Commentary: Arkansas’ Fiscal Sessions Go Off-Topic

TREND TOWARD LONGER TO-DO LISTS IS WORTH NOTING

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Fiscal sessions are supposed to be brief checks on the budget with some fine tuning. There’s been a rapid shift to sessions with longer to-do lists, though.

This wouldn’t be happening if the Legislature as a whole was still as anxious to go home, one of the fi scal session’s chief authors says.

“I have no doubt that if old heads like (Sen. Dave) Bisbee and Kim Hendren were still in the Legislature, we’d have fiscal sessions like they were intended to be,” said Bill Pritchard, a former state senator from Elkins.

“There’s no way they would have considered taking up something that was not an emergency in nature.”

“We had a Senate president pro tem back then, Bob Johnson, who wasn’t in the Capitol if we weren’t in session,” Pritchard said.

“People wanted to go home.”

“Now we have a generation that wants to be down there all the time,” Pritchard said.

Many lawmakers are still resisting, but the trend is clearly running against the historic ideal of a part-time Legislature, he said.

“We used to have a rule that you only got per diem for attending meetings of committees that you’re on and one other that you could pick because you were interested,” Pritchard said. “Now we have 50, 60 or 70 people show up for a committee and committees meeting all the time.”

Pritchard carried the 2007resolution to place the fi scal session amendment on the 2008 ballot. The House sponsor was then-state representative Eric Harris, R-Springdale.

Voters approved the measure. The amendment not only requires a two-thirds vote to add a nonfiscal item to the fi scal session agenda. It built in a powerful, practical political reason against adding to the docket, Harris said.

“We delayed the beginning of the fi scal session until February because we wanted lawmakers to have to go home for their primaries,” Harris said. “We wanted them sitting there thinking ‘I’ve got to wrap this up so I can get back and campaign.’”

Next month’s session is only the third fi scal session in Arkansas history. Items likely to be added to the agenda include:

Revisions to “private option,” which uses federal health care reform funding to provide insurance to more Arkansans. A straight up-or-down vote on approving the budget for the measure isn’t happening. Budget items require three-quarters majoritiesin each chamber. That won’t happen unless the law, which is linked to the troubled federal health care reform law, is modifi ed in some ways. Even supporters point out there have been some pretty sweeping developments in health care reform since the private option passed in April. Areview is in order.

Changes to a law on special elections to replace a lieutenant governor. There’s broad consensus leaving the law as it is now would confer a big advantage to Democrats. So there’s broad agreement to change it. We’ll see how much broad agreement survivesafter specific changes are proposed.

Snow days: Not really likely to be on the agenda, but the fact the Legislature is in town is expected to encourage the state Department of Education to make a rules change. That way, many public school students won’t still be attendingclasses through mid-June, or give up all their Saturdays until then. The Legislature could take the issue up if changing the rules require changing the law.

When there’s a real chance the Legislature could take up a bill on snow days, I feel pretty safe in declaring the idea of a pure, short fiscal session is out the window.

Harris also pointed out the ever-shifting decisions in Washington over health care don’t help. Health care is clearly the big issue in this upcoming session, he said.

“You almost have to have a thumb up in the air to tell which way the wind is blowing to decide on how to implement it,” he said.

OK. The fiscal session is not what was intended. But is that a bad thing? After all, I argued myself two weeks ago the change on the lieutenant governor should be added.

Whether this change is for the best is for the voters to decide. I’m a columnist and a political reporter, which makes me kind of like a weatherman. I’m supposed to tell people about changing conditions.

I will repeat, with some alarm, Harris’ point about how the fi scal session’s being held during primary election season.

When lawmakers are putting increasing emphasis on issues at the Capitol rather than on meeting voters during primary season, that’s a change worth noting.

DOUG THOMPSON IS A POLITICAL REPORTER AND COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.

Opinion, Pages 12 on 02/02/2014