Legislative leaders in sync on fiscal session next week

Arkansas Speaker of the House Rep. Brian Evans, R-Cabot, and Senate President Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, told a Political Animals Club audience in Little Rock Wednesday (April 1) they are comfortable with rising spending levels for school choice, while laying out thoughts on the upcoming fiscal session that starts next week.

The two legislative leaders said the Franklin County prison funding debate may not occur in the fiscal session, but other methods of solving prison overcrowding could be. They further discussed their views on spending the state’s projected $334 million surplus, a range for income tax cuts, and how many projects will need to have statewide benefit to be considered.

There were more than 100 people at the Political Animals Club of central Arkansas at Next Level Events in the Train Station for the event. Talk Business & Politics Editor-in-Chief Roby Brock moderated the conversation between Evans and Hester.

Next Wednesday, April 8, legislators convene for a fiscal session, which will just be focused on approving appropriations bills for state agencies. Gov. Sarah Sanders has proposed a $6.8 billion balanced budget that had input from legislative leadership. Evans and Hester said they did not believe there would be any major changes to the governor’s proposal since there has already been much legislative input.

Hester, the Senate leader, said lawmakers have never discussed capping K-12 spending, and he doesn’t think Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs), the governor’s school voucher plan, should be capped either. He contended that if parents are making that choice, then the money should follow what’s best for a child’s education.

Evans said he believed the trajectory of spending on EFAs was leveling off to a plateau in the near future and that forthgoing funding would be sustainable, especially with the health of Arkansas tax collections and nearly $3 billion in reserves.

On tax cuts, which will come in a special session at the end of next week’s expected 30-day fiscal session, Hester floated a potential state income tax cut of anywhere from 0.1% to 1.0%. Evans was tighter in his prediction, which he put at 0.2% to 0.5%.

Both men also said they did not expect anything else major on a call for a special session beyond tax cuts.

Neither lawmaker thought there would be progress made on Sanders’ proposal to construct a $750 million new state prison in Franklin County. Opponents of the prison won their primary elections, suggesting that more than 25% of the votes in the Senate are there to keep any appropriation blocked.

Hester said the votes are not there to pass it. Evans said he believed in the last session the votes were there in the House, but as the Senate’s five defeats of the bill withered, so did support in the House.

Evans, who is in the logistics business, did suggest there might be creativity to relieve prison overcrowding. He said that many inmates over the age of 70 have health problems and don’t pose a threat for escape. Those inmates might be housed in a prison setting with more minimal security, which could cost the state less and free up prison beds at maximum security sites. Other states may be able to absorb some of the prisoners, too, he suggested.

Hester, a real estate developer, said he was sticking to his guns that the Franklin County site makes the most sense. Even though the infrastructure is not in place, he argued that there is no site in the state that is ready-made for prison construction. He also said that while other communities have indicated they would be willing to consider a prison, he had not seen governing bodies take action asking for a location.