Category Archives: Legislature

With three already infected, lawmakers will work fast

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansas state legislators are meeting in their fiscal session starting this week with the same goals they had when they met in a special session in late March: Get their necessary and Constitution-required work done fast, and keep their distance knowing three representatives already have tested positive for COVID-19.

The fiscal session occurs every even-numbered year. Created by a vote of the people in 2008, it focuses on one-year budgetary matters. Legislators then debate everything, including the budget, during the longer regular sessions that occur in odd-numbered years.

Fiscal sessions technically last 30-45 days gavel to gavel, but this time the actual work of setting the state’s 2021 fiscal policies will be completed in about 10 days. Lawmakers will be taking their cues from Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s administration even more than usual as they pass a budget amidst declining revenues and massive uncertainty.

Meanwhile, they’re trying to avoid getting sick themselves. Three representatives have tested positive for the disease: Rep. Vivian Flowers, D-Pine Bluff; Rep. Reginald Murdock, D-Marianna; and Rep. Les Warren, R-Hot Springs. None are seriously ill. Continue reading →

Legislators will meet, but not too close

March 24, 2020

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Georgia legislators have been self-quarantining since a senator showed up at their Capitol feeling sick and then tested positive for the coronavirus. Arkansas legislators would like to avoid the same fate when they convene twice in the next few weeks.

To do so, they’ll creatively balance lawmaking and social distancing. For example, the House of Representatives will meet at a basketball arena rather than the Capitol.

Legislators will meet twice in the coming weeks. First, Gov. Asa Hutchinson will call them into special session, probably this week, because the coronavirus epidemic is creating a $353 million state budget hole by the end of this fiscal year June 30. As a result, the state general revenue budget now will be $5.38 billion.

The shortfall is caused by two factors. One is the loss of tax revenues caused by businesses closing and people losing their jobs. The other is the governor’s plan to push the individual income tax filing deadline from April 15 to July 15, which is after the fiscal year ends. Continue reading →

At least she didn’t stab him debating wolf pelts

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Feb. 6, 2020

You saw or heard about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ripping up her copy of President Trump’s State of the Union address, right behind him, after Trump started off the speech by not shaking her hand.

Ugh. As a reminder that our political climate could be worse, let’s recall that on Dec. 4, 1837, Arkansas’ speaker of the House stabbed to death a legislator during a debate about wolf pelts.

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Speaker John Wilson was presiding over a special session called by the governor to discuss an expected tax surplus.

House members were debating a Senate bill allowing bounties to be paid for wolf pelts presented to a county justice of the peace. During a discussion about how to verify where the wolf was killed, Randolph County Rep. Joseph Anthony offered a not-serious amendment requiring each pelt to be signed by the Arkansas Real Estate Bank president. That president was Speaker Wilson, and the bank was “notoriously corrupt,” according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Continue reading →

Why $659,580 could be really important

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansas will spend $2.25 billion in general revenue dollars to educate its 500,000 public school students this year, and all of that money and all of those students could be affected by a $659,580 contract approved by the House and Senate Education Committees.

(Editor’s Note: The Arkansas Legislative Council later did not grant approval of the contract. It is unclear what will happen next.)

As reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the legislators voted to pay that amount to a consultant, Denver-based Augenblick, Palaich and Associates, to conduct an educational adequacy study. The contract still must be approved by the Arkansas Legislative Council, a big committee of legislators that meets between legislative sessions. If it gives the OK – which is not certain – then the consultants will dive deeply into Arkansas’ school funding matrix.

This will be the first school adequacy study since those produced by another consultant, Picus Oden & Associates, in 2003 and 2006 helped create the funding matrix. Continue reading →

The House expels one of its own

By Steve Brawner
© 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There are two certainties, Arkansas Speaker of the House Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, told his colleagues Oct. 11: death and taxes.

Rep. Mickey Gates, R-Hot Springs, finally had succumbed to the inevitability of the second. And this day, his political life was on trial, with Shepherd the reluctant prosecutor and Gates’ fellow legislators his jury.

Friday was a somber day. The last time House members had expelled a member was in 1837 after the House speaker stabbed to death a fellow member on the floor.

Shepherd, an attorney, made his case by saying the Arkansas Constitution allows a two-thirds House majority to expel a member for any reason – but with Gates, there is a good one. He had pled no contest to a single charge of not filing or paying his taxes after being charged for not filing returns from 2012 to 2017. He’s paying the state at least $74,789 for the years 2012 through 2014, with his debt for the later years to be determined after a December hearing.

This year, lawmakers passed Act 894 saying anyone who pleads guilty or no contest to a “public trust crime” or is found guilty cannot serve in the Legislature.

Clearly not getting the hint, Gates was one of 71 House members who voted for it. Now he says it adds an extraconstitutional qualification for service, an argument he will use if he sues. Continue reading →