ALC-JBC Budget Hearings

Sorry. Good morning, everyone. If I could get everybody to their seats and um. To their places we'll get started. Call this meeting to order. Representative Carr, would you, uh, lead us in a prayer this morning. Everybody stand please. I'm getting ready to hit. All right, let us pray. Fathers, we gather today, we just pray that you would guide and direct us in all ways, just temper our actions with wisdom. We thank you for watching over us for all the times that we travel. Of your traveling grace, we just thank you for your son, your love, your mercy, and just pray that. You would watch over us. As we, uh, try to be good stewards of your resources for the state of Arkansas and our districts. All these things I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Good morning. Glad everyone's here today. We still got a pretty good crowd coming back. We're gonna get started with, um, the reports and communications, I believe, Miss Cathy, you have a letter. Well, yeah, we'll go ahead and get the military up. And, uh, but I'm gonna let you go ahead and do the letter first, please, and then we'll have to take a vote on that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, we're starting this morning with the military and it's in your manual on page 346. I do want to draw your attention to a revised request that the military has provided you in a form of a letter on your desk, um, in this request, what they are asking for is currently they have 2 salary sections for the military, and one of their requests is to combine the two salary sections into one, salary section. And then also for the appropriations dealing with the office of the secretary and general operations, which are both general revenue funded appropriations for those two to be also be combined into one appropriation. The other request, which is, uh, item number 2 there on your letter is to combine two federal training site, uh. Appropriations. One appropriation, these are companion appropriations, one appropriation basically covers the personnel expenses for the uh federal training site and the other appropriation, uh, covers the operating expenses for that same uh facility and so we're wanting to combine those into one appropriation. So I'll begin now with the various appropriations that the military need to adopt the letter first. I'm sorry. All right, any discussion on the letter? Seeing none, uh, do I have a motion? I have a motion. Do I have a second? And a second. All in favor say aye. And you pose no motion carries. All right, you recognize. Now we'll begin on page 346, and this is, as I said, the Department of Military. This is their administrative and shared services appropriation. This is the appropriation for the Secretary of the Department of the Military. Um, it is one position and the salary and matching, uh, services for that. There are no changes being requested in this appropriation, and that is the uh executive recommendation as I said, the position as well as the appropriation will be combined with the appropriation that we're gonna be looking at. So then if you'll move on over to page, um, 352. This is the general operations appropriation. So this is the appropriation to for administration of the Arkansas Military Department. uh it includes staffing costs and maintenance and general operation expenses to support the agency headquarters, National Guard training complex at Camp Robinson as well as administration and upkeep for armories in the community. And around the state, um, all included in this fund center. This is a general revenue funded appropriation. uh, this is the one that will be combined with the previous one that we saw for the secretary and, uh, the request by the agency is a reduction of non-positions, including the salary and personal services appropriation matching, uh, increase of $825,000 in operating expenses for replacement of essential equipment, renovation improvements, and maintenance. of armories and buildings at Camp Robinson of that $825,000 increase, $50,000 is reallocated from the professional fees line item. At a restoration of $225,000. This is their capital outlay appropriation, and that would be for replacement of needs and purchases of equipment essential to the agency. The executive, uh, recommendation provides for this agency request. Um, moving on to the next appropriation for the military that can be found on page 355. This is for our military call up and court martial appropriation, um, this is funded from the budget stabilization Trust Fund as well as general revenue. It is, uh, an appropriation that is uh. Has two line items, the emergency call up for any emergencies where the National Guard is sent out to help with as well as the court martial expenses if needed. There are no changes being, uh, asked for or requested in this appropriation, and that is the executive recommendation as well. The next one is the federal training site, um, this is the appropriation that I mentioned, uh, that, uh, is actually two appropriations that are companions and so your motion will be to move these into one single appropriation with salaries match and operating all in one. This is the salary part of it, um, it's for the positions state funded positions, uh, with a 100% federal funds to support the operation of Camp Robinson Federal Training. The request here is a reduction of 94 positions and 3 extra help positions. These are the youth challenge positions when that program was eliminated and restoration of two miscellaneous federal grant appropriate positions that were approved through peer and ALC. The executive uh recommendation provides for the agency request and in addition, reclassification of two positions. Um, moving on to the operating side of the federal training site grant that's found on page 360, um, and on this one, this, these are for the operational cost of this program and they're asking for an increase in operating expenses for renovation improvements and maintenance of armories and buildings at Camp Robinson of the $4,750,000 increase they're getting a million dollars is being reallocated from Professional fees, and 1.5 million is for the restoration of the miscellaneous federal grant approved by, um, ALC in FY 24. They are also asking for the restoration of their capital outlay, $3 million the appropriation for replacement needs and purchases of equipment essential to the agency, the executive recommendation, uh, is for the agency request with those changes. Moving on to page 362, the military Family relief Trust. This is a family relief checkoff program, um, it establishes a grant program to assist, um, National Guard reserves and their armed forces. It is derived from taxpayer donations. The only change the agency is requesting is an increase in the grant program appropriation to align more with the funding that they have available for those grants. The executive recommendation is for the agency request. On page 364, this is the cash operations appropriation for the military. Um, this is the cash is derived from rentals and fees that are charged for usage of some of the facilities that they have at Camp Robinson, as well as harvesting timber, um, they are requesting an increase in their capital outlay appropriation for replacement and our purchase of equipment, uh, $320,000 increase and then that is a reallocation. of some operating expenses and professional fees and the executive recommendation provides for that request by the agency. On page 366 is counter drug asset forfeiture. uh, this employees funds held in the department's cash fund in state treasury account and it assists in federal counterdrug operations receives a portion of the proceeds derived from the sale of any seized assets. Uh, the agency on this appropriation is requesting a decrease of $3,831 and this uh decrease would align this appropriation more. in line with the actual funding that they're receiving. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request in this number, uh, page 368, um, this is military support revolving. This is funding for, uh, consists of fund transfers and deposits from federal agencies and it's for non-emergency military call up to support military training activities in talking with the agency uh concerning this, as I said, it's non-military call up, so when our National Guard is may be called in to help with uh storm cleanup, uh, some of the training that might take place prior to their going to do that might be uh learning how to appropriately use chainsaws, so this is, uh, in this particular one they're asking for a decrease of $19,652 in that expenses line item to align more with the funding. The executive provides for that request. Number on page 370, there Fort Chaffee training site. This is a 100% federally funded. Um, and this, on this the agency is requesting a reduction of 10 positions and 4 extra help positions. They're requesting restoration of two miscellaneous federal grants that were approved through ALC through Pier, and an increase of $11 million in operating expenses appropriation, and that would be for renovation, improvements, and maintenance of buildings at Fort Chaffee. They're asking for an increase of $2 million in professional fees appropriation for renovation. improvements and a mate and maintenance of buildings at Fort Chaffee and an increase of $4 million that's in their capital outlay appropriation, and that would be for construction projects and to purchase new equipment. The executive recommendation is the agency request as well as the reclassification of one position. On page 372 is the National Guard Museum. Uh, this is uh receives general revenue. Previously, this part of the agency received their general revenue through the miscellaneous agency fund and what they're requesting with this is to create a subfund within the military's general revenue fund, which is HMD for this particular line item to be found. Um, so the executive recommendation is the agency request. So in other words, this one would. No longer be coming out of HUA but would be general revenue coming from their military fund. Moving on to page 374 is the Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge Program. This was the residential educational training program for at-risk youth and the agency is requesting to discontinue this appropriation, the program has been eliminated and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request on that appropriation. Um, number on page 377 is the Fort Chaffee Readiness Center. Uh, this appropriation is for capital improvements for military bases around the state. It's a 100% federally funded. The executive recommendation, the agency is requesting to continue the appropriation at the level that it is at and the executive provides for that request. On page 379 is the access control building at Camp Robinson. This was the appropriation that they had in order to construct and access control building, uh, there at Camp Robinson. They're wanting to discontinue this appropriation, that project has been completed and this appropriation is no longer needed. And those are the requests that we have today for the military. All right. Thank you, Senator dismay, do you have? You're recognized. And I appreciate that, and it has nothing to do with y'all, but yesterday we had a special language meeting, uh, there was some additional discussion about the cultural institutions Trust Fund and actually what that meant and what it looked like and what projects were available, and, again, I apologize for cutting in. I've got another appointment that I've got to make out wait outside of town, um. And so in that discussion just for background and I think, you know, maybe just to help with some of the members' concerns about funding local museum projects or whatever your project had to be a $7 million project to qualify to begin with. Additionally, that trust fund was established not only to be able to transfer some state funds, but there was a belief that maybe some private donors, individual donors would make uh donations to the fund that has not occurred. I am supportive of doing away with the trust fund and if there are members that want to do something. different, then that is perfectly fine, and we should maybe pursue that or they should pursue that, but again, this is not the vehicle. So in our uh legis or special language meeting we adopted the executive wreck, which was the Tra third authority for, uh, parks and surs funds to go into the cultural institutions Trust fund that means there is no more state funding if that follows through and will ultimately pass, um, and so I'd like to make a motion to expunge vote by which we passed the legislative recommendation for the Arkansas. Um Cultural Institution Trust Fund that is located on page 2021 of your packet. All right, I have a motion. Everybody understands that motion. No This was yesterday and, and, uh. special language, is that correct? Yeah, so the history of it is this committee, uh, made a motion to adopt a legislative recommendation to continue on with the $8 million appropriation authority for the Arkansas Cultural Institution Trust Fund. Uh, that was largely done, at least I was not here present because there was a belief that somehow this trust fund could fund small projects, maybe small museum project and individual districts this fund is set up for projects that are in excess of $7 million and again was not. The attention it's not being utilized for the intended purpose. And so I think that's why you saw an executive rec agency wreck to do away with the trust fund, uh. It will not accomplish. What some of the members believed to be able to be accomplished in this committee, uh, having a bigger discussion in special language yesterday about the trust fund and its parameters and the rules behind it, it was determined that we would go ahead and pass the executive wreck on or agency wreck on the special language which dealt with how this, uh, fund received state funding, uh, in doing that now there's no need for this trust fund, um, and so I'm making a motion to expunge the vote by which we pass a legislative. recommendation and I'm gonna follow that up with a motion to adopt the executive wreck, which does away with the trust fund. So I have a second on that motion? A second, any discussion on the motion. Seeing none, all in favor of expungement motion. Say ah. Can you oppose. Motion carries. You have a second motion. 2nd motion is to adopt the executive rec that's on page 21 of your, uh, binder, uh, which, which again eliminates the uh. Appropriation authority uh for the trust fund or yeah for the I have a motion. I have a second. Any discussion, seeing none, all in favor say aye. You know. Motion carries. Thank you, Senator dismay. Sorry about the interruption in the middle of that, but we need to take care of business. He's got some other things he needs to do so if I could have the 3 military personnel at the table to uh introduce herself and then we'll get started with some questions. Jeff Wood, chief of staff. Bridier General Chad Bridges, the Agent general of the state of Arkansas and secretary of the Arkansas Department of the Military. dying worm, CFO. All right, so are y'all ready for some questions? Let's, let's go. Senator Love, if you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair, um, drawing your attention, uh, first of all, good morning, General Bridges. It was great talking with you. Um, drawing your attention to page 356. I'm looking at your, um, Your total actual for 2023, 2024 being about 3.5 million, but then What, what was that, what was that spike in there because you're, you're then asking, I mean, you've asked for less lesser appropriations, but I just wanna know what that spike was in there. Thank you, Senator Love. Uh, the spike is 22 different deployments to the border, uh, that the governor approved and authorized, uh, and then thirdly, we went to support Louisiana, uh, for hurricane response and the hurricane response, uh, will be something that will be reimbursed by, uh, the state of Louisiana. OK, so do you think that that you have, you have ample appropriation. I do 2.5 is historically what we use and, and or like what we uh asked for and is appropriated by the legislature, and we think that's an appropriate amount. And we think that is suitable for our ongoing needs as we respond to the state, um, in future. Uh, in future disasters or any kind of state response we need. OK. And my second question, uh, I, I see that and we talked about this before, uh, regarding the new challenge program and the discontinuation of that of that appropriation. However, uh, do you see any time in the future, uh, bringing that new challenge program back because it's such an important vital program, but can you kind of speak to that? Yeah, we, we certainly are, um, we can, we are willing to consider, uh, reinstituting that program, uh, with the right conditions. And so there's got to be the right conditions in place for that program, uh, to, to come back. And uh and so uh what are those right conditions? I think we, we need to describe what those are and at some point in the future, um, as it relates to federal funding coming back in, uh, to be able to, uh, fund that program with the state resources. We, we provide as well. OK. Has there been any conversation with the federal government in regards to To no, because, I mean, we're in the process now of, of, of, of closing that out and so it would at least be a minimum of 2 years, uh, in the future. OK. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Collins, you recognize. Thank you, um, and actually my question was also on 356 regarding these polyps. So how much was each of these call ups to the border. Approximately. Representative, as I recall, approximately I think the first one was 1.8 million, and the second one is 1.3 million. OK, so that's the majority there that spending then, um, and this may be more of a question for the bureau, but how is it that you guys are able to spend in excess of what is appropriated is that, I mean, just as a matter of course there isn't that spending authority? How, how can we exceed that back over to the committee to ask for additional appropriations. OK, and that was approved that way then and then the other question is, you know, obviously depending on what people want to do, uh, and probably depending on this election, there may be more such deployments, I would guess in the future, but you guys, do you guys not think that that's gonna happen or why are we still at the 2500 if, you know, I, I don't really, I guess I don't really know what would be different, uh, and I don't like busting through the budget by 40%. I don't want to jinx us, but traditionally in a, in a non-year where we don't have a hurricane response or send troops to the border. We spend well below the, the 2.5 million just on our normal. hurricane response I ice storms, things like that, uh, we traditionally spend way low. We usually do not spend more than probably a billion or less. Yeah, we usually spend less than a million a year on just the traditional things we get called out for here, so this is not an election year. OK, thank you. Senator Hammer, you recognized. They would share on the youth challenge, uh, I know we've talked privately and then also I know there was a committee meeting on it. I guess my question before we slam the door on it, do you ever see it coming back again, uh, somebody had just in the hallway kind of conversation said they thought maybe it was getting revitalized and are you ready to just officially pronounce that it's not coming back again. I think it would be it would be have to it would have to be a high bar, uh, for my position, uh, for us to reinstate that and so I, I would say, like I told Sinner Love, uh, we have to make sure the right conditions are in place that we are able to create an environment that is suitable for young kids uh to uh to progress through that program. So doing away with the appropriation funding at this time is what you feel is best to do because I do, yes, sir, because we're in the process of. c lo s ing it down and as I told Senter Love, it's going to be a number of years before we could get any federal funding back to reinstitute a program we have had conversations with NGB about what that would look like. And, and traditionally, they said you have to wait, usually about 2 years after it closed down, but that was one of the good things about us closing the program down is we were able to reapply to open it. Had they come in and done a second audit and closed this down, that would have prohibited us from ever going back to NGB to have a program, so I think that was one of the. One of the few positives of us closing it down when we did is we now, uh, can, uh, get it closed down officially and then we can go back and start engaging NGB engage other states that are doing it, you know, at a high level, see how they're doing it and then come back with the proper structure of what the positions look like, what grades do we need, what facility upgrades do we need so that we can make sure that, uh, when we do it again, we do it right and, uh, and don't have the issues we've had in the past. I understand. I appreciate it. Thank you. Representative Springer. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I too want to follow up with respect to the youth challenge program. I'm very disappointed in the, your decision to do away with the program. In fact, you appeared before I was on that committee where you appeared, and I asked pretty direct questions at that time had you all done everything possible to make sure that that uh program lasted, and I never, I don't think I got a direct answer, and I have spoken with um uh Chief uh Wood this morning. and he has assured me that you all will um look into that and make sure that you address the concerns that you have because it's my understanding that there were some things that needed to take place that did not take place and that you're willing to go forth to try to make sure that those things are in place. Am I correct in my summary of what I understand to be the conversation that we had this morning. Uh, yes, Representative, acknowledge that there are, there were some conditions that you all probably did not address that needed to be taken care of then, right? Is that correct? that General Stubbs had was that, you know, we were only finding about out out about certain allegations and things and that uh there was probably more things going on in previous years that either didn't get reported or didn't get addressed, and so I think that that weighed heavily in his decision of, hey, if we're hearing about this many instances, how many things have happened that we didn't know about. Yes, OK, and then finally I I would just like to, and you've indicated that you're gonna make contact with other people in order to address those concerns that you all have in order to develop a specific plan as to how you all are gonna implement the program. Is that what I'm hearing that you're gonna have something in writing with respect to how you're gonna implement that plan, right? Yes, we'd be happy to get back with you to kind of show you the steps we're gonna take in engaging other states. Thank you very much. Representative Barry, you recognize. Mm Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I have to say I have a little bit of experience with the, uh, youth challenge program, being a former secretary, and, and I will tell you. That the Department of the military are not subject matter experts to deal with troubled youth. That is a DYS mission, the youth services, they have the people that are experts to deal with the issues that are troubled youth have. And that's part of the reason that the train got off the track, uh, with the Youth Challenge program. That's, that's a reason why most states do not have a youth challenge program because they do not have the subject matter experts in the army originally it was kind of designed with a hope that we would pick up some recruits to join the military and things like that. That is not the case in more. There would have to be a systematic change in the way that we do business with our youth in the state of Arkansas in order to, uh, re-energize the youth challenge program because it does not belong in the department of the military. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Represent Wooten. You recognize. OK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have several questions. First of all, the uh reorganization, general, that's taking place of merging several units into one, which I understand. Well, I would like to know is that from the military department or is that a result of the consultant to the governor's office has Uh retained to look at all state government. Where did that come from? Yeah, we, we didn't get that recommendation from the consultants working on the Arkansas forward it just from looking at it, it just makes sense to us. Fort Chaffee is organized that way already. And so basically, and it's worked well, so in that call center we're just aligning it with what we already do. And again, just having the two salaries, uh, you know, uh, separate separate like that it's just always, you know, not made much sense to us, so. OK. Next question, if I may. Um On the report that I have and you have a copy of it on your desk. It shows 556 department total number of employees. But when I look at your general appropriation, when I look at the uh Uh, budget request in that type of thing, it shows. 477 Acts 494 positions in the budget and then in the request uh executive and agency request, it shows 427. And then we have 556. So which one of these is correct? How many employees currently do you have? I, I think the 556 number is accurate now it's the how many positions we have, I think we have approximately 400 of those filled. Uh, we do have a request in our budget to eliminate about 130 positions uh 130. We have about 45 there are from AC 9 uh 796 that having some of them vacant several years and we, uh, with youth challenge being pulled out of there, that's about uh 80-ish of those positions. And again, some of those are also on the uh act uh 796 list and then we just had a couple of uh an attorney position, a paralegal position that we just don't have any plans to use, so we added those to turn back. OK. And, and I appreciate your diligence of looking at that on page 359. It shows 301 employees actual 313. This is the federal training site. Is that above, that's above and beyond the 555. Is that a different? Is that, is that under the Federal aspect of it? Yes, all 100% federally funded positions in there, and that's where a lot of the, you'll see in the, in our request that drops down to 263. That's, that's where a lot of the positions that we're eliminating are coming from. But that's federal money. So, so it's not involved in the 556. 0, all of our positions are combined cause, cause the way our federal 100% federal funded positions are, they're all state employees and we get reimbursed by the feds for it. And so, uh, so that's the way it works, so they, they are state employees get paid by the state, you know, and everything else. Uh, so the 66. Is that You have 66 that are over 2 years old. Mhm What, what positions are those, and do you look at those on a regular basis. Yes, the majority of those are, uh, are positions that are 100% federally funded. I think we have just a couple of those that are general revenue or 7525. We do look at those and we try to, uh, you know, I think the struggle for us is on the federal side, you know, with the way the budget cycles work, the feds will request a position that they think they need, and then almost all of a sudden, they're budging on the federal side shifts or they're just unable to, you know, Filled security guard positions or whatever. So a lot of times we have an issue with, uh, what the feds think they need, and then we get on there and then, uh, they end up not using those positions and they just kind of sit out there. So, you know, that's one of the reasons we're wanting to kind of clean the books and, and turn these back in. OK, one more question, and I'll be through, Mr. Chairman. Of the 130 positions that you're giving up, doing away with. How many of those are federal. I I would say almost probably uh 126 of them, 128. I know of 2 100% general revenue positions are paid for by position by, by title or job description or are they paid for in a lump sum for 120. They're, they're paid for by the job description because each one has a job description, each one of them. Yeah, cooperative agreement that we sign up with to get, to get the funding for it has the types of positions that we can hire. So it matches up, uh, uh, usually the agreement's standard languages if you have a similar state position, then use that, uh, you know, and there's only a very few cooperative agreements that have a specific title, you have to use this position, and we've gone back and cleaned that up by creating, uh, some positions that match that title because we didn't, you know, Fort Chaffee is a good example. We have a lot of training positions up there, and we were using things that were not analogous or similar for those positions. So we went to the personnel committee, created the proper positions with the proper descriptions and kind of got that clear. up. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, General. Senator Dodson recognize us. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, So I'm just trying to follow along here as far as uh obviously I understand the youth Challenge program, uh, was shut down, so all of the, the federal match that went along with that is, is no longer there, um, and if I understand you correctly, it part of the reason was because it was going away. The federal match for that program. No, uh, uh, the reason it was going away is because we, we, uh, closed the program down and so uh for for that program there's an appendix because it's paid through the cooperative agreement. And so that was one of the things that we did when we, uh, you know, got with him to shut down the program. They basically went back and adjusted this year's appendix to take out all the additional funding that we would have to just to give us enough funding for the, uh, the closed down. So that goes to, so for if, if I'm understanding it correctly, the The Youth Challenge program. Appropriation was all GR general revenue, state funds. And then the. If I'm reading it correctly, the The federal portion of it was in the. Federal training Got training and grants appropriation. Which those are being increased, um. So if we're, if we're losing that match. Uh We're increasing the federal grants though that are coming in a little confusing for me as well. What I noticed is instead of keeping the youth challenge positions in the youth challenge area for whatever reason, I don't know why the system pulled a lot of the ones that were uh that we're getting rid of over into the training site center and so it gets a little confusing because a lot of those positions are ones that were tied to Youth Challenge, which is a separate, a separate appendix. So those, those positions are going away that were for you challenge that were. 1/3 or. I guess 34 paid for by the feds, the next biennium. We do still have, currently have 3 Youth Challenge employees there now that are managing the post-residential phase for the students that we had that graduated, uh, last December and last June. So what, what is the plan for the facilities once that's completely wrapped up and buttoned up for the next couple of years, uh, if, if you're not. If you pursue Reopening the program or reconstituting some other way or if you're Just doing away with it and using it for some other purpose. Do you have plans for those facilities right now? Um, we are returning those back to the Robinson maneuver Training Center, uh, so they were originally Robinson maneuver Training Center facilities and we're turning them back for the use for the Arkansas. So there'll be an operation and, and well, part of the. The training funds that we're getting that are. If I'm reading it correctly, 100% federal matched, um, those will be used to upkeep those facilities and do part of the maneuver training and all of that with with personnel over there. Yes, part of that, part of that funding will do that, and that's part of the orderly shutdown is returning the buildings back over to the military side, so they will put those on basically, uh, so I don't talk about too many uh military acronyms. They'll get put back on a list where units can actually check those buildings out, uh, you know, once we, uh, spend a little bit of money to repair and get them back up. they need, they do need some updating. The buildings themselves. Yes, I mean some of the barracks not as much, uh, but some of the other administration buildings will need some, but not, not a lot. Soldiers are usually pretty happy as long as they got a roof over their heads, so all right, thank you. Represent fights you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Here I am at our last, uh, aging children use military committee meeting. We had a very long discussion about the youth challenge program and why it's being closed and, uh, since there's so many questions about it, I think it would be a good idea for members to go back and look at that committee meeting and you can get very thorough answers to all of these questions. Thank you. Representative Shepherd, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and thank you to the department for what you do and thank you to our men and women in uniform for their service, not just here in the state, but actually around the world. My question and may just be a point of clarification and, and it may be readily apparent and I'm just overlooking it. But the National Guard is, has been utilized by actually called up by the federal government on a number of occasions over the last number of years. How does that, how is that reflected in the budget or in the information that we provided or is that something that's gonna be completely off the, off the, uh, sheets that we're provided. A representative uh Shepherd, thank you for the question. Uh, we are here to, to, uh, answer questions on the state portion of our budget, I would describe that, uh, overall, um, the Arkansas National Guard, uh, is 97% funded by the federal government and uh those call-ups, uh, on Title 10 duty or Title 32 duty, uh, happened with federal appropriations on that side. And just as a follow up, just, uh, I guess there's a point of information, uh, actually one unit was sent to the southern border on a federal call up is my recollection last year, and then I believe we've had several units that are serving or have served in the Middle East based on federal deployments as well. We do have another uh aviation unit that will will go to the southern border on a federal mission on federal uh federal orders next year. Uh, we currently have. 32 soldiers in Romania, uh, protecting a US base there and then we have over 100 other members of the Arkansas National Guard throughout the world, uh, serving on Title 10 orders right now. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for your service. Thank you, sir. Representative Kavanaugh. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, my question is just going to be on 365, which is your cash operations, and you know, I'm gonna ask about your fund balance there because you've done your homework as you told me earlier, and I appreciate that. So, um, This particular fund balance, is there a restriction on where you can use it. No, I'm not aware of any restrictions. What do y'all based on your current spin, that's like a 10.8 year. Or 10.18, should I say, your fund balance. What we, what will you be planning? Where will you use this excess funds, I guess is what I'm asking. We we kind of where we've been using our fund balances to kind of self, uh, we self funded our joint enhanced enlistment program to where we're offering, uh, you know, a, a bonus to people that enlist, so we took uh 550,000 of our cash balance and set it aside and dedicate it just for that so that we could self-fund it, show that it works, and you know, before asking for money there, uh, the rest of it, we use the cash funds if we have to replace any of our, our vehicles, or Things like that, uh, on post is what we use it for. OK, all right, thank you. I appreciate it. Representative Tara Shepherd. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Motion at the proper time. Not quite yet. We're getting there. Senator King. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the youth Challenge program, uh, The, did I read or do I remember right about from the meeting, that some of these kids from Arkansas are going to Kentucky or something to participate. So is that, is that coming out of Kentucky's budget? Is that coming out of our budget? Which one is that coming out of? Kentucky, we're, uh, you know, part of the agreement for them to take our kids, uh, you know, so quickly because we really wanted to focus on the kids that were in the pipeline, uh, to another state. So we did an interstate agreement with them, so we are picking up the state share, uh, cost of that, which is approximately 6000 students. We sent 25 kids there and then we did send some to Louisiana, so we have approximately, I think it's 10 kids down in Louisiana and we'll be sending the, you know, covering the state share for that those kids as well. So this next budget you're gonna have, uh, Money coming, I mean, you'll have money out of your budget going to send kids to other states to do this program, no, no, those, those are the only two states that we did agreements for, and that was because we had kids in the pipeline. Oh, I see, I see. And so right now what I would say and I'm telling everybody Mississippi is the only border state we have that doesn't have a residency requirement. So anyone from Arkansas that wanted to apply to Youth Challenge in Mississippi, uh, their programs run out of Hattiesburg at Camp Shelby, uh, that's one option, uh, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana all have residency requirement for their states and then Missouri and Tennessee closed their program. Missouri doesn't have one. I don't know when they closed their program, but that's kind of the surrounding areas. There are several states, uh, for Kentucky, for example, that will take out of state students, uh, even if the state doesn't pick up the share. OK, and, and to just reiterate this point that you've told me and everything that if you want, if we want to start this program up or anything, it's going to take at least 2 years to get that process going. OK, thank you. Reverend Shepherd, you are recognized for emotion. Motion. proper time. You have a motion to move executive rig have motion of second. Any opposed to that by all the eyes, please. No opposed. All right, motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Appreciate y'all today. Thank you. All right, this time we're gonna call up transportation department. And Mr. Billy Parrish. To talk to you in the future, All right, you're, you're recognized Billy, if you want to go ahead and. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Billy Parish legislative Research. Laurie Tudor, Arkansas Department of Transportation Director. Patrick Patton, Arkansas Department of Transportation CFO. Thank y'all for being here today. So, Billy, I'll give you, yeah. Yes, sir, uh, members were looking in the uh budget requests for the Department of Transportation. It looks like this. This is a separate manual on your desk. It should be a little binder on your desk somewhere. It has Ardo logo in the top left corner in the top right corner is the number 5. Everybody find theirs. Anybody doesn't have one, just raise your hand, they'll get you one. All right, go ahead and continue on, please. Thank you, sir. The Arkansas State Highway Commission is responsible for maintaining and improving the state highway system, including the planning, design, and management of highway projects and administering the state highway employees retirement system. The commission has 5 members appointed by the governor with advice and consent of the Senate for tenure terms. The commission has become a constitutionally independent agency with the passing of the Mac Blackwell amendment, that's Amendment number 42 in 1952 on page one is the agency's position usage report. On page 2 is the department's organization chart. On page 3, are there audit findings. There are no findings. On page 4 begins their history. You can read that through page 5. On page 6, is their employment summary? On page 7, our state contracts awarded to minority owned businesses. On page 8 is there highway revenue, uh, distribution. Uh, the bottom of the left column shows Arkansas highway users produce 1.24 billion in revenue in fiscal year 24. Primarily, or about 44% of that revenue was from the motor fuel tax, which produced 553.7 million that year. This is the first entry in the column on the left. The next largest item was a half cent sales tax. It became permanent with Amendment 101, that produced 30 375 million, and that's 30% of the total. The 3rd largest is vehicle registration fees, which produce 153 million, which is 12% of the total. Those three items, the motor fuel tax, the sales tax, and registration fees combined for about 90% of the highway user revenue. They call him on the right shows where the revenue is distributed. The state Central Services Fund, cities and counties Ardo State Police and ADQ all receive a share of the state highway revenue. Almost 826 million went to the State Highway Department Fund, which is about 66% of the state highway user revenue. On page 9 is the State Highway Department fund. This is a summary of their receipts. And this is the main operating fund. It's a mixed fund that takes in federal revenue, special revenue, interest, and transfers. The fund collected 1.92 billion in fiscal year 24. The Federal Highway Trust Fund accounts for $967 million of that total, which is about 51% or more than half of all the revenue that went into the fund. A large share of that is from the infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Highway state revenues produced in state or which uh which includes the state motor fuel tax and vehicle registration fees is the next largest source and that accounts for 454 million, which is about 24% of the total. And then again, they have some sales tax made permanent by Amendment 101 produced 262 million and it accounts for 14% of all revenues deposited in the fund. The 2nd to last line are Act 416 funds, and that act increased motor fuel and diesel taxes. It raised registration fees on hybrids, electric cars, and plug-in hybrids and directs a transfer from casino revenues and they produced $99 million for the fund. That's about 5% of the total. So those four items account for 94% of all the revenue deposited into the fund that year. The fund also received 50 million from state surplus, 10 million for natural gas severance tax and 20 million from Act One transfer funds. That's The highway improvement plan in 2016, which is primarily interest earnings from the securities reserve fund. On page 10 is the department's appropriation summary. The department has 12 appropriation requests, 5 sections have changed levels. The total authorized budget and fiscal year 25 is 3.4 billion and the department requests 3.49 billion in 26, that's a $63 million increase, or about 2% change. Uh, the department requests 3.55 billion in 27, that's $123 million more. That's about a 3.6% increase, uh, from fiscal year 25 that was authorized. On page 11, is there a main operations section. It provides for the department's overall administration. It's supported by the State Highway Department fund that we went over on page 9. The total authorized in 25 was 2.6 billion. The request for 26 is 2.7 billion, that's at 2.1% increase in 27, the request is for 2.76 billion, that's a 3.6% increase. Those change levels begin with the regular salaries line item $260 million was authorized. The requested for 270, that's a 4% increase. It's an 8% increase in 27, personal services matching was 120 million. The requests in 26 is 130 and 140 and 27. That's an 8% increase and then a 17. 8% increase. Those are bringing forward salary and match adjustments into the next biennium. Next line is operating expenses, $260 million was authorized. The request is for 270 and 26 and 280 and 27, that is a 4%, 8% increase. It's due to cost increases from inflation. Next line is conference fees and travel 300,000 was authorized. The request is for $500,000 for the biennial. That's a 67% increase. This is due to cost increase, but also due to staffing levels returning to what the department needs, which means with more employees, there are more training costs. Next line is professional fees and services, 90 million was authorized. The request is for 120 million and 26 and 130 and 27. That's a 33%, 44% increase. This is due to inflation, but also more consultants are being utilized because the department is taking on more jobs. This is due to eligible projects, uh, being reimbursed for federal funding. Uh, next line is transportation grants and aid, 50 million was authorized. The request is for $70 million for the biennial. That's a 40% increase. This is due to increased transfers to transit authorities, payments to cities and counties for projects and the Metro planning organization transfers. The last line of the change is depth service, 75 million was authorized. The request is a 33% decrease to 50 million, uh, one series of bonds were paid off this month in 2 series of bonds will pay off in the next 2 years. If you look at fund sources, the fund balance going into fiscal year 24 is 304 million. We already touched on some of the revenue sources for this fund on page 9, but I'll go ahead and go through these line items, uh, general revenue, uh, in the amount of 70 million shown, that's a surplus, uh, 50 million from surplus and then the securities reserve uh transfer of 20 million. Federal revenue shows 967 million. Again, this is a large share of that's IIJA funds. Special revenue shows 727 million. That's primarily from the Hassan sales tax, motor fuel taxes, and registration fees. Act 416 Fund show 99 million. That's an increase in lower fuel taxes and registration fees on electric and hybrids and also gaming revenue. Non-revenue receipts shows 40 million, that's non-federal grant reimbursements, sale of property, income for agency services, and other miscellaneous earnings. The other line shows 9.7 million. That's interest. The department spent 1.84 billion in fiscal year 24, that leaves a balance of 384 million going into fiscal year 25. On page 12 is the next request. This is for the Arkansas 4-lane highway construction and proven bond account program. Uh, this is also known as the connecting Arkansas program. It's supported by an account within the State Highway Department fund. And fiscally you're 25, 435,000, I'm sorry, 435 million was authorized. That's the request for the biennium. There is no change level. The temporary half cent sales tax sunset in June 2023 and the connecting Arkansas program is winding down. They spent $142 million in fiscal year 24. However, the department requests to continue this appropriation at this level because they still have $505 million in the account. Depending on whether, the mix of jobs, speed of job completions. They could spend another 100 million in fiscal year 26. Or they could spend $435 million and the same can be said for fiscal year 27. They explain it's a product of having a multi-year jobs. Looking at fund sources, uh, the fundal going into fiscal year 24 is 530 million, the fund collected special revenues in the amount of 14.6 million. Those are residuals from the half sales tax in Amendment 91 that expired in 23 and transitioned to Amendment, Amendment 101101 taxes. Non-revenue receipt shows 89.8 million. Those are federal grants reimbursements and other shows 12.2 million, that's interest. The department spent 142 million in fiscal year 24, and that leaves a balance of 504 million going into fiscal year 25. On page 13 is the state aid road systems program. It provides funding to counties and is supported by a special revenue fund, fiscal year 25, uh, 34 million was authorized. That's the request for the biennial. There is no change level. Looking at fund sources, the fundal going into 24 was 33.35 million and the fund clicked special revenues in the amount of 21.8 million. That's motor fuel and diesel fuel taxes of 1 cent a gallon. Non-revenue receipt shows 1.27 million. Those are counting, counting matching funds of 10%. The department spent 19.58 million in 24, and that leaves a balance of 36 million going into fiscal year 25. On page 14 is the state age Street program and that provides funding to cities, supported by a special revenue fund in 25, 34 million was authorized. Again, that's a request for the biennium, so there's no change level. Look at fund sources, uh, the balance going into 24 was 27 million. The fund collected special revenues in the amount of 21 million, that's motor fuel and diesel fuel tax of 1 to a gallon. The non-revenue receipts are 3.4 million, that's city matching funds of 10% uh by cities over 25. 000 in population. The department spent $31 million in 24 and the balance, uh, that leaves the balance of 21 million going into 25. Go to page 15, we're looking at the Arkansas Public Transit Trust Program. This provides funding for local public transportation operations. It's to purchase vehicles, equipment, facilities and operations. It's supported by a trust fund and in 25, 6 million was authorized. The request for 26 and 27 is 7 million, that's a 17% increase. This is due to anticipation by the department on increased spending on US Department of Transportation match for public transit vehicles. Uh, going to fund sources in that table. The fund balance going into 24 was 8.6 million. The fund collected special revenues in the amount of 6.97 million. Those are rental vehicle tax of 5% on rentals of 30 days or less, 75% of that goes to RA and 25% of that goes to, uh, public schools. Non-revenue non-revenue receipt shows 347,000, those are federal match grants. The department spent 3.6 million in 24 and that leaves a balance to 12.3 million going into 25. On page 16 is the commercial truck safety and education program. And that funds truck safety and education efforts through the cooperation of the public-private program that focus on, uh, focuses on increased enforcement re uh regulatory compliance and industry training. It's a joint program with the trucking industry and supported by a special revenue fund. In 25, 7 million was authorized. That's a request for the biennium, so there's no change level in fund sources, the balance going into 24 was 4.28 million. Uh, the fund collected special revenues in the amount of 1.9 million. That's the 1st 2 million, uh, of a, of a registration fee on Class 7 trucks or international plane vehicles with K tags. The department spent 795,00024, and that leaves a balance of 5.4 million going into 25. On page 17 is the road bridge repair program. This provides assistance to counties in the Fayetteville Shell with active natural gas wells affected by heavy equipment. It's supported by a special revenue fund. In 25, 7 million was authorized. The request for 26 is 5 million, the same in 27. Uh, production of natural gas wells in Fayetteville is volatile at the last budget hearings, the department requested to increase appropriation from 2 million to 7 million. Page 180 of the tax handbook, it shows that the collection in 22 were up 232%, but production was down to 80% in 24. The current fund balance is low, but the department feels keeping at least 5 million in appropriation will accommodate any jumps in the market. Looking at fund sources, the fund balance going into 24 is 47,000. The fund collected special revenues in the amount of 762,000, that's 5% of natural gas severance tax proceeds minus 675001st goes to GR and then the other 95% goes to the main operating fund. The department spent 794,024, and that leaves a balance of 15,000 going into 25. On page 18, it's a NOA radio system and this section provides for utility costs to towers on uh the department property near Star City, Arkansas. It's supported by a general revenue Fund. It's authorized a 4000 and that's a request for the biennial. On page 19 is a public transportation programs, uh, it's similar to the public transit Trust Fund program that we went over earlier, how this section is supported by a general revenue fund, and it's designed to assist public transportation to uh dependent persons in fiscal year 25, 350,000 was authorized and that's a request for the biennium. On page 2 is the highway employees retirement system. It provides for the operations of that system and it's supported by a trust fund. In 25, uh, 240 million was authorized. The request in 26 is 250, that's a 4% increase in 27 270 million. That's a 13% increase. Those change levels begin with operating expenses, $100,000 was authorized in 25. The request for 26 and 27 is a million. Uh, that is because, uh, the increase in operating expenses is due to system upgrades to pension gold. That's their uh their retirement computer system. Uh, benefits line item is 220.9 million 25, that's what was authorized. The request is 230 million, it's a 4% increase. And in 207, it goes to 250 billion. That's a 13% increase. If you look at fund sources, uh, similar to other retirement systems, the assets are kept in investments and funds are drawn down as needed to pay for system costs. The trust fund line shows 14 144 million was collected in fiscal year 24. That comes from investment income and also contributions from employers that's 149% of an employee's salary and then contributions from employees, it's 7% of their salary. On page 21 is the intermodal facilities grants program. It provides grants to existing intermodal authorities. It's supported by an account within the department's being operating fund in 25, 525,000 was authorized. That's the request for the, uh, for the biennium. Uh, the other line in fundsources shows 525,000 was collected by code, the 1st $525,000 of interest in the state's Department, uh, the state's Highway Department fund is sent to this account. On page 22 is the transportation-related research program and it provides grants to publicly funded institutions of higher education. The scope of the film was also expanded to include workforce development. It's supported by a miscellaneous fund in 25, 2 million was authorized. The request in 206 is to decrease that to 1 million and then in 27 to go up to 1.5 million. Uh, they tend to allow this fund to accumulate a balance before paying out a grant, uh, a large grant was paid out in fiscal year 25 and I believe that went to Arkansas State and the UA community college in Morton to help, uh, train and, uh, retain civil engineers. If you look at the fund sources table, the fund balance going into 24 was 475,000. The other line shows 500,000 was collected again by code, the next 500,000 of interest is sent to this research program after the 1st 525,000 sent to the intermodal facilities section that was before this. The department spent 922,00024. Those were the grants to the two institutions. That leaves a balance of 53,000 going into fiscal year 25. Uh, Mr. Chair, those are all the requests for the Departments. Thank you, Billy. um, first off, I'm gonna go ahead and make my statement like everybody else does, you know, everybody likes to chase rabbits in this place, but, uh, Miss Tudor, I'd like to thank you and your crew and all the people that have had a part in the Haskell project down there with the bridges and the 4 lane, it was completely 3 lane completely open this morning coming into Little Rock and it's really, really nice going home and coming back. So I appreciate y'all's expedient on getting that fixed and getting it going after all the problems that we had, so I'll give you kudo. for that. And I don't know what everybody else will give you, but so we'll see, so thank you for that. All right, uh, let's go to, uh, Representative. Uh But. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, My question is, Related to on page 9, it's really more of a question and, uh. Request maybe for additional information a little bit uh my counties are very interested in, in the natural gas severance tax, as you guys well know, so I'm looking at your projections. And, and you're showing about 30% decrease, uh, and that, and then you immediately go up to next year about 12%. Uh, or the next biennial, I guess, 12% so. My, my, I'm curious as to how we did that right and so come back up what was the logic that that said that that was gonna happen and then the other thing I would like to do is, and you can do this offline or send it to the committee and they can send to you others if they're interested in. I'd like to know to step back one more biennial and see what that severance gas tax that you guys received, um. At uh well for 2023, right? 2 22. Yeah. Let's see what that was, so. With that and I'm just curious is that why we see such a dramatic dip and then we shall. Fairly good recovery there. After that, and I'm sure my, my, uh, county judges will be very interested in that also, so. Uh, it's a great question. It's a, it's one that's going on between the counties and judges and us, uh, in DFNA and, um, It's highly volatile. Um, one year we, uh, handed out uh to the, we, we get the 5% as Billy was mentioning a minute ago, the 5% and the 95%, so there's two components. We get the 95%, but the 5% is uh Distributed to us then allocated to the counties that have Fayetteville Shell. And in I guess it was in 24, 23 or 24. We actually had 4, almost $5 million come in to be distributed out. This year, or this last year, we had, um, Well, it was under a million. So The best we can do, it gets distributed to us. We don't have an economist, so we, we look at the trends and, and do our best to um predict what we think we might get, um, based on the, the trends of the, uh, pricing, um, which is below $2. On the average right now on the spot price on natural gas. Um, where 2 or 3 years ago it was 8. So, you know. The 88 million to 88.4 and 8.4. I Lack of a better term, best guess. Of what the market might do, it's just like interest rates. Um, we're, uh, some of our funds were actually projecting lower. We hope it comes in higher, but that's just our best guess right now on, on the trends of the natural gas. And the information we have. But yes, I, I thought I had it in here, but, um, I can get you the history of natural gas that we've gotten, um, that's been distributed to the counties. Um, to give you a better picture because if I were to have it on a, a graph right now, it'd just be Rolling hills like Ozark, Arkansas. Mr. Chair, if I may. Um Representative Beck in your tax handbook, if you go to page 180, it shows uh the distributions from the natural gas severance tax or actually the collections, so this is a this is page 180 of your tax handbook. And you can see just going back to the last 5 years, uh, in 2020 it was down 64% and 21 was up 36% and 22 is up 232%, 23% up another 25%, and then last year down to 80%. So it's been very volatile. Thank you. Cavanau you recognize. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I've got two questions. My first question is on page. Uh, 15, and this is the public transportation grants. Exactly where do these grants go? They go to a variety of of different uh providers, transit providers across the state. Can I ask Jared Wiley, our chief engineer for preconstruction to come up and explain that program. Sure. OK. If you would please just introduce yourself. Good morning, Jared Wiley, Chief Engineer for preconstruction at Ardo. Um, these, these grants are, this funding is used to match federal grants that come from the Federal Transit Administration, so they go to A variety of providers. There's, um, 5310 program that serves, uh, rural users. There's an urban program. They're more than 15 or 20 agencies that that utilize these funds and I can get you the details of that, uh, offline for sure. OK, so are they actually So I, I really kind of want to know what the program does, so it's, how does it actually benefit Arkansans. That's what I'm trying to get to the bottom. What it actually provides, what service? Yes ma'am. So it provides transportation to, uh, to employment. To uh medical facilities to go get groceries, uh, this funding, uh, is used for administration. For rolling stock, for purchasing buses and for operating those transit authorities. OK, so basically it's similar to what we use for transporting seniors to jobs. This can just be for anybody, seniors or anybody, it does not matter, OK. Um, I noticed that our historic high spend has been 4.2 mil, um, and we're asking for an increase up to 7 million. Are we, do we expecting? I um Increase In this program. Yes, ma'am, I was, I was talking to the, the The employees that administer this program. And they are anticipating a larger spend in the, in the next couple of years and as you can see, our cash balance is 12 million and so, uh, if we were to go on a roll, we have the funds available, um, to get to that, uh, 7 million. We didn't go all the way to the 12, but we went a little higher. OK, I, my question is, on the fund balance. If you don't do that spend in the fun keeps growing. Is there anything else that's fun can be used for? No, ma'am. OK, so it's restricted specifically to this program. OK, that's, that's my one other, and my other question is on page 16, and this is dealing with the commercial truck safety education program. Um, the grants we're asking for 6.9 million on it. And when I go back and look at your history, um, your highest spend was, I think in 2023, 22, 23, and then it just dropped off just like almost just down to the 795 basically, or, yeah, so what was the cause of that drop off so much. I. That program, you know, we will accumulate so we can, we can award a bigger projects, for instance, we did the West Memphis truck parking facility, which was quite a bit of funding and we're looking at, you know, accumulating it to do something really, you know, a bigger project in the future, so that's why it'll go up and down a little bit and we don't know in what year we'll be able to do some additional project and um that's kind of the reason it's the way it look. books. Yeah, I think the 22, 23, the highest spin was around 5 million and then prior to that 2 2.9 had been your highest spend, um, and then like I said, it just dropped off, um, but you don't know what projects that y'all are looking at that you might be using with this money. Yes, ma'am. So, uh, uh, on our website, we published all the awarded projects and we can certainly send the link to the group, um, since inception since 2015, we've awarded $17.4 million to various projects and, uh, the yearly breakdown is on that chart in 2020, uh, that was our biggest year I'm seeing here. It was uh $4 million award there, uh, actually 2015 there was a $4.16 million dollar award. So I can list out these projects, uh, we're using it to, uh, convert our old welcome center, uh, in West Memphis to truck parking that's been a big expenditure for the program to provide that much needed truck parking. We've funded uh safety matter experts, share the road programs at the Trucking Association with this funding, and there have been numerous awards throughout the state. We opened it up annually, so I'm kind of wondering what, since we're keeping it, the fund balance. And you're wanting to do more, I guess my question is, I can see what you've done in the past. My question is, what are we looking to do in the future? that cycle is annually, so it depends on uh the applications that we that we receive. So we'll open that cycle up next year and we'll see what, what comes in and we'll make those awards to try to utilize all that funding. OK, so it's based on actually the people applying for it. It's a grant program. OK, thank you. Representative Val you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions also, and I'm over here. And I want to start with this question because I think a lot of people in my area think. I would love for I-49 to be finished. What is the future look like, um, for getting that piece finished and connected to Textureana. Are we waiting on federal dollars? Yes, ma'am. That's what I, it's it's such an expensive project that we're not going to be able to state to fund it with our regular funds. We're going to need additional help from the federal government to get that bill. Right now we're working on that segment between Barling and Alma, and we're uh pulling together all the funding we can to get it. that done, of course, but the completion from Texarkana, uh, up is gonna take some significant investment at the federal level for us to get that done. Thank you, ma'am. Uh, my first question is, if you look on page 11, the conference fees and travel. Looks like y'all spent 241,000, and it's going up to 500,000. Can you explain why that's been that big of a jump, it's almost double what you spent. Well, we do a lot of training, um, and we, we belong to different organizations where we have to go out of state and do get with our peers and, you know, uh, there is a lot that goes on. We can get you a list of some of our training that we go to. But the cost of hotels and the cost of meals and of course we have, we try to, we go on a really tight budget where, you know, we. Go with whatever the rate is for state employees, but um, it's just gone up over the years and we have a lot of employees and training is very important. We're, we're very specific about some of the things that we do and we need training. And then on page 20 I know that uh Mr. Billy was explaining it, but I want you to explain it a little bit better, that operating expense, which was 30,000, is now going up to $1 million. Can you kind of go into depth and explain to us why such a large jump. Sure, and is, is Robin Smith here? OK. Robin's our secretary of the retirement system, but we agreed that we needed to implement a new software system. I'm not sure Patrick, maybe you can say the, the current, uh, software system we're using to uh administer the program is several years old. What is it about? um We're, we're currently using a 2002 system for our retirees. And we're looking at upgrading in the next couple of years. And so there'll be some increase in operating expenses for training and, and some other things like that software software also. So this isn't like going into the fund for retirement. This is for a new system. And we have a very low operating costs for our system, um, for our retirement system, and we talked to our. Um Jody and Castle Ark, the people that help us manage the system and there's room in our, there's room for it to get this new software in place, so, um, we feel confident that this will be good for the system and not compromise it in any way. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir. Thank you, my questions were along the same lines as what Representative Kavanaugh was, uh, wrapping up with on page 16 with the commercial truck safety and education program, and she asked many of them, but I guess I kind of my fundamental question is if we have a special revenue source and it's the only source for this that's about 2 million a year, but the appropriation of $7 million a year. I mean, aren't we, you know, inevitably gonna be over committed if the appropriation is accurate, we're gonna be 5 million in the hole in it, it looks like that is, you know, if things proceed as projected, the fund balance would be, you know, at $-4.5 million after, you know, the end of the 27 fiscal year. So I, I guess maybe it's more of just a question of why I do it this way as opposed to a more mass appropriation that equals out the revenue source where you, you know, You, you have what you're gonna be able to spend. Yeah, that's a good question, um. It's an application-based program, so we don't know what years these applications will come in. We may get them all in 20, the fiscal year 26 and obviously, we would go until we have no more cash. We may not get any in 26, and we may get 7 million requests in 27, so it's just a, a product of the, of the program itself. We don't know when the applications are gonna come in like. Uh, Jared mentioned, uh, we opened it up, I think in February every year, um, and we don't. We don't have an anticipated amount. That we will get from the applications or good applications that we'd want to fund. Well, I guess I understand that as a matter of practicality, but as a matter of budgeting, I mean this is what we are expecting. I mean, this, that's what it is and so we're we're expecting, I guess we're saying we expect 7 million, uh, in both this coming year and future years and so it seems a little, I don't know, it just seems a little strange to me that we would say this is what we are expecting when we don't even have the funds. To ever fully meet that in any given year with 2 million coming in. If, if we did not fund anything in 206 and we did something late in 27, we'd have $9 million and um Well, actually 11 million, um, counting the 25 uh. Special revenue coming in also. So You know, we, we're getting close to that 7 million each year just by The 6 million that we'll be getting in plus the 5 million. That we have in cash now. The $6 million in unspent. funds from previous years. OK, all right, thanks. Representative Barry, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and director, thanks for coming over to Fort Smith to visit with the, the Joint Committee on Transportation, but, so I wanna follow up and I guess preface my statement with the question, uh, but have we done everything that we possibly can with our congressional delegation of Secretary Buttigieg to, uh, complete the, uh, I-49 quarter because. We are holding up economic development in the western side of the state and economic development from The Gulf of Mexico all the way to the Canadian border because of 130 miles in the state of Arkansas. And it's, it's terrible. Uh, we're the last ones to be able to complete that, that, that portion, uh, and it's not an economic impact on the community, but the trucking industry to save them from having to go all the way over to Texar County up to Little Rock and across in order to get to Amarillo is, uh, you know, a tremendous, uh, burden on the trucking industry. So are you confident that we have done absolutely everything we possibly can with the current administration as well as our federal delegation to get the funding to complete that project. Yes, sir. I'm confident we've done everything we know how to do, um, we've applied 3 times now for a mega grant to just, uh, at the federal level, each time that we apply when we're rejected, we go and do a debriefing. We, we go back to the drawing board and enhance our application. We've gotten a a consultant on board to make our application as is. Competitive as possible we have gone and met with our congressional delegation. We tell them they call for what do we need for congressional designated funding we always put I-49 is a big need. Um, they are very much aware we put together brochures, we've, we've given you've seen some of our uh materials that we put together to try to to uh promote and lobby for this project, if I can use that word without getting in trouble. But, um, yeah, I feel like within our bounds as a state agency, we've done all we can and, and when we came and talked to the legislature at that joint committee. Uh, I was so excited to have that platform to explain to the legislature how important this project is, and I appreciate y'all coming in and saying we want to support this and help you do all we can as well to try to get that funding in place and we do have a letter of support ready to send your way, um, I was kind of talking to representative Holcomb about the timing of the letter since the election is coming up. there where whatever happens at the national level will inform possibly the next round of applications for funding. We don't know, so we may wait on that to see where we stand, but, um, Uh, the staff, our Ardo staff and our consultants are just doing everything we know possible to make that project make people aware of that project and be competitive with the rest of the nation. That's what we're up against, and I, and I appreciate your efforts, and it's just tragic that we here in Arkansas just holding up, uh, uh, economic development and uh uh commerce for 130 miles. And so if there's anything that this can do, um, You know, please let us know, but, uh, I would hope that our congressional delegation would, would go toe to toe with the, uh, uh, the secretary and, and see if we can't move that project along a little bit faster than what it is. But thank you for, thank you for being here. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Representative Watson, you recognize that? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Page 21, I'm just curious about the intermodal facilities, uh, grants, 7 years ago, I helped my local county, uh, into a, uh, joining an intermodal. Local agreement with several more counties in the southwest part of the state. My question is, is this the funding that helps those local counties or, or is this something else? Just a little information is what I was asking on this particular one. Yes sir, that's it. um, we distribute this funding as soon as we get it to those, I think there's 7 around the state intermodal authorities, and so we make that disbursement to them as soon as the funding develops, um, we have uh one in the river valley, um, Western Arkansas, Southeast, Northeast, Southwest, and central Arkansas, so 7 of those share that funding equally each year. OK, one more. Uh I noticed the, the funding, needless to say, is flat across the board, um, Just kind of focusing in on that, uh. I assume, I hate to say that there's been a request and things to potentially try to get a little bit more on there. Can, can you elaborate a little bit on that, uh, Ben's flat on the 5:25. Yes, this is, uh, a product as, as Billy mentioned earlier of Act 705 of 2017. Um, this is the 1st 525,000 of interest that comes to ROT, it gets allocated to this. It's capped at that by legislation. The second piece of it, uh, goes to the research grants, which is 500,000 a year. So, um, the 1st 1.025 million of interest on our funds, um, go to these two programs. So that's, that's why it's flat. Representative Wootton, you're recognized. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, first of all, let me, uh, share with us the amount of money involved in the new I-49 bridge in the bypass around Fort Smith. Do you know how much that's costing? Uh, the total project, the total estimated cost for construction is a billion dollars. That's from Alma to Barley. a billion. A billion dollars. yes. Right. And I understand representatives Barry's concerned about it, and I share the same concern. But uh I know there's a, a, a great deal of effort has been made through the coalition 49 and others to be to gain funding. So what is the total cost to complete it from Texicana down to uh uh uh from from Fort Smith down to Texicana. Our latest estimate on that absolutely sounds kind of low, so when I say this, I'm gonna think we need to go back and redo our. estimate, but we're doing about 5 billion now. About 5 billion it's $5 billion that we're looking, we, we as a state, we, that's our budget a billion dollars short of our budget, so it's a tremendous amount of money. It is. That we're looking to the federal government with a mega grant to come forward with. The thing though, uh, to remember though, it's not just Arkansas that will benefit all of Mid America, all of them down through there. And uh it's, it's been completed from Texas count on down to the border and it's completed from uh Fort Smith, now up to Bella Vista and on the Missouri. Yeah. And also let me commend you for what you've done in, in, uh, White County and then the surrounding area in Jacksonville, and what you're doing in Cabot and uh for information from my colleagues, uh, 67, November 7th will become I-57, which is a tremendous economic developer for our area. Um. Now, if we can just get Missouri to take care of 60, and we take care of the right away. from uh from uh Walter Ridge uh through Pocahonmas or up the railroad right away, but, uh, we appreciate that. My question has to do with um, you, you had 4,674 employees, um, and then you're showing 4,05058, uh, as for the 116. decisions different. What words did you do away with those? Were they vacant positions or We're, are you on page one here? I'm, I'm on page 10. I'm sorry. I'm on page 10. It shows the number of positions, 4000, 674 actual and then you go down for the next, uh, biennium for to 4,558. There's a difference of 116 employees to $6 million. We reduced those back in. uh biennium of 21, 23, um, historically. Oh, go ahead. I know that too. On page 23. In 1997, you had 5,262 employees. Now you're going down through 27th with 4,0558. That's a reduction of 704 employees at today's dollars that's $36 million that we've saved. that have been used somewhere else. My next question would be, Uh You have an awful lot of fun balance. You have a lot of revenue sources. All that money is not employed at one time. So how much interest do you make a year on this money that you have in hand and, and do you have all the federal money, is that in-house or is that on call whenever you use it. So the, the first, uh, response on the interest, if you look on page 10, um, that other line and, and for formatting next time that your interest? Yes, sir. I need to, I need to explain all of that interest, uh, 22.9 million of it is. Yes, sir. 22.9 22.9 million pretty much 99%, would you mind to uh make that line rather than other to be interest, income. Because I think that's, I think that's, uh, a point of good management from y'all's standpoint, that, that we are utilizing money, making money while we're waiting to be able to expend it on the roadways. Yes, sir. I'll, I'll, uh. Include that on the next one for the summary in, in the individual, uh, that was just a, a miss on my part on the individual, uh, appropriation funds, there is the line item that says interest. It just rolled up and, and I missed putting that as the descriptor. OK. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, the, question that you had, we don't have that money in hand. We don't make interest on that money. It's a reimbursable program. They apportion and tell you you have this much money. We pay the contractor, then we ask for reimbursement, and it's usually 8020 so we don't the the um. Our operating fund is state funds, and we get reimbursed and then if it's in the state funds is a reimbursement, then it, it would gain interest, but the federal funds are just over here and we don't have them in house. That makes sense. Actually, it's incoming algo as soon as you get it in, or you have already paid the contractor, and get reimbursed 80%, so it's kind of a wash, you know, 100% paid, 80% rent. burst and it goes back and forth. It's um very good. Thank you. Thank you very much. One more question. At one time, We had one of the largest highway systems to maintain in the country. Is that still true? Yes, sir. We're 16th in the nation. 12th. 0, OK. 12. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mo So I have, I have a motion in a second, any other discussion? All in favor say aye. you pose now. This is a motion to agency's request. Is that correct? That's correct. Thank you. All right, thank you all for being here today. All right, a continuation of our story that we are forever going on will be uh. Bring up DF and A. You have 10 minutes and 13 seconds to present. We can beat it. We are still going to shoot for. We have the 12 o'clock, but I don't know if I can keep everybody here that long, so we're gonna say 11:30. We'll try for that. If, uh, y'all would go through the process of introducing each other and, uh, we'll go from there. Jim Hudson, secretary DFA. Andy Babbitt, DFA. Melanie has slip DFA. Adam Penman, Legislative Research. Adam, you recognize. OK. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're starting right today on page 190. It's gonna be for DFA dispersing officer. From page 190 to 192, you'll see their agency summary. There are 75 total appropriations. 28 of them have changed levels and for the sake of time I'll go through only those that have changed levels. On page 192, you'll see there. Totals uh appropriation, the agency is requesting 9.6 billion for FY 26 and 27. You'll see this is a 24.6% decrease from their 24, 25 authorized level. And the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Adam, I have a request. Can we, can we pass over page 237, which is Arkansas Children's Hospital on this deal. We'll just, we'll catch it that another day, OK? All right, thank you. First appropriation I messed you up, but continue on just, just if you could just pass over that, we'll catch it the next day. OK, will do. Right, our first appropriation with change levels is gonna be on page 194 and summary on 195, this is firemen and police officers' pension and relief fund. The funding is provided by premium taxes paid to the state and it is utilized for payment of the firemen and police officers' pension and relief taxes. The agency's requesting appropriation the amount of 75 million for FY 26 and 80 million for FY 27, including an increase that's an increase of 6.6 million for FY 26 and 11.6 million for FY 27 to align with anticipated expenditures and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Our next appropriation on what change levels is on page 199. This is unemployment compensation claims. This is utilized for providing reimbursements to Department of Commerce Division of Workforce Services. And is funded by a percentage of payroll totals assessed of state agencies. The agencies is requesting appropriation the amount of $4 million for each year of the biennium. This is a decrease of $4 million in their claims line item to align with anticipated expenditures, and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request on the next page, page 200 and 201. This is marketing and redistribution. The agency here is requesting appropriation the amount of 2.5 million each year of the biennium. This is a $2 million decrease, uh, to align with the expenditures and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Next we're going to page 208 and then summary on 209, this is the administration of justice Fund. This is to administer the uniform filing fees and the court costs program and collects deposits and distributes court fees collected at the county and municipal levels. The agency is requesting appropriation the amount of $21 million for each year of the biennium. This includes You'll see on page 209, a decrease of $19 million in their grants and aid line item and a decrease of $4 million in the refunds and reimbursements line item. Both of those are to align with anticipated expenditures. and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. On page 210 and 211. Next appropriation this is with change levels is the Arkansas Sheriff's Association. This is for the purpose of developing crime prevention and alcohol and drug abuse programs. Funded by a transfer from the Administration of Justice Fund and revenues generated. Uh, and transferred to the Arkansas County's alcohol and drug abuse and prevention fund. The agency is requesting appropriation $450,000 each year of the biennium. That's a decrease of $150,000 in their grants and aid line item to align with program needs and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Next appropriation on page 216 summary on page 217. This is organ donation education grants. This is funded by issuance of special license plates. Better than transferred to the organ donation Trust Fund. To be used for educational and informational materials. The agency is requesting appropriation of $25,000 for each year of the biennium. That's a decrease of $175,000 in their grants an aid line item to align with program needs and again the executive recommendation provides for the agency request page 218. Our next appropriation. This is the agricultural marketing grants, you'll see their summary on page 219. This provides grants to wineries as provided by Arkansas Code and is provided by the Arkansas Agricultural Marketing Grants Fund. The agency is requesting appropriation of $600,000 each year of the biennium. That's a decrease of $400,000 from there 2425 authorized level, uh, agency states this would align with program needs and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. On page 220 and 221. This is fire protection services. This is the Act 833 money. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of $25 million each year, the biennium. This is an increase of $5 million in their grants and aid line item. To allow for a full disbursement of their insurance premium funds that is used to fund this program. To local fire departments and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Next on page 222, this is public legal aid. This provides grants to legal aid of Arkansas and the Center for Arkansas Legal Services. This is funded by a transfer from Administration of Justice Fund. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of $641,000 each year of the biennium. This is a decrease of $213,000. From their grants and aid line item. To align with program needs and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. OK. OK, our next appropriation with change levels we're gonna jump to page 242 and 243. This is the multi-jurisdictional drug crime task force. This provided grant awards for multi-jurisdictional drug crime task forces to investigate and prosecute drug crimes within the state. This, uh, was funded by $2.5 million that was a restricted reserve fund set aside, uh, created by Act 561 of 2023 and approved during the July 2023 ALC meeting. As that was one time money, the agency is requesting to discontinue appropriation for each year of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. On the next page 244 and 245. This is the Arkansas Economic Development District grants. This was also uh a res restricted reserve fund set aside. This was $120,000. Uh, for a one time money and the agency is requesting to discontinue appropriation. For each year of the bienn due to the funds expiring and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Our next appropriation with change levels on pages 248 and 249. This is American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Findings provided by federal funds and is distributed during uh. As part of the peer meeting. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of $3 billion each year of the biennium. There is a, you'll see there's a decrease of $2 billion in their federal direct appropriation line item and $200 million reduction in their Fed appropriation line item. These are due to funds expiring and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. OK. Our next appropriation on page 254 and 255. This is the state's contributions program. This is funded by general revenue and Miscellaneous agencies and provides disbursements on an annual basis for Arkansas's dues to various interstate organizations. The agency requesting appropriation of $1.7 million for FY 26 and FY 27. To for the following changes and dues you'll see the on page 254, the the appropriation changes for the dues for several organizations. And the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. On page 250, 6 are next appropriation with change levels. This is various grants and expenses. This is also a general revenue funded. Uh, section and it's for the projects, programs and grants appropriated in this section. Uh, the, the agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of 1.3 million. For each year of the biennium and includes. You'll see there are 3 programs they are reducing appropriation for the public administration consortium. The Museum of Discovery Grant and Mid-American Museum. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Our next appropriation with change levels is going to be on page 258 and 259. This is various state agencies. This is a cash cash funded appropriation. This is. Utilized for providing various state agencies with a with appropriations for cash funded appropriations. The agency is requesting appropriation the amount of $360 million for each year of the biennium. If you, as you'll see on page 259, this is a reduction of $400 million in there. Cash appropriation line item going from 750 million to 350 million each year. And the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. On page 262, our next appropriation. This is various temporary appropriation. This is utilized for providing various state agencies and institutions with additional appropriations during the fiscal year. The agency is requesting appropriation of 350 million each year of the biennium that includes a decrease of $400 million. In their additional appropriation line item, you'll see that on page. 263 And the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Next we have on page 264 and 265. This is the CARES Act holding account. This provides for transfers appropriation related to the CARES Act. The agency is requesting appropriation of $5 million each year of the biennium. That's a $5 million decrease due to funds expiring, and the agency states that there is ongoing litigation, so this will still be needed once until that's concluded and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. And Mr. Chair, that concludes my presentation for DFA dispersing officer. Represson Kavanaugh, you first. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Um, I have a couple of questions I'm gonna ask real quick. We've got a luncheon we have to go to. So, um, on 199, which is the unemployment claims, so that is actual claims. For the state. Uh yes, ma'am, that is correct. It's a premium, it's actually the claims that we fight. No, ma'am, it is, we actually pay claims that are on the state. OK, yeah, we, we, we don't pay a premium to the state and do a middleman. We just pay directly to the state. Are they determined still through the normal. Process DWS. Yes, DWS adjudicates the unemployment claims. Yes, ma'am, and DWS actually bills us for the claims quarterly. All right. And on page 253 and 259. This is going to be the, um, personnel service pay plan adjustment. We have 2, appropriations for that. The first one of 253 is 88.5 million. And then I think the one on 259 is for like 10 million. Um, I understand the 10 mil is for cash account. And then the other one isn't, so my question is. Why do we need so much between the two of them? What's our historic spend and This is a holding appropriation that we give to state agencies when they come before, um, Pure ALC. I'm requesting additional appropriation. We don't spend from this. We can get you those numbers on, um, on how much has been used historically. I do not have those on hand. OK, I'm guessing when I'm looking between the two, we're at 99. or $98.5 million between the $10 million and the cash appropriation. And the 88.5. So I guess I'm asking, are we needing that much appropriation between the two. Representative Kavanaugh, um, I, it would be better if we got you the historical spend, uh, but given that we come back over for your review on these, uh, we can't spend directly from them and so they're generally just, uh, appropriation that we hold. In that just in case scenario and with the new potential pay plan coming through, we felt like these levels were appropriate moving forward. OK, well, you brought up the potential pay plan. I did not, so I'm gonna ask the question, do we know when we're gonna get that potential pay plan. Uh, working on it feverishly. You know, it obviously it'll be part of, be part of the session, so we will, you know, we bring it to you for a part of the budget along with some other things that we, we've got to figure out, so to the extent that there is, you know, uh, any need in the RSA to reflect that it'll be incorporated in the governor's balanced budget presentation, which she'll be bringing over in about 3 weeks. OK. And, uh, When we say in on the final question on 233, this is for the purchase of I guess it's vehicles. Does that amount actually include the purchase price of the vehicles that appropriation is used, you said 233, correct? Is the motor vehicle acquisition revolving fund. Yes, ma'am. That appropriation is used for state agencies that receive general revenue. That is the sub, that is the appropriation we transfer to purchase the vehicles the actual purchase is not the management of the fleet, it's the actual purchase ma'am. It is the purchase of the vehicles they can also request for the sales tax, but that's it. That's the only thing it's used for. OK, thank you. circle back real quickly on pay plans to make sure I'm clear and don't mislead anybody. To the extent that, uh, we need to incorporate anything in the RSA that would be in the governor's balanced budget presentation in 3 weeks. We're not going to present the full pay plan within 3 weeks. I mean, there's still more polishing he's getting done on that. Just want to be clear about that. Represent fights you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn't hear you discuss, uh, page 203 or 205 that I just missed that? Represented there were no changes. I'm sorry. There were no cha uh looking at child welfare restructuring and. The child abuse, rape and domestic violence contract with UMS. There were no changes. There were no changes in those two lines, the child abuse, rape, domestic violence contract with UAMS and child welfare restructuring with you, AMS? It just is so much larger than it was for the 2024, 25 budget, and I'm sure it was discussed at that time, but uh it was a big increase. Representative, it's the, the authorized level in 2425 is also what's in the next biennium. There's, there's no changes there. No changes there either. No, ma'am. OK, all right, thank you. vault you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn't see it in this paperwork, but back in June, I got a letter or my fire real fire department's got a letter, or I guess all fire departments at the Arkansas Fire Training Academy that they would all be now having to pay full price for to receive their training, and I know that's a hindrance to all rural fire departments, and I'm wondering, did we cut the budget on them. I don't see a budget in here for that academy. Can you tell me what's going on with that? And then I have one other quick question. I, I believe that being in the higher ed budget, it's not in ours. OK, all right, then I'll wait for that one there. My other question is, I don't know if you're aware or not, but since we are, since I brought up the fire departments, I'm wondering if y'all can check into what Arkansas will do, because from a federal. Letter that they got, they cannot use, um, vehicles that are older than 15 years old, that's going to hit a lot of most every rural fire department in the state of Arkansas, um, if they can't, because they usually buy those vehicles from other states and bring them here that are still being able to be used, um, in our areas. And I'm wondering if there's any discussion about, um, and you can look into it and then get back with me offline about what we're going to do to help these r fire departments with this issue. Yeah, that's just One example of numerous problems in that proposed federal rule. I think coming out of OSHA, sir, it is OSHA. Yes, sir. Uh, it's not really kind of our area of responsibility, but I'm happy to, you know, make inquiries and circle back with you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, in college, you recognize. I think I've got Richmond up also on the college go first, OK, thank you. I just wanted to ask about the, uh, discontinuation of 3 million for the Special Olympics. Uh, if you could just talk about why that was or. Well, at 275 and then, uh, in the summary course on 192 looks like $3 million was spent. I, I guess out of restricted reserve, but what was sort of the thought process and background on that. Yeah, I don't have any specific on that one, but in general, you know, any of the appropriations coming out of this particular section that were through one-time funds, once those one-time funds were expended in full, we've taken the appropriation out. So there was never any intention of continuing this beyond the one, the one time distribution of funds. That was the funding for it was one-time funding, so. OK. Representative Richmond. Yeah, Mr. Chair, motion at the proper time. All right, I have, um, One more, then we'll go to a motion. Represent Wooton, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, My question is on page 249. American rescue plan Act. Shows 4 billion 25. 26 goes down to 2 billion 27 down to 2. What, what is that? Is that still money from COVID that we've got? OK, Representative Wooton, so yes, this is still the funding that we received in two tranches starting in, um, 22 and 23, 21, 22, uh, I forget the dates, but, but it was COVID finding. It's the 1.57, 58 billion that we received. Then you also had agencies that were receiving direct funding from the federal government for ARPA. So that's why you see two distinct line items here, the one that's labeled, uh, ARP Federal direct, that would be the appropriation, uh, that, uh, once we come through Pier, we uh transfer to the agency so they can use the ARPA direct funding they received directly from the feds. The second line item there is ARPA Federal Appropriation, which is the amount that DFA received that we've dispersed in the various projects. We do know that we have about, uh, and I'm going off memory here about 700 or 800 million that we're still, we've got them allocated to projects, but we're gonna still need that appropriation through December of 26. So that's a long answer. I hope I answered your question. And the bottom line is on, on, on our served, uh, we're in wind down now, um, and I think, you know, we'll probably all at some level be very, very glad when it's fully wound down and, and we're done with it, but we just have a little bit of residual that we'll have to have in the budget for the next couple of years. So this is just an appropriation to handle the money. account for it. But we still have 800 million uncommitted? No, no, no, no, no. It's, it's, it's obligated. It's just not spent yet. Uh, the amount of ARPA that's unobligated is, you know, it's, it's not significance. Well, well, well south of $100 million south of $50 million this is this for schools or or communities or There'll be a, the last round of ARPA requests will be coming over in the November ALC week for peers. So we'll have all that laid out for you at that point. And we would expect to be done with obligations at that point, unless they're just a small amount that's left over that due in December, but we've got to have it fully obligated by December of this year. Yes, sir, and then fully expanded by December of 2026. But, OK, so that's You know for sure that you've got 2 billion committed? Is that what we're because you cut the budget from 4 or the authorization or the expenditure of the appropriation, let's put it that way. You cut it from 4 to 2 billion. I, you know, we, we left it at 2 billion just out of an abundance of caution because we don't know what might be coming back, that folks felt like they could, yes sir, yes sir. OK, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. rips, uh, Richmond, would you hold for just one sec, just I'm, I've got, I've got Senator Irvin has a question. Oops, I turned you off. There you are. Come back. Thank you. I, I just, again, I like want to reemphasize that many of those water wastewater infrastructure projects that are ongoing, utilizing the AARPA money are still, you know, back and forth in review with the Arkansas Department of Health and the engineers and all of that. So I appreciate y'all helping and assisting, um, the folks that contacted me and I, I think just for the benefit of the membership, there's a, those are obligated but not expensive. because there's just a process that has to be obviously signed off on and met by a lot of engineers and things like that when it comes to those types of projects. So appreciate the work that y'all are doing there. And I think it's really, really important. I will say, you know, with the unobligated funds, one of the things that I will just voice right here is, you know, the, the fact that all of our hospitals that are closing their labor and delivery units are a really big concern for, for all of us and so I. not sure if that's something you're looking at or not, but the labor and delivery issue is, is a big, big issue, and I'm not sure how that gets solved, but hoping we're looking at that. Yes, ma'am, you know, again, I think the, the unobligated amounts are very modest. There's also federal requirements about what constitutes an obligation. That frankly, if it's a Capex project, there's no way you can get it obligated just under procurement rules. You just can't do it. So we do have contingency plans that we're looking at if we get a surprise amount of money turned back to us where we could, you know, get some grants written that could really plus up some programs that everybody's already aware of. Of course, they would come here for review as well. Oh, OK, OK. So, so that makes sense. All right, I appreciate that you stated that. So we're not going to be looking at kind of capital outlay projects because of the RFP. Yeah, practically, it just, it's just not an option at this late stage primarily looking at what we've already done and then going back plus plus them up. I, I think that's a really good approach. I mean, across the board, whether it's infrastructure or health related or water related or whatever. It's too late to. introduce new categories. So I agree. Thanks. Reps in Richmond, you are recognized for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move executive Rec with the exception of page 237, Arkansas Children's Hospital. I have a motion to a second. I have a second. All in favor, say I. And no motion carries. All right. Next up we have some more if y'all want to continue on. Yes sir. You go right ahead and hold on I'll, I'll get you on. Thank you. The thing with children's hospitals, could you explain that to me? I stepped out a minute. Yeah, I'll let the posterior. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Senator Chesterfield, we had a member that just asked, uh, to hold that so they can get more information. I think they're working with the agency and Children's Hospital to try to get the information they're requesting. It's just on hold. All right, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Mr. Chair, if I'm, if I might make a suggestion, uh, if you want to do the racing commission next, that's a smaller one, compared to the revenue division. If you're trying to finish by 11:30. That's fine. I, that's kind of what we were gonna do. We're just gonna go and order and if this one next one stays in the budget time let's go with the racing. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for Racing commission or it's here regulatory division since it's part of it that is gonna their appropriation summary starts on page 280. So this is a section of regulatory division that handles racing and casinos. This part of the agency is responsible for overseeing all racing and casino gambling in Arkansas. It's funded largely by cash funds and general revenues. You'll see on page 280 for their totals. The agency is asking for 28.1 million for both FY 26 and 27. And the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Our first appropriation on page 281 and 282. This is their operations appropriation. That handles the salaries and personal services of the, uh, division and the agencies requesting appropriation in the amount of $1.9 million for each year of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Their next appropriation on page 283 and 284. This is their license application. This is a cash and treasury. Uh, appropriation this provides for the application process and background investigation for issuing licenses to individuals and industries in the casinos at Oak Lawn, Saracen, and Southland. The agency is requesting appropriation, the amount of $980,000 each year of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Our next appropriation page 285 and 286. This is compulsive gambling addictions. This is funded by general revenue and this was part of the requirements of the casino gaming amendment. Where they have been tasked with the responsibility of providing an annual amount of at least $200,000 for uh compulsive gambling disorder treatment and educational programs through DHS. The agency is requesting to continue their appropriation and GR funding of $200,000 each year of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. And our final appropriation here this is their casino holding account. This is also a cash and treasury appropriation and allows the racing commission to meet the requirements of the casino gaming amendment which calls for. Uh, percentages on net revenue above the 1st $150 million to be deposited into this. Purses and awards fund to be used for purchase for live horse racing in Oak Lawn. The agency is requesting to continue their appropriation in the amount of $25 million each year of the biennium and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Mr. Chair, that concludes my presentation for DFA Division of Racing, regulatory division. All right. Senator Chestville, you recognized. Have a motion Do you have a second? 2 Everyone in favor say I opposed no. Motion carries. That was an easy one. Would you like to try for the next one or you wanna wait? We're good, we're good for time. We can go, we can go past 11:30 if we need to. All right. Let's bring up the revenue services. OK, revenue Services Division. This starts on page 295 their appropriation summary. There are 9 total appropriations, 4 have changed levels and for the sake of speed, uh, we can focus only on those that have changed levels. You'll see in their totals, the agency is asking for 1.3 billion for FY 26 and 27. And the agent, the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Our first appropriation with change levels is gonna be on page 296, the summary on 297. This is the commercial driver's license program. Provides for operating expenses of their commercial driver's license program and other related purposes with fees collected for licenses issued that are dedicated as a special revenues that support this program. They're asking for requesting appropriation of 5.8 million each year of the biennium that includes an increase of a million dollars in their operating expenses line item you'll see that on page 297 to allow for full utilization of the annual revenue received by the division and the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Our next appropriation with change levels. is going to be on page. 2 is going to page 308. This is their operations appropriation for the division. This is funded by state central Services and provides for the operation of the division. The requesting appropriation the amount of $126 million each year of the biennium and includes the following changes. They're asking to restore one growth pool position, a transfer in of 11 positions from DFA Management Services divisions, we cover that yesterday. And a transfer of one division in from admin and shared services that was covered on Tuesday. A transfer in of one position from assessment coordination division, uh, one transfer of one out to assessment coordination division. There's a real to reallocate $160,000 from their operating expenses line item to extra help for the ability to hire extra help during peak seasons. They're also asking to reallocate $20,000 from operating expenses to conference and travel for costs related to conferences and seminars that are learning opportunities for DFA revenue employees. The agency is asking to discontinue $2.2 million in their operations, operating expenses line item, my apologies, to better align with anticipated expenditures. And you'll see they're asking for a continuation of $600,000 in capital outlay for expenditures related to building maintenance and asset acquisition. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request a reclassification of 25 positions, the discontinuation of 9 positions and associated regular salaries and personal services matching appropriation. Our next appropriation with change levels is going to be on page. 312. This is their special plates. Uh, appropriation. This was established to make necessary changes in business processes for dispersing motor vehicle special license plate fees to proper entities where with funding provided by cash funds. The agency is requesting appropriation of $5 million for each year of the biennium, which includes the following change you'll see on page 312, they're asking for an increase of a million dollars in their special plates administrative line item due to increased collections for specialty license fees that must be distributed to organizations, colleges, etc. And the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. And our final appropriation for DFA revenue division. is going to be the revenue miscellaneous cash. This is a cash and treasury account where funding is provided by cash funds. And the agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of $100,000 each year of the biennium, which is a decrease of $11,900,000 in their distribution fees and service charges line item to better align with anticipated expenditures. And the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Mr. Chair, that concludes my presentation for DFA revenue division. Representative Beatty, you recognize, just have a question, uh, on, um, The commercial driver's license program with that increase in operating expense for a million dollars. Uh, to for utilization of the revenue. Actually, how will you deploy that million dollars and operating expenses and is this something that you haven't been able to do in the past. Is, has it been something that's restricting that department. Yeah, I think in, in general, we, we got a code change on how we could use, um, that fund and like, I think was it last regular session, so it, it let us tap into it a little bit more so we will be able to utilize that and not have to kind of hit the Um, central Services fund as much so it's, it really is not as much about spending more money as being able to kind of tap a different fund to redeploy. Yes sir. All right, just want clarification that looked about like a 20% increase or something in that ballpark, so just, thank you. Well, on the, on the special plate. Is there profit made in those or those pretty well awash on that we make any money on selling special plates. I, I really, I tried to look at that and I couldn't really find my, uh, I'm gonna have commissioner Collins come up. My, my two cents is, is no, that we're the state's not making money off of it. But, you know, most of those, especially plates are going to a, you know, a good cause, and so they're making money off because there's no cost for them really, really in it that was my question. How much, how much do we make? How much we lose? Yep, I mean, I, you know, I just switched over to the In God We Trust plate, uh, a couple of weeks ago and that money goes to, uh, feeding, um, our aged population. So Char to go ahead and introduce yourself, please. Charlie Collins. I'm the commissioner of revenue and and my expert in this area just confirmed what the secretary shared with you. OK, thank you. That's kind of what I figured. Most of it goes out to the specialty place. All right, um, Representative Wootton, I'm gonna pull you up here. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, On your Page 295. It's a little confusing to me. We, I have the report that you have there on the table. This is your authorized in the revenue Service Division 1573. Um, on the, uh, sheet on page 295, you show 1569. And then 1506 is actual budgeted 1569, then over in the next biennium, uh, budget, you have 1581. 1581 requested. Which is an increase of 75 employees, but yet the uh executive branch is 1572. Which is um One more, one less than your authorized now, which, which one of these numbers are we to Consider And if the 75 is correct, why, why do you need more employees when you've got 315 vacancies in that division now. Representative Wootton, the 1506, the 1506 was filled as of a snapshot when the budget numbers were pulled, this is, this, this report here. Do what now? Say that again. The 1506 for um FY 24 is filled positions, not budgeted. So when you go over and you look at the 1569 that's budgeted which number is correct, 1573, 1572. 1569 or 1506. Representative, our position is that we support the executive recommendation. OK. So, it's 1572. It's the executive recommendation on the on the revenue services line. Yes, sir that's one less than it's shown on here is 1573. So that's fine. I mean, it's just, it's apparent that the number don't match up. For chest fill you recognize. Motion, Mr. Chair, I have a motion to leave. executive rigs and have a second all in favor say aye. I'll both motion carries. Thank you for being here. We moved through that a little faster than I thought, but here we are. So the continuation of that story is ended for today. Another day. We are adjourned.