House OKs reduction of lottery scholarships

Senate passes ban on abortion after 20 weeks

— A bill restructuring the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship program handily cleared the state House of Representatives, and a bill prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks of gestation won the approval of the Arkansas Senate on Monday.

The scholarship bill passed 69-21. Lawmakers approved the anti-abortion legislation 25-7.

On the 36th day of the session, lawmakers also considered bills to limit the annual growth of state government and eliminate the statute of limitations for certain sex offenses involving children.

Rep. Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, told representatives that his legislation overhauling the scholarship program, House Bill 1295, would help avoid projected funding shortfalls in the program.

“We all know that there is significant deficiencies in the monetary funds that are available for this, and that’s where this originally came about,” Gillam said.

Under the bill, first-time scholarship recipients at four year schools would receive $2,000 as freshmen, $3,000 as sophomores, $4,000 as juniors and $5,000 as seniors, starting in the 2013-14 school year. Students at two-year colleges would get $2,000 a year for both years.

Currently, students who were first awarded scholarships in the 2010-11 school year receive $5,000 a year to attend universities and $2,500 a year for community and technical colleges. Students who were first awarded the scholarships in the 2011-12 or 2012-13 school years get $4,500 a year and $2,250, respectively. Those amounts would not change under the bill if the students remain eligible.

State Department of Higher Education officials project that the scholarship program will have the cash needed to make the scholarship payments to students through fiscal 2018 if the bill passes, assuming the lottery raises $90 million a year for scholarships.

But Rep. Mark Perry, D-Jacksonville, and co-chairman of the Legislature’s lottery oversight committee, said the bill would limit the choices of students who want to attend four-year schools.

“Changing that scholarship amount would drastically impact ... middle-income kids as far as their choices to attend a four-year university,” Perry said.

Perry and Rep. Darrin Williams, D-Little Rock, who previously served on the lottery oversight committee, asked members to vote against the bill.

“My concern is we’re not being consistent with what the people asked us to do” in 2008 when they approved the constitutional amendment that authorized a state lottery for college scholarships, Williams said.

In December, the lottery oversight committee recommended that the Legislature cut the amounts of scholarships for first-time recipients to $3,300 a year at the universities and $1,650 a year at the two-year colleges.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

FETAL PAIN

Also at the Capitol Monday, the Senate approved House Bill 1073 by Rep. Andy Mayberry, R-Hensley, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, when some doctors say a fetus can feel pain.

The Senate version of the bill goes back to the House.

The Senate version includes an exception in cases of rape or incest. The version passed by the House didn’t have these exemptions.

Both versions of the bill allow abortions to save the mother’s life or to prevent her major bodily functions from being irreversibly damaged.

The bill would make it a class D felony to perform an abortion at 20 or more weeks after fertilization. It also states a doctor who performs an abortion after 20 weeks should do it in a way that gives the fetus an opportunity to survive, though it does not explain that process.

A class D felony is punishable by up to six years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000 or both.

According to the Arkansas Department of Health, 48 of the 4,033 abortions performed in the state in 2011 occurred at or after 20 weeks.

The bill’s Senate sponsor - state Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs - told senators that he believes that the bill is constitutional.

“We are saying viability is at 20 weeks when a child feels pain,” he said.

But state Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, said she believes that’s contrary to past U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision said the state can prohibit abortion after the fetus is viable, unless the procedure is needed to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.

Responding to claims that the anti-abortion law might contradict Roe v. Wade, Hester said, “That’s possible.” He later noted that seven states have similar laws, including Arizona, where the law has been upheld in federal court and has been appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I just want to be clear that each one of these child’s lives is equal to ours, and what we are trying to do is to get a child’s rights equal to that of their mother,” he said.

State Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, said the bill “is not about whether we are for or against abortion.”

“This is about every family having that right to have to make their own unthinkable, unspeakable decisions” in rare cases, she said. “And I am begging you to think about women as people with real brains and real decision making power.”

Twenty-one Republican senators and four Democratic senators voted for the legislation.

Seven Democrat senators voted against it; three other Democrats didn’t vote.

Sens. David Johnson of Little Rock, Keith Ingram of West Memphis, Uvalde Lindsey of Fayetteville, Stephanie Flowers of Pine Bluff, and David Wyatt of Batesville, and Chesterfield and Elliott voted against the bill; Sens. David Burnett of Osceola, Eddie Cheatham of Crossett, and Bobby Pierce of Sheridan didn’t vote.

OTHER HOUSE BUSINESS

In other business, the House rejected a proposed amendment to House Bill 1041, which would limit the growth of general-revenue spending to a maximum of 3 percent a year.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, asked the House to approve the amendment to specify that the expenditures mentioned in the bill were expenditures of net general revenue available for distribution - not gross revenue. Forty nine representatives voted for Westerman’s amendment, while 42 opposed it. Nine didn’t vote. The amendment needed 51 votes to pass.

Westerman said this type of amendment - brought by a bill’s sponsor - is usually approved as a “courtesy.” Since the House voted it down, Westerman said he’ll now ask the Revenue and Taxation Committee to approve the amendment and send the bill back to the House for consideration.

The Revenue and Taxation Committee approved HB1041 in its original form on Feb. 12.

The House also voted 83-0 in favor of Senate Bill 92, proposed by Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, to remove the statute of limitations for certain sex crimes that involve children. The bill was sent to the governor.

Under current law, prosecutors cannot file charges for several crimes if the victims were minors at the time of the offense and have reached the age of 28.

McELROY TO RETURN

Rep. Mark McElroy, D-Tillar, who suffered a “medical episode” on the chamber floor on Friday, said he’ll return to the House this week.

McElroy delivered an incoherent speech from the well on Friday before Rep. Jeremy Gillam, the Judsonia Republican, escorted him to his seat.

“I want to thank my fellow members for coming to my aid Friday morning and everyone who has sent their well wishes and concerns,” McElroy said in a statement released Monday. “Doctors have made a diagnosis for a non-life threatening condition. I truly regret the timing of the incident. However, I am now receiving proper treatment and doctors are confident this will prevent any future episodes.”

Additional information about McElroy’s condition was not available Monday afternoon. McElroy did not return calls seeking comment.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/19/2013

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