Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Session could be most important in state history

A tight budget and fiscal problems face the Arkansas General Assembly during its regular biennial session.

State Sen. Percy Malone said this would be one of the most important and difficult sessions in state history.

To begin with, the balance of several funds has been depleted over the last four years, giving Arkansas little or no contingency money. The state managed to avoid breaking constitutional law at the end of its fiscal year on June 30, 2002, by breaking even financially, but there was little left to start the next fiscal year with.

The state faces a financial nightmare with the resolution of the Lake View lawsuit, with a price tag possibly being $1 billion.

Along with this, the state is suffering a severe shortage of prison beds, as the prison population continues to swell with inmates being kept longer.

Five years ago, Malone said, there were 8,000 inmates in Arkansas's prisons. This figure is now 13,000 and rising.

Two years ago, he said, the administration's predictions for anticipated revenue were too high and agencies built in revenues that never existed. Teachers in Arkansas were promised pay raises by the state, but never got them. "There were a lot of expectations that never happened."

There were also two separate budget cuts on money to be spent by the different state agencies, with programs affecting services for people in need being cut.

"We're working on a bare bones budget," he said. "We're faced with an overcrowded prison system and we can't cut those budgets.

"We're looking at increased health care costs and rising prison costs. The Lake View case will cost the state to get the education system in compliance with court order.

"We're basing the budget for the next two years on what was spent this year," Malone said.

For the next two years, he said, the assembly is anticipating $113 million in new money. While this sounds like a lot of money, he said it really isn't.

Each department will present its budget to the Ways and Means Committee and be required to defend it, as the committee will go through it to see where it can be cut.

Those agencies asking for more money will have to make a case as to why they deserve it.

When all is said and done, the $113 million will be divided accordingly, Malone said.

The public, he said, will play a part in determining how this extra money will be distributed.

The legislature will be looking at ways to broaden the state's tax base without increasing taxes to meet the additional expenses, he said.

"I believe we can get a clear signal on how much people want the state to spend and on what services they desire," Malone said.

In the area of school funding, he said, the legislature will be looking at the Lake View case and trying to decide what it will take to provide an adequate and equitable system for all children. The point the legislature will be faced with will be making all school districts roughly the same with similar programs and equipment.

The problem is no one knows what this will cost, Malone said, adding every child in the state deserves a good education.

A legislative committee will be working to determine what an adequate and equitable education system is, and how to improve education in the state without just throwing money at it, he said.

"There needs to be an accountability factor built in," Malone said. "It will take time, and we'll do the best we can to comply with the court order. But we need to get it worked out where there's not a great disparity in education from one part of the state to another.

"As important as education is," he continued, "there are other issues facing the state."

One of these issues is economic development. Malone said young people need jobs after they finish school, so he's promoting money for the Arkansas Department of Economic Development.

"We need an economic development package that will make Arkansas more attractive to business and industry and create new jobs."

On the topic of prisons, Malone said the legislature will be going through the budget with a fine tooth comb, but may wind up taking money from the capital improvement program to pay counties for housing state inmates.

It's important, he said, to get the new prison built in Malvern to help alleviate some of the burden on counties.

Then comes the state's problem-plagued computer system. Currently, he said, it's difficult to determine exactly how much the system is costing the state because of how billing is done by the Department of Information Services (DIS).

The DIS, he said, doesn't actually do the billing for the ASIS system, nor does the system do everything it was touted to do.

This will be closely examined during the session.

"I'll take a leadership roll but the debate will be if there's any way to deal with education in the regular session," he said. If it can't, the assembly will have a special session to deal solely with education so all interested legislators can be involved.

The Arkansas Department of Education, he said, was told years ago to do what the court has ordered the state to do now. However, the department failed to act on the legislative command.

"If we can get clearly defined definitions (on what constitutes adequate and equitable)," he said, "we can take this information to the education committee and draft legislation in compliance with the order and move Arkansas up the ladder in education."