State legislators pass 61% of bills filed in session

The 89th General Assembly approved 1,520 of the 2,492 bills filed during the 100-day legislative session, or 61 percent.

Along with passing the state’s $4.9 billion budget and placing three constitutional amendments on the 2014 ballot, they made it illegal to pass off used bedding as new, cleared prosecuting attorneys to run in nonpartisan elections, legalized the sale of unpasteurized milk and changed some county boundaries.

According to the Bureau of Legislative Research, the 100-member House introduced 1,300 bills; the 35-member Senate proposed 1,192.

The percentage of passed bills is consistent with that of other regular legislative sessions over the past year. Such sessions are held in odd-numbered years.

According to data from the bureau: in 2011, 55.6 percent of all filed bills passed; in 2009, 65.7 percent passed; in 2007, 62.3 percent passed; in 2005, 73.2 percent passed; in 2003, 62.9 percent passed.

Following is a glimpse at some of the bills considered in the 2013 legislative session, which ended Tuesday.

BUDGET

Act 1517 increases the state general revenue budget by $197 million to $4.924 billion in the fiscal year starting July 1.

The measure prioritizes the distribution of general revenue to state agencies on the basis of three categories - A, B and C.

Category A will be funded first and is to receive $4.786 billion. Category B will be funded second. It is to receive $131.75 million. Category C will receive $6.65 million if enough general revenue comes in to fund it.

The state’s current forecast expects enough general revenue to fully fund Categories A and B.

Most of the increased state money will go to public schools and the state’s Medicaid program. The final budget factors in $10 million that will result from tax cuts, sets aside $18 million in rainy-day funds and funds 2 percent cost-of-living raises for state employees who don’t work at state higher-education institutions, the first such cost-of-living raises in three years.

The Public School Fund that provides aid for the state’s 239 school districts will increase by nearly $47 million to $2.046 billion. The state Department of Human Services will get a nearly $95 million increase to $1.226 billion, with the state’s Medicaid program getting an $85 million increase to $890 million.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

Lawmakers also approved three proposed Arkansas constitutional amendments to be referred to voters in 2014.

Senate Joint Resolution 16, sponsored by Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, seeks to deny groups that are circulating petitions to get measures on the ballot an additional 30 days to collect more signatures if too many of the signatures on their original petitions are deemed invalid.

Some lawmakers said the signature-gathering process for petitions had become a “free-for-all.” Others said the measure would be an unnecessary restriction that would make it harder for citizens to change the law.

HJR1009, sponsored by Rep. Warwick Sabin, D-Little Rock, would establish some ethics rules changes and adjust term limits for lawmakers to serve a total of 16 years in either legislative chamber.

It would prohibit direct political contributions from corporations and unions, and require that lawmakers be out of office for two years before they could become lobbyists; there’s currently a one-year limit. It also would create an independent citizens commission that would set salaries for lawmakers and other elected officials.

SJR7, sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, would allow the Legislature to pass a law requiring that administrative rules of a state agency be reviewed and approved by a legislative committee before they go into effect.

SCHOOL CHOICE

The Legislature chose not to wait for a pending federal appeals court ruling and decided to change the state’s school-choice initiative. The new law is Act 1227.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis has not yet issued an opinion in a case filed by the parents of white children who attempted to transfer from the 60 percent white Malvern School District to the 95 percent white Magnet Cove School District. A lower court found the state’s school-choice law unconstitutional because of its racial restrictions, but the appeals court stayed that decision while it’s under appeal.

The law limits transfers to no more than 3 percent of a district’s enrollment each year, exempts districts with court-ordered desegregation responsibilities and requires the Department of Education to collect transfer data and report it to the Legislature. The law expires in 2015.

LOTTERY SCHOLARSHIPS

The Legislature enacted Act 234 to overhaul the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship program.

Lawmakers said they made the changes because more students than expected are receiving the lottery-funded scholarships, and the lottery’s net proceeds have fallen short of projections.

In the coming school year, first-time recipients of the scholarship will receive $2,000 as freshmen, $3,000 as sophomores, $4,000 as juniors and $5,000 as seniors at four-year universities. New scholarship recipients enrolling in twoyear colleges will get $2,000 a year for both years.

Students first awarded the scholarships in the 2010-11 school year will continue to receive $5,000 a year to attend universities and $2,500 a year for community and technical colleges. Those who were first awarded the scholarships in the 2011-12 or 2012-13 school years will continue to get $4,500 a year at universities and $2,250 at colleges. Those amounts won’t change for those students as long as they remain eligible to receive the scholarships.

CONCEALED CARRY

The Legislature approved a measure to keep secret the names and ZIP codes of about 130,000 concealed-handgun licensees in the state.

Act 145 was signed into law by Lt. Gov. Mark Darr in February while the governor was at a National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C. Beebe had planned to let it become law without his signature.

Under the law, no information about concealed-handgun-permit owners is publicly available under the state Freedom of Information Act.DEATH PENALTY

The Legislature approved a measure to amend the state’s death-penalty statute, which was ruled unconstitutional last summer.

Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, has said Act 139 aims at fixing problems identified last June by the Arkansas Supreme Court when it struck down Act 1296 of 2009.

In the opinion, the court wrote that the Legislature “abdicated its responsibility and passed to the executive branch, in this case the [Department of Correction], unfettered discretion to determine all protocol and procedures, most notably the chemicals to be used, for state execution.”

The new act states that a condemned prisoner must first be injected with a benzodiazepine, an anti-anxiety drug, before receiving “a barbiturate in an amount sufficient to cause death.”

The Legislature also OK’d Act 1490 by Rep. Nate Steel,D-Nashville, to allow the state to sentence children convicted of capital murder to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that states could not require life sentences for murderers who committed their crimes before turning 18.

Under the previous Arkansas sentencing statutes, capital murder was punishable only by death or life in prison. About 60 state prisoners are serving life sentences for capital murder tied to crimes they committed as youths.COUNTY LINES

Act 1067 by Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, changes the boundaries of Boone and Carroll counties. The change goes into effect Jan. 1. King said Carroll County law-enforcement officials have to drive several miles around Table Rock Lake through Boone County to reach the Cricket Creek boat dock.

Specifically affected is the Cricket Creek Public Use Area and Backbone Bluff, near the Missouri border, both of which will now be in Boone County.

GED TEST FEES

A bill to shift the cost of taking the General Education Development test from the state to the test-takers sailed through both chambers before becoming law earlier this month.

Act 1063, sponsored by Rep. Harold Copenhaver, D-Jonesboro, gives the authority to the state Board of Career Education to approve fees for the tests and other assessments.

The board was previously restricted to charging $10 the first time the test was administered and $20 for the second and subsequent tests.

NONPARTISAN PROSECUTORS

Act 1110 makes elections nonpartisan for prosecuting attorneys.

The act, by Rep. Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, removes party affiliations from the positions and requires filing fees to go to a nonpartisan fund, some of which will be used to pay salaries for trial-court assistants.

USED BEDDING

Act 1420 increases the penalties for knowingly selling used bedding as new.

The act sponsored by Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, makes it a Class A misdemeanor to sell fabric, filling or an article of bedding that has been used under labels reserved for new bedding. A Class A misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

RAW MILK

With some legislators referring to it as a “freedom issue,” the General Assembly approved a measure to allow dairy farmers to sell up to an average of 500 gallons of unpasteurized milk per month.

Under Act 1209, sponsored by Rep. Randy Alexander, R-Springdale, sellers will be required to post signs and put labels on bottles warning buyers that the milk hasn’t been pasteurized (heated to kill bacteria), has not been inspected by the state Health Department and that the consumer assumes all liability from health problems that may arise from drinking it.