Bid to repeal Medicaid act lacks names

The leader of an effort to repeal a law authorizing the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program said Wednesday that he failed to get a sufficient number of signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

According to the secretary of state’s 2014 election handbook, Arkansans Against Big Government had until today to submit 46,880 signatures of registered voters calling for a referendum on the Health Care Independence Act of 2013.

Glenn Gallas, the group’s chairman, said the group collected “a little over” 30,000 signatures.

He said the group is considering challenging state laws that he said made it difficult to gather the signatures by the deadline.

He noted that Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel didn’t approve the popular name and ballot title of the proposed referendum until June 11, leaving the group less than two months to gather the signatures.

Amendment 7 to the state constitution requires signatures for a referendum on a law passed by the Legislature to be filed within 90 days after the final adjournment of the legislative session in which the law was passed. The number of signatures on the petition must be equal to at least 6 percent of the total votes cast in the governor’s race in the most recent general election.

Gathering signatures for the proposed referendum “just solidified my belief that the people don’t want”the Medicaid expansion law, Gallas said.

The Health Care Independence Act authorizes the expansion of Medicaid through subsidized private insurance plans. About 250,000 adults with incomes of up to 138percent of the poverty level are expected to be eligible for coverage that will start Jan. 1. Enrollment in the plans will start Oct. 1.

Gallas said he will lobby the Legislature to withhold funding for the expansion during next year’s fiscal session. He said his group may also gather signatures for a ballot initiative on the law’s repeal.

Amendment 7 allows a petition for a proposed initiated act to be filed with the secretary of state at least four months before the general election in which the proposed act would be on the ballot.

According to the election handbook, the deadline to submit a petition to place an initiative on the November 2014 ballot is July 7. The number of signatures must equal 8 percent of the votes cast for governor in the most recent preceding general election. That means a petition to place an initiative on the 2014 ballot must contain 62,507 signatures, according to the election handbook.

“The good news is we have the infrastructure in place” to gather the signatures, Gallas said.