Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) – January 7, 2009
Posted on January 7th, 2010
Date & Time: Thursday, December 7, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Location: Room 171, State Capitol
Committee Information: Members on Committee
Agenda and Attachments
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.
1:33 pm – Meeting called to order by Sen. Bryles. The first order of business is the December 2009 Revenue Report.
1:34 pm – After the revenue report was read… stunning silence. It is bad. Net Available for Distribution is down 4.2% Revenues are $55 million under the forecast adjusted on 10/20/2009. At that time, the forecast was $89 million under forecast from the session last spring.
1:37 pm – Corporate income tax collections are down 51.2% from the same month last year. Cigarette tax revenues are up 55.6% for the same period.
1:40 pm – Individual income tax collections are down 15.7%
1:41 pm – Budget hearing start next week, I think there will be alot of discussion about this at that time.
1:43 pm – Currently reviewing Cash Fund Appropriation Increase Requests. The one by the Department of Education generated questions related to the impact of the desegregation lawsuit results and how it will impact the schools. The current offer for settlement is for $430 million over 7 years.
1:47 pm – The Budget Classification Tranfer Request for the Arkansas Public School Computer Network was withdrawn by the Department of Education. They are delaying the purchase due to the software will no longer be supported after 2015. Sen. Malone is asking that because this DIS service is a cost recovery operation, how it can really be a realized savings for the purposes of a classification transfer. They explained that an additional reason for withdrawing the request is because of anticipated budget cuts.
1:52 pm – We are currently covering Federal Grant Appropriation Requests for FY10. A lot of these appropriations are pass through for the ARRA (Stimulus) Funds.
2:13 pm – There are alot of questions about the Arkansas Wireless Information Network upgrade from 7.2 to 7.5. This discussion was spurred by a pass through appropriation request from a federal grant.
2:15 pm – Rep. Dismang is asking about the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Assistance. He is asking if this can be done much quicker than the past grants have occured. He has experienced a lot of questions from constituents concerning how long it took to get the grants from the first flood.
2:27 pm – A lot of jumping around asking questions about the items for part E of the agenda. Most of the questions are informational with legislators seeking to understand the processes involved and how these grants are administered. The senior legislators like Sen. Bryles have been very patient with these sort of questions because they are critical in the era of term limits for legislators to understand what is going on. It does cause the meeting to go long and at times get off track, we learn a lot during times.
2:40 pm – Legislators again asking the questions to learn if the programs and the positions created by the Stimulus Funds will continue after the funds terminate. Again, we are being told that they will. It doesn’t seem that most legislators believe it.
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