Category Archives: Legislature

Why this year’s Legislature wouldn’t make much of a movie

Legislature, Politics, State government

By Steve Brawner
© 2017 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

A good movie features lead characters facing a high-stakes challenge that they overcome after considerable tension and drama, leading to a satisfying conclusion. If that’s the case, this year’s General Assembly of the Arkansas Legislature would not be much of a movie.

Consider what recent sessions have involved. In the 1990s and 2000s, state legislators were forced to react to the Lake View court case, so they spent billions of additional dollars on schools and engaged in impassioned debates about consolidation. Since 2013, each regular and fiscal session has revolved around a similar central plot point: Should the private option be created/continued/modified into Arkansas Works? Like sequels that are similar to the original, legislators each time debated questions about the role of state government regarding that program, which uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for low-income individuals. In 2015, additional drama was created by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which was about citizens’ ability to refuse to participate in activities they said violated their conscience but which opponents said allowed them to discriminate. That issue brought crowds of protestors to the Capitol and national attention to Arkansas.

Those sessions all had an external source of tension where the response had significant consequences. With school funding and consolidation, court decisions forced legislators to make difficult decisions that everyone knew would affect schoolchildren’s future and disrupt communities. With health care policy and the RFRA, legislators were responding to far-reaching changes in the federal government and the wider culture, forcing them to make difficult, conflicted choices.

And that’s why this session would not make much of a movie. There’s no external challenge – no court decision, no law, and no decision in Washington that requires a reaction. Republicans now control everything in Washington and dominate Arkansas state government, and it’s all happened so recently that the internal conflicts that make good movies better haven’t really developed.

So while legislators have made some big decisions this year, they haven’t made dramatic ones. They voted to place a lawsuit reform measure on the ballot, which means the action there is to be continued until November 2018. They passed a small tax cut at the beginning of the session that won’t change anyone’s life or break the bank. The implementation of the Medical Marijuana Amendment, which could have been a mess, has been mostly routine. Meanwhile, the governor, who sees himself first and foremost as the state economic-developer-in-chief, so far has tamped down any movement to address transgender bathrooms, the session’s potential national headline creator.

Legislators are still meeting, which means there’s still time for a plot twist. The long-running subplot about guns on college campuses continues to draw attention. Also ongoing is the potentially dramatic debate about removing General Robert E. Lee from the Martin Luther King Holiday. But while these are important, they’re not bring-everything-else-to-a-halt issues like the private option or school consolidation.

The thing about the Legislature is that it’s not a standalone movie but instead is an ongoing series, and 2017 merely has been one episode. The external conflict that’s been missing the past few months could return in a big way later in the year. If Congress and the Trump administration make major changes to health care – and that’s a big if – then legislators will be back in Little Rock having to rethink policies affecting hundreds of thousands of Arkansans. It will literally be life and death stuff.

If anything about this column is meant to sound like a complaint, it’s not. Government is not a movie. In fact, one of the reasons Washington has become so dysfunctional is that it’s increasingly treated as entertainment, with the same characters playing either a hero or a villain depending on which screen we’re watching.

But whether or not it’s entertaining, it is important. So stay tuned, because average citizens aren’t just viewers but also help write the script, and there’s no ending.

We won the lottery, but who bought the ticket?

Debt and deficits, Legislature, Politics, State government, U.S. Congress

By Steve Brawner
© 2017 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Should welfare recipients be required to pay back the state if they win the lottery? Maybe the better question is, should all of us?

Those questions came to mind after hearing a presentation by Rep. John Payton, R-Wilburn, of his House Bill 1825 before the House Rules Committee at the State Capitol Wednesday.

The bill would require lottery winners to reimburse the state for their last 10 years of Department of Human Services benefits, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the food stamp program.

Payton said the lottery is a bad deal for poor people, who gamble their sparse dollars with the odds stacked mightily against them. This arrangement would make them think twice about doing that and remind them that their benefits come from the taxpayers.

In addition to Payton, the bill has 26 co-sponsors in the House, but it’s likely not going far. One committee member requested a fiscal impact statement, which will delay the bill’s progress. Legislators are hoping to go home at the end of March, which is fast approaching.

Still, if part of the idea is to make welfare recipients consider the source of their government benefits, then let’s consider the bigger picture: As a nation, we are all receiving government freebies.

In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office projects the United States government will spend $4 trillion but collect only $3.4 trillion, producing a deficit of $559 billion. That means the government is spending about $1,700 more than it collects per American, or almost $7,000 for a family of four.

Think you don’t benefit from that? Of that $4 trillion, almost a fourth went to Social Security in 2016, which benefits all of us – recipients directly, future recipients because it offers a guaranteed retirement plan, and families because they expend fewer resources taking care of their elderly relatives. (Yes, there’s a trust fund – but not really. In effect, the tax dollars go into one pot.) Another $588 billion goes to Medicare, which offers the same benefits. About that same amount pays for the United States to maintain by far the largest military in the world, which we’re all generally glad we have even if some of us would be OK with it being a little smaller.

Need more examples? The interstates on which we drive are no longer funded entirely by the gas taxes we pay at the pump. They are now funded partly out of the indebted general fund. The public schools we attend at a cost of $9,400 per Arkansas student annually also are funded partly by federal dollars and therefore by federal debt. And contrary to popular belief, only 1 percent of the budget goes to foreign aid, which often directly benefits Americans (for example, by buying food produced in America).

Finally, and this is really important, deficit spending does more than just allow these popular programs to continue. It infuses the economy with extra cash borrowed from future generations without their permission – stolen, in other words. We all live better because the government is writing $559 billion in hot checks this year, and putting it into the economy. Modern American life is being propped up by our grandchildren’s labor.

The frustration that many Americans feel toward welfare recipients is based on their belief that they are receiving unearned benefits that trap them in a cycle of poverty. And yet as a nation we are all receiving unearned benefits that trap us in a cycle of debt. These habits enable us to buy prosperity and security we have not fully earned. We’re all welfare queens, which is why the national debt – the accumulation of all these annual deficits – has reached $19.9 trillion, or more than $61,000 for every American. Most of that has accumulated in the last 16 years, meaning we were the ones who benefitted most.

There will come a point when the nation either chooses a different path, or is forced to do so. At some point in the future, the bill will come due. It always does.

If you and I are not around, then congratulations to us. We lived in a rich country during a rich era, and we received a lot of government benefits we never had to pay for.

In other words, we already won the lottery.

Death, taxes and Lake View

Education, Legislature, Politics, State government

By Steve Brawner
© 2017 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

We’ve all heard the old Benjamin Franklin adage that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. For many years Arkansans have been able to add “public schools getting more money” to that list.

That’s because of a series of 1992-2007 court decisions in a case initially filed by the Lake View School District, a small, poor district in the Delta. Those decisions clarified that the state has a constitutional responsibility to ensure schools everywhere are adequate and equitable. The decisions basically required the state to fund schools first without regard to how much money was readily available or how it would affect other state priorities.

Since then, any debate about public school funding started and ended with two words: “Lake” and “View.” Nobody has wanted a repeat of that experience, where judges, justices and special masters stood over the state’s shoulder making sure it was filling in all the circles to their satisfaction.

As a result, while other states have cut education funding, Arkansas has always increased it – not by much lately, but by at least enough to stay out of court. In fact, the state’s public school districts not only have enough to fund their operations but between them have saved up $790 million in their net legal balances. A bill filed this legislative session by Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle, would require districts to keep no more than 20 percent of their revenues in those balances and use the rest for other purposes.

This year, as in years past, a legislative committee decided months ago that schools would receive an increase – this time about 1 percent in total per pupil foundation funding, the primary way schools are funded. Under that so-called adequacy report, whose recommendations the full Legislature generally accepts with little debate, in 2018 each school district will receive $6,713 per pupil, and that’s not including numerous other sources of local, state and federal funding that pushed the cost of educating each Arkansas student to about $9,400 as of 2013, according to the Census Bureau.

That’s right. If you have two kids in school, you’re getting about $19,000 worth of government benefits every year, and that’s before you drive on a road, call a fire department, get help with your parents’ health care costs through Medicare and/or Medicaid, or are protected by the military and law enforcers.

Anyway, back to Lake View, which is very slowly exerting less control, as evidenced by the fact that the 1 percent increase was less than it used to be, for a lot of reasons. One, naturally, is that the longer something fades into the past, the less it’s remembered, and there aren’t many policymakers left in Little Rock who were serving when all those Lake View decisions were coming down from the courts. Meanwhile, some state expenses have continued to rise – a good example being health care – at the same time that schools have always been guaranteed a raise. Plus, legislators always want to cut taxes, and that’s harder to do when you always must spend more money on schools.

Finally, there’s this really, really important fact: There are no Supreme Court justices left who had anything to do with those Lake View decisions. The last, Justice Paul Danielson, retired after the 2016 elections. No other justice has been on the court longer than since 2010, so no one knows how they would rule if Lake View were to be reconsidered. For what it’s worth, some of those justices have ruled in one 2012 case, Kimbrell v. McCleskey, that went a little against Lake View by saying certain school districts that collect extra money through property taxes can keep them rather than share them with other districts.

So schools have gotten a lot of money for a long time, other needs must be addressed, legislators always would love to cut taxes, and a whole new cast of policymakers remember less and less about Lake View, and are less scared of stepping past the vague line it drew in the sand. Plus, lawyers can make some pretty good money suing the state over this stuff.

So here’s a prediction and another certainty. The prediction is the state will wind up in another school funding case eventually.

The certainty is that it won’t be called “Lake View.” That district was forced to consolidate with Barton-Lexa in 2004 and no longer exists.

Tort reform: Shades of gray

Legislature, Politics, State government

By Steve Brawner
© 2017 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansas legislators sometimes cast difficult votes on shades-of-gray issues where values conflict and where it comes down to which side they think is more right or less wrong. In November 2018, so will voters.

That’s because the biggest race on the ballot won’t involve candidates. Instead, it’s looking like the biggest issue will be a proposed constitutional amendment that would limit how much juries can award in a lawsuit. It’s going to be a heck of a fight. In fact, it already is.

Every two years, legislators are allowed under the Constitution to refer three amendments to the voters, but this time they plan to limit it to two, one each from the House and the Senate. Thirty-one amendments were proposed between both chambers, but it’s been clear for a while that the Senate would focus on a tort reform measure. Senate Joint Resolution 8, sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, has 14 co-sponsors in the 35-member Senate and 53 co-sponsors in the 100-member House. It is backed, strongly, by a coalition of powerful business groups under the umbrella of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

The amendment would do four things. First, it would cap punitive damages – those that really punish a bad actor – at three times the compensatory damage awarded each claimant, with an exception created for intentional conduct. Legislators could vote to increase the cap with a two-thirds vote. Second, it would cap non-economic damages (pain and suffering) at $250,000 per claimant, or $500,000 to the beneficiaries if the victim dies. Third, it would cap lawyers’ contingency fees at one-third the total judgment. Finally, it would give legislators the final say in various rules for the courts and the Arkansas Supreme Court, a provision included because supporters say the Court otherwise could just ignore the rest of the amendment.

On Tuesday, the all-Republican Senate State Agencies and Government Affairs Committee advanced only that measure to the full Senate, politely hearing but never seriously considering the other Senate proposals. But it only passed 5-3, even though you would think Republicans would be totally for it because it’s pro-business and anti-lawyer. One senator who didn’t raise his hand, Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, said afterwards only that he “wasn’t ready to vote.”

On Thursday, the full Senate approved it, but again, not overwhelmingly. A number of senators initially declined to vote until they saw the initial count, and then one by one, the number rose until it had enough votes. It was pretty dramatic, actually.

It still must pass the House, which it should do. Assuming it makes the ballot, then voters will be lobbied hard by well-funded opponents – the business community and the healthcare community on one side versus the legal community on the other.

Supporters will say that under current laws, businesses and healthcare providers must defend themselves against dubious lawsuits with the threat of a jackpot verdict always hanging over their heads. Small business owners live in fear of a lawsuit that will put them out of business. Doctors and hospitals pay sky-high medical malpractice insurance rates and order unnecessary tests and procedures to keep from being sued. Without tort reform, big employers will bring, or take, their jobs to other states.

Opponents will argue the amendment sets penalties so low that they don’t even amount to a slap on the wrist for big businesses. They’ll say it puts a price tag on human life, weakens a fundamental right to a trial by jury, and assumes Arkansas juries will not make commonsense decisions. Even some Republicans say it interferes with individuals paying their lawyer whatever they want. Finally, the part about the Legislature telling the Arkansas Supreme Court how to set its own rules – that was one of the things troubling Sen. Rice.

Tort reform is a big issue, and it will be fought with big dollars. But for many voters, it will be about the small: the local hardware store owner afraid of losing everything he’s worked for; the rural family doctor contemplating closing her practice and moving to a big-city hospital that will take care of her malpractice insurance; the child who lost his daddy because of a corporation’s negligence.

In other words, there’s a lot of gray, or at least, there’s a lot of black and white on both sides. You ready to vote?