Arkansas House Speaker Robert Moore is warning lawmakers to not “reinvent the budget wheel” as they gather at the Capitol for a limited session focusing on fiscal issues.
Moore on Monday told House members that voters who approved a constitutional amendment requiring the Legislature to meet annually did not intend for lawmakers to stray far from budget issues. The Legislature convened for a fiscal session, the second under the amendment approved in 2008.
Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe has proposed a $4.7 billion budget for the coming fiscal year that increases spending on state’s Medicaid program by $114 million and for public schools by $56 million.
The top Republican in the Arkansas House says he and other lawmakers are working on their own alternative budget to the one proposed by Beebe.
Rep. John Burris filed a resolution Monday to introduce an alternative Revenue Stabilization Act, the budget bill that is typically considered at the end of the legislative session. The RSA sets spending priorities based on expected revenues.
Burris said Republicans believe they can find more areas to cut than Beebe has proposed in his $4.7 billion budget for the coming fiscal year. A companion resolution has been introduced in the Senate.
Moore, a Democrat, urged both parties to work together during the session.
Since the RSA is not an appropriations bill, it requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber to be introduced.
Only a handful of non-budget items have been proposed for the session, including a repeal of a tax break for truckers set to take effect in July. It takes a two-thirds vote from both chambers for non-budget bills to even be considered.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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