ALC - JBC Budget Hearings
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all right we're we're getting started again uh so we are now live streamed um 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 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 manuals miss jessica moore if you'll come to the table and give us a brief explanation please Please introduce yourself and you can begin. Jessica Moore,
Speaker 6
3:32
State Budget Director, Department of Finance and Administration.
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 a specific purpose. Appropriation is 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 all together
those form 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 going to 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. For context, the starting point for all budget requests is the current year authorized with the exception
of two categories. Those categories are personal services and capital outlay. Agencies that determine that they may need capital outlay expenditures in the upcoming biennium will request restoration. 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 Act 499's pay plan. If there is 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 June 30, 2027 and 28, 29 are the expected needs for the department. One other thing to note is that for FY27 and beyond so the present in 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 expenditures 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. Ms. Moore thank you for your presentation are there any questions seeing no
questions you're dismissed all right I'm gonna quickly go over common ALC joint budget committee
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 an ar for agencies that do not receive an executive recommendation and then an a a heck b 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 one million for fy 28 and fy 29 then fiscal uh publications a book 10 10 year expenditure history broken out by fund type b book 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. Okay, so moving on, item D1, Katie Walden, if you'll
come to the table, And then Mr. Bassett, Secretary of Department of Labor
and Licensing Boards, you're welcome to join Katie at the table. okay 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
Speaker 24
9:45
you mr. chair Katie Walden Bureau of Legislative Research Fiscal Division Tyler Cain
Chair
Unverified
9:53
CFO Thank You mr. chair Darrell Bassett secretary labor and licensing steve guntharp chief of staff labor and licensing thank
Speaker 24
10:02
you mr chair good morning members as i just said i'm katie and i'm here to walk you through the department of labor
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
10:09
budget today the department of labor 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 first 100 book 100 pages of this book however to save you from having to flip through all those pages our staff took the boards and commissions and condensed their totals into the sheet that you'll find on your desk titled d1 this is the budget request I'm going to go over with you first. So just walking you through this schedule
each board and 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 more 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 actual actual expenditures for 25 26 authorized
Speaker 24
11:25
for the current year and then you'll
see the request for 28 and 29 in the executive rec
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
11:35
finally at the bottom you'll see a total row and you'll see that in 25 and 26 they spent 11.6 million dollars 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 reserve amount that they were spending down on to help support the operations of the Athletic Commission, but that funding has expired, and so they're requesting to discontinue that appropriation. But all of the other appropriations for the boards and commissions that regulate the professions around the
Speaker 24
12:27
state are requested to continue their appropriation levels,
into the next biennium and the executive recommendation provides for this
request thank you for your presentation um do we have any questions
for the group okay representative hudson you are recognized
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
13:02
i panicked thank you mr chair and thank you all for being here i just had a quick question in looking at the actual expenditures and the authorized expenditures there are several categories where the actual expenditures in 25 and 26 are significantly lower than the authorized amount of money that that the individual uh departments received i wondered why um in light of the fact that in many of these categories the spending was you know a hundred thousand or less
what the authorized amount is that we're continuing to
Speaker 40
13:47
i don't know specifically Representative, is there a particular
Representative Ashley Hudson
Unverified
13:52
division that you're referring to? Sure. So if you look at the Motor Vehicle Commission, it looks like in 2526, actual expenditures were $594,000, authorized was $705,000.
Arkansas Manufactured Home Commission actual was $303,000, authorized was $485,000, the Real Estate Commission $1.5 million actual, $1.9 million authorized, and part of that was the Real Estate Recovery Fund, which was only $45,000 used out of a total appropriation of $352,000. So I just wondered if you could kind of walk us through why, in light of the fact that our actual expenditures are pretty significantly lower than what the request is why we need to
Speaker 43
14:41
continue to fund at these higher levels? Well very good question representative and I'd
Chair
Unverified
14:48
love to address that. That's a function of us trying to do more with less. We need to keep the levels there but what we've also experienced over the last four years certainly is 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 requests, more importantly,
have been targeted. What we're trying to do is wring 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 uh what you our request is generally uh been shown to be flat over the last what several legislative sessions uh we keep we keep that level but at the same time i'm i'm just
really uh pinching pennies and i want them to uh 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 uh we're spending uh less than what uh what's been appropriated but we need that as a buffer just in case and that's that's our philosophy i hope that answers your question ma'am okay
thank you uh representative gardner you are recognized thank you mr chair i just have a quick
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
16:24
question and that is about the the turnaround time for license fees what boards and commissions have that
the largest staffing vacancies and are those vacancies affecting any licensing turning
Chair
Unverified
16:48
think is looking directly at me when we first went through transformation Representative 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 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 I say, from months in some cases to now just a matter of days. And so I think our constituencies are happy with that. They're not having to come to the office. Now, there are problems. I'm not going to sit here and sugarcoat it and say that 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
Speaker 55
17:58
are experiencing some difficulties actually getting online. We've solved that problem through a number of ways, but our turnaround times are tremendously improved.
Great. That's what I wanted to hear.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
18:15
Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Senator Hill, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr.
Chair. Mr. Secretary, kind of going on with what Representative Hudson was saying just a while ago whenever you said you had a little buffer there. When I'm looking at the difference between $11,688,000 and $15,367,000, that's roughly 25%. That's more than a little buffer from the actual expense in 25-26 to what we're looking at.
Chair
Unverified
18:40
Well, what we normally experience being a special revenue agency senator is a little bit different than a normal general revenue agency. 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 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 adopt a conservative approach to fiscal management means that 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 be three for another. I don't know if I'm addressing your concern, but if not, please come back to me. Let me know what your concern is.
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
20:13
Well, I'm just basically looking at the overall, your total number that you have down here is what I'm using. The $11,688,000, and the $15,367,000, which is your total figure, which would take into account the difference between the categories that you were referring to.
And that one is showing a 25% increase from your total. From actual versus where we're at.
Speaker 46
20:36
I understand it is kind of what it is, Senator. That's where we are. But
Chair
Unverified
20:42
that's the philosophy behind why that number is where it is. Okay, thank you, sir.
Yes, sir. Representative Wooten, you are recognized.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
20:58
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary, I have three or four questions, if I may, Mr. Chairman.
The first question is to Ms. Waldron. On the first page, this page here, okay, They have a fund balance of $48 million. The $9 million in the column funding above average, in other words, they have $9 million more than the $48 million each year.
So you have average expenditures of $19 million. This is for the whole department, Ms. Secretary. $19 million average expenses, and then you have a revenue of $25 million which is $6 million more, and then you have a three-year expenses of $57 million and then you have a balanced funding above a three-year average of $9 million. Is that
correct? Yes, sir. Am I understanding that they have an average of nine 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 receive nine million is that the buffer you're talking about in regards to the funding
average. Is that $9 million more than you need average? That $9 million. Is that what we're saying? No, sir. What we're saying is
Chair
Unverified
22:55
that $9 million represents, that's the funding above the three-year average of all of the divisions. What's that act? Act 114.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
23:11
Well, what the report's saying is that
you have $9 million more than you need to meet your annual expenditures. Is that correct?
Chair
Unverified
23:22
No, sir. What you have here, Representative Hilton, is you have your fund balance is subtracted from your three-year expenses. That gives you funding above the three-year average. And your three-year average, if you look for your expenditure, is $19,000,000, 2.9 million.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
23:43
It says three-year average above the funding. Yes, but that's a negative amount. All right. My next question has to do with positions. Okay. You have 292 positions, total authorization, or 292 positions, 31 of which have over two years old. 18 of those are in the workers' compensation.
That's over half of them. What's the problem in the workers' comp that you can't fill the positions? Do you not need them? Are they not funded, or you can't fail them? Combination
Speaker 55
24:33
of course, I have the director at workers' comp here who could come up and address that
specific issue. Representative Wooten, we're going to come back to workers' comp, okay?
Chair
Unverified
24:45
So let's wait on that. We're going to do what, Mr. Chairman? We're going to come back to workers' comp. They're coming up later on the agenda. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are you finished?
Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Representative Painter, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Secretary, again, I
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
25:10
want to go back kind of the questionings that Representative Garner and Senator Hill were going down.
So you're talking about a buffer and looking at the total for $25,000, $26,000 was $11.6 million and then authorized $15,000. So you have a buffer there. Then you're increasing FY27, 28, and 28, 29 by 400,000. So you're looking at a rough estimate of $3.9 million buffer. Explain to me why do we need almost $4 million 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 need $4 million as this
Chair
Unverified
25:58
buffer zone? Senator, my take on this is that our pay plan, we have increases each year, anywhere from 3%, and we've been trying our best to stay within budget, and as the Secretary stated earlier, being conservative in our estimating, we project that perhaps these additional funds
is going to 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 offering benefits, and so we're expecting some of these increases
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
26:41
to affect that balance. So we're expecting $4 million, close to that, of increases? Perhaps maybe
Chair
Unverified
26:48
a little bit less than that.
but we do expect that we're going to have some payroll increases and also additional increases in our labor force. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Hawk, you are
recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
27:11
you, Mr. Secretary. I was looking at the professional bail bond company and professional bail bondsman licensing board, 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 and 26.
And then you look towards the 27, 28, and it goes to $220,000 and then $1.1 million for those two categories. Did those just not
Speaker 108
27:33
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
Speaker 112
27:53
bring up our director for bell bonds thank you because there are going to be
additional questions to that please introduce yourself and then
Speaker 115
28:16
director of the bell bonds board would you repeat your question yeah so um
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
28:21
i'm looking down through here and uh in 25 26 the um the licensing board cash reimbursements and the bail bond recovery funds didn't have anything
in 25 and 26 and then when you jump over to 27 and 28 those categories now have 220 000 and 1.169 million in those two categories just wondering like did those two categories just not exist in 25 and 26 and now we've created that or why the difference in in numbers moving forward uh
Speaker 114
28:50
i'd say that in 25 26 we didn't have any uh forfeitures being pulled from the recovery fund and uh this year we're having to pull lots of uh 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
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
29:11
quite a bit this time so on the recovery fund I mean being that there was no actual
Speaker 119
29:17
expenditures so did they did that other company did they handle the recovery fund um that
Speaker 114
29:23
you were talking about no sir um the recovery fund each bond puts money in 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 courts get their money gotcha so so this
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
29:43
is essentially a new thing since we didn't do that in 25 26 then because i'm just looking at the numbers it has it has a blank space and then all of a sudden we've got 1.1 million in that so Yes, sir. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Representative Painter, you are recognized.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. How many employees do you
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
30:02
have total for the department? Across the Department of Labor and Licensee, Secretary?
Speaker 46
30:10
270, 295. 295. And that's going down as we speak. Okay. Thank you. I'm just trying to do the math
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
30:17
in my head with the $4 million puffer zone that we're expecting for raises and whatever it may be in the math so thank you representative johnson you are recognized just just
to clarify on that question representative painter had
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
30:30
when you say i'm sorry yeah 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 uh 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 And so that includes all the employees of any commission, any of the 17 boards and commissions you all oversee? That's correct. Okay, so how many are within the division? Which division? Well, 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
Chair
Unverified
31:12
commissions which are receiving special revenue. Oh, you're talking about just the ones that received general revenue?
that would be the legacy labor uh legacy labor what
Speaker 134
31:20
we're looking at legacy labor you're looking at 69 69 so there's only 69 employees that are actually
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
31:25
putting pressure on general revenue all the yes all the other employees are coming from special revenue our special independent commission okay thank you senator ross you are recognized thank you mr chair secretary i
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
31:45
think it was a A couple of years ago was the last report I'd heard, but looking at the divisions here on boiler electrical 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? Yes, I can. I can give you an overview,
Speaker 55
32:22
and I have the director of waiver licensing.
Absolutely. No, bring Ralph up. Yes, I can.
Chair
Unverified
32:35
We have, what we experienced there, Senator, starting, I guess, four years ago, is there was a real disconnect between the State Department and the actual people, the actual occupations out around the state.
We weren't dealing with business. We weren't asking what you need in terms of licenses. We weren't asking where are you getting your licensees from. We weren't asking questions of the two-year colleges. You know, are you producing students? We weren't really addressing the needs of business and industry. And I think that's what you're referring to. What we've seen is a pickup in those licenses, and we've seen a more concerted effort to actually talk to business and industry with regard to those licenses, particularly electrical and HVAC to a lesser extent, but HVAC as well.
I really reorganized that entire division. And I brought Lindsey Moore in to actually do that outreach for us. And so I brought Lindsey to the table. Lindsey, do you want to talk a little bit about what we've been doing to try to enhance our presence there in those areas? Address electrical first and then
Speaker 145
34:20
Moore. I'm director of code enforcement. We've been working with this body as well as with our stakeholders out in the regulated community, working on development in electrical. We've increased our approach and put in a whole new approach to apprenticeship, working with Office of Skills Development. 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 $8,000 back in.
arkansas with act 746 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 uh 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 a educational pathway for them boiler uh we've been really proactive working we have another area where we have a shortage of licensed
boiler operators we've been working we've even approached Department of Corrections to give a pathway for for folks coming out to kind of help end the recidivism and give them a pathway with an entry-level job and training and moving them forward we work with the regulated community mid-south boiler 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 setting on their board and 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
Speaker 93
36:08
do it and we're doing everything we can from our section to help promote that that's super and also senator i just
Chair
Unverified
36:15
want to again highlight what we've done with HVAC as well. I don't want to 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 just go ahead and elaborate a little bit on HVAC and what we're doing
Speaker 145
36:35
with HVAC? Sure. We've partnered with the Arkansas HVACR Association. They are the representatives us for the regulated community. We're working with them providing trainings. We are providing encouragement. We're trying to bring folks into the trade to practice the craft. Again, it starts off, you always have an entry level. But then after the entry level, 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 energy to help promote the craft and get folks into the trade. Thank you. I thank
Speaker 139
37:12
you for the report. When we talked, Mr. Secretary, a couple years ago, I knew that's
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
37:17
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's one good thing. I just want to know. Well, you lit a fire under me.
I want 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 needs and meet those needs is what makes a difference. So thank you for that
report. Thank you, sir. Senator Mark
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
37:53
Johnson, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, thank you for the information you share with us. For the benefit of everyone else in the room, you and I and your staff have had conversations about doing some things to modernize the process we use to inspect manufactured and modular housing in the state, and I'm grateful for the work you're doing, and I think we're moving closer to doing that.
As you know, Congressman Hill sponsored some significant legislation that changes some things at the HUD level in dealing with manufactured housing and modular housing for the betterment 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 might need to look at more carefully in the session?
Speaker 125
38:51
Well, yes, sir, it does. And, again, that's where we talk about buffers,
Chair
Unverified
38:56
and we're going to need money for additional approaches. That legislation is going to be a boon, I think, for economic development in the state. It's going to 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 appreciate your work 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
39:42
this buffer term you've used, then you should be okay for the next fiscal year. We'll be fine.
Chair
Unverified
39:49
We'll make it, 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, but I think we'll be fine. Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Mark Johnson
Unverified
40:05
Thank you, sir. Senator Bryant, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr.
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
40:12
Chair. 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 can't so you can't so we can't so if no money can can transfer over
Speaker 92
40:31
No, we don't no money can transfer over the It's just a no-no so so if you have a division
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
40:38
that has Weeks special revenues and you you would 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? Well, that's difficult of what we have to do
Chair
Unverified
41:02
it without Without a single payer system where we can share 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 five five of those right now that may be in that
predicament uh we have uh let's see um well we have uh towing and recovery is one geologist is another auctioneers athletic commission and our hvac divisions are in though in that uh gray area where they're so
Chair
Unverified
42:01
we run into problems then we'll have to
look at cutting back on services or cutting back on personnel so the other option would
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
42:10
be to come to us next year and ask for increases of those fees well
Speaker 92
42:15
we can't because they're special revenue agencies. But, I mean, as far as, like, you charge HVACs $50 for a license. Yeah, we'd have to, yes. And, which is not something that we want to consider, fee increases. It's not something that we're interested in doing. But, that would be the dilemma that we would have. Okay, thank you. Yes, sir.
Representative Lynch, you are recognized.
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
42:41
Yes. Secretary, first off, as you're aware, the HVACR Association is trying to develop an apprenticeship program for entry into that discipline. So at some point or another, they're going to be contacting your department for coordination on that. The other thing is the continuing education requirements were changed from four hours per year to eight hours every three 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
Speaker 93
43:27
Lynch, we are very aware of that, and we're working on it. And if you would allow us to, we would
Chair
Unverified
43:34
respond 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
Representative Roger D. Lynch
Unverified
43:53
of that discrepancy. That would be great because Tom is in
Speaker 55
43:57
my back pocket. Well, we love HVAC. We love electrical and boiler. I mean, they're principal.
Chair
Unverified
44:03
Clearly, you heard me speak to Senator Rice about the fire he led under me, so we're attentive to that. We're aware of that discrepancy, and we're dealing with it.
All right, thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Representative Ladyman, you are recognized for a question. And then after that, we're going to go to Rep McCullough. So if you've got a burning
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
44:28
quick question after her, please get in the queue quickly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Bassett, you've got some tough – I'm over here. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. You've had some tough questions here, and I know you didn't get much sleep last night. We're praying for your wife. I hope she's okay.
So I appreciate you being here. But it may not be a question, maybe 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, 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? Yes, sir. So 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 you all have suggestions on how we can do that better, I would appreciate hearing that.
Speaker 92
45:53
Well, Mr. Ladyman, I appreciate that. I would just encourage you to bring
Chair
Unverified
45:58
us in there and beat us up for three hours and find out just exactly what our issues are. I welcome that exposure and that experience. We are limited because we're special revenue. That's the only way that we're going to get these initiatives off the ground. So all I can say is that I welcome coming in and getting beat up for three hours.
And you'll know what we're facing, and we'll be able to explain to you what we need in order to go
forward. Thank you. Representative McCullough, you are recognized for a
Representative Tippi McCullough
Unverified
46:38
question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You mentioned not wanting to raise, you know, fees, licensing fees and everything. I'm wondering, are we accumulating reserves that we don't need, that we're not spending? Is there ever any room to lower licensing fees for any of these professions?
Chair
Unverified
47:03
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 accounting, for example.
We're working now on a program with UCA to actually put accounting into high schools so that kids that graduate from high school, they already have credits, college credits 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 going to do is set up a scholarship program for Arkansas kids who want to get into architecture and provide them with scholarships. So we're not just keeping those fund balances there. 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 did that answer your question, ma'am? Sure, yeah,
thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. So that's D1. I see no other questions. Do I have 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, Ms. Walden, you may begin your presentation. Thank you.
Speaker 125
49:22
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see that we were first, and that's a great honor. But in
Chair
Unverified
49:28
state government, I know going first often means we get to show everyone else what they're supposed to do. So I appreciate that.
Mr. Bassett, you're a part of D2 as well. all
Speaker 24
49:51
next item i'm going to be reviewing with you today is the department of labor and licensing the shared services appropriation and the
division what one moment and this begins what is in your book so your white binder will have have this presentation and the presentations going forward yes sir
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
50:09
so opening your white binder you'll see
Speaker 24
50:11
the division request begins on page one of your white binder you'll see some information that dfa
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
50:20
has provided and then the appropriation summary 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 labor and licensing shared services appropriation on pages five and six of your book you'll see the narrative and the appropriation summary for
the shared services 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 Labor and Licensing. On the appropriation summary, you'll see that their request is for $4.5 million 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. Thirteen of their boards and commissions participate in this enterprise licensing platform with shared services. And also for the MyGeotab telematics equipment for vehicle monitoring for all of 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 labor, and that's flipping all the way to page 55. 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 six total appropriations, and that includes $6.5 million for each year of the biennium. Breaking 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 Labor and they provide for the required state match for federal grants and they also include the supervision of the Division of Labor. 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 page 62, this is the Federal Programs Appropriation.
It supports several program areas, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration consultation program mind safety
Speaker 24
53:46
and health administration consultation as well as census activities the agency requests 1.6 million dollars for
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
53:53
each year of the biennium and this is fully federally funded and the executive recommendation provides for this request next we have page 66 this is the wage
and our 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 to $400,000 for each year of the
Speaker 24
54:47
biennium and the executive recommendation provides for this request. The final one is
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
54:57
the 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 of $48,000 for each year of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides
for this. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Ms. Walden. We have a question from Representative Meeks. Representative Meeks,
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
55:38
you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Walden, you may be able to answer this. Page 66, authorized expenditures, make sure I'm reading
this right, authorized expenditures under the appropriation were $200,000. However, it looks like they actually spent three hundred and fifty thousand dollars far exceeding their appropriation so make sure I'm understanding this were they legally authorized to spend that hundred and fifty thousand or did we grant an extension or what what's going on with that yes
sir mr. chair the agency requested an appropriation a temporary
Speaker 24
56:20
appropriation in peer and they received that
authorization through the legislative council during the interim okay all
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
56:26
right i figured that's probably what happened but i just wanted to
verify it all right thank you thank you for that clarification uh any other questions seeing
none do i have a motion for to okay i have a motion for the executive recommendation i have a second by representative baity all in favor say aye aye any opposed motion passes we are now moving on to d3 uh and so mr bassett bassett you are
mr mark mcguire is with you as well yes sir okay uh i don't think my microphone on so just to clarify take a step back my
that motion did pass on the executive recommendation uh for the record So, Ms.
Walden, you may begin. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
57:18
last presentation for you all this morning is for the Workers' Compensation Commission. It begins on page 90 of your manual.
Speaker 24
57:26
The Workers' Compensation Commission administers and enforces Arkansas' workforce compensation law to ensure that all covered employers secure insurance coverage from commercial carriers through self-insurance programs. they also adjudicate all work-related injury claims by employees against their employers or their insurance
Representative Stephen Meeks
Unverified
57:42
carriers the department appropriation summary is on page 91 you'll see they have five appropriations totaling 35.1 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 This appropriation is for the death and permanent total disability claims program. 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 June 30th, 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 $12.7 million 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 January 1st of 2008, and so it exists solely for the prior claim payments.
The agency requests to continue the appropriation at $500,000 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 arkansas workers 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 request 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
request to continue this appropriation at $150,000 and the executive recommendation provides for it. Thank
you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your presentation.
Representative Wooten, you're recognized if you want to
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:01:00
ask a question. Press your button if, okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the workers' compensation, you have 18 vacant positions. What are those positions and how come they're
Speaker 201
1:01:14
not filled? Those are excess positions that we hold
back in case we need to ebb 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 ebb, 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 they perform hearings, 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.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:02:23
Okay. Follow-up, if I may. Also, you have several trust funds that are in your agency, which I understand the need for. Where do you show the interest income? Do you have that money invested? And where do you show the interest income, and what category do you expend it in? Okay.
Speaker 201
1:02:53
The answer to your question is yes, we have investments that we do based on those funds. I don't know where it's captured. It's captured in a
Speaker 209
1:03:06
major appropriation that's going to be in fund center 355. Well, where do you show
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:03:14
the interest income? Where do you show it? Is it shown in the trust fund? Does it show it's going into the trust fund, or where do you expend it?
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:03:36
trial balance on the interest. But it's not shown as a line item. It
should? Yes. Yes, it should. At one time, we discussed with analysts in the BLR and others in the DFA that we were going to account for the interest income, whether it went directly to the agency or otherwise.
Sometimes the interest goes to some other area of state government, but my concern is, where is that money? Representative Wooten,
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. Mr. Chairman, we've been told that it would be shown on
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:04:20
the report, and it hasn't been on there yet. It's not in the manual.
We will get you a report, okay? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. you. Representative Gardner, you
are recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right here.
Representative Denise Garner
Unverified
1:04:38
I've just got a quick question. When we close these accounts for claims, where do the new claims come in? How are we funding any
Speaker 201
1:04:52
address like the death and permanent total disability. Those were closed to new claims in 2019. There was also at the same time uh legislation that moved those claims um 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
correct okay thank you okay 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 item d4 uh Mr. Smith okay so Blake come to the table and then uh General Bridges 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 thank you
Speaker 219
1:06:25
I can begin introducing yourself. Good morning. I'm Blake Smith with the
Speaker 223
1:06:49
BLR. Diane Worm, CFO. Jeff Wood, Deputy Adjunct 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
that explanation. Gib Richardson, State Engineering Officer for the Arkansas Army National Guard. Okay, and then everyone, if you'll make sure your microphones
Speaker 226
1:07:19
are adequately close to your mouth so we can hear you. All right, well, good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Blake Smith again with BLR and I'll be presenting budget requests for the
Speaker 228
1:07:26
Department of Military. We'll get started on page 103 and that's going to be the
department summary. The department is asking for nine appropriations totaling roughly 118 million in fiscal year 28 and 29. That's a total increase of about 11 million dollars and if we're going to turn the page over to 105 that's going to be military call-up and court-martial. There's no change level requested and 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 cost. This is 100% federally funded they should request appropriation amount of 68.7 million in fiscal year 28 and 29 which is a net increase of 13.4 million and the agency requests include the following changes an increase of 100 000 in overtime reallocated from operating expenses and the following increases are from a miscellaneous federal grant approved by the organizational legislative council for fiscal
year 27 for necessary facility improvements eight million dollars 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 is 36.7 and not 36.8 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 trust fund 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 argosal national guard and reserve components of the armed forces the agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of approximately 34 000 in both years of the biennium the agency request includes changes in both years a decrease of 38,000 to the 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 going to be the appropriation for the state military cash operations and this is going to be the funding from the cash and Treasury funds that are derived from rental fees usage and facilities at Camp Robinson and the commercial harvesting of timber they should request an appropriation in the amount of 1.2 million in both years of biennium an increase of nineteen
thousand dollars in operating expenses an increase of six thousand dollars in capital outlay for replacement and/or purchase of equipment an additional appropriation of four hundred and eighty thousand for the joint enlistment enhancement program which originated from a cash letter approved by the our legislative council for fiscal year 27 and that is to support program implementation and related operational requirements and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request and next we're going to move on
to page 114 this is going to be the counter drug asset forfeiture program 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 drug operations and receives a portion of the proceeds derived from the cells of seized assets the agency is requesting an appropriation amount of 195,000 in both years of the biennium and the requests
include the following changes of both years as well an increase of $35,000 to align with funding and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request and 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 change all or maybe other heavy equipment for use during 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 appropriation the amount of two hundred and two thousand both years the biennium they should request falling changes both years a decrease of 17,000 in non-emergency call-up expenses it's a better line with funding and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request and then we'll go over to page 118 this is going to be
Fort Chaffee the appropriation is 100% fairly funded for personnel and operational costs of the Fort Chaffee training site the agency is requesting appropriation amount of 36.5 million fiscal year 28 and 29 which is a net decrease of 2.8 million in fiscal year 28 and 29 as well the agency requests include the following changes of both years, an increase of $200,000 in extra help reallocated from operating expenses, an increase of $50,000 in overtime reallocated from operating expenses,
and a decrease of $2 million in capital outlay and professional fees. An executive recommendation provides for the agency request. And we'll go on to page 120. This is for the National Guard 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 requests however on page 121 the National Guard Museum allows for carry
over and has a carry forward balance of about $1,000 this carry forward is used to help maintain operations at Camp Robinson and then we'll go on to page 123 this is going to be for the general operations the state operations appropriation includes administrative functions of the Arkansas military department including staffing maintenance and general operating costs for Camp Robinson and for armories located across the state answers requesting appropriation and general 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 and 29 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 line 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
is a carry forward balance of ten thousand dollars this carry forward is also used to to help maintain operations at Camp Robinson. And finally, the Fort Chaffee Readiness Center, that's on page 125, is not requesting any appropriation for the brianium. With that, that includes my presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Representative
Rose, you are recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:14:47
Good morning. Thank you all for your presentation this morning. I just had a quick question.
You had mentioned that there was a $2.8 million decrease, and you had 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. And it says reallocated from professional fees. And I was just a little vexed because it looks like the professional fees is two million dollars less than the previous fiscal year and the capital outlay would be two
million dollars less than the previous fiscal year so i got a little lost in that could you
Speaker 228
1:15:33
break that down for me so that's uh due to the way dfa uh kind of accounts for their requests they uh capital outlay is one of those deals where every year they would zero out the account so if they would ask for four million dollars um as you would see in the previous fiscal year uh it would be a four million dollar ask as opposed to uh the two 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 the $4 million from DFA, if that makes sense.
Representative Ryan A. Rose
Unverified
1:16:01
So if I understand correctly, a $2 million decrease is actually a $2 million increase from zero because it's $2 million less than
$4 million. All right. I got it. Government math. I appreciate it. Thank you. But
you did clarify, so thank you. No problem. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Rose, thank you for that clarifying question.
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:16:24
Representative Wooten, you are recognized for a question. all right mr chairman thank you on the report i have it shows 455 employees
and on the on the initial page it shows 380 can you explain that i'm sure there's a reason for the difference between what i have and this report is dated 10-5 representative wooten i do know that we are
Speaker 223
1:16:50
surrendering i think 20 positions on the federal side so i think that'll take that number down a little bit right now we're floating at about 410 i think with our part-timers 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
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:17:21
getting for security guards at the gate. I think that's kind of the number. First of all, I want to thank you for the service you render and that of your men and men by our women power throughout the nation and around the world. A follow-up, if I may, on page 118 on Fort Chaffee, you requested an appropriation of
a $36,555,000 agency request, but your actual expenditures are 23, almost $23,600,000. Is there a reason for the difference between the request and that that you actually expense? That's on page 118. Yeah, I think the difference is because
Speaker 223
1:18:12
we operate on two different
Physical years the federal year it comes in in October and the state years in July I'm a CFO saying that's the that's the
Speaker 243
1:18:24
difference there because on the federal side All I got to do is
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:18:30
obligate they don't have to obligate and spend and so a lot of times we'll have federal money That just doesn't hit till later on You know general operations Page 123 It shows a $9,733,000 expenditure, an authorization of $8.7 and a request of $8.2 million.
Is that the same reason, the difference in the fiscal years? I
Speaker 223
1:18:59
think this one's a little bit different because a couple of 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 at our armories across our formation. And so going in this biennium, I think we got a good handle on that one. And so I think 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
Chair
Unverified
1:19:36
of our deferred maintenance. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you. Representative Richmond, you are
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:19:43
recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 108, 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, NCO school, staff NCO? what is what is that what exactly are we buying with that 2 million and then the other 800,000 I think at Fort
Speaker 247
1:20:14
Chaffee yes sir the professional fees are architect and engineering fees for design of various projects that we bid through DBA
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:20:23
okay so just a quick follow-up on the the actual NCO schools
and things i'm sure you have nco schools i believe you know sniper course all kinds of different professional training where does that money come does it come out of the operational
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:20:47
the military side the operational side from the federal funds all right thank you for that then the last thing is uh the next page military family relief funds uh 34 000 uh this is uh comes from taxpayer donations as it listed. I don't have any expenditure for fiscal year 26. Nobody needed it. What does that
Speaker 223
1:21:06
money help with? Representative, great question. A few years 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 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 in the in there that they have access to that they're able to help soldiers out so these funds are traditionally used for if a soldier's
house burns down then come in and help them i think we had one soldier
Speaker 250
1:21:41
whose child passed away didn't have money for a funeral and so the foundation was able to step in
and use those funds okay well thank you very much thank you mr chair thank you uh representative
Representative Tippi McCullough
Unverified
1:21:54
mccullough you're recognized for a question thank you mr. chair um so it looks like nearly 80 to 90 percent of this budget is federally funded do you guys know how much of this budget requires an arkansas match um and what our like total state obligation is
Speaker 247
1:22:09
i represent i i can't tell you the exact dollar amount but i'll tell you that all the maintenance for the armories across the state are 50 50 state and
Representative Tippi McCullough
Unverified
1:22:21
federal okay that helps um and can is there any worry from you guys on any of these uh federal streams going away no not all
Speaker 223
1:22:29
and the rest of it for when 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. All right. Thank you. Senator Hill, you are
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:22:58
recognized for a question. Okay. Yoreen, mine's not only a specific number that you have, I just want to make sure we got ourselves covered. When we were in Cabot last week, we were discussing the new innovations, the new, the change of warfare. Do you have enough money in your budget
here to implement some of the provisions that we discussed last week, the drones, nighttime, daytime and all the in-between equipment that you need to make your troops ready? Yes, Senator, great question, and all that funding is going to come from the
Speaker 223
1:23:26
federal side, and so I think right now we feel good about it coming through. Is there anything that's out here that y'all could possibly
Senator Ricky Hill
Unverified
1:23:34
need to keep y'all safe, secure, and keep this country safe and secure? I think we're in really good shape right now. I don't think
Speaker 241
1:23:40
the National Guard's ever been in a better shape than right now.
Speaker 223
1:23:46
if General Bridges would hear, he would probably go on for four or five 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
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
1:24:04
is great to hear. Representative Leidyman, you are recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm glad to hear we're number one in some other things. I'm going to have to put that in my top ten folder, so that's great. But just kind of adding on to what Representative Rose 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 answer about multi-year projects. I understand how that works. But we spent half a million. We had $4 million budgeted, and now we went down to $2 million. So what happened when it went to half a million to $4 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
Speaker 223
1:24:57
may be we're just about to open up the new readiness center 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. Representative Wooten, you are, is it a long question or
Representative Jim Wooten
Unverified
1:25:25
multiple questions? Okay. You're recognized for a short question. I think it may already have been answered. 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?
Speaker 223
1:25:39
Several of those missions, Representative, are federally funded to begin with, like the Safe and Beautiful in Washington, D.C. That's a Title 32 order, and I think we have troops now down the border that are on Title 10 order. So all those missions are the ones we do get federally reimbursed for. Now the missions like Camden and domestic response here in the state, those all come out of that military call-up fund.
Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Representative Collins, you're recognized for a question. Thank
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
1:26:09
you, Mr. Chair. This follows up. I'm 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 had separately heard from someone who was 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 my understanding is that you're not supporting that currently.
I guess given 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 you,
Speaker 223
1:26:52
Representative. I think there was a federal 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
Speaker 261
1:27:11
I think there was an analogous reserve fund that has closed down.
Representative Andrew Collins
Unverified
1:27:17
So I guess, 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 gone away from the federal government? Yeah, Representative, I think
Speaker 223
1:27:37
I'd probably owe you an answer on that one.
I'd probably have to reach out to our reserve and the Air Force Base 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 don't mind looking that up
and getting back with you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, 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, say aye.
Aye. Any opposed? Executive recommendation passes. Seeing no other business,
we are adjourned for today. We will reconvene tomorrow. Thank you.
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
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Chair
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Representative Stephen Meeks
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Representative Ashley Hudson
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Representative Denise Garner
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Senator Ricky Hill
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Representative Jim Wooten
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Representative Stetson Painter
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Representative RJ Hawk
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Representative Lee Johnson
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Senator Terry Rice
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Senator Mark Johnson
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Senator Joshua Bryant
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Representative Roger D. Lynch
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Representative Jack Ladyman
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Representative Tippi McCullough
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Representative Ryan A. Rose
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Representative Marcus E. Richmond
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Representative Andrew Collins
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