that's kind
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:17:26
of the number first of all I want to thank you for the service you render and that with your men and men women power throughout the nation and and
around the world a follow up if I may on page up 118 on Fort Cheffee you requested an appropriation of uh36 million555,000 agency requests but you actual expenditures are 23 almost623600 is there a reason for the difference between the request and that that you actually expense
Speaker 223
1:18:11
that's on page 118 Yeah I think the difference is because we operate on two different physical years the federal year it comes in inoctober and its ate years' in July. my CFfo is saying that's the that's the difference there because on the federal
Speaker 243
1:18:29
side all they gotta do is obligate they don't have to obligate and spend and so a lot of
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:18:35
times we'll have federal money that just doesn't hit till later on you know general operations on the page 123 it shows a
9,733 1000 expenditure and authorization of 8.7 and a request of 8.2 million is that the is that the same reason the difference in the fiscal years think this one's a little bit different because a couple of
Speaker 223
1:19:04
bienniums ago we were lucky enough to get additional budget like $2 million was added to our budget starting in 2023 to help us get after some deferred maintenance that our armories
across the across a formation and so going in this biennium I think we got a good handle on that one and so I think that that reflects the decrease in the $1.1 million in general revenue that we're asking for just because we feel like we're in a good spot with the way we' re doing more training on Fort Chaffee and Camp Robinson and the fact that we were able to get a good handle on some of our deferred maintenance thank you thank you
Chair
Unverified
1:19:41
Mr Chairman. thank you. thank you Representative Richmond you are recognized for a question thank you Mr Chair
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:19:50
on page one 08 forgive me the print's kind of small for me for some reason can't hardly see it but 108 on professional fees is that allocation is that money being spent on
like professional education different courses Nc schoolteencO what is what is that what exactly are we buying with that 2 million and then the other 800,000 I think at Fort Chaffee. yes sir the professional fees
Speaker 247
1:20:20
are architect and engineering fees for design of of various projects that we bid through DBA so just a quick follow up on
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:20:28
the the actual NCO schools and things. I'm sure you have NCO schools I believe you
know sniper of course all kinds of different professional training where does that money come? does it come out of the operational portion of it of your budget? it's will come out on the military side the
Speaker 248
1:20:47
operational side of on from the federal funds right
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:20:52
thank you for that then the last thing is the next page military family relief funds uh34,00 this is comes from taxpayer donations is as it listed I don't have any expenditure for fiscal year 26 that nobody needed it. what what does that money help with? representative great question a few years
Speaker 223
1:21:12
ago I think it was when General penn was the secretary. he delegated that over to the Arkansas National Guard Foundation and so they manage the the grants for us
they're a little bit better at it a little bit better at kind of siphoning through the needs and two they can match it to where when soldiers don't meet the statutory requirements to get a grant. they have funds and they and they're that they have access to that they're able to help soldiers out so these funds are traditionally used for for so l di ers ' s house burns down they can come in and help them. I think we had one soldier whose child passed away, didn't have money for a funeral and so
Speaker 250
1:21:46
the foundation was able to step in and use those funds. OK well thank you very much thank you Mr chair. thank you
uhpresentative McCuough you're recognized for a question.
Representative Tippi McCullough
Unverified
1:21:59
Thank you Mrir. so it looks like nearly 80 to90% of this budget's federally funded do you guys know how much of this budget requires an Arkansas match and what our like total state obligation is p re s ent ed I can't
Speaker 247
1:22:17
tell you the exact dollar amount, but I'll tell you that all of the maintenance for the armories across the state are 5050 state
Representative Tippi McCullough
Unverified
1:22:26
and federal that helps and can is is there any worry from you guys on any of these federal streams going away no not all and the
Speaker 223
1:22:34
rest of it from what he's talking about is all through the what we call the national Guard cooperative Agreement. so for training purposes, you know, as long as we go by the agreements that they have we get money for that and right now they've been pretty steady. I think occasionally there was a couple of them like distance learning labs and things like that there's been a little bit of risk on because people are shifting away from them but for the most part it's been pretty solid every year. right thank you
Senator Hill, you are recognized for a question
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:23:03
we're here you're mine's not only a specific number that you have here I just wanna make sure we got ourselves covered when we were in cabbot last week we were discussing the new innovation, the new the changing of warfare do you have enough money in your budget here to implement some of the provision that we discussed last week the drones nighttime daytime and all the int between equipment that you need to make your troops ready.
Speaker 223
1:23:31
yes senator great question and all that funding is going to come from the federal side and so I think right now we feel good about good
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:23:39
about it coming through OK is there anything that that's out here that y'all could possibly need to keep y'all safe secure and keep this country safe
Speaker 241
1:23:45
and secure. I think we're in really good shape right now. I don't
Speaker 223
1:23:49
think the National Guard's ever been in a better shape than right now if General Bridges was here he would probably go on for4 or5 minutes about how we're number one in so many categories right now maintenance recruiting both on the army and air so I really
think we're in a great shape. thank you sir that is great to hear
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
1:24:09
Representativeladyman you are recognized for a question thank you Mr Chairman. I'm glad to hear we're I'm over here I'm glad to hear we're number one in some other things I might have I might have put that in my top 10 folder so that's great. but just kind of adding on to whatpresentativeRose asked earlier just for my clarification on page 118 the Fort Chaffee budget and the capital outlay
I just have a question I understand the accounting que answer about multiyear projects understand how that works but we spent half a million we had4 million budgeted and now we went down to 2 million so what happened when it went to half a million to4 million was that a major construction project you know just what's going on there at Fort Chaffee what's the money for? I understand it might take two or three years to do it. I think the difference may be we're just
Speaker 223
1:25:04
about to open up the new readinessent there that was built on Fort Chaffee and so I think it's supposed to be done in December January so I think that may be the delta because I think everything else up there construction wise is all 100% federally funded all right thank
you thank you uhpresentative Wwooten you are is it a long question or multiple questions ok you're recognized for a short question. I
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:25:30
think it may already have been answered didd the do
we get reimbursed when we send troops like to Washington or to Texas or other places do we get reimbursed by the federal government?everal of those missions
Speaker 223
1:25:44
representative are federally funded to begin with like the safe and beautiful in Washington DC that's a title 32 order and I think we have troops now down the border that are on leitle0 order so all those missions are the ones we do get federally reimbursed for now the missions likecamden and domestic response here in the state those all come out of
that military call up fund. thank you thank you Mr Chairman. thank you Representative Collins you're recognized for a question. Thank
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
1:26:14
you Mr Chair. This follows up on way over here to the right this follows up a bit from what Representative Richmond was talking about regarding the military family relief trust fund so I separately heard from someone who is a constituent who had some concerns here because they were under the impression that some of that federal funding that had been funding that had been cut and that you know in the past this has had
some state support and it's my understanding is that it's it's you're not supporting that currently I guess given if if this is correct if there has been a cut on the federal side, why not consider some state support as we've done in the past to this so that the families can get the support they need thank youpresentative. I think there was
Speaker 223
1:26:57
a federal like reserve fund that was similar for relief and I think that one has been shut down but our statute I think does allow for, I think you have to be in the Arkansas
National Guard or Air National Guard for the state funds to be spent for the relief but I think what your constituent was referring to is I think there
Speaker 261
1:27:16
was an analogous reserve fund that has closed down. So I guess
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
1:27:22
I mean assuming there's need out there and I think you probably would confirm there is if the source is really just going to be limited to the generosity of donations to this if there's a gap I mean do we know what the gap is how much would have to be made up given what's been what's
gone away from the federal government representative I think
Speaker 223
1:27:42
in order I'd probably owe you an answer on that one I'd probably have to reach out to our reserve and the the Air Force basese counterparts on active duty to kind of see what their need is because we are somewhat, you know, focused on the Arkansas National Guard and Air National Guard and all of our programs are related to them but I can I don't mind looking that up and getting back with you. I appreciate it
thank you seeing no further questions do I have a motion I have a motion do I have a second
I've got a motion. I have a second all in favor of approving this executive recommendation sayy aye any opposed executive recommendation passes. seeing no other business we are
adjourned for the today we will reconvene tomorrow.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Seat Selection – Adoption of Rules
C. Explanation of Budget Manuals Ms. Jessica Moore, DFA Budget Administrator
D. Presentation of Budget Requests
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Senator Justin Boyd Chair
Unverified
Speaker 6
Speaker 24
Chair
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Representative Stephen Meeks
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Representative Ashley Hudson
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Speaker 40
Speaker 43
Representative Denise Garner
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Speaker 55
Senator Ricky Hill
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Speaker 46
Representative Jim Wooten
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Speaker 93
Representative Stetson Painter
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Representative RJ Hawk
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Speaker 108
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Representative Lee Johnson
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Speaker 134
Senator Terry Rice
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Senator Mark Johnson
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Speaker 125
Senator Joshua Bryant
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Speaker 92
Representative Roger D. Lynch
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Representative Jack Ladyman
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Representative Tippi McCullough
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Speaker 183
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Representative Ryan A. Rose
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Speaker 243
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
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Representative Andrew Collins
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Speaker 261