A self-described left-leaning Little Rock attorney and blogger has filed a complaint with state ethics officials against a nursing home group, arguing that the group's sizable contributions toward a constitutional amendment bid require it to open up its own books to the public.
On Monday, Matt Campbell, the writer of the Blue Hog Report website, filed a complaint with the Arkansas Ethics Commission against the Arkansas Health Care Association, an organization of long-term care facilities that has given $330,000 to a ballot question committee, Health Care Access for Arkansans.
A call to the Arkansas Health Care Association wasn't returned Monday.
Health Care Access for Arkansans recently submitted signed petitions to the secretary of state's office in the group's effort to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 general election ballot that would limit trial attorneys to collecting one-third of any total damages awarded in a civil suit. The proposed amendment would also cap the amount of noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering, to $250,000. The secretary of state's office is checking the validity of signatures to see whether the group collected enough to get on the ballot.
Campbell's complaint alleges that although Health Care Access for Arkansans is obviously a registered ballot question committee -- one required to register with state officials and disclose the source of its finances -- the group representing the interest of long-term care facilities such as nursing homes also should have to register and disclose its sources of money.
According to Campbell's complaint, Arkansas Code 7-9-402(2)(B) says that any group that is not an approved political action committee that uses 2 percent or more of its annual revenue or operating expenses for contributions to another ballot question committee is also a ballot question committee.
Health Care Access for Arkansans has collected about $606,610 in contributions, according to state records.
The Arkansas Health Care Association made a $250,000 contribution to Health Care Access for Arkansans in May and another $80,000 in June. The association's most recent finance information from 2014 shows that the group had $2.4 million in revenue, $2.3 million in expenditures and $1.5 million in assets.
"By every available metric, then, the $330,000 given to Health Care Access for Arkansans by [the association] in 2016 makes AHCA a ballot-question committee," Campbell said in his complaint.
Campbell concedes that he doesn't have the most recent finances of the nursing home group, but said the group would need an increase "of over 700 percent" in its revenue or expenses for its contributions to fall below the 2 percent threshold set out in state law.
Campbell said it's imperative that the Ethics Commission act quickly on his complaint because the public deserves to know who is financing a measure that could control lawsuit damages in the future.
"I've heard a number of reports about the canvassers for that amendment, just saying grossly misleading things to get [people] to sign on. I don't think [the association] should be able to sit back and pump this money into it, mislead people on the front end and have no transparency because it took too long [for the commission to act]," Campbell said. "Unless the Health Care Association can show that their revenues and expenditures last year and this year were both high enough that this amount doesn't trigger the 2 percent rule, you can't get around it."
Campbell has filed ethics complaints against various public officials. He filed an ethics complaint against then-Lt. Gov Mark Darr that led to Darr's resignation from office in February 2014. Darr agreed to pay $11,000 in fines for various ethics violations.
Metro on 07/19/2016