Lawmakers enter unchartered territory with line-item veto strategy to fund Arkansas Works

The circuitous route to fund Arkansas Works being pushed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson and allies is taking the legislature into unchartered territory, many of those lawmakers agree.

The governor is lining up support for a plan that would add special language to a funding bill for the Department of Human Services Medicaid program that would strip the appropriation for Arkansas Works, Hutchinson’s altered version of the private option. If 75% of the legislature – Democratic and Republican supporters and a handful of GOP opponents – pass the measure, Hutchinson has promised to line-item veto the Arkansas Works funding cut, thus allowing it to be funded.

One of those opponents of Arkansas Works, Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, contends that process may be fraught with legal questions.

“It’s never been done and I think there are at least a couple of opinions that go just the opposite of (saying) this can actually be done,” said Clark, appearing on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics.

Show guest House Minority Leader Rep. Michael John Gray, D-Augusta, said he believes a constitutional path to fund Arkansas Works does exist, and he defended Democrats stepping back last week to analyze the governor’s proposal when it was presented hastily last Thursday in Joint Budget Committee.

“If that’s ultimately the only way, those are some really hard questions that we’ll have to answer,” said Gray. “We’re saying, we’re willing to listen, our minds aren’t made of concrete, and the end result, we want to see expansion continue in Arkansas.”

Gov. Hutchinson said late Friday he had the Republican votes to make the defunding-veto strategy work. He also said he is confident it is a legally sound alternative.

Without funding for Arkansas Works, Hutchinson claims the state budget would be left with a $143 million hole that would require across-the-board cuts to government agencies. Clark contends money can be found to plug any holes that removing Medicaid expansion funding may create. He cited growth in the state budget and mismanagement and waste currently in the Medicaid program as examples.

Gray said the issue goes beyond math. He argued funding Arkansas Works is imperative to provide health insurance to low income citizens and to keep rural hospitals open.

“As a farmer who has to get a crop loan every once in while, you can take a pencil and you can whip a spreadsheet with the best of them, but I think at the end of the day, there’s something larger at work here than just math. We’re talking about 267,000 Arkansans who have health insurance that have never had it before.”

Clark and Gray withheld making a prediction on what may happen at the capitol this week. If the funding bill comes as Gov. Hutchinson has proposed, Clark says he’d probably vote present.

“Because it’s what I want, but it’s designed to make the opposite of that happen,” he said.

You can watch a video below of their full interview. Also, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist John Brummett appeared on this week’s TV edition of Talk Business & Politics. His full analysis is in the second video below.