Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Assembly To Be Busy

By State Representative

Percy Malone

Although the legislature did not convene during 1996, it was an eventful year for Arkansas state government. The state changed governors in July when Jim Guy Tucker resigned and Mike Huckabee moved up from his position as lieutenant governor to become the state's 44th governor.

In November, Arkansas voters elected four new memebers to the State Senate and 18 new members in the House of Representatives. There is still one vacancy in the Senate and one in the House, both from districts in Little Rock. They will be filled in January in special elections.

Campaign finance laws have changed significantly as a result of voter approval of Initiated Act 1 approved in the November general election. The new act requires more extensive disclosure of campaign contributions.

Anyone who contributes $50 or more to a candidate will now be listed on campaign finance reports. The new law also lowers the limits on campaign donations. The limit is now $300 for individual donations for the state's seven constitutional offices. Limits were lowered even more on contributions to candidates for the state legislature. The maximum donation to legislative campaigns has been reduced from $1,000 to $100 per election.

Also in November, Arkansas voters approved a school funding amendment to the state Constitution that will allow the state to equalize education expenditures among prosperous and poor school districts.

In December, legislators got their first look at Governor Huckabee's proposed budget for the next two years. Under the governor's plan, state prisons stand to receive a large percentage increase in funding, about 21 percent. The governor has recommended spending $146 million on prisons next year. The state's prison population has reached about 10,000 inmates, and the State Correction Department must build new facilities to house them.

The Public School Fund, which is distributed to school districts for education students from kindergarten through grade 12, would receive $1.31 billion under the governor's plan. This is an increase of 3.8 percent, which is slightly above the projected rate of inflation. State budget officials predict that the inflation rate will be about 3 percent for the next two fiscal years.

Under the governor's proposal, funding for human services would grow 5 percent next year and 2.6 percent the following year. The state's share of human services funding would amount to about $531 million. The federal government would contribute even more through block grant programs and matching funds. About 75 percent of the funds needed come from the federal government, the rest from state dollars.

The budget plan presented by the governor include his proposals for tax rebates and reductions. He proposes to lower taxes by $180 million in the next fiscal year. The total of the governor's recommended budget is for general revenue to be $2.84 billion in Fiscal Year 1998 and $2.98 billion in Fiscal Year 1999. Those amounts represent increases of 2.8 percent and 2.0 percent.