The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery would be barred from deploying electronic monitor games until mid-March under a bill that cleared a legislative committee Monday night.
On the first day of the Legislature's special session, committees also advanced bills to boost funding for the state's public school employees' health insurance plan and prisons.
This is the second special session called by Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe during the past eight months to enact measures aimed at reducing large increases in the employees' health insurance premiums.
Legislative leaders said they may complete action in their three-day legislative session shortly after midnight Wednesday.
Two hours after the Legislature convened in special session, the House Rules Committee recommended approval of House Bill 1005 by Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, which would temporarily ban the lottery from offering electronic monitor games.
Lottery officials planned to begin deploying a monitor game called quick-draw Sept. 29; Collins' bill would prohibit them from doing so until March 13.
Supporters of the quick-draw game said it's similar to Powerball and Mega Millions, except drawings would be held every four minutes and results would be shown on monitors similar to television screens set up in participating locations.
The lottery's fiscal 2015 budget projects ticket sales of $428 million with $81.2 million collected for college scholarships. That calculation includes about $12.5 million in quick-draw game revenue with about $3.5 million of that going toward college scholarships. The lottery's ticket sales and the amount raised for college scholarships have declined for the past two years.
But a majority of the Arkansas Lottery Commission Legislative Oversight Committee's members, including state Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, oppose electronic monitor games.
After trying and failing to convince lottery commissioners to reject the games or at least hold off implementing them until the 2015 Legislature weighs in, Hickey pushed to ban them in the special session.
"[The bill] will maintain the status quo with regard to multi-draw games from now until March, at which time the General Assembly will be able to take up and consider any more permanent action regarding the lottery scholarship game, etc.," Collins told the House Rules Committee during its brief hearing on the bill.
Hickey told reporters that there is strong support in both chambers for a permanent ban on monitor games.
But support is less certain in the House Rules Committee, he said.
Hickey said he would have preferred to permanently bar the lottery from offering electronic games.
House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, who opposed considering the games' future in the special session, said in an interview that it's better for lawmakers to decide the future of the electronic monitor games during next year's regular session and allow it to be fully vetted.
The House Rules Committee has essentially "agreed to that," he said.
"There are not any victory laps for either side," Carter said.
Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said the Arkansas Lottery Commission directed him to implement electronic monitor games, and Collins' bill "at least gives us the opportunity to visit with the Legislature regarding it so that is preferable, obviously," to an outright ban.
He said he offered Monday to "sit down and give information and input to the legislative [lottery] oversight committee or this legislative body in hopes that we can have some type of resolution of this in the next [regular] session."
In April, the Arkansas Lottery Commission authorized the implementation of electronic monitor games to help boost declining ticket revenue and net proceeds for college scholarships, one day after a majority of the Legislature's Lottery Oversight Committee voted to declare its opposition to the games.
Opponents of the electronic monitor games include Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, whose lobbyists have been working with lawmakers who want to ban the electronic monitor games.
Hickey and other legislative opponents of the electronic monitor games maintain that Arkansas voters didn't envision the lottery offering electronic monitor games in 2008 when they approved a constitutional amendment to allow the Legislature to create a state lottery for college scholarships. But lottery officials counter that about 15 state lotteries, including Missouri's, already offer electronic monitor games, such as keno and quick-draw, and the Legislature explicitly authorized these games in the state's lottery law enacted in 2009.
When they're not debating about the lottery, lawmakers will also be focused on health insurance premiums for public school employees and bed space for criminals.
During October's special session, the Legislature authorized the use of $43 million in state surplus funds to help cut proposed premium increases of about 50 percent for members of the public school employees health insurance plan to about 10 percent this year. They also enacted measures to shift $36 million per year in state funds to the plan in the fiscal year starting today.
The latest legislation seeks to stave off a rate increase as high as 35 percent for roughly 47,000 teachers and other public school employees. The state's Employee Benefits Division projects an overall rate increase of about 3 percent next year if these changes and other recommendations by a legislative task force are adopted
The Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee recommended passing Senate Bill 3 by Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, which would push public school employees' spouses off of school insurance plans if they can get coverage through their own employers. The bill also cuts coverage for weight loss surgeries. Another bill sponsored by Hendren, SB4, would make 4,000 part-time public school employees ineligible for coverage.
Committee members raised concerns about whether the measures would be a long-term fix for the health insurance plan. Hendren said the measures go further than previous legislative efforts, which added money to the plan without changing the terms.
SB3 was moved with unanimous support, but Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, voted against SB4, taking issue with cutting part-time employees from insurance plans.
"I have concerns over moving people to the private option at the same time that there's not a lot of commitment to continue funding that program," she said after the committee meeting.
Elliott also raised concerns that part-time employees were being treated differently on the state employee benefit plan.
Elliott acknowledged that she is a part-time employee of the state and would lose her benefits if the Arkansas state employee plan cut part-time employees, but said she had more questions.
Hendren said he anticipated needing to come back with a fix for the Arkansas state employee insurance plan, which covers state employees outside of public schools in the next session, because its actuarial health is heading in the same direction as the public school employee plan.
But those changes should wait, he said.
"There are a couple of technical things that people have brought up that they have concerns about. ... We'll be back here in January weeks after this thing is beginning. If it needs adjusting, it'll be easy to adjust at that point," he said. "Amending it at this point, we all know what happens -- the wheels fall off."
The House versions of both bills passed the House Insurance and Commerce Committee on voice votes with little opposition.
Rep. Harold Copenhaver, D-Jonesboro, said the measures had been vetted by the task force and that members of the group had reached out to as many lawmakers and stakeholders as possible.
Rep. Mark Perry, D-Jacksonville, told reporters that he didn't think the measures were a "complete fix" because the plan would likely require additional money in the future. He said he would prefer each district be able to bid for their own plans, which he said would lead to better rates.
"I think it'd be a great time for the state to get out of the health insurance business," Perry said.
Copenhaver told reporters that he agreed the measures didn't provide a complete fix, but were better than "dumping" funding into the program. He said additional changes would have to be made in the future, but these were the best recommendations for the time being.
"This is the first step to correcting a situation that is not working for the state of Arkansas," Copenhaver said.
In other business, the Joint Budget Committee recommended approval of SB1 and HB1001 to allow the use of $6.2 million a year of the state's Central Services Fund to help open about 600 prison and jail beds to relieve the backlog of nearly 2,400 state prisoners in county jails.
The House met earlier in the day in a largely ceremonial gathering at the old Capitol building, which is now the Old State House Museum. Some members appeared to enjoy meeting at the building, which hosted the Legislature from 1836-1911, taking pictures, arriving in horse-drawn carriages and wearing period costumes.
Rep. Tommy Thompson, D-Morrilton, wore a top hat and a black jacket with coattails nearly reaching the floor. Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, had on a large hat and a pink dress that completely covered her arms and legs.
Fite said she borrowed her clothing from historical re-enactors based in Van Buren. She was joined by her husband, Tom, who also donned a costume.
"I'd like to dress like this every day," Fite said.
Metro on 07/01/2014