The Arkansas Senate on Friday elected Senate Republican Whip Jonathan Dismang of Searcy as its leader for the rest of the year and the next two years.
"The experience in the Capitol is now in this chamber," Dismang, who has served in the Senate since 2011 and was in the state House of Representatives from 2009-11, told senators after his election. "There is a great weight on our shoulders and one that we need to be very respectful of.
"We are going to have hills, and I think they'll probably turn into mountains. We are going to have all kinds of challenges," he said. "We are not going to agree on the path every single time. But we are all going to agree on the common goal that we want to make Arkansas a better place."
The Senate unanimously confirmed its earlier vote 18 months ago to elect Dismang as the Senate president pro tempore, two days after Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, bowed out of his challenge to Dismang for the job.
The Senate's former leader, Russellville Republican Michael Lamoureux, resigned Monday to be Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson's chief of staff and transition director.
After Dismang's election as Senate president pro tempore, the Senate members of the Joint Budget Committee elected his pick to be co-chairman of that committee -- state Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, who has served in the post for the past two years.
The Senate will be made up of 23 Republicans and 11 Democrats until the Senate seat held by Lamoureux is filled through a special election, which hasn't been set by the governor.
Dismang said previously that he's not sure about the fate of the private-option program that he helped design, after the Nov. 4 election of several Republican opponents of the program to replace Democratic supporters of the private option in the House and Senate.
In 2013 and earlier this year, the Legislature narrowly authorized funding for the program with the required three-fourths vote in the 100-member House of Representatives and 35-member Senate.
Under the private option, the state uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans. More than 180,000 Arkansans have enrolled in private health insurance through the private option, according to the state Department of Human Services.
The state will begin paying 5 percent of the cost of the program in fiscal 2017, and its share will gradually increase to 10 percent in fiscal 2020.
"There's a number of members in both chambers that actively campaigned against the private option, and that's going to put its fate in jeopardy," Dismang said. "I don't think there is any question about that."
He said he expects significant changes in the program, but he doesn't know what they will be.
"Gov. Hutchinson has indicated that he wants to take his time to review and look at the program ... and at some point, there will be a joint agreement between both ends of the Capitol and the governor's office on how we move forward," Dismang said.
State Sen-elect. Scott Flippo of Mountain Home, who campaigned against the private option in defeating one of its architects, state Rep. John Burris of Harrison, in a June Republican runoff, said that "where [the private option] is right now, I am not going to support it."
"If there are significant changes that are made, I wouldn't rule out" supporting it, he said. "It's speculation right now."
Flippo is one of the five members who have campaigned against or voted against the private option and decided Friday to serve on the eight-member Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee. The others are committee Chairman Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, and Sens. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View; John Cooper, R-Jonesboro; and Stubblefield.
Dismang said much of the Senate's direction will come " from Hutchinson and "making sure that he is successful."
He said he believes the state can afford Hutchinson's proposed income-tax cut for the middle class that Hutchinson said would reduce state general revenue by $50 million in fiscal 2016 and by $100 million in fiscal 2017.
"I think you'll essentially go and use a surgical knife and figure out where we can eliminate some waste to free up some revenue, look at our existing programs and see which ones are successful and which ones aren't, and set a priority for the state and for how those agencies work and how we allocate money to those agencies," he said.
Departing Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday that he still doesn't think the state can afford a $100 million tax cut like Hutchinson is proposing, saying it would affect essential services such as nursing homes, colleges and prisons.
Hutchinson said Thursday that he respects Beebe's views, but he disagreed.
Dismang said he also considers overhauling the state's tort laws to be a top priority for the Legislature in the session starting Jan. 12.
Dismang said the Legislature could try to work on the tort laws through "a mixture of both" changes of state laws and a proposed constitutional amendment to refer to voters in 2016, but no legislation has been been drafted yet.
Four Democrats later decided to serve on the eight-member Senate State Agencies Committee. Their presence might make it more difficult for supporters of two constitutional amendments -- overhauling the state's tort laws and requiring voters to present photo IDs to cast ballots -- to get those measures through the committee and the Legislature for the 2016 ballot.
But state Sen. David Burnett, D-Osceola, said he isn't serving on the committee to block proposed amendments overhauling the state's tort laws and to require voters to present IDs. Sens. David Johnson, Joyce Elliott and Linda Chesterfield, all of Little Rock, are the other Democrats on the committee.
Nonetheless, state Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, said: "I have a better chance of winning a Brad Pitt look-alike contest than voter ID coming out of that committee."
King sponsored the voter-ID law that the Legislature enacted over the veto of Beebe last year. Last month, the state Supreme Court upheld a Pulaski County circuit judge's ruling that the law was unconstitutional.
Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, R-Cabot, who unsuccessfully proposed an amendment to change the state's tort laws last year, tweeted: "So much for tort."
Four Democrats also decided to serve on the eight-member Senate Judiciary Committee.
The chairmen of the Senate's other committees include:
• Revenue and Taxation Committee: Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith.
• Education Committee: Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock.
• Judiciary Committee: Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock.
• Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee: Sen. Ron Caldwell, R-Wynne.
• Insurance and Commerce Committee: Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow.
• State Agencies Committee: Williams.
• Transportation, Technology and Legislative Affairs: Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs.
• City, County and Local Committee: Irvin.
• Rules Committee: Sen. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia.
• Efficiency Committee: Chesterfield.
• Joint Performance Review Committee: Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale.
• Joint Public Retirement Committee: Sen. David Johnson, D-Little Rock.
• Joint Energy Committee: Burnett.
• Joint Children and Youth Committee: Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff.
• Joint Auditing Committee: Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana.
• Legislative Council: Sample.
Metro on 11/15/2014