Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Huckabee's agenda extensive for 84th General Assembly

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has some massive plans for the 84th General Assembly, currently underway.

In his legislative agenda, Huckabee proposes changes in education, state government, medical malpractice, economic development, super project funds, the Department of Corrections and community corrections.

His education plans have been discussed in another article in this issue.

Huckabee wants to reorganize the state government, trimming the executive branch to 10 departments which have a series of bureaus.

The departments, under his proposal, would be Education, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Labor, Employment and Workforce, Corrections, Natural Resources, Finance and Administration, the Interior, Homeland Security and Agriculture.

He claims by streamlining the agencies, it would reduce costs.

"I'm proposing a sweeping reorganization plan that will reduce the number of major departments in the executive branch to 10," he said.

"That doesn't include the constitutionally independent state Highway and Transportation Department and state Game and Fish Commission."

Huckabee said there would be a series of bureaus under each department, and office under the bureaus.

It will, he said, bring consistency to state government and how services are delivered.

The streamlining into 10 departments would mean the following, he said: A more concise and consistent management structure from top to bottom; dramatic cost efficiencies; and a move toward a central services delivery office in each county.

Terminology would also be changed, more closely following federal Cabinet guidelines. The heads of bureaus would be directors, with the heads of larger offices being deputy directors.

He claims the reduction would save money by combining the equipment and technology the offices. There would, he said, be fewer office machines; one receptionist operation instead of several; one set of telephone equipment and personnel to manage the calls; and servers and computer connection located in fewer buildings.

In the area of medical malpractice, Huckabee wants tort reform to limit the amount of money a person could sue for.

His plan calls for revamping the Arkansas Department of Economic Development with a new incentive package to capitalize on the best Arkansas has to offer.

This would consist of four pieces legislation, he said. These are: Advantage Arkansas, InvestArk, Create Rebate and the Arkansas Economic Development Act.

His proposal would add two incentives as well, those being research and development tax credits and targeted business transferrable tax credits.

The plan, he said would establish a job creation tax credit based on a company's payroll instead of its average wage; consolidate a set of incentives for investment; establish a payroll rebate program; give income tax credits for research and development expenditures; and transferrable income tax credits for new, targeted businesses.

The super projects fund is part of his economic package. It would, he said, enable Arkansas to be more competitive in landing major economic projects.

Huckabee's prison proposals include a supplemental appropriation of $6,076,367 to finish the Varner Super Max Unit at Malvern and add 400 beds to the Grimes Unit.

"The situation surrounding Arkansas' correctional system has reached a state of crisis," he said. "The prison population is growing at a rate we can neigh manage nor afford."

He's also asking for more money so the state can pay the county for housing state inmates at county units.

The plan calls for a more involved drug court system. These courts, he said, bring the full weight of all parties in law enforcement to bear and force the offenders to deal with their substance abuse problems.

He wants the legislature to provide money for an additional 20 drug courts in the state, which would move Arkansas closer to having one in each judicial district.

Funding is also being sought for the sex offender program.

As of Nov. 30, 2002, there were 1,203 sex offenders under the Department of Community Correction's probation/parole supervision and 1,857 in the state penitentiary system.

Huckabee wants money to allow the Department of Community Corrections to hire five probation/parole officers to be trained to handle the caseload.

He also wants funds to allow the department to hire five people to operate polygraph machines to ensure the integrity of the program.

However, his agenda doesn't include a price tag on what his plans would cost the taxpayers of Arkansas.