Jonesboro Republican John Cooper’s election Tuesday to the state Senate makes it tougher for Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe to get the Legislature to reauthorize the use of federal Medicaid funds to purchase private health insurance through the state’s health exchange for poor Arkansans, Beebe said Wednesday.
“The importance [of the election] as far as I am concerned is it makes it more difficult to sustain the private option,” the governor told reporters at the state Capitol in Little Rock.
“An overwhelming majority of Legislature believed it was the right thing to do [last year] … and now you are sitting there with close to a hundred thousand people that actually have health insurance that didn’t have it before,” he said.
Cooper - who opposes reauthorizing the use of federal funds for what’s called the private option - defeated Jonesboro Democrat Steve Rockwell, who favors the private option, by a 4,314-to-3,227 vote in Tuesday’s special election, based on unofficial results from the Craighead County clerk’s office.
He will be sworn in after the secretary of state’s office and Craighead County Election Commission certifies the election results. There is one overseas military ballot that has not been returned, officials said. If the ballot isn’t returned beforehand, the Election Commission will have to wait 10 days under state law before it certifies the election results, said commission Chairman Steve McDaniel.
The Senate District 21seat was formerly held by Jonesboro Democrat Paul Bookout, who resigned from office Aug. 20 after the Arkansas Ethics Commission fined him $8,000 for four violations of state ethics law and a special prosecutor was appointed to review his actions.
Last year, Bookout was one of 28 senators who voted for authorizing the use of federal funding for the private option as the appropriation measure received one more vote than required for approval in the 35-member Senate. The measure also narrowly cleared the state House of Representative with 77 votes, two more than required for approval.
Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, said it’s unclear whether he’ll get 27 senators to vote to reauthorize funding for the private option for fiscal year 2015.
The fiscal session begins Feb. 10.
“Unofficially, I am terrified,” Lamoureux said. “I don’t know if we’ll get 20 votes … There is no way to get 27 [senators] to say, ‘Yes, We are going to be there and we are going to do it.’ There are going to be four or five [senators] that consider their option right up until the time of the vote.”
Beebe on Tuesday proposed a $5.03 billion general-revenue budget that would raise state spending by $105.8 million in fiscal 2015, particularly for public schools, prisons and human-services programs. It factors in an $85.2 million reduction in general-revenue collections in fiscal 2015 from tax cuts enacted by the Legislature last year and anticipates up to $89.2 million in projected savings resulting from federal Affordable Care Act funding, including the implementation of the private option, state budget administrator Brandon Sharp said Tuesday.
If the 2014 Legislature fails to reauthorize funding for the private option, “you’ll have to make cuts and we’ll do that [by changing the Revenue Stabilization Act in the fiscal session],” the governor said.
If the Legislature fails to reauthorize funding for the private option, Beebe said, “There’s not a snowball’s chance, in my opinion, that the Legislature is going to undo those tax cuts. That would be [my] preference … but I am pragmatic and realistic.”
As far as the private option, Beebe said the good news “is the facts and the logic are pretty irrefutable. I have not seen anybody yet on a logical and factual basis make an argument about why it ought to go away.
“There is an ideological argument about it. There is an emotional argument and some people just don’t like anything to do with Washington or anything to do with Obamacare. But that is not based upon the fact that Arkansas is paying for it whether we get it or not and we are just going to send our money to other states and [will be] leaving our own people out and that logic has never been refuted, ever once.”
Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, a leading opponent of reauthorizing federal funding for the private option and frequent critic of Beebe, said he’s not ready to predict what the Legislature will do.
“”You can’t ever count [Beebe] out,” King said. “He’s known for bullying or buying votes. He’s a deal-maker.That’s just something he does. That’s why he is the governor.”
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample replied, “That’s not how the governor operates and Sen. King knows that.”
King said federal funds not spent in Arkansas on the private option would go to cut the federal budget deficit.
“It’s not like this money is going to Michigan,” King said. “The private option is Obamacare and we can’t afford it.”
He said he doesn’t “put much faith” in Sharp’s estimate that the governor’s proposed budget includes up to $89 million in savings made available through the federal Affordable Care Act funding.
“They are going to have to show me the details,” King said.
Cooper, who will assume Bookout’s former seats on the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee and Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee, said Wednesday he still plans to vote to defund the private option in the fiscal session.
He also questioned whether eliminating the “private option” would leave the state $89 million short.
“I think there is a lot of inaccurate information about the funding of various things and I want to see the numbers verified before we say one thing will affect another,” Cooper said.
The day after the District 21 election, state Democratic and Republican officials continued to trade barbs. Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Vince Insalaco of North Little Rock, who Tuesday accused Cooper of running a “negative and divisive” campaign, was the target of criticism Wednesday.
Republican Party of Arkansas Chairman Doyle Webb of Benton accused Insalaco of having an “unsportsmanlike attitude,” adding, “This sort of arrogance, both at the state and national level, is one of the reasons the people of Arkansas are turning to the Republican Party.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/16/2014