Bills divvying up $919 million state surplus zoom along

BYLINE: BY SETH BLOMELEY AND MICHAEL R. WICKLINE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

The state House of Representatives and the Senate on Friday passed the spending bills for the $919 million state surplus, including $40 million in legislative projects that the budget committee chairmen now view as constitutional.

The committee met twice to amend appropriation bills by Sens. Jack Crumbly, D-Widener, and Ruth Whitaker, R-Cedarville, that had appeared to be unconstitutionally local in nature.

Whitaker's bills would have allocated money for Brentwood in Washington County, a bridge on a county road in Crawford County, and fire departments in Washington, Crawford and Franklin counties.

Crumbly's bill would have sent money to Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock.

"We tried to catch everything we thought was constitutionally suspect," said Sen. Shawn Womack, R-Mountain Home, co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee. "It's possible there could be some other ones, but we've caught everything to the extent that we can." The bills that would allocate the surplus, Senate Bill 833 and House Bill 2501, were approved in their respective chambers and are expected to be voted on in the other chamber Monday.

HB2501 passed the House 96-0, and SB833 passed the Senate 34-0.

One project listed as one of the projects that Gov. Mike Beebe could fund if he wants to looks to be dead on arrival.

Beebe said he didn't ask for authority to fund a $35 million legislative services building and it has "almost zero" chance of coming to fruition.

"We do not have the money," Beebe said.

"That's what I think about the idea. We have other needs. It has never been on my list. In fact, I didn't know that they were going to add it to my list until I read the list. It's never been on what I have discussed with them, ever." Womack said he didn't support funding that building and referred questions to Rep. Chris Thyer, D-Jonesboro, the budget panel's other co-chairman.

"I have very low expectations that [Beebe] will fund that," Thyer said. "But I've certainly given him the opportunity." Thyer said he felt confident that the projects favored by legislators that were funded now are constitutional.

"They have been checked and double checked and rechecked," he said.

Beebe, a former state senator, stopped by the Senate with his chief of staff, Morril Harriman, also a former state senator, to pal around with former colleagues. During a recess, Beebe sat smiling in the chair of Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, his foot on Argue's desk.

Beebe on Thursday visited the Senate to meet with Whitaker about constitutional concerns he had with bills. He recommended that the bills for Whitaker and Crumbly be amended.

Beebe said in an interview that he hasn't completed his review of the funded projects to check whether they violate Amendment 14 of the Arkansas Constitution. The amendment bans special and local legislation.

"We are looking at all of them," he said.

The Supreme Court ruled in December that a $400,000 appropriation for miscellaneous projects in Bigelow was unconstitutionally local.

Legislative leaders have said their latest plan to comply with that ruling was to fund local projects through grants with state agencies, and those agencies would have discretion over which projects were approved.

But Whitaker's bills (SB756, SB758 and SB760) and Crumbly's bill (SB755) appropriated money to state agencies with the stipulation that they go to specific local projects.

Whitaker declined comment.

Crumbly said he thought he had taken care of the problem with his bill by removing the reference to Arkansas Baptist College.

"Whatever was wrong for whatever reason, sometimes things don't get changed," he said.

In addition to the legislative building, another item Beebe has flexibility to support is $25 million for a museum planned in Fort Smith to commemorate U.S. marshals.

"I would like to help them," Beebe said. "The question becomes the amount. We certainly don't have anything close to the amount that they are needing. They will have to raise a lot of private money, but if the state can help a little bit, it's a good statewide project." He likened it to the statewide impact of Alltel Arena. The Legislature approved $20 million in 1995 to help build Alltel. The Supreme Court later said that was a legal appropriation because it made sense to place the arena in central Arkansas from an economic development standpoint. The Fort Smith project is expected to draw tourists from multiple states. Fort Smith is known as a base for lawmen who patrolled the Western frontier.

Beebe emphasized that he'll decide which projects to fund over the next year or so as he gauges how much money is flowing into the General Improvement Fund. About $844 million is expected to be in the fund by June 30, and another $75 million over the two fiscal years after that.

There are about a dozen items that Beebe, the House and the Senate agreed would be funded before any discretionary projects were allowed.

The big item is $456 million for public school facilities for school districts all over the state, which the state Supreme Court has ruled is a state responsibility. There's also $80 million for highway improvements, $44 million to settle a federal lawsuit over improper Medicaid billing during the administration of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, and $36 million to help fund a cancer center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The House and the Senate each got $20 million to divide among the chambers' members for favored projects in their districts.

Beebe has about $196 million at his discretion. He said he wants to use about $20 million for a tax collection computer system, $4 million for a new state police airplane, $30 million for the Accelerate Arkansas program for matching funds for high-tech startup companies, at least $40 million for a "quick action closing fund" for a discretionary money for industrial incentives, and possibly another $20 million for highway improvements.

The Senate divided its share equally among the 35 senators. Each had about $571,000 to allocate.

The House divided its share for such things as fire departments and domestic violence centers across the state. They weren't directed to specific entities, as has been done in the past, but to all such centers and departments across the state.

This article was published 03/31/2007