Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Session Is Successful

Much was accomplished during the recent legislative session, in spite of the legislators having to scramble to find money.

Before the session began, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee made a blanket promise to give all teachers in the state a $3,000 raise. This was done before a budget had been proposed.

The general assembly managed to approve the raises, with school districts across the state having to pick up 20 percent of the costs, according to State Sen. Percy Malone.

Gov. Hubkabee's budget projections called for anticipated revenue growths of 5.8 percent, Malone said.

"We felt the budget projections were optimistic," Malone said, "and Gov. Huckabee had to cut his budget at the end of the session."

The end result was cuts to cities and counties, along with cuts in turnback funds. Money for libraries and the state's HIPPY program was reduced, along with the Arkansas Best Chance program.

However, funds were created for these programs by increasing the tax on beer by 18 cents per six-pack.

Still, he said, the state's economy must grow at a rate of 3.5 percent a year for the state to pay its share of the 80 percent.

The governor had also added $5 million to the scholarship program, with the assembly taking part of this money for the HIPPY program, libraries and other central services.

With the reduction in population, many communities will also lose federal turnback funds.

There was a major problem finding money for nursing homes, Malone said, as people in the state want to see their loved ones taken better care of in such facilities.

In 2000, he said, more than half the nursing homes in the state lost money, and Arkansas' reimbursement from Medicare is the lowest in the nation.

The legislature, he said, raised money to be matched federally for nursing homes, while also increasing the staffing requirements.

One of the democratic party's initiatives going into the session was to put a prescription plan in place for those citizens 65 and older. The legislators managed to come up with $20 million for this project.

Once the state gets a waiver from the Health Care Finance Administration, he said, those who qualify can get two prescriptions per month filled under the program, which should begin this fall.

The assembly also reached an agreement on what to do with the state's share of the tobacco settlement monies. Funds were appropriated, Malone said, for research, health care needs and placing area health education clinics in Arkansas' delta region.

However, Malone, and other area representatives, were also able to procure funds for the home folks as well.

Malone, Rep. Sandra Rodgers, Rep. Tommy Roebuck and Rep. Robert White, worked together as a team, each going after money for their respective districts. The quartet, Malone said, discussed what they would be going after, then worked to avoid duplication of effort.

In Clark County, money was procured to finish construction on the Soil Conservation building. This facility will, when finished, house agricultural offices for the county.

Money was also obtained for the Clark and Nevada county fair associations.

The group also managed to get funding for Henderson State University along with Southern Arkansas University and SAU-Tech.

Aside from the group effort, Malone worked on making it illegal to use decongestants in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

The assembly placed restrictions on the amount of over-the-counter decongestants a person can purchase. The limit is nine grams. However, this amounts to about four packages, depending on the package.

But, anything more than nine grams constitutes a felony, with the person arrested to be charged with manufacture of a controlled substance.

The state now has two types of marriages, Malone said. Gov. Huckabee proposed, and pushed through, the option of a "covenant" marriage, along with the standard marriage.

Malone said a covenant marriage will require those getting we to undergo counseling before the nuptials, nor can those under a covenant marriage get divorced without first undergoing counseling.Returning to education, Malone said there were times when the state's scholarship program was in danger of not being funded. However, the legislators worked to find the money, and the program will be continued.

But, there were some changes made. Now, students must have a 3.0 grade point average, and the income eligibility has been dropped from $70,000 per year to $50,000.

While working to solve some of the state's health care problems, he said, the assembly also tightened restriction on welfare benefits.

The assembly has made it clear there are lifetime limits of three years for those receiving Aid for Dependent Family funds. This is the only program involved with the time limits.

"We passed a 3 percent beer tax," he said, "to help fund other programs for children. We'll be working in the interim, holding hearings on which direction the state should be going and how we can improve economic development, bringing better jobs to the state and helping existing industries expand."