Governor’s highway bill advances after legislative maneuvers

Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s highway bill cleared a committee hurdle Friday and heads to the full Senate Monday, where it likely will pass.

The bill, HB1009, by Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, passed the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee on a voice vote, with only Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, voting no. It now moves to the full Senate, where Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, predicted it will pass Monday.

This all happened after two days of legislative maneuvering. On Thursday, the Senate version, SB11 by Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, failed to pass the Senate Transportation Committee, so Hester decided to move the House version to a friendlier committee.

On Friday, the House passed its version, 75-15-3. Then the Senate voted to move that version from the Senate Transportation Committee to the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, which was considered more supportive. The debate was contentious, and the transfer passed 19-14 with one vote to spare.

In the Senate chamber, Hickey; Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale; and Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, argued that the move was an attempt to circumvent a process where the bill had been considered in the Senate Transportation Committee. Hester said the bill deals with revenues.

The chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, Sen. Bill Samples, R-Hot Springs, who had voted no on Hester’s bill when it was in his committee, did not vote when it was in Revenue and Tax, where he’s also a member. Afterwards, he told reporters that he would “bet everything I’ve got in my pocket” that the governor’s bill will pass the Senate Monday.

“I’ll vote for it,” he said. “I’m not one to hold a grudge.”

He said the state still needs a long-term plan for highways.

Earlier, the Senate voted 18-10-7 to advance a competing bill, SB12, by Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana. That bill would mirror the other bill’s first-year funding mechanisms but then sunset. Hickey argued that the Legislature should develop a more long-term funding mechanism. His bill passed the Senate Transportation Committee Thursday, 6-2. But it died in the House Rules Committee – the same committee that had passed the competing highway bill, for lack of a motion.

Hutchinson called legislators into special session in order to find about $50 million a year in state funds so the state will receive $200 million in matching federal funds.

The surviving bill would create the Arkansas Highway Improvement Plan of 2016, which would be funded by an Arkansas Highway Transfer Fund. For 2017, the state would make a one-time transfer of $40 million in rainy day funds to the Highway Transfer Fund. In the future, the Highway Transfer Fund would come from deposits of 25% of state surplus funds. A Securities Reserve Fund would generate $1.5 million for the Highway Transfer Fund in fiscal year 2017 and $20 million in the following years. The bill also would dedicate to highways money generated by diesel taxes as well as revenues from the half-cent sales tax passed by voters in 2012. Some of those tax dollars currently go into general revenues.

In other business, both the House and the Senate also voted to restore the original sunset date of Dec. 31, 2021, for Arkansas Works, the state program that uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level. As of the end of January, 267,590 Arkansans were eligible for coverage. The bill passed in the House, 68-25, and in the Senate, 24-10.

Under legislation passed during the recent fiscal session, the program was set to expire at the end of this year, but Hutchinson vetoed that date as part of an arrangement with Republican senators who oppose the program. At the time, Arkansas Works had majority support as a policy but fell just short of the three-fourths majority needed for funding. When the Legislature failed to override the veto, the 2021 ending date stood.

Both chambers voted to close to new claims the Workers’ Compensation Commission’s Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund, and eventually end the fund completely. The fund provides benefits to seriously injured employees and dependents of those killed on the job, but it has $130 billion in unfunded liabilities and is on pace to become insolvent in six to eight years. The legislation by Rep. Doug House, R-North Little Rock, and Sen. Greg Standridge, R-Russellville, would close the fund to new claims on June 30, 2019, while existing claims are slowly paid down over decades. Meanwhile, new claims would be handled by employers and their insurers.

The bill passed in the House, 95-1, and in the Senate, 35-0.

Both chambers also passed the Frank Broyles Publicity Rights Act of 2016, which is meant to protect likenesses, images and signatures of individuals from unauthorized commercial use. The bill was inspired by unauthorized commercial attempts related to former University of Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles. The bill passed in the House, 64-21, and in the Senate, 29-2.

Among the other bills passed by both chambers Thursday were those that would require school and general elections held in November to be on the same ballot and in the same polling place; prohibit the Department of Education from declaring any schools to be under academic distress for one year, and to suspend school ratings over that time; streamline the state’s number of task forces and move the History Commission into the Department of Arkansas Heritage; and reconstitute levee boards.