LITTLE ROCK — A Republican proposal to cut $21 million from Gov. Mike Beebe’s $4.7 billion proposed budget for the next fiscal year is mostly unacceptable, Beebe said Tuesday.
“Most of it’s a non-starter,” the governor told reporters.
The House again passed over a measure that would authorize consideration of the governor’s budget.
Beebe’s office Tuesday released state agencies’ assessments of the projected impact of the budget proposal unveiled last week by House Minority Leader John Burris, R-Harrison. Burris has proposed cutting general-revenue funding to 10 agencies by 3 percent from what Beebe has proposed, as well as making smaller cuts at other departments.
The agencies said that to absorb the cuts they would have to lay off 39 Department of Human Services employees, 10 forensic scientists at the State Crime Laboratory, eight Department of Emergency Management employees, two state Geological Survey employees, two Law Enforcement Training Academy employees and an unidentified number of employees at the state Forestry Commission and the Department of Health.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The agencies also said they would have to curtail numerous services, including closing the Northwest Arkansas Police Academy in Springdale and scaling back Natural Resource Commission projects that are vital to firefighting capabilities.
“These are real dollars that are really going to affect people,” Beebe said.
Burris said later he doubted the 61-plus layoffs would be necessary, but he said that a meeting with the governor Tuesday went well and that there is room for compromise. “There’s a difference in what I think is possible (and) what I’m absolutely willing to draw a line in the sand about,” Burris said. “I think there’s room for consensus.”
Burris’ proposal calls for cutting $14 million in general-revenue funding for Medicaid and replacing it with one-time money from the state’s surplus. Beebe said that while the surplus money would prevent services from being cut next year, it would increase Medicaid’s budget deficit, which is projected to be about $250 million by July 2014.
“If you’re going to have a $250 million shortfall, then you cut $14 million out of the base, then all you’re doing is (you’re) going to have a $264 million shortfall,” Beebe said.
The governor also said he opposes cutting the Department of Health’s budget.
“Eighty-eight percent (of the department’s general-revenue funding) is for personnel, so that means laying off people,” he said. “And that’s county health units and essential services in the health field back home for the local folks.”
Beebe said he opposes cutting $475,556 from the Department of Agriculture’s budget, as Burris proposes, noting he recently ordered the department to transfer $550,000 to the state Forestry Commission to restore 15 jobs after the agency eliminated 36 positions, 34 of them through layoffs.
“If you take $475,000 of that away, logic would tell you you’d turn around and fire 13 of the 15 you just hired. So that’s a non-starter,” he said.
Beebe said the GOP proposal to cut $490,506 from the State Crime Lab would force layoffs that would slow the lab’s ability to assist in criminal investigations, and that cutting $309,354 from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s budget would hinder the work the agency has done in attracting jobs to help the state weather the economic downturn.
Burris said state agencies took larger cuts in 2010 than he is proposing, and “you didn’t see any interruption in services, you didn’t see any layoffs. So I think it’s possible.”
Beebe said there was nothing in Burris’ plan that he was ready to approve now, but he said he told Burris in their meeting Tuesday he was willing to take a closer look at some agencies, including the Labor Department and the Assessment Coordination Department. He also said he planned to seek “more explanation” from some agencies.
The governor said he wished the Republican lawmakers who support Burris’ plan would have taken their ideas to the Joint Budget Committee during its pre-session hearings, but he acknowledged they have a right to do what they are doing, adding that “there’s nothing wrong with a good debate.”
But Beebe also pointed out that his budget proposal is conservative. Aside from increases for public schools, Medicaid and some colleges and universities, it proposes keeping funding levels the same as the current fiscal year.
“It’s a flat budget,” Beebe said.
House Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr., D-Arkansas City, told reporters a resolution to introduce the budget did not come up for a vote Tuesday because of continuing negotiations.
“We’re still communicating, both sides of the aisle and the governor, trying to see if we can reach a consensus,” he said.
Republicans control enough House seats to prevent a budget resolution from receiving the 67 votes it needs to pass during a fiscal session.