The Arkansas Legislature launched its third-ever fiscal session Monday amid uncertainty about the future of the state’s fledgling program using federal funds to purchase private health insurance for poor Arkansans.
The Joint Budget Committee later recommended that the House and Senate approve a bill to provide 1 percent raises to the state’s constitutional officers, judges and prosecutors - but not to lawmakers - in the fiscal year starting July 1.
In the fiscal session, the Republican-controlled Legislature is considering whether it should authorize the use of $915 million in federal funds to purchase private health insurance for poor Arkansans.
Last year, it narrowly authorized the use of the federal money, available under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010, to purchase the private health insurance.
The expansion of the Medicaid program extended eligibility to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level - $15,860 for an individual or $32,500 for a family of four. Under Arkansas’ private option, most recipients can sign up for private plans on the state’s health-insurance exchange and have the premiums paid by Medicaid dollars.
Twenty-seven votes are required in the 35-member Senate for approval of the private-option funding bill, which cleared the Senate with 28 votes last year. But last month’s election of Sen. John Cooper, R-Jonesboro, who opposes the private option, and an announcement by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, who voted for the funding last year, that she won’t vote to fund it this year have left supporters short of the 27 votes required for approval.
Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, told reporters that the Senate’s vote on the private-option funding bill could happen as early as next week and won’t necessarily occur after the filing period for state and federal offices from Feb. 24-March 3.
He said he’s trying to talk to all nine senators “that aren’t yet persuaded that it’s the best thing to do and seeing if there is any additional information we can provide them or any changes in the law that we could make that would satisfy them that it is the right thing to do.”
They are Sens. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale; Cecil Bledsoe, R-Rogers; Jane English, R-North Little Rock; Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs; Bryan King, R-Green Forest; Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch; and Cooper and Irvin.
In making his case for funding the private option, Lamoureux said, he’s mainly focusing on the substantial effect that not reauthorizing funding for the private option would have on Gov. Mike Beebe’s $5 billion proposed budget for fiscal 2015 that would raise state spending by $105 million. Beebe has repeatedly warned that failure to reauthorize federal funding for the private option would create a hole of about $89 million in his proposed budget and possibly lead to cuts in, among other things, his proposed funding for prisons and the state’s higher education institutions.
After meeting Monday morning with an architect of the private option - state Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock - English said she’s opposed to reauthorizing the use of federal funds for the private option for fiscal 2015 “so far.” She declined to comment further.
While Stubblefield said he’s “not a definite no” against funding the private option, he said he’s “certainly leaning toward no because that is what I campaigned on.
“I have got a lot of people calling me and this is just people in my district that said, ‘Gary do not vote to fund the private option,’” he said. But he later added that private-option backers will likely win. “I think they’ll probably come up with the votes,” he said.
House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, said he’s still hoping the Legislature can wrap up work in the fiscal session in three weeks.
“I think it’s going to go either really really smoothly or really really bad,” he said.
If the private-option funding bill stalls in the Senate, Carter said, it would “probably” be taken up for a vote in the House.
Seventy-five votes are required in the 100-member House of Representatives to authorize private-option funding in fiscal 2015. Last year, the House approved the funding with 77 votes.
State Rep. John Hutchison, R-Harrisburg, who voted for the private option last year, said he’s “for sure” going to vote against it this year. Rep. Ann Clemmer, R-Benton, who voted for funding the program last year, said she’s unsure how she’ll vote.
According to the state Department of Human Services, more than 102,000 people have been approved for coverage, representing more than 40 percent of those estimated to be eligible.
That total includes more than 63,000 recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, who responded last fall to a letter from the Human Services Department notifying them that they were eligible for coverage.
Nearly 97,000 Arkansans had completed enrollment by Thursday, comprising 87,061 who were signed up for private plans and9,889 who were assigned to traditional Medicaid because of their health needs, according to the department. Not all people who have been approved for coverage have completed the enrollment process.
PAY RAISES
In other business, the Joint Budget Committee endorsed its own legislation, House Bill 1002, to provide 1 percent cost-of-living raises for the state’s constitutional officers, judges and prosecutors.
The pay raises would cost the state $362,270, said Kevin Anderson, assistant director of fiscal for the Bureau of Legislative Research.
Committee Co-Chairman Larry Teague, D-Nashville, told lawmakers that he wants to give the cost of living raises, noting that’s the same proposed raise Beebe included in his proposed budget for most state employees.
He said he’s not talked to the governor or the state’s constitutional officers about whether they want a raise, but the judges want a raise.
“In fact, I don’t think we can print enough money to make the judges happy,” Teague quipped.
Afterwards, he said he didn’t propose increased pay for lawmakers because “we just weren’t comfortable giving ourselves a raise right now. Money is still tight, so I didn’t put it in there.”
HB1002 would increase the annual salary for the governor from $86,890 to $87,759, for the attorney general from $72,408 to $73,132, and for the secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and land commissioner from $54,305 to $54,848 apiece. The lieutenant governor’s post is vacant, but the bill would boost the salary for the job from $41,896 to $42,315 for the next person elected to the post.
It also would boost the annual salary of the Supreme Court’s chief justice from $160,001 to $161,601 and for the Supreme Court’s other six justices from $148,108 to $149,589. It also would increase the annual pay for the Court of Appeals’ chief judge from $145,828 to $147,286 and for the Court of Appeals’ 11 other judges from $143,547 to $144,982.
The annual salary would increase for the state’s 121 circuit judges from $138,982 to $140,372 for 38 district court judges from $124,252 to $125,495, and for 25 prosecuting attorneys from $121,943 to $123,162.
The annual salaries for the House speaker and president pro tempore would remain at $17,771 a year, while the other 99 representatives and 34 senators would continue to be paid $15,869 a year.
Last year, the Legislature granted 2 percent raises to judges and prosecutors for fiscal 2014.
State lawmakers and constitutional officers haven’t received raises in fiscal 2011, 2012, 2013 or 2014.
Sean Beherec, Claudia Lauer and Andy Davis of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette contributed information for this article.
Calendar
This is the calendar of public events of the 89th General Assembly for today, the 2nd day of the 2013 ÿ scal session. JOINT After the adjournment of both chambers, the Joint Budget Committee’s claims subcommittee, Room B, Multi-Agency Complex.
HOUSE 1:30 p.m., the House convenes. SENATE 1 p.m., the Senate convenes.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/11/2014