New amendment meant to help Arkansas Works survive vote, court challenge

A supporter of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s Arkansas Works program offered a new amendment that he said would better survive legal scrutiny and make it easier for Democrats to come on board.

The amendment by Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, changes the law creating Arkansas Works so that it would end at the end of this year, rather than the end of 2021.

Hendren offered his amendment during a meeting of the Joint Budget Committee. Potentially it could be considered in another Joint Budget Committee meeting later Tuesday if support for the idea can be generated.

A previous effort failed Thursday when another Hendren amendment failed to get out of committee, 22-22, with all but one Democrat voting no. That amendment would have ended funding for the program rather than changing the program’s end date.The plan involved Gov. Asa Hutchinson executing a line-item veto of that part of the budget, which would not generate enough support to be overridden and therefore become law.

The effect, Hendren explained, is the same. With the new amendment, Hutchinson would line-item veto the ending date.

Arkansas Works would continue the private option, the government program that uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level. It was created in response to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. As of the end of January, 267,590 Arkansans were eligible for coverage. It received the necessary majority vote in a recent special session but must be funded with a three-fourths vote for funding.

Hendren said the new amendment involves no funding but instead involves a policy change, which may lessen the possibility that the courts would rule against it. Moreover, it means that Democrats don’t have to vote to defund Arkansas Works. Instead, they just would vote to end the program at the end of the year, when the private option is set to end anyway.

“It’s going to be more difficult to misrepresent this as some sort of vote to end Arkansas Works,” he said in an interview.

Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, an Arkansas Works opponent and attorney, earlier said the original line-item veto proposal amounts to an unconstitutional usurpation of the Legislature’s spending powers. He said a supermajority is required for funding, and the line-item veto would lose a court challenge that surely would follow.

“I think that there are ways to get these kinds of things done, but this veto game is not the way to do it,” he said in a press conference.

Hendren said he expects a legal challenge.

“If you … fail to file any legislation because somebody threatens to sue, then we’re not going to have very many bills. … Smart attorneys that have looked at this said this is a better path and will make it more resistant to legal challenge,” he said.

Meanwhile, two Democratic legislators who support Arkansas Works said the decision by Education Commissioner Johnny Key to not renew the contract of Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus has eroded the trust they need to support the line item veto plan.

Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, and Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, voted in Joint Budget Committee to place a hold on the Department of Education’s budget because of Key’s decision not to renew Kurrus’ contract. Key named Bentonville Superintendent Mike Poore as the new superintendent, which Chesterfield questioned while speaking to reporters, saying that Bentonville and Little Rock are different communities.

The two said they would not refuse to fund Arkansas Works because of their displeasure over the Little Rock School District situation. However, they said the line item veto plan requires trust of the Hutchinson administration, which has been damaged. They said they have asked to meet with Hutchinson Tuesday afternoon.