Senate President Hester sees action on prisons, Medicaid, education and more

State Senate President Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, anticipates a busy and active calendar of major legislative activity in the upcoming 95th Arkansas General Assembly.

Hester will return as leader of the Arkansas State Senate in January, a role he held in the previous session. His agenda is packed with plenty of ‘nuts and bolts’ issues that form the foundation of state government.

In an interview with Talk Business & Politics and Capitol View host Roby Brock on Sunday (Dec. 8), Hester spoke to several topics that he believes will require significant funding and policy decisions, including prisons, Medicaid and education.

On prison funding, Hester said his emphasis will be on clearing out county jails and supporting the needs to build new prison beds.

“We’re dealing a lot with circular arguments. You know, why don’t we have enough beds? Well, because we can’t staff them. Why can’t we staff them? We don’t have the money. Look at the end of the day, we’re going to put the money where it needs to be. And at least in that argument, if we put the money in there for staffing and then we still can’t staff our prisons, we’re going to have to find a new plan at the end of the day. We’ve got to empty out our county jails so we can have misdemeanor justice again here in Arkansas,” he said.

Hester says there will be a very close look at Medicaid funding and how stakeholders are utilizing their funds. He’s frustrated that more state money is going into the system, but needs are continuing to grow.

“Every single person that receives Medicaid meets with me and tells me they’re going broke. Yet, we’re putting billions of more dollars into Medicaid than when I started 10 years ago. So what I’ve been asking everybody, ‘well if you’re going broke, who’s stealing?’ Somebody is making out. And so we’re going to have to figure out where that’s at. But look, everybody that’s receiving Medicaid can’t be going broke,” he said.

Healthcare stakeholders offer a litany of reasons for the financial struggles they’re experiencing. They range from inflationary costs to more expensive technology to low reimbursement rates that haven’t been increased in decades. The state is paying more because the federal match rate for Medicaid is shrinking due to rising personal incomes in Arkansas.

“Something is critically wrong because we continue to up the ante by billions more dollars. So someone is fleecing the system and it may be everybody or it may be nobody, but my guess is it’s closer to everybody,” said Hester.

The Senate leader sees continued support for Gov. Sarah Sanders’ changes to public education. Hester said there is still strong backing for the LEARNS Act, which will see as much as $90 million in new funding for education freedom accounts, the voucher system for private, parochial and home schools.

“We’re going to continue to pump money into our public schools, which is what we always do. They’re going to be much better funded than they were two years ago. But look, we’re also going to continue to commit to the LEARNS Act and allowing parental choice. We’re going to see that lots of parents are choosing this, which is going to be expensive… if we have to continue to put money in there, we’re going to continue to do it because we’re going to allow parents to choose. We just need to really dive into why they’re choosing the choices that they’re choosing,” he said. “I think we will see a lot of people maybe choose private school or a different school and then go back to where they were. Look, I grew up a Green Forrest Tiger. I wouldn’t want to have been anything else other than that. I think the public schools are what is right for the vast majority of Arkansas students.”

Hester had additional thoughts on higher education funding and priorities, the state’s housing crisis and the need for more highway and infrastructure spending. Watch his full interview in the video below.