LITTLE ROCK — With an impasse apparently over, optimism is high that the Legislature will pass a budget for next fiscal year and wrap up its work this week, lawmakers say.
The fate of non-budget matters is not no bright, however. Legislative leaders say support for measures to repeal a tax break for truckers and toughen parole eligibility for sex offenders, however, is lacking and the two proposals might not make it to the floor for a vote.
Lawmakers return to the state Capitol Monday for the third week of the fiscal session, with Friday as their self-imposed deadline to complete their work. “We should be able to get out of here by Friday,” said House Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr.
The goal is to return March 9 to make any technical corrections and then adjourn. Monday, the Joint Budget Committee is expected to take up identical House and Senate bills that would set state spending priorities for the $4.7 billion budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Senate Bill 136 and House Bill 1163 reflect mostly what Gov. Mike Beebe originally proposed. The proposal would keep most agencies’ funding flat but would increase state funding for Medicaid by $114 million and for public schools by $56 million.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
If endorsed by the budget panel, the measures would have to be before lawmakers for three days under legislative rules before coming to the House and Senate floor for a vote, likely Thursday. Legislative leaders introduced the budget Friday, after a week of wrangling over cuts that Beebe rejected.
While passage of the budget legislation is expected, House Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr., D-Arkansas City, and Senate President Pro Tem Paul Bookout, D-Jonesboro, said non-appropriation bills in their chambers don’t appear to have enough support to get passed.
House Concurrent Resolution 1006 would have lawmakers consider legislation that would repeal the $4 million sales tax break for large trucks and trailers passed by the Legislature last year. The tax break was approved in exchange for the trucking industry’s support of a proposal for a 5-cents-per-gallon diesel tax increase to finance a $1.1 billion bond program for interstate highway improvements.
The Arkansas Trucking Association later asked the governor to hold off setting the election date for the bond program, saying its polling showed the measure would fail at the ballot box.
HCR 1006 passed the House 81 to 15, but it has stalled in the Senate, which also must support it with at least a two-thirds majority before a bill can be drafted and sent back to the House and Senate for consideration.
Monday is the last day to file bills for the current fiscal session.
Bookout said support for the tax break repeal is lacking because some senators oppose the consideration of non-appropriation bills during a fiscal session.
Others, he said, are concerned about the political fallout of voting to repeal a tax cut because it could be seen by opponents as raising taxes, even though the tax break does not take effect until July 1.
“Let’s be realistic,” Bookout said. “This is an election year and members are filing for re-election. Some people can interpret this issue as a tax cut, and so that gives some concern.”
Moore said he was disappointed the tax cut repeal bill lacked support in the Senate.
“It’s unfinished business from the regular session,” he said, adding that that “it was clear” during the 2011 session that if the trucking industry failed to support the diesel tax increase then the tax break would be rescinded.
“To me, it’s just real simple,” he said. “Now if somebody wants to play politics with it they can play politics with it but it’s pretty simple to me.”
The House speaker said there does not appear to be support for SCR 4 by Sen. Percy Malone, D-Arkadelphia, which asks the Legislature to consider legislation that would give the state Parole Board authority to deny parole to people convicted of felony sex crimes. The Senate approved the measure 33-0. It must now be endorsed by the House Rules Committee and receive a two-thirds majority of the House before the bill can be drafted and then reconsidered in both the House and Senate.
Moore, who expressed doubt when the proposal was filed at the beginning of the session because it was a non-appropriation bill, said even if it were approved by the House, there would not be enough time to then have it drafted and then have it go through the Senate and House.
He said the proposal has merit but should be considered during the 2013 regular session.
Malone, Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, and Rep. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, filed measures at the beginning of the fiscal session in response to the board granting parole to David Kent Pierce after he served 18 months of a 10-year sentence. The former church music minister admitted in 2009 to sexual misconduct with members of a youth choir in Benton.
Some Parole Board members said later they did not have the authority to deny Pierce’s parole request because of a 1993 state law that took away the board’s discretion to deny parole to inmates except those convicted of certain offenses, including rape and murder.
The felony to which Pierce pleaded guilty in Saline County Circuit Court, sexual misconduct with a child, is not on the list.
Dismang said he was disappointed the measure appeared to lack support in the House.
“We’ve got parents across the state that want us to do something … and in my opinion this just brings it up to the relevance of something that we should take a look at. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t move forward with it.”
Also Monday, the Joint Budget Committee’s Special Language Subcommittee is to discuss a number of measures that wouldn’t affect the state budget, but could have impact on agency budgets and programs.
One proposed amendment to HB 1127, the state Workforce Services budget, could stop funding for a summer Boys and Girls Club program, Rep. Barry Hyde, D-North Little Rock, said last week.
“There are several issues in special language that don’t impact RSA but may impact monies within an agency … and some of those are pretty contentious,” he said.
Sen. Mary Anne Salmon, D-North Little Rock, sponsor of the amendment to HB 1127, said the measure would prevent Workforce Services from spending federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds on any statewide programs or services until a study is completed on whether grandparents who are guardians of their grandchildren should receive a monthly stipend.
She said the study should be completed in April.
Hyde opposes the amendment, saying that it would prevent the funding of a summer Boys and Girls Club program.
The subcommittee also is to consider an amendment that would allow for money in an account at the Arkansas Supreme Court where lawyers renew their law licenses to be used to pay for about 125 trial court assistants, who have been threatened with furloughs because of a drop in fee and fine collections which the current revenue stream for their salaries.