LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday the balanced budget he will present to lawmakers next week will include nearly $160 million in additional funding for Medicaid and public schools.
Lawmakers are to get their first look at Beebe’s $4.7 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year Tuesday. The Legislature’s fiscal session convenes Feb. 13.
Beebe told reporters Thursday that more than $100 million of additional funding is for Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor, elderly and the disabled, to cover anticipated cost increases.
It does not cover a more than $200 million Medicaid shortfall state officials anticipate for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
State officials initially had expected a $60 million shortfall in the state Medicaid budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Last month, Beebe said there would be sufficient funding for the next fiscal year.
State Department of Human Services Director John Selig said fewer people have become eligible for Medicaid than the agency anticipated.
About $55 million of the additional funding in the governor’s proposed budget would go to public schools to maintain court-ordered adequacy in education funding, Beebe said. Otherwise, “It’s pretty flat,” the governor said about the budget proposal. “It’s a real modest increase in terms of the entire budget.”