The Arkansas House and Senate on Monday sent the governor bills that would set up a state general-revenue budget for the fiscal year and distribute up to $225 million in surplus funds from previous years.
With no debate, the Senate voted 23-0 to approve House Bill 1548 and the House voted 87-5 to approve Senate Bill 295.
The identical bills would distribute $5.49 billion to state programs through the Revenue Stabilization Act in fiscal 2018, which starts July 1. That's a $163 million increase over the amount set to be distributed in fiscal 2017, and includes $15.8 million for the state's rainy-day fund.
Most of the increased spending in fiscal 2018 would go for the state Department of Human Services. The Human Services Department's general-revenue funding would be $1.55 billion, an increase of $112.8 million over fiscal 2017.
The Department of Human of Services' grants general-revenue budget, including Medicaid, would increase by $75 million to $1.14 billion and the department's Children and Family Services Division's budget would increase by nearly $27 million to $118.2 million under these bills. Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the increased state support for the Division of Children and Family Services will ensure the foster care program is equipped to handle its increasing caseload and can properly serve the most vulnerable children.
Hutchinson said the fiscal 2018 budget includes more than $54 million in proposed annual savings for Medicaid and $6.1 million in savings from a reduction in the number of employees on the payroll.
"In addition, most of our agency budgets will be held flat during the next two years. This means most general-revenue-funded agencies will remain at or below their current funding level through 2019. In a world of constantly increasing budgets and bloated government, this is a remarkable achievement," the Republican governor said in his weekly column.
The state Department of Correction would receive an increase of nearly $11 million, to $351 million, and the Department of Community Correction would get a $9 million increase, to $87.7 million.
The public school fund would increase by $6 million to $2.194 billion. Hutchinson said the measures include an additional $3 million to ensure that Arkansans have access to quality pre-kindergarten programs and $2.5 million to fund teacher training for his computer science initiative.
In other action Monday, each chamber sent the governor identical bills that would allow for the distribution of $225 million of surplus funds accumulated from previous years.
The Senate voted 26-2 to approve House Bill 1830, while the House voted 92-2 to approve Senate Bill 552.
The identical bills would allow, among other things, for the use of up to $90 million for the Medicaid program, up to $60 million for public school facilities and up to $30 million to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission for the Quick Action Closing Fund for incentives to attract new business and economic development.
They also would allow for the use of up to $20 million to ensure that the state has about $47.5 million to match $200 million in federal highway dollars available this fall under a new federal highway law; $12.9 million for the state's rainy-day fund; and up to $10.5 million for state Department of Correction lease payments tied to debt service for prisons in Malvern and Newport.
Information for this article was contributed by Brian Fanney of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
A Section on 04/04/2017