Hutchinson signs Arkansas Works into law, pledges to avoid ‘crash’ in fiscal session

Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed his Arkansas Works bill into law Friday. Now he just has to find five votes in the House and two votes in the Senate to fund it.

The bill signing came not long after both the House and Senate voted to approve each other’s companion bills the day after they approved their own. Meeting in special session on Thursday, the House approved Arkansas Works, 70-30, while the Senate approved it, 25-10. On Friday, senators passed the companion bill by an identical 25-10 margin. House members passed the companion Senate bill, 68-27-1. Rep. Laurie Rushing, R-Hot Springs, who voted no Thursday, voted “present” on Friday and was present in the audience at the bill-signing ceremony.

Arkansas Works would continue the private option, which is the government program where the state uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level. The poverty level is $11,880 in a household size of one. Created in 2013, the private option expires at the end of this year. As of the end of January, 267,590 Arkansans were eligible for coverage.

Noting that the policy was created by consensus, Hutchinson said in the bill-signing ceremony, “We have come up with a practical solution for this time in history for the people that we serve.”

He said those who voted against Arkansas Works did so out of “pure motives.” The vote margins Thursday and Friday were well above the majority votes needed to approve the policy but short of the three-fourths votes needed to approve funding. On April 13, legislators will meet in fiscal session to decide on funding.

Hutchinson said a “fundamental principle of government” is that “a minority should not derail the expressed will of the majority.” He said legislators have not historically used the appropriations process as a means to block a policy, and he urged them not to do so this time. He noted that Arkansas Works had been approved by majorities of both parties in both houses.

Arkansas Works would be part of the overall Department of Human Services bill. Hutchinson noted the possibility that supporters of Arkansas Works could refuse to approve the DHS budget without it at the same time that opponents refuse to approve the DHS budget with it.

“I do not believe that we ought to be headed for a crash in this state. We ought to be headed for a consensus,” he said.

He later said, “That’s what leads to government shutdowns in Washington. We’ve never had that in Arkansas. I don’t expect to have that under my watch.

After the House vote, Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said some members who voted no to the policy might vote differently for the appropriation.

“I’ve had several along the way over the last couple of months that have kind of signaled that they were going to be looking at it differently when it wasn’t necessarily a policy vote. So we’ll circle back with those members and kind of see where everybody’s at,” he said.

Gillam said he and Dismang would talk today and over the weekend and plan with Budget Committee chairs how the session would go. Larger agencies could be considered in the second week, he said.

Hutchinson had hoped to include in the special session a bill that would have created a managed care model where a private company would be contracted to manage some parts of Medicaid for a set fee per beneficiary. Some legislators who voted no to Arkansas Works created a different model they are calling DiamondCare. Hutchinson said he would not use the enactment of DiamondCare as a bargaining chip to create support for Arkansas Works.

However, he did say in his press conference, “I have a lot of tools in my pocket.”

Previously, the Hutchinson administration had publicly discussed the possibility of interpreting the Constitution differently so that less than a three-fourths majority funding threshold would be required. In his press conference, Hutchinson said at one point, “I want to win a three-fourths vote” and at another, “Under our current interpretation of the Constitution, you have to have a three-fourths vote to pass an appropriation bill.”

Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, the Senate’s majority leader, said that the three-fourths threshold has always been the requirement since he has been in the Senate.

At least one of the representatives who voted no thinks funding for Arkansas Works likely will pass. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the legislator said the Thursday votes indicated the appropriation is “on cruise control in the House” and that supporters of the bill will be able to find two eventual supporters out of the 10 Senate opponents.

“I think the House is over and done with,” the legislator said. “I think that’s a very easy vote in the House. In fact, I think what we saw today telegraphed the fact that there’s not going to be much of a fight on either end.”