The Arkansas Legislative Council gave final approval Friday to spending $10.2 million worth of rainy day funds, with the majority going toward corrections departments that say they are struggling to cope with budget cuts.
Without discussion or dissent, the body adopted the funding recommendation from a subcommittee.
About $7.4 million will go to the Department of Correction's Ester Unit in Pine Bluff. A letter from Gov. Asa Hutchinson told lawmakers that the funds would support personnel services and operating expenses at the prison.
Arkansas Community Correction, which oversees parolees and probationers, will receive $240,000 for a statewide study to determine the effectiveness of specialty drug courts in Arkansas. Hutchinson said in a separate letter that the new study will follow up on a 2015 inquiry.
J.R. Davis, a spokesman for the governor, said a meeting is tentatively planned between Hutchinson and prison officials next week. He said he was unsure if rainy day funds would be discussed.
In a meeting earlier this week in Pine Bluff, Board of Corrections Chairman Benny Magness said he would "beg" the governor for more money.
But Solomon Graves, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, said Friday that he did not foresee the agency requesting additional rainy day funds next fiscal year. He said the agency's general revenue budget was increasing from about $338.5 million to $349.6 million in fiscal 2018. Fiscal 2018 starts July 1.
That's despite a $1.7 million trim compared with the originally proposed funding.
A spokesman for Arkansas Community Correction did not return a request for comment on Friday.
Prisons in Arkansas, under the Department of Correction, will not have to cut back on any "essential" services -- namely security, work programs and inmate care -- and will not have to let any staff members go because of budget woes, a spokesman said earlier this week.
Graves said Friday that agency leaders are still working on next fiscal year's operating plan but are taking a close look at maintenance and operation expenses.
But plans to contract out up to 400 re-entry beds for offenders through Arkansas Community Correction next year are already being scaled back, after the governor announced budget cuts to state agencies in fiscal 2018 earlier this month.
The state also gave notice in March that it would ask agencies to pay for a higher share of a new pay plan for next fiscal year than originally expected.
In addition to the rainy day funds released for corrections agencies, lawmakers gave final approval to $1.5 million for the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, $750,000 to the Arkansas Unpaved Roads Program and $300,000 for the Arkansas Imagination Library at the Department of Education.
The Imagination Library is a nonprofit organization -- launched by singer Dolly Parton -- that mails books to children. Kimberly Friedman, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Education, said she wouldn't have details on the program until Monday.
Information for this article was contributed by John Moritz of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 05/20/2017