ALC-PEER

If everybody can take their seats, Senator Chesterfield says we are ready. I'm very proud the clock in the back matches the uh clock on my wrist, so thank you staff for adjusting the time. Oh If you could go ahead and take your seats. Alright, members, we're gonna go through all the items in B and then I will come back and I'll ask if there's any questions and then we'll vote each one of those individually, uh, if you have a question, wait until that item is announced, so we'll go be one if you don't have a question, wait if you have a question on B6, you'll have your opportunity to hit your button then, OK? All right, you recognize us. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in section B. These are various temporary appropriation requests. The first item is B1. This is a letter from the Department of Agriculture. This is for 3.5 million in appropriation. According to the letter, it's to cover an increased number of concurrent projects across fiscal years, coupled with confounding variables that may affect research projects. Staff did reach out to the agency and learned that some of the factors are multiple projects paying out at the same time, and an unanticipated increase in soybean production. These are all supported, uh, supported by soybean assessment. Next item is a letter from Department of Corrections. This is B2. This is a $300,000 increase in appropriation. This is to cover medical quality review services, audits, training, a dietician and other professional fees. B3 is a letter from Public Safety. It's 8000 in appropriation is to purchase a videography system for the public information office. B4 is a letter from the Department of Military for 650,000. This is to match the federal cooperative funding agreement to update and maintain armories in Camp Robinson buildings. The letter says this is supported by General Revenue, but they will adjust their budget and an increase in GR will not be necessary. B5 is a letter from the division of State Police. This for half a million dollars in spending authority. It's to construct training barracks. This is from a fund center where special revenue comes from criminal history background checks, and the next item B6 is also from state police. This is 1.4 million for the same purpose for uh training barracks. It's for a different fun center though. This is from Special revenue for, uh, from driver's license fees. All right, thank you members do we have any, so he's not showing up. I think I have it. All right, Senator Johnson, you're recognized for a question on B1. think Maybe not. Hold on. How do I turn? Can you go ahead and hit your mic again, senator. All right, you red for a question on be one, is, is anybody here from the department? Do we have anyone from the A department to come answer a Fred Wheat or Department of Agriculture. Scott Barry Department of Agriculture. So, uh, what's the confounding variables. The, the amount of collections of the soybean assessment, um, We're anticipating that being above what it was previously and, and half of what we bring in has to be remitted to the uh, uh, US soybean, the national, uh, organization. So the more, more of that we have to do, the more appropriation we need, so that's one of the confounding variables and and the uh primarily it's, it's a a timing issue, multi-year, uh, research grants. Primarily to the University of Arkansas sometimes they, they kinda. Bill us all at one time. As opposed to over a period of time and, and, and that's kind of what's happened to us in this fiscal year. So you've got more money, so you need to be able to spend more. And the matching has hit in 2 years instead of 1. for 2 years it hit in 1 year. That's that's correct. OK. That's better than confounding variables. Thank you. I'll, I'll pass that along. OK. All right, thank you, Senator. Do we have any other questions on B1? be too B 3 Before B 5. Or 6 Alright, seeing no questions, we've got a motion to approve all items be 1 through 6. We've got a 2nd in discussion on the motion. Repsim Springer. Uh, hold on. You recognize? Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to know on 5 and 6 are these barracks being constructed. State police. OK. Can someone answer that? Can Camp Robinson. I had not at Camp Robertson. OK, all right. All right, thank you. All right, we haven't discussion on the motion to approve items B 1 through 6, seeing none, all those in favor signified by saying aye. All those opposed? Motion carries C1. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in section C. These are CARES Act appropriation requests. There's only one, it's for DFA budget management services. This is for 1.78 million in spending authority. This is to return federal funds that were awarded for the coronavirus emergency supplemental funding program. All right, thank you members we have any questions on C1? Seeing no questions, I've got a motion to approve. I've got a second, any discussion on the motion, seeing none, all those in favor signified saying aye. All those opposed? Motion carries D1 and 2. Thank you, Ms. Sher. We're in section D. These are American Rescue Plan Act requests. There are 2 requests. The first one is a direct federal award from a federal department to a state agency and the last request is a reallocation of funds that are awarded by the executive. That's from state's share of state fiscal recovery funds. D1 is a request from corrections. It's for $3.7 million in spending authority. This is to make improvements to the Tucker water treatment plant. There is a letter from McClellan Consulting Engineers following the request and on page 5 is a budget. On page 7 is the next request. On page 7 is D2. This is a request from Parks Heritage and Tourism. Again, this is a reallocation of previously awarded appropriation for requesting to move 1.6 million from a construction line to a miscellaneous character line item. This is for trail construction for the city of Dardanelles from an award made by ALC originally in September of 2023. The transfer will allow payments to be made to the city of Dardanelle directly as opposed to the department painted vendor out of the construction line item. All right, thank you members do we have any questions on D1? Any questions on D2? Aren't seeing none. We've got a motion to approve. We've got a second, any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor signified saying aye. All those opposed. Motion carries. Section 8. Thank you, Ms. Sher in Section E, these are the infrastructure investment and Jobs Act appropriation requests. The first one is a request from public safety state crime lab. This is for 152,000 appropriation. They have a grant from the National Highway Safety Administration to buy test kits, pipette charging stands, and staff training to aid in complying with the fatality analysis reporting system for motor vehicle crashes. Next item E2 is for division State Police. This is 3.4 million. They have a grant from the National Highway Safety Administration to implement a highway safety program that includes awareness campaigns, data collection and analysis in support of enforcement efforts in seatbelt, distractive driving and speeding and impaired driving laws. Number 3, E3 is for the division of emergency management. This is $275,000 the spending authority. They have a grant from the pipeline and hazardous materials Safety Administration at, uh, at the DOT. This is for year 3 of their hazardous material emergency preparedness grant program. those are all your quiz. All right, thank you, uh, Senator Re recognize for a question on E1. Uh, OK, do we have any questions on E1? Seeing nonein rights recognized for a question on E2. Thank you. Somebody come up to state police. If you could just recognize yourself for the committee. Sorry, Bridget White, Highway Safety Office Administrator for the Arkansas State Police. Karen Perry, Department of Public Safety, CFO. Thank you all for being here. Uh, this is something I ask, uh, Every couple of years. When you Uh, prove a request federal grants. Has there been any substantive change. In what the state police is agreeing to in the way of enforcement. Uh, ticket riding. Uh The efforts In the number of manpower. It requires, I know with a change in federal administration sometimes these things change in the number of years I've seen and I've asked questions for, they say, well, we get, we're getting federal money. What I want to know what did you agree to? To get federal money on the safety deal, is there any substantive changes from prior years. Uh, sir, no, there have not been any substantive changes, um, in the past 5 years. OK, and, and what I'm looking for is where there's additional manpower that take away from other. Duties of the state police to meet the federal criteria to get the grants and that's, that's always my concern and I have found some things over the years. All of the, um, enforcement efforts that are done through our highway safety grants are for overtime. OK, and therein again, For, for them to get overtime, they've got the right. Some tickets maybe warning tickets is what I was informed a few years ago. For them to justify getting the federal money for overtime. Or they just have to be out there and present, uh, there is no mandate for a specific number of tickets or citations. The state police has to show the federal government, this is what we did. With your grant, so they do take manpower and overtime and yes, it may be some safety, but they're distracted sometime I think from their other duties that they're doing to make sure they get their Their overtime logged. And, and That's my concern, so. Thank you for stating that. All right thank you members do we have any other questions on E2? All right, Nunn, thank you. Thank you. All right, any questions on E3? All right, seeing no questions. We've got a motion to approve items E1 through 3. We've got a second in discussion on the motion, seeing none. All those in favor signified saying aye. All those opposed? Motion carries Section F. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in section F. These are restricted reserve fund transfer requests. The first one is a letter from DFA dispersing officer. This is a $2 million transfer. It's from the various general discretionary majority votes set aside. It's to make a grant to Arkansas Enterprises for the developmentally disabled. It's to construct the jobs for you cat workforce training center in Lonoke County. According to the executive summary on the next page, the total cost of the center is 3.7 million, construction can begin in 2025 and it would open in 2026. The program would train up to 60 adults with developmental disabilities each year to be placed in meaningful employment, spending authority for this will be uh requested later in the agenda in the cash section. The next item F2 is a letter from the University of Arkansas. This is a $7.3 million transfer is from the infrastructure grants matching set aside. It's to support construction and and purchasing capital equipment for the multi-user silicon carbide fabrication facility or the music fabrication facility. This project received a $1 million transfer from a strict reserve in August of 2022. Uh, on the following page it says music will advance development and commercialization of the silicon carbide power devices for military, consumer, industrial, and healthcare applications. All right, thank you, members. Do we have any questions on F1? F2 All right, seeing no questions, we've got a motion to approve items F1 and 2. We've got a second in discussion on the motion, seeing none, all those in favor signified by saying aye. All those opposed, motion curious miss to our review items G1. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Section G is an appropriation, uh, or transfer, uh, request. This is for the commission for parent counsel, public Defender Commission. They have special language that allows the transfer after review by ALC. The agency requests transferring 20,000 from legal services to Extra help. The letter explains the contractor has agreed to a part-time position with the public defender. So spending authority would need to move from the vendor line to an extra help line. All right, thank you. We have any questions on G1. Aren't seeing no questions. I've got a motion to review. I've got a second in discussion seeing none knows the favorite sign if I'm saying I, others opposed? Motion carries section H. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in Section 8. These are cash fund appropriation requests. The first one is a letter from the division of State Parks at Heritage. Uh, this is a $1 million increase in appropriation. It's to address extensive repairs at the Ozark Folk Center State Park from storm damage that was, uh, that occurred in June of 2023. It's supported by an insurance payout. Second item H2 is a letter from DFA. It's for $2 million in spending authority. It's to provide the spending authority for the strict reserve transport, uh, for the jobs for you, uh, Cabot Workforce Training Center that was requested in the restrict reserve section. OK. All right, thank you. Do we have any questions on each one? Any questions on H2. I've got a motion to review both items. I've got a second in discussion on the motion, seeing none, although the favor signified saying aye. All those opposed? Motion carries section I. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in miscellaneous federal grants, the first one, I want is for appraiser licensing board. It's 22,000. They have a grant from the Federal Financial Institute Examination Council for State Appraisal regulatory agency support. Next item number 2 is Department of Health, 4.7 million. They have a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Number 3 is state crime lab. This is for $211,000 in appropriation and to establish one position. They have a grant from the US Department of Justice to hire an assistant technical leader as part of the decreasing the number of backlogged DNA cases. Uh, number 4 is uh Department of Insurance over at Commerce. It's for $614,000 spending authority. They have a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to assess the state's essential health benefits and the benchmark plan and identify potential opportunities for broadened maternal health coverage. Number 5 is a transformation division of billing authority. It's for $2.75 million in spending authority. They have a grant from the Department of Defense, the Department of Defense for security and fire safety upgrades at the Army Navy Hospital in Hot Springs. Number 6 is the Department of Military's 15 million in Sining Authority. They have a grant from the National Guard Bureau to update Camp Robinson. All right, thank you members do we have any questions on I one? 2 3 For I 5 Or 6, right, seeing no questions. I've got a motion to review section I. We got a second in discussion, seeing none, all those favorite signified saying aye, those opposed. All right, Section J. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in section J. these are paid plan appropriation requests. There's only one, it's for commission on law enforcement standards and training at public safety. It's for $93,000 in appropriation. This is uh due to performance increases, employee benefit division increases and other salary adjustments. All right, thank you members do we have any questions on J1. Alright, seeing no questions, got a motion review in a second in discussion, seeing none Iavor signified by saying aye. I opposed motion carriers section K. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Section K is overtime appropriation request. This is for division of Correction. It's for $5.2 million in spending authority. This is due to staff shortages. All right. inner love you recognize for a question, do we have anyone from the division of correction that cannot come forward to help and if you could just recognize yourself for the committee and then. Uh, sooner Love, you're gonna be recognized for your question. If I can figure out how to do that extra pain, uh, director for division of Correction. Chad Brown, Chief Financial Officer, division of Department of Corrections. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and not just, just a, a quick question in regards to the overtime. Now, I, I know that we have this, this overtime piece every, I guess, every year, have we tried to make any adjustments to the budget so that we could just include this or is this something that we just continuously don't have to do. Well, in regards to the budget we have requested an increase in our appropriation up to 15 million, uh is that is that this fiscal year. OK, but is that to cover overtime? Yes sir, it is. That's just the appropriation, so we'll pay for the. We'll pay for the overtime out of our salary savings so this request should get us through the end of the fiscal year. We pay, we pay about $103 a month, 15, we've had one month where we've paid $2 million in overtime, but it looks like it's trending back down to the 1.3, 1.4 range. So we're hoping 5.2 will get us through the end of the year. OK, so the 5.2 will get you. Through the end of the I'm at home on Chad, I'm trying to do some math here 15 million. This will be in addition to the 15 million that we currently have. OK, so then what did you do to your budget to adjust it then, if we, if the Are you talking about the appropriation side or the money side appropriation appropriation side so we had 15 million in our appropriation Act. This request is for an additional 5 million to add to that to get us through the end of the fiscal year. So you didn't do anything to adjust your budget for They anticipated overtime for next year. Well, FY 24. Or maybe FY 24, we had a request to increase our appropriation for FY 25. It still doesn't seem to be enough based on the appropriation that we have, so that's something we'll look at in this session as well. OK. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll just leave it at that. Senator Chesterfield. Um Thank you, Mr. Chair and good morning, gentlemen. Good to see you again. Uh, what is of concern to me is How short are we as for staff is concerned. Because there's something necessitating the overtime. So what is driving the need? Is it a lack of staffing? Yes, ma'am. It's definitely a lack of staffing, uh, at, at several of our facilities we are short very short staffed, uh, give me an example is percentage wise or person wise? OK, percentage wise, I'll take the Tucker facility, uh, the Tucker facility is 48%. Uh, short staff. And where is this? At the Tucker facility and, yes, ma'am. Tucker, Arkansas and this is what kind of offenders do we have there? medium security offenders at that facility is one of the, this is one of the places where you're gonna need the most overtime money, is that right? Yes, ma'am. That's correct. No What are we doing to attract? Is it because the money is not good? How much are we paying on average these people to come into Tucker, because we're at a 48% rate of unemployment. Unemployment, excuse me ma'am. $42,000 per year. That's it. Give me another example because we got 48% there. Is there any place where we're fully staffed? Uh, fully staffed. Can just for context, can you, I mean, I'm, I'm not sure why we're not doing it, but can we talk about the proposed pay plan increases that should help remedy. I think that's what she's asking that's what I'm asking. We understand what's happening right now. There's some substantial changes that are occurring. Historically y'all haven't been able to spend all the money that you have for salaries because you can't hire enough people at the salary rates that are there and so there's a fix coming with the pay plan, so maybe I think that may be where that gets to the heart of what I'm I'm trying to get to. So Senator, we're hoping that fix is going to help our recruitment remind me of it, I've I've read it, but I don't remember. How much are we anticipating? raising the minimum salary then to attract individuals into it. It will be close to the starting pick will be close to $50,000 per year. Yes, ma'am, that, that we're hoping that that will definitely help. Yes ma'am, that's basically what I'm asking because we, we can't continue to sustain this overtime because we we have got to be able to hire people, and Are we looking at where they are as to because at some point we talk about we need to pay more to get people in this particular area as opposed to this particular area. Are we taking that into account as well. Yes ma'am. That's what I need you to know. Thank you for clarifying what I was trying to say. I appreciate you sometimes. Mark the tape. Thank you, thank you, Jim, for taking my. Yes ma'am, Senator Irvin. Thank you. I, I think I, I, I think this is correct, but this isn't any new money. This is already your current funding, you're just transferring it and asking for the appropriation to transfer your current funding into this holding account. It's, is that the budgetary practice that you do anytime that you have, or do you, do you try to anticipate and, and leave a certain amount of appropriation in that per month and then sometimes it exceeds it, which is why we're here. I'm just curious about your budgeting process on how you try to determine, you know, what level of funding you're going to need for overtime because that's just going to vary, right? Yes ma'am. So salary match and overtime all have separate line items in our appropriation Act, so our overtime, like I was telling Senator Love is at $15 million in our appropriation Act as we do our projections throughout the year and we take our actuals which are actuals is what we spend each month. We take those actuals and then we project out to the end of the fiscal year and as each month passes, we move. the projection to an actual and so right now we've projected about 5 million short in overtime appropriation. So we'll use the existing funding that we have in order to pay that. OK, I just wanted to make sure that we confirmed that and put that on the record. Thank you so much. appreciate that. Alright, thank you, Senator Stubblefield. Thank you Mr. Chair. Dexter, how many, how many people, uh, how many employees are we bringing in from Mississippi? Or Tennessee, are you bringing any bussing staffing from Either the state, yes sir, we're definitely bringing in staff from Mississippi to work at uh the Cummins Varner and Delta unit as well as uh from, uh, at the East Arkansas Regional Facility. How many, how many are being bussed in? I don't know a total amount. I can find that out for you though and, and, and get that information to you. All right, one more question. What, what is the ratio between, uh, male and female guards in our prison system. OK Mr. Stewart, I have Mr. Stewart, look, look at that and, and I'll get that information to you too, but it's, it's somewhere. About 60%, 6040 females. 60% females, 40% male it's close to that we've got a lot of female staff. Uh Thank you thank you Mr. Chairman. All right, thank you. Do we have any other questions? All right, see Nunn, thank you all for your time. Alright, what's the committee. We've got a motion to review. We've got a second discussion, seeing none, all those in favor signified saying aye, all those opposed, motion carries, brings us to reports, uh, like we've been doing the last several meetings. Members, do you have any questions or comments on the reports? Get your back. M 7 whenever we get there. Senator Hickey, you recognized DHS whenever we get to that one, Medicaid Trust, I want, right, we're at it. So if we've got someone from DHS come forward. M7 Good morning. Jane at May and DHS. Jason Call and DHS. Laurie McDonald DHS. OK, I'm over here to the left. I know you are going to start hating me, but, uh, I've told you that we were gonna try to do this monthly because of It looks like the, uh, cash flow, you know, deficiency that we have within the, uh, Medicaid right here. And I believe the testimony in the past month or two has been that it looked like annually we were gonna have, you know, looks like we have 200 more, 200 million more thereabouts going out that we have coming in. Looks like this month, you dropped from You know, October balance was 568, round numbers, and you're down to 553. So it looks like that's still in line. Have y'all looked at that again to make sure that you still think that it's about a 200 $200 million. A year coming out of that account more than's going in. We do monitor the budget every week as we have discussed every month when we do these questions and we are still within our budget projections right at 98 to 99% of, um, of trend. And so we, we feel that we are on track. I would also, yes, sir, I'll just stop there. Well, I guess my question though was, as we said annually, and I know we have to do some estimates here. Do we believe that we're going to have approximately 200 million, uh, in debits over and above our credits, by the time the fiscal year is over, are we still at that? And then I'm gonna have one more question and then I'll, Yeah, and I, I, I'm a little cautious on saying debits over credits or credits over debits, because we, we budgeted using some of our trust fund that come from the providers. So a lot of these fees that you see today are provided through the provider fees to do some payments, so that's the reason I'm a little let me rephrase it. Well, the, are we still, and again, I'm not holding you to an exact number. I understand what you're up against, uh, so are we still Estimating that the balance in the trust fund, uh, at the end of the fiscal year will be approximately 200 million less than it was at the start of the fiscal year. Yes, sir, we are staying on our budget trends of what we put into AOP to spend. OK. I, I don't think that's a direct question, but since you said yes, I'm gonna say if it, if that's not true, I want you to speak up. So I'm gonna say it's 200 million. So also, uh, unless, unless you can tell me right now it's wrong. It's a simple question. I'm not, not trying to be rude here, but you're telling me your own budget trends and I'm just asking about the account. The account has 10 amount of money at the start of the fiscal year. June 30th, July 1st. And at the end, are we anticipating that it's going to be as Vince testified. close to $200 million less whenever we start the next fiscal year. And, and the difficulty with answering that is because of the provider fees and things that get put into the account. I think we are going to spend some, yes. One other question, and I'd like for you all to give me this information if you don't mind. I've had, uh, some members asked me this question, and I could not answer it. They're asking me, they're asking me if our operating accounts or our holding accounts. Actually that you all are carrying more money within those instead of the trust fund so that it makes, I'm just, I'm, this is the reason I'm asking this question because I want to be exact, that there's more money, uh, on a historical basis within those operating or holding accounts than there has been in the past. And what I'd like to know is whether or not that's true or not true. So if we could look back, do a look back for the last 3 years, like with our holding accounts or our operating accounts that are outside of this. I'd like to know if those balances are substantially the same within those holding accounts month over month, and that they have not increased and that you don't just have extra dollars with sitting in with those accounts. So I will begin and then I will let Mr. Callan correct me if I get something wrong. We are, um, monitoring or holding accounts. Um, historically they have had some money in them, not more than what is in the trust fund, but those are made of multiple accounts for paying and we do monitor those with the trust and our other operating accounts when we pay our bills, and we are mindful that that money needs to be spent in, um, first and with paying our bills. My question is this October of 22. October of 23, October of 24. You're holding accounts. What were your balances in those years, I want to see. Because of questions that members are asking me for some reason. Is, is that we're not maintaining more balances in those, those accounts and historically that we have. And that, that's what I would like to get. And I don't know if that request has already been made from you from the bureau or not, because I think there's been some talk about trying to request and get that, but I'm just doing it here publicly. Yes, sir, we will get you that information. I'm, I'm not aware that it's come from the bureau recently, but we've done some other reports in years past, I appreciate y'all's work on it. Thank you. All right, thank you, members. Um, we have other questions on M7. Uh, seeing them, we do have a question on M8. you. It. DFA want to answer your questions on that or? This is mine is for the Department of Energy Energy. Do we have anyone here? If you could just recognize yourself for the. Whitney Rainey, CFO for the Department of Energy and Environment. Andrea Hopkins, Associate Energy Administrator. Becky Keogh, Department of Finance and Administration. Thank you all so much for being here. My question's going to be dealing with some of the awards that you got through for the infrastructure, um, you've got an award here that's for state energy program. It's 5.3 million. It was awarded in June of 23, and it says your total obligations out of that's only been $21,000 why it's well over a year. So what's the hold up with being able to use that money. I know this is one that they have just started implementing the actual. program and they have until 2027 to spend it, um. And their current budget approved by the Feds allow. Um, hold on, let me see. The timeline matches up and they will have it spent by 2027. OK, and what exactly are, are they spending this on? One second. I'm sorry, I'm trying to get that answer. OK, well, we can move on to the next one in the meantime. The other one that dealing with is the weatherization assistance program. This was awarded back in June of 22. It's for $32.8 million and we've spent 614,000 of that. And my memory serves me correctly, there was a lot of debate when this money was awarded. We were talking about how this program is a needed program and we were going to be able to do more stuff. Doesn't appear we've done much. So the federal government or the federal agency just approved their budget in September for this program. OK. So, um, they have started implementing and that's where the expenses have been incurred just recently. you're saying right there and are we looking that we're gonna be able to end up using the money. Uh, yes, we just got the two-year extension from 2027 through 2029 to make sure that we can get the money spent. All right, thank you. Thank you. All right, thank you, members. Do we have any other questions? All right, seeing none. Do we have any other business? Seeing none, we are adjourned. Thank you for your time.