LITTLE ROCK – Senate Bill 182 took one step closer to becoming state law Wednesday, meaning Jefferson County’s judge and Quorum Court will need to a find a solution to its monthlong budget standstill or face financial penalties.
The state Senate approved the bill 33-0 – with two senators absent – and moved it to the House, where the City, County & Local Affairs Committee is expected to review the bill following the session Thursday afternoon. Committee member and Rep. Mike Holcomb, R-Pine Bluff, is hopeful the House will pass the bill and move it to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ desk for her signature, turning the bill into a law, by Monday.
“If (the House committee) were to meet next Wednesday, it likely would be too late,” Holcomb said, adding Jefferson County officials will have checks ready to issue to employees by Monday.
Employees are typically paid on the 15th and at the end of the month in Jefferson County, but nearly 400 of them have not received paychecks due to the ongoing budget impasse between County Judge Gerald Robinson and seven members of the Quorum Court. First-year Rep. Glenn Barnes, D-Pine Bluff, authored House Bill 1331 with Ken Ferguson, D-Pine Bluff, and Holcomb co-sponsors. The bill was both filed and advanced to the committee Jan. 30, but Sen. Ben Gilmore, R-Crossett, drafted SB182 – with Barnes a primary sponsor – with the hopes of quicker legislation to get a 2025 budget in place. HB1331 was on the committee’s agenda for review Wednesday, but Barnes did not attend.
Under the bill, a county judge and JPs in any county can have their pay withheld until a current-year budget is approved, if one is not in place by Jan. 1. It also calls for the last approved budget in the previous year to be enacted to allow all employees to be paid and expenses to be addressed.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Gilmore thanked the Jefferson County legislators for their work on SB182, which has an emergency clause. Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, and Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage, are co-sponsors of the bill with Ferguson and Holcomb.
“It’s a pretty straightforward bill,” Gilmore said on the Senate floor. “The reality is, we’re dealing with about 300-plus county employees that haven’t been paid. This has been going on for a little over a month. These are people who are struggling to make ends meet. These are people who are missing their mortgage payments. These are people who are not able to pay their utility bills. So, the reality of this is staggering, when you think about it.”
On Tuesday the Jefferson County Quorum Court failed for the fifth time since the start of the year to pass a budget for 2025.
“I watched the Quorum Court meeting. It was troubling to say the least,” Gilmore said. “There’s a lot of bickering. … Let me just say, there are wrongs on both sides of the issue. But we as public officials are called to rise above that. We are called to cancel out the noise and do what we’re supposed to do for the people that we represent.”
Gilmore said he discussed the bill with the Arkansas Association of Counties to make the language right and avoid any unintended consequences.
Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, asked Gilmore if heard right that the bill included penalties for not having a current-year budget in place.
“Good,” Clark said, once Gilmore confirmed.
Said Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning: “The longer they (JPs and the county judge) procrastinate, the more it would hurt them,” which Gilmore also confirmed. “Then that’s the way it should be.”
The bill also calls for the previous-year budget of a municipality as of Dec. 31 to be enacted until the governing body passes a current-year budget. Expenditures will be limited to “necessary operational expenses” included payroll and benefits for employees at their salaries as of Dec. 31, but those will not include a new capital purchase based on prior authorization in the previous-year budget.
“We just didn’t want to single out the particular. We just wanted to include local government, just in case,” Gilmore said.