Arkansas Legislative Council – PEER – September 3, 2009
Posted on September 3rd, 2009
Date & Time: Thursday, September 03, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Location: Room 171, State Capitol
Agenda: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/Lists/Meetings/Attachments/12030/I7760.pdf
Attachments: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/R/Pages/MeetingAttachments.aspx?ItemId=12030&CalType=ME&List=Meetings&btnok=nook
This committee reviews matters pertaining to the financial operations and fiscal performances of state agencies, departments, and institutions, including but not limited to, program performance and evaluation, efficiency in the operation of agency programs and services, coordination of programs and services which require the expenditure of state funds, the stability and adequacy of the various fund and fund accounts of the state, and other matters pertaining to agency performance and accountability in the use of public funds may be referred to this committee. Matters pertaining to the organization, consolidation, merger, or abolishment of a state agency, board, commission, or program, and such other matters as maybe assigned by the Council.
1:38 pm – Meeting called to order. August Revenue report presented. Net available for distribution is down 3.7% so far this year. We are 33 Million below forcast. I think forecast was about 60 million below last year. I think that means we are 90 million below last year.
1:42 pm – Cigarette tax revenues are up and on target to fund expected expensed associated with it. Overall, cigarette sales are down. Rep. Glidewell expressed concern that the sales loss was from people buying out of state rather than a decline in the number of smokers. He cited a report about overall sales in Oklahoma rising.
1:45 pm – Trends show that the Arkansas economy lags the national economy… We enter periods of economic downturns after the rest of the country and we come out of it later than the rest of the country.
1:46 pm – Rep. Lea is asking why ABC fines are down 19.5% The answer is that it is a large change in small numbers and will probably level out over a period of 6 months.
1:47 pm – We are currently on target to fund all of “A” funds in revenue stablization, 18% of “B” and none of the rest.
1:52 pm – Rep. Lea is asking Richard Wiess why after being below projections 7 of 8 months he made the statement that they do not intend revise the forecast. He believes that although monthly numbers are low that the forecast will be fine on an annual basis.
1:55 pm – Rep. Lea asked how much of the revenue surplus that was left over from the last budget had been dipped into so far. He expressed that $61 million out of $100 million had been committed so far.
1:57 pm – We are currently reviewing Cash Fund Appropriation Increase requests, Budget Classification Transfer requests, and Miscellaneous Federal Grant Appropriation Requests.
1:59 pm – Most of the Federal Grants are part of the ARRA funds. Rep. Lea asked if they were private sector jobs. Teresa Marks, ADEQ, said that the funds are being used to contract with private contractors for environmental clean-up.
2:01 pm – See item E in the attachments above. These are the items that are currently being reviewed. Most of these are American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as Stimulus Funds, and are temporary positions created. Rep. Lea asked if all these people are being informed that the positions are temporary. Apparently that has ALWAYS been the policy for federally funded programs. During the last meeting I feel I was let to believe that EXTRA precautions were being issued to these employees due the inherently short term nature of the Stimulus package.
2:09 pm – We are currently reviewing the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund Government General Services Projects. These are more of the ARRA funds. Rep. Dismang is asked about unexpended grants. The response was that the state would recapture and reallocate those funds.
2:12 pm – So far, $77,221,229 have been funded, there are $3,555,849 remaining funds.
2:17 pm – Sen. Jeffress is asking why some private schools are getting some of the ARRA funds. Apparently this is allowed and that the use for energy efficency and modernization was okay.
2:20 pm – There is some friendly ribbing about the appropriation of fund to various legislators districts.
2:22 pm – There is a discussion about how scholarship funds are being allocated. There is claims that because of the lottery scholarship fund one half the amount for two year colleges as four year colleges that the poor man is funding the rich man’s kids to go to college. The point was made that students from a home with $75,000 family income attends colleges at an 8:1 ratio compared to those from a home with $25,000 income.
2:25 pm – Sen. Percy Malone is expressing concerns about how money is being spent for research at the University of Arkansas. Apparently he is concerned about how much is being expended for Rice Research vs. Poultry Research.
2:27 pm – Rep. Dismang is concerned that because everyone know how much is budgeted, then it taints the competitive bid process since the bidders know what is budgeted for the project. It doesn’t seem that there is anything we can do about this because of the structure of the ARRA Stimulus policies.
2:31 pm – Currently reviewing Emergency Transfer Requests – see attachment F.
2:45 pm – We are currently covering the General Improvement Funds. There are questions about how this is being appropriated. Mostly about how the even distribution about planning and development districts.
2:47 pm – Rep. Maloch is asking if the $6 million loan to the lottery commission will be repaid to the state on the 7th day after the start of the lottery or shortly after that since they are predicting $1 million per day in revenues.
2:51 pm – Meeting adjourned.
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