Lawmakers search for way to legitimize local projects
BYLINE: BY SETH BLOMELEY AND MICHAEL R. WICKLINE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Legislators are attempting a number of ways to get around the state Supreme Court's prohibition against appropriation bills directing money to a specific local project.
Differences remain at the state Capitol on how to fund local projects.
For example, Sen. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, has filed Senate Bill 736, which appropriates $50,000 to the state Athletic Commission. But the bill says that money would then go to the North Little Rock Boys and Girls Club.
Steele's SB739, appropriating $100,000 for the state Department of Parks and Tourism, designates half of that to Burns Park in North Little Rock and the other half to College Station Park in eastern Pulaski County.
Sen. Shawn Womack, R-Mountain Home, co-chairman of the legislative Joint Budget Committee, says some of the General Improvement Fund appropriation bills are unconstitutional and that's one of the reasons the committee isn't considering any of the hundreds of project bills yet.
"If I sent something to the [state] Department of Economic Development to be spent on a particular project in Baxter County and that project is not a state agency, then that's beyond the line," Womack, a lawyer, said. "We can't put that into law." The Legislature enters its ninth week today, and figuring out how to spend the $844 million General Improvement Fund, or state surplus, is one of the big unresolved issues.
Whether the Legislature should approve a highway improvement plan is also undecided.
Public school facilities funding will take the biggest chunk out of the surplus, Gov. Mike Beebe and legislators say.
That figure is scheduled to be released Tuesday.
Womack said there may not be much left for local projects after funding for school facilities, higher education buildings, a cancer center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and state highway dollars are set aside.
The Supreme Court in December ruled that a $400,000 appropriation in 2005 for the city of Bigelow violated the Amendment 14 ban on local legislation.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jack Critcher, D-Batesville, and House Speaker Benny Petrus, DStuttgart, initially said they were resolved that there would be no more local projects.
But later Critcher, Petrus, Womack and Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro, filed a bill to set up a legislatively appointed commission that would receive a state appropriation and divide up the money for local projects that legislators could recommend.
The House passed the measure, but Attorney General Dustin McDaniel later opined that it could be unconstitutional because of separation of powers concerns. He said it may appear to a court that the Legislature would be in control of the commission and taking powers away from the executive branch.
Legislators now say they want to send grant money to state agencies to decide which local projects to fund or to increase state funding to cities and counties and let local officials decide how to spend it. Legislators would be allowed to write recommendation letters.
Gov. Mike Beebe has said that in principle that sounds like a constitutional approach.
Steele didn't return messages about his bills left Friday at his office or home.
He's not the only one targeting specific projects with General Improvement Fund appropriations.
Rep. David Johnson, D-Little Rock, filed House Bill 2165 to appropriate $150,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services' Developmental Disabilities Division. It would be designated for "critical maintenance, repair, improvement, renovation, and construction projects for nonprofit intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded that provide intensive inpatient rehabilitation services to children with severe disabilities from across the state." Johnson said he didn't know how many entities fit that description but that Easter Seals had asked for it.
He also filed HB2016 to appropriate $50,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services' Volunteerism Division, designating the money to the Arkansas Coalition for Excellence Program, a nonprofit that helps organize nonprofits.
A lawyer, Johnson said he didn't think the court prohibited specific appropriations for nonprofits.
"I think it just has to be a for state purpose," Johnson said. "This designates funds for a certain state purpose. I tried to be careful about that when writing bills." Womack said such a bill "might run the risk" of being unconstitutional.
"If you get too specific, we might need to evaluate whether there is a separation of powers issue," he said.
Sen. Bob Johnson, D-Bigelow, filed SB598 to appropriate $125,000 to the state Department of Arkansas Heritage for grants for renovations and improvements to community buildings and community centers.
Special language in the bill says: "The grants authorized in Section 1 of this Act shall not be restricted by requirements that may be applicable to other grant programs currently administered by the Department of Arkansas Heritage." Womack said legislative leaders decided to put this language into some of the General Improvement Fund bills because it would have been too difficult to craft new grant programs at state agencies for the projects they have in mind.
For example, Womack said legislators wanted to send money for fire departments through the Department of Rural Services, but those grants would have been limited to $15,000 in towns with no more than 3,000 people.
SB358 by Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, contains similar special language to make "some of the projects I have in mind" eligible.
The bill would appropriate to the Rural Services Department $500,000 for community services grants, $250,000 for county services grants, and $250,000 for "enhanced services" block grants.
"One project I have in mind would be a civic center in Carlisle," Glover said. "Lonoke County requested money to enlarge its jail." Another approach is SB689 by Sen. Randy Laverty, D-Jasper. It would appropriate $200,000 to the Department of Veteran Affairs for "grants and aid for state assistance to veteran organizations." Legislators previously would appropriate money directly to a local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
SB668 by Laverty would appropriate $150,000 to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Long Term Care for "a grant for county-owned nursing homes" There are about seven such homes in the state, including one in Laverty's home of Newton County.
Former state Rep. Mike Wilson, D-Jacksonville, who filed the local project lawsuit against the state, said he thinks appropriating grant money to state agencies for local projects would be constitutional, depending on how it works in practice.
What entities get the grants must be up to the agency, he said.
"If there is some directive to the agency to spend that money on the Cabot Garden Club, and if they do that ... they need to be in the penitentiary," Wilson said.
Anticipating the report Tuesday on school facilities, Petrus said the figure could be between $400 million and $500 million.
"Then, you have to prioritize General Improvement Fund stuff," he said.
"Is it highways next or the quick action closing fund?" Petrus said, referring to Beebe's plan to use $100 million in surplus funds to improve roads and Beebe's plan to set aside $50 million to use to retain and recruit industry to the state.
This week, the Senate is expected to consider bills that would increase the state's per-student support for public schools in the next biennium. House Bills 1632 and 1633 would increase the state's share of per-student foundation funding from $1.82 billion to $1.83 billion in fiscal 2008 and to $1.85 billion in fiscal 2009.
Monday is the final day for lawmakers to file legislation, unless the Legislature decides to extend the deadline. As of late Friday, lawmakers had filed 2,259 bills, according to the Bureau of Legislative Research. They filed 3,176 in 2005, the bureau said.
This article was published 03/05/2007