Southern lawmakers drop their bags in LR

State Reps. Kelley Linck (left), R-Yellville, and Stephanie Malone, R-Fort Smith, get gift bags Saturday from Shawn Key after registering at the Statehouse Convention Center for the Southern Legislative Conference. State lawmakers from all over the South are attending the conference, which ends Tuesday.
State Reps. Kelley Linck (left), R-Yellville, and Stephanie Malone, R-Fort Smith, get gift bags Saturday from Shawn Key after registering at the Statehouse Convention Center for the Southern Legislative Conference. State lawmakers from all over the South are attending the conference, which ends Tuesday.

Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas has plenty she wants to do this weekend in Little Rock: see the state Capitol, visit the Clinton Presidential Center and figure out how to help her state solve its Medicaid expansion problem.

Lucas -- a Democrat in town for the 68th annual Southern Legislative Conference, which opened Saturday and will run through Tuesday -- said she's excited to learn about the ways other Southern legislators are addressing health care, including Arkansas' so-called "private option."

"I like to see what other states are doing so we can kind of model what they're doing in Virginia, and especially when it comes to Medicaid expansion," she said. "We've had such a difficult time in Virginia that I'm open to anything that can get us on the road to providing those services to those almost half-million people in Virginia that do not have health insurance."

With more than 1,000 delegates from 15 Southern states arriving in Little Rock for the conference, organizers are taking the opportunity to showcase government, business and culture in the host state. The conference is held each summer in a different Southern city and lets policymakers talk about issues faced by their state legislatures.

Arkansas state Sen. Keith M. Ingram, D-West Memphis, serves as the conference's chairman. He said it will draw about 1,100 delegates from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia to the Statehouse Convention Center.

"It covers a broad spectrum of everything from policy initiatives to updates on the farm bill to grid security," he said. "It showcases best practices in all of the states."

Ingram said having the conference in Little Rock places a particular emphasis on Arkansas projects.

Today, delegates will hear Lawrence Bengal, director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, talk about natural gas exploration in the state. Rod Bigelow, executive director of Bentonville's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, will discuss revitalizing the Arkansas economy through culture; Carl Handley of Flint Creek Power Plant in Gentry and Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. CEO Duane Highley will talk about upgrading the nation's energy infrastructure.

Nicole Osborne, manager of government affairs for Chattanooga-based Tennessee American Water, arrived in Little Rock on Saturday for the conference, her first time in the city.

"I work for a private water company in Tennessee so anything to do with infrastructure and funding for that I would be curious to see," she said.

On Tuesday, 35 delegates will take a water tour of the Arkansas River and visit the Union Pacific Railroad facility in North Little Rock.

Gene Higginbotham, executive director of the Arkansas Waterways Commission, said the tour will showcase how different modes of transportation contribute to the Arkansas economy. He said tour attendees would learn about how installing locks and dams to deepen parts of the Arkansas River in the 1970s attracted business investment in Little Rock's River Market District and developments like North Little Rock's Dickey-Stephens Park and Verizon Arena.

"It's one of those things that people don't really think about," he said, adding that he looked forward to talking with delegates on the tour about waterway projects in their home states.

"It should be a good exchange. And certainly we really want to showcase what's going on with Arkansas waterways and everything going on around Little Rock and North Little Rock."

Delegates will also tour the White Bluff Steam Electric Station in Jefferson County to see Arkansas energy production. They will also visit Gillam Farms, owned by Arkansas House Speaker-designate Rep. Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, to learn about agriculture in the state.

Conference chairman Ingram said he looked forward to showing delegates his home state.

"We're known for our hospitality," he said. "We're going to have a great weekend, great weather, and I look forward to welcoming all of our friends from across the South and showing them what a special thing we've got here in Arkansas."

Metro on 07/27/2014

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