ALC-PEER

that time I gotta light myself up. Test, test, test. It's. Members of people get the Take your seats, we'll, uh, get the pier subcommittee underway. Call the meeting to order. Billy, you want, you want to start us off here? Thank you Mr. And members just uh. Point of information, I'm going to have him go through each section and then I'll ask for questions regarding each one. Thank you, Ms. Cher. We're in section B. These are various temporary appropriation requests. The first item is a letter from the Department of Human Services Division of County operations. It's for 8.93 million in appropriation. Uh, this is to participate in the new Summer EBT program for children. It's supported by federal funds and a transfer from the restricted reserve fund that will be requested later in the agenda as item E1. Next item is B2. This is a letter from the Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. It's for $15 million in appropriation. This is to pay health insurance contributions for public school employees. Educational adequacy recommended additional funding to support the EBD teacher health insurance program. The next item is B3. I was contacted by the division this morning, and they request pulling this item from consideration. So the only two items to be approved would be the items 1 and 2. Share those are all the requests. All right, members, are there any questions for B1? B2 If not, I'll entertain a motion to approve items B1 and B2. Have a motion. Do I have a second? Have a second. All those in favor say aye. Po motion has passed, Billy. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in the next section. These are our American rescue plan appropriation requests. Uh, the 1st 3 requests or awards made by Federal Department sent directly to a state agency. Items 4 through 7 are state awards from the original 1.57 billion that was granted to the state and that the executive has discretion in making distributions. The 4 requests would zero out the remaining fund balances, and that current balance is 75.7 million that is in the ARPA report at the end of your packet, J5. First, I don't see one is uh a request from the Department of Human Services Division of Aging, Adult Behavioral Health. It's for $180,000 spending authority. This is to recruit, hire and train public health workers through the area agencies on aging. The request says the appropriation is needed for expenses they had expected to pay last fiscal year, but will now pay this year. The next page shows how they will utilize older Americans Act funding formula to distribute funds to the 8 different AAA's. Next item is C2 on page 3, C2. This is for University of Central Arkansas, 750,000 Sinian authority. This is to complete the UCA Aviation Academy hangar. This request is to provide the spending authority to the university to spend the funds as required by the DFA special language. Later in the agenda is a request by the Department of Education, uh, higher education to get the appropriation to make a transfer of funds from the state award to the university. C3 is the next request. It's number 5 on page 5. this is the Department of Education Office of Early Childhood. It's for 2.6 million. This is to allow food banks to purchase fresh and processed foods from local socially disadvantaged farmers in underserved areas in order to build relationships between these agencies and the farmers. Uh, the next items begin the state awards, so C4 is the first state award on page 6. This is from the Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. This is for 72.3 million. It's too fund projects related to literacy, empowerment, accountability, readiness, networking, and school safety. Funds will also be used to standardize reporting for a phone free school initiative and increased career ready pathways. C5 is on page 7. This is the Department of Education Division of Higher Education for 750,000. This is to allow the department to send the state award to UCA for the aviation program. Next item is C6. This is on page 9, DFAud Management Services, 1.89 million is to provide assistance to providers that serve victims of crime. 17 million was awarded in fiscal year 24, and those awards are limited to $300,000 grants and they have received 118 applications. Next item is C7 on page 11. Uh, this is for DFA dispersing officer, 750,000, is to make a grant to the city of Springdale for their regional fire training fund. It's for a classroom, an engineered trench rescue props, site work, and a flash over simulator. Mr. Chair, those are all the requests. All right, members, are there any questions on C1? C 2 C 3 C4, C 5. Say 6 No. Huh? Represent fight you recognize. Sorry to be such a pain. Setting my budget seat. I was just wondering if we could get a list of the applicants for this. You Where would we go to see a list and your question was on C6, correct, correct. You'll identify yourself for the record, you're recognized. Good morning, Mr. Chairman Committee Jim Hudson, Secretary of DFA. Yes, Representative, we can get you a list of all the applicants. Thank you so much. Yes, ma'am. Are there any other questions on C6? Any questions on C7. Seeing no questions, do I have a motion to adopt item C1 through C7. Have a motion, have a second. All in favor say aye. Motion is adopted. Billy, section D. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in Section D. These are the infrastructure investment and Jobs Act requests. The first one is a request from the Department of Transportation for 280 million. This is to spend federal funding through the IIJ Act for the next quarter, included with the request is a summary of projects obligated with IIJE funding, that's pages 4 through 31. The next request, D2 will be on page 32. Look forward to page 32, this is D2. This is a request from Energy and Environment Division of Environmental Quality. Uh, this is a reallocation of previously awarded appropriation from a grant from the Department of Interior. Uh, they're requesting to move 1.6 million to professional fees from capital outlay to correct their budget. Uh, the purpose of the funds remain the same is to refurbish mine sites. The next item. is D3. This is a request from again, uh, Environmental Quality. It's for a million in appropriation. they have a grant from the EPA to do assessment related activities regarding brown fields. Let you share those are all the IIJA requests. All right, members, are there any questions on D1? D2 The 3. Seeing no questions, so I have a motion. Second, we have a motion to 2. All in favor say aye. Motion carries. Moving on to section E. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in Section E. These are the strict reserve fund transfer uh requests. The first item is a letter from DHS Division of County Operations. This is a $2.0 million dollar $2.9 million dollar transfer from the food insecurity and health needs set aside. Uh, this is to provide state match for the summary EBT program for children authorized by the USDA. The next item is a letter from the University of Arkansas at Palm Bluff. It's a $3 million transfer. It's from the various general discretionary majority votes set aside a account within the fund. It's to support construction of their health and wellness center. The total cost of the facility is 36 million and will be paid with fees, Title II funding and bonds. Mr. Chair, those are the two requests. Do we have any questions on E1? 82 See no question, so I have a motion. I have a motion in a second. All in favor say aye. Motion carries. Moving on to section F. Thank you, Mr. Sher. We're in section F. These are cash appropriation increase requests. The first item is a letter from uh corrections division of correction, fire equipment. It's for $25,000 in spending authority. This is to purchase fire equipment at the Cummins unit, Varner unit, and to assist local community fire departments. Next item of 2 is a letter from the division of Correction. It's for 400,000 spending authority. This is to purchase vehicles for transporting high security inmates. Uh, the next item is a letter from the Parker and tourism division of Parks. It's for a million dollars in spending authority. This is to provide matching funds for a grant, uh, for a federal grant to on the bill to scale program. Next item is uh number 4 from the commissioner of state lands. This is 4 million in appropriation. This is to purchase land and a building in West Little Rock. Mr. Chair, those are all the cash requests. Any questions on F1? F2 F3 You recognize Representative Lady. Uh, can we get some more detail on that. It says a million dollars for miscellaneous appropriation, What can somebody, what is that? Anybody here? Somebody from Parks like to come up here, identify yourselves for the record and you're recognized. Good morning, Katherine Andrews, director of the Arkansas Office of Outdoor Recreation. Suzanne Grubmeyer, chief of staff for the Department of Parks, Heritage and tourism. Marty Ryle, director of legislative affairs, Park area of tourism. You. Uh, can you just give us some detail on, on what that Money is used for. Sure, so this is for the gorp around the state program. Gorp stands for greenhouse Outdoor recreation program. This is a business incubator, uh, that the University of Arkansas is putting on. It's in, it's, I believe, 3rd year, uh, just the GORP program at the UFA. The around the state program is to bring this outdoor business incubator across the state of Arkansas. So the University of Arkansas applied for a federal grant and, um, we were able to match it with a million dollars, uh, for this, this program. To be expanded across the state. So, what kind of projects are you talking about outdoor projects. This is for companies. So it's a business incubator program. So, companies that are in the idea on a napkin phase, um, or stage of their business, a business incubator essentially takes them from that, uh, stage of their business to launch. So this incubator program is expanding from the University of Arkansas campus to other parts of the state of Arkansas, so that as we are putting, uh, a bigger emphasis on outdoor recreation in the state. We can help foster the growth of those outdoor recreation companies through something like this business incubator program. OK, all right, thank you. Any questions on F4? Seeing none without objection, these items are reviewed. Moving on to section G. Thank you, Mr. Sharon Section G. These are the budget classification classification transfer requests. There's only one. It is from the Department of Transformation and Shared Services is for a $20,000 appropriation transfer from operating expenses to capital outlay. Uh, this additional preparation is needed in capital outlay for a box truck replacement. All right. So the question this uh without objection, this item is reviewed. Section H. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're in the miscellaneous Federal Grant appropriation requests. The first item H1 is from the Department of Agriculture. It's for 1.45 million. They have a grant from the USDA to purchase 759 acres in Madison County, that's to protect the White River headwaters. H2 is Department of Agriculture, forestry division, 157,000 and spending authorities requested. They have a grant from the USDA to pay admin costs for the Forest Legacy program. H3 is for gaming fish commission. It's for $659,000 in appropriation and to establish 3 positions. They have a grant from the USDA to implement farm bill programs, specifically wildlife conservation planning for wildlife by paying for uh paying for biologists. H4 is game fish commission 2 million. Uh, they have a grant from the US Department of the Interior to restore Robinson Creek by replacing low water crossings. Uh, number 5 is administrative Office of the courts, 150,000. They have a grant from the US Department of Justice to improve collaboration between behavioral health and criminal justice stakeholders. Number 6 is again Office of the courts, 125,000, and this is another grant from the Department of Justice on that collaboration between behavioral health and criminal justice stakeholders. Number 7 is again off of the courts, 1.5 million. They have a grant from the Department of Justice to maintain and manage peer specialists within specialty court settings regarding the opioid crisis. Number 8 is quartz again, 2.5 million. They have a grant for the US Department of Justice for adult uh adult drug courts. Number 9 is a quartz, 427,000. They have a grant from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to develop a case management system that works with the Arkansas Crime Information Center. Number 10 is public safety state crime lab, 178,000. They have a grant for the US Department of Justice Justice to send staff to conference and for training. Number 11 is Game of Fish. It's 3.89 million. They have a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to restore War Eagle Creek by removing dams and low water crossings. Number 12 is Parks, heritage tourism, 120,000. They have a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts for performing arts events. Number 13, Department of the Military. This is for 94,000 in appropriation and to establish two positions. They have a grant from the Department of Military for a firefighter positions. Number 14, public safety, 370,000. They have a grant for the US Department of Justice to digitize sex offender documents. Number 15 is commerce Development Finance Authority, 2.29 million is the appropriation request. This is a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for emergency shelters for the homeless. The next item was held in committee at the last meeting. It's number 16. This is a request from the Department of Commerce. Insurance department, senior Medicare patrol. It's for 356,000 appropriation. They have a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to add year 2 funding to their senior Medicare patrol program. Mr. Cha, those are all the MFGs. Any questions on each one? H2 H 3 Age 45. 67. 8 9, 10. 11 12. 1314, 15. 16, Senator dismaying you recognize for a question. Alright, thank you. I've gotten some additional information on this from the insurance department, if they could kind of go over that with the rest of the members and I'm assuming we have whoever runs the program here to kind of ask more. Uh, micro level questions about what it is they're doing. Someone from the Department of Commerce come forward. Insurance department, excuse me. Please identify yourselves for the record, and you're recognized. Jake Winley, director of Legislative affairs for the Department of Commerce. Kathleen Purcell, program director for the Arkansas Senior Medicare Patrol. Alan McLean, Insurance commissioner. Uh, Mary Davis, CFO. OK, and so we, we've talked about this a little bit even in the budget hearings, that's essentially there's, it looks like maybe 3 to 4 components inside the insurance department that deal with Medicare. They looked to be siloed, at least that's kind of what I heard. There's not sharing of employees, even though some of the things they do are similar. Um, and it's like one of the things I asked for on this this SNP and you're, you're here not because the others maybe shouldn't have some similar questions, but really just because you were asking for this MFG, um, in, in now, and, and by the way, this is all active starting July 1st, 2024. So there's no. We're not, we're not hamstringing anyone. There's no concern about, you know, that we're gonna run out of time, right? We're, we're well in advance and so I applaud you for that. But what I can't still even understanding on the information that I have is what it is we're doing or we're accomplishing, uh, for instance, it's for, you know, fraud, Medicaid fraud detection, education to allow that to happen, uh, which then is turned over to the Inspector General is the way that I understand it. How many phone calls did we receive? To and I, so we have a hotline, I guess how many calls did the hotline receive about fraud that was actually Then transmitted over to the inspector General's office. Well, of course, it varies, but, uh, anywhere from 10 to 15 a month, and it's, you know, the more we're out speaking, the more, uh, calls we get, uh, the more advertising we do, the more calls we get. So many of those have led to some type of detected fraud that's been then pursued by the inspector. So what we do is when we suspect fraud, we send it to ACL, the Administration for Community Living, when they decide that it is something that the OIG would look at, then it is referred to the OIG and then we don't know anything after that. And so, uh, I don't, it was a, it was like 100, I think went through and just this month, it's been, or in the last couple of months, it's been about 20. So it goes from this is over you've you've got a, this has been in how long have y'all been in existence, I guess a year. How long, how long has your Arkansas, Arkansas has had this program since 2000. DHS got it in 2003. And then it transferred to the insurance department last year. When did it go? Why did it go from DHS to the insurance department. Um Uh, I was approached by someone at the insurance department that has to kind of bring the program to the insurance department made more sense because ship was there, the insurance, senior health insurance information program. And so, We applied for it under the insurance department instead of DHS. Alright, 3 employees and just kind of walk me through with those employees do. 3 employees, that's 111,000 is the total payroll, is that right? Yes. OK. In the state's not got any obligation on the S&P 3, 100%. So there's the director, there's a, um, A case manager and then there's a volunteer program coordinator. OK All right. And they, in, in amongst the three, it's just full-time jobs for all three? Yes, sir. OK. And then like, so we've got personal service so it's actually the 111 plus the 48. I'm sorry, so it's closer to about 160,000 in payroll cost. Alright, operating expenses 127. What does that mean? What's that look like for y'all? What do y'all do with your operating expenses? Mary can answer that. So that, um, covers like their rent, um, in-state travel and then they're advertising expenses um come out of all that operating expenses. Conference and travel was about 3000 and then 8 then grants, you're doling out some grants to some entities, is that right? About $60,000 worth. Yes, sir. So UMS centers on aging, uh, and we have a couple of RSVP programs and uh that's about it right now. OK. All right. And your other promotion items or there's just handouts for the county fairs or whatever y'all are working. Yes, sir, so we provide those to all of our partners as well attend a year? Uh, 6 to 10. 6 to 10 events a year. OK. Probably, probably more than that, I guess that's gonna document when you get a phone call in and all these other things that are happening that's gonna average in our database. So but but 10 a month, sometimes it goes up a little bit higher. Yes, anywhere, yeah, 20 so 1020, it just depends. It's really varies. Yeah, I understand, uh, vehicles, y'all have any vehicles associated with y'all use for travel? Um, if they need state vehicles, they get one from our pool vehicle and then the mileage is assigned to their grant when we pay it on the Wex card, OK. All right, I, I'm just a little bit curious about the outcome because it seems like you are focused. I mean, because I saw something about gross impressions and there's about. 4500 people maybe that through the organizations, not directly that are being touched in some way. Very indirectly from SNP, um. So because, go ahead. What do you mean by very indirectly? Well, I don't think that's the primary goals for some of these organizations at all. I mean, and so they're receiving some kind of grant or contact from y'all that are then being counted as a gross impression for a contact. At least that's the way it reads and what I've got here, which came from y'all. Um, so all of our partners do what we do statewide and they recruit volunteers, they speak and so. Actually, I'm not, um, Accurate on the numbers and I can get those to you. Pretty accurately, but they also report and I was thinking about our program specifically on the hotline, but they also have, um, You know, the numbers that they report out and speak and do vendor booths and all of the things, so. Yes, and then they do the same, they go out and educate as well. But that's not their primary task because they're not out to prevent fraud and abuse, but it's one of the benefits through education that there may or may not be offering, we assume they may be because we've done some training. Is that They have to report back to us. Yes, they're following. I mean they, they were so unsuccessful in reaching so few people, but we're not giving them money. We're just giving them our time. Or do we give any of these organizations money? We get the organization's money. Even the ones that went defunct. It was just for that one grant year. A lot of those in that first year didn't even receive their grant funding. If they didn't meet certain, um, priorities on those on that funding, then they didn't receive any, just because they were listed doesn't mean that they actually received it and I'm just saying, just because it's federal money doesn't mean that we shouldn't be paying attention to what's happened. I'm not sure how successful this program or what the outreach actually is accomplishing that couldn't be accomplished by some of these nonprofit organizations that are supposed to be doing it anyway or that's their existence is for this. I would be curious to know what other monies they're getting to be able to. To tag along to this and behind all of that, we have various Medicare components that are at the insurance department, which I would still argue don't seem to be talking to each other but doing very similar things, uh, at least that's from the outside looking in, that's what it looks at like. And I would, I would love to see a little bit more work so that maybe we can stretch this. You know, $356,000 number a little farther than what it appears we are based on the information that I've gotten about what's happening. Of course, if I may, Senator raises point, part of the difficulty in tracking outcomes, particularly enforcement actions with regard to fraud is that at the federal level, Medicare does not like sharing any data with its state partners. I've sat at NAIC conferences where members of 50 state insurance commissions have asked the Medicare people. give us data on where the fraud is coming from. Help us with enforcement actions. We will bring people to you because we get angry calls about it and we're not getting data from you and the feds simply said, we're not gonna give it to you. That's our purview you can't have it. So we think that's 100% why I'm kind of asking the questions because if we're not being successful because the feds don't want to make a successful by not communicating what's working and what's not working. We're just kind of blindly doing work in the background. We're not able to measure what our. outcomes are because we're not finding out what the final. Pieces to the puzzle and what what's happening, so, uh, if they would talk to us and tell us what's. You know, getting the responses, that would be awesome if they're gonna say no, then why are we running a program for them that they're not really even letting us be a part of except for, you know, community outreach. So we have plenty of uh support from them. They, uh, You know We, we are in contact with the regional centers on it, I mean, uh. The Regional Medicare programs, we have access to, uh, the CMS directly and so they, and this is a national program. There's an S&P in every state. So. It's a well, well liked program and government like ours have, you know, some set number of employees that are building out a set number of grants that are whatever. So every one of them are the same. There's no latitude given by the federal government on how we improve or make the program better. No, sir. OK. That's OK. Some of them may have more employees. Well, I, I would imagine by population depending on, yes. OK, all right, they're all the same. Thank you. Seeing no other questions without objection. Is H1 through H16 is are reviewed. You recognize Representative Laman, sorry about that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I want to go back to age 11, sorry for backtracking. Uh, game and fish. Is anyone here? If you'll identify yourself, you'll recognize. Chris Ray, chief of staff, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Ben Batten, deputy director, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Unless she made CFO. Uh, I just had a question on the, the War Eagle Creek, uh, Reclamation, I guess, um. It talks about what you're going to do with this money is remove dams and low water crossings. And redo the banks and that sort of thing. Up in that part of the state, there's a lot of people that use those low water crossings, some of them, that's the only way to get to the main road. Uh, has that been discussed with local people up there? Yes, sir. Uh, we're aware and uh all of the, uh, crossings are to be repaired in a way that, that either. Gives the same amount or even better perhaps, uh, transport across them. So it's not doing away with them. It's just No, sir, it's replacing them with improved structures that allow better transportation of people and also for fish and organic uh uh aquatic organisms to move up and down the stream. OK, I got one other question. Um, are there any federal grants available for like reclamation of um Well, to use a better term, gravel pits that are in cities and are there funds available for something like that to reclaim that and turn it into an outdoor recreational facility. Sorry, sir, can I get clarification? Did you say groundwater pits? No gravel gravel pits. Um, I would say, uh, we have fisheries biologists that cover all over the state. If there is a body of water like that, that we could come and look at and give recommendations on how to improve the fish population, work with communities on access, things like that. We're happy to provide that. All right. Thank you. Seeing no other questions without objection, items 81 through 16 are reviewed. Remember seeing no other business before this committee, we stand adjourned.