Prosecutors’, judges’ raises get House no

Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, left, talks with Rep. Duncan Baird, R-Lowell, in the House chamber at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, left, talks with Rep. Duncan Baird, R-Lowell, in the House chamber at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

— Although judges and prosecutors won’t get costof-living raises under an appropriation bill that passed Tuesday in the House, budget committee leaders said a 2 percent increase for state employees is still possible.

The House voted 94-0 to approve House Bill 1024 and send it to the Senate. The general-appropriation bill allocates funds for the expenses of the executive, judicial and legislative branches of governmentfor fiscal 2014, which starts July 1. Constitutionally it must be the first appropriation bill approved in the legislative session, said Joint Budget Committee co-chairman Rep. Duncan Baird, R-Lowell.

HB1024 initially proposed freezing the salaries of the state’s constitutional officers and lawmakers, and granting 2 percent raises for judges and prosecuting attorneys. The raises were stripped out by members of the Joint Budget Committee last week.

“The thought was, if you pass out the general appropriation with [increases] in it, it might make it more difficult to just comprehensively look at all of the budget issues that we have,” Baird said. “We thought ‘Let’s just not do anything right now. We can always come back and change it in the future once we have had that conversation.’”

Baird said legislators can reconsider the raises for judges and prosecutors when they weigh cost-of-living increases for state employees.

In his fiscal 2014 budget, Gov. Mike Beebe proposed 2 percent cost-of-living increases for the roughly 30,000 state employees who don’t work at higher-education institutions. The increases would cost about $30.3 million, including $11.9 million in general revenue, state budget director Brandon Sharp said after the House voted.

The state employee increases were not in the bill approved Tuesday.

Much of this legislative session is expected to focus on a projected $298 million shortfall in the state’s Medicaid program for fiscal 2014. That shortfall has left spending in other areas, including cost-ofliving increases, in the cross hairs for some lawmakers.

“The general idea was that we have all of these big budget issues out there, Medicaid being number one, and we just wanted to step back and take a look at everything comprehensively before we started taking action on [increases],” Baird said.

House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, said legislators will discuss raises for elected officials again when they discuss increases for state employees.

“We don’t need to make that decision on that certain group … then somehow wait later and have an overall debate about [cost-of-living increases] for everybody else. We don’t need to be cherrypicking who gets it and who doesn’t,” Carter said. “We’ll have that debate all together.”

State employees last received cost-of-living increases in fiscal 2011. Before then,employees typically received such increases, even when the economy stumbled.

Joint Budget Committee co-chairman Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, said he favors granting state employees cost-of-living raises in fiscal 2014.

“I don’t know that they will get the 2 percent, but I believe they will get [an increase], and I am in favor of that,” he told reporters.

Senate President Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, said he would be surprised if state employees don’t receive some sort of cost-of-living increase because they haven’t received an increase in a few years.

Teague said he assumes that the legislators will grant such raises to judges and prosecutors if they grant them for state employees.

He said he doesn’t expect the Legislature to grant the raises to state lawmakers and constitutional officers.

“I don’t believe there is an appetite for it among the membership,” Teague said.

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor thinks state employees deserve the raises, but the decision is up to the Legislature.

In the 2011 legislative session, Beebe proposed a 0.86percent increase for state employees in fiscal 2012. Legislators removed the increase before approving the budget.

TRIAL COURT ASSISTANTS

The Joint Budget Committee endorsed a bill to appropriate $150,000 to continue paying the salaries of 124 trial court assistants in the circuit courts.

Under Senate Bill 82, sponsored by Sen. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia, $100,000 would come from unobligated balances of the County Juror Reimbursement Fund and $50,000 from the unobligated balances of the Municipal Court Judge and Municipal Court Education Fund.

Both funds receive money from the state’s Administration of Justice Fund, which pays the salaries of trial court assistants, said officials for the Bureau of Legislative Research.

Teague said the funds would pay for the trial court assistants for 60 days “to give us time to figure out if we are going to fund them and how we are going to give them some permanent funding.”

Fee collections through the courts, which are used to pay the employees, have dwindled and are no longer dependable, according to Chief Justice Jim Hannah.

J.D. Gingerich, director of the state’s Administrative Office of Courts, said the $150,000 would be “a patch to make the January [payroll] and to make the February payroll, and to have a little time to deal withwhatever comes next.”

Teague said he doesn’t know what the Legislature’s long-term solution will be for funding the trial court assistants.

VETERANS HOME

The Senate unanimously approved a bill that would create a task force to study and make recommendations on opening a new Arkansas veterans home.

The veterans home in Little Rock closed in November after its 70 residents moved to other facilities. The building was found to be in such disrepair that it needed an estimated $10 million to get the plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling systems up to standard.

Senate Bill 3 - sponsored by Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock - would create a 22-member task force. It would begin meeting by May 1 and would submit its recommendations to House and Senate committees and the Legislative Council by Oct. 31.

MILLAGE ELECTIONS

Members of the House Education Committee approved Senate Bill 4, which would allow four community colleges originally created as technical schools to hold millage elections to pay for capital improvements on campus.

The bill’s sponsor in the House is Rep. John Vines, DHot Springs.

Current law allows millage elections for these schools, but not to pay for capitalimprovements. Other community colleges are allowed to raise money for capital improvements that way, Vines said.

The four schools are National Park Community College in Hot Springs, North Arkansas College in Harrison, Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville and Rich Mountain Community College in Mena, Vines said.

The committee amended the bill so that schools could also use the money raised to pay for maintenance of the capital improvement projects.

HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Joe Jett, D-Success, to limit the liability of landowners who allow pilots to take off from and land on their property.

Jett said aircraft operators would still need permission from the landowner to use the land.

The bill passed without any questions from the committee members.

The committee deferred action on a bill sponsored by Rep. Justin Harris, R-West Fork, that would exempt current or former certified auxiliary law-enforcement officers from concealed-handgun-licensing requirements with authorization from the officer’s chief of police or county sheriff.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/23/2013

Upcoming Events