Senate downs prison appropriation bill, passes state employee pay plan

The Arkansas State Senate on Tuesday (April 1) defeated an appropriation bill that would have provided $750 million in spending authority for the Department of Corrections to build a new state prison in Franklin County.

The Senate vote on SB 354 was 19 votes for the measure with 10 opposed. Two senators did not vote and four voted present. The bill needed 27 votes, or three-fourths approval, to pass. All appropriations bills require a three-fourths vote of both chambers before being sent to the governor.

Gov. Sarah Sanders supports the bill and has called on a new 3,000 bed state prison with as many as 800 workers to be built in Franklin County near Charleston. A vocal number of local residents and elected officials have opposed the new prison in the remote section of the Ozark county.

“The state budget is like a balloon. It expands in one area, you’re gonna contract in another,” said Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forrest, who has led the charge in opposition of the new prison in Franklin County.

Declaring that the price tag for the prison funding has been “jumping around like a frog on a hot rock,” King said the costs were too high, the workforce non-existent, and other alternatives for prison beds exist that have not been explored.

“The only way to financially get out of this mega-prison, mega-financial disaster death spiral that what one side wants to go down is to reduce crime before it even happens. Because once you reduce crime before it even happens, you save so much money,” said King.

King has also filed a bill, SB 566, to expand existing state correctional facilities and to grant money to county jails. His proposal offers $250 million for these purposes. It is on the agenda in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but has not been considered yet.

Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, took to the floor in support of the governor’s proposal. He said senators may not like all aspects of the prison funding bill, but there had to be a collective decision made to improve public safety.

“Most of the members in this room have a principled position for or against a prison and funding one. Most of us do. And so I’m going to talk to our members right now that say they understand and they’re for the prison, but they have some technical reason why they don’t think they can vote for it… We work in a representative republic democracy where it doesn’t get to be the way that I want.”

Hester argued the $750 million appropriation bill was simply permissive to allow for spending up to that dollar amount, but all money would have to be approved by the legislature before spending could occur.

“Members want to be engaged in this process as it moves forward, regardless of what happens with this appropriation. And you’re going to have the ability to do that,” said Hester.

Another major bill that Senators approved on Tuesday centered on updating the state employee pay plan.

SB 392, by Sen. Breanne Davis, R-Russellville, would restructure job categories for state employees, set new classification levels, provide career advancement paths, and outline student loan programs via agency rules to help advance employment opportunities.

The measure outlines pay raises for about 16,000 state employees to bring their salary schedules up to current labor market rates. About 6,000 state employees would not see pay raises, although they would be eligible for performance bonuses, because their salary scales are already in balance with market rates.

The bill passed with 22 votes, while seven voted against and six voted present. The subsequent emergency clause was adopted with 29 votes. The bill now heads to the House for consideration.