SEARCY -- Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang is a serious, number-crunching accountant, who works hard with other legislators behind the scenes and occasionally shows a bit of frustration, his colleagues say.
"It's not really a temper," the 35-year-old Republican said in a recent interview at his home just outside a gated community near the Searcy Country Club.
"I don't see myself as getting mad," Dismang explained. "In part, it's just facial expressions. On particular issues, I can be pretty intense."
Dismang's friend, state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, R-Little Rock, described Dismang -- who once was an intern for Hutchinson's father, former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson -- as a bit of a behind-the-scenes jokester, texting tall tales to some friends before telling them they'd been pranked.
With the fate of the private option to be determined in the session starting Jan. 12, Dismang's intensity and humor will be tested as he guides the Senate.
The Senate includes 23 Republicans and 11 Democrats with a vacant seat to be filled in special election in which three Republicans are running in Senate District 16.
Along with Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, and Rep. John Burris, R-Harrison, Dismang is one of three legislative architects of the private option that taps federal Medicaid funds to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans.
"The fate of that program is questionable at best," said Dismang, who acknowledged it wouldn't survive in its current form shortly after the Nov. 4 election. "There will be a determination made I assume sometime between mid- and late January on how that program proceeds."
Republican Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson said he would decide by the end of this month whether to seek reauthorization of the program in fiscal 2016.
"I hope we don't fight over the issue," Dismang said about a program that deeply divided Republicans in the Legislature and on the 2014 campaign trail.
"I hope that we can discuss the issue. But I want it to be based on the facts," Dismang said.
Asked whether it would be easier to finance Hutchinson's proposed $100 million income-tax cut with the private option in place in fiscal 2016, Dismang said, "There's obvious short-term gains by having the private option in place because [the federal government pays the full tab through fiscal 2016].
"There's also long-term costs when we get to the 10 percent that the state will have put in [in fiscal 2020]," he said. "Those that are opposed because of what that 10 percent does to the state are valid in their concerns, and we have to do our part to make sure that we create the savings to pay for the program."
The state is financing $85 million in tax cuts in fiscal 2015 from savings from the private option such as reduced uncompensated care costs, according to state officials.
Asa Hutchinson has said his income-tax cut would reduce state general revenue by $50 million in fiscal 2016 and by $100 million in fiscal 2017. Departing Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe has recommended delaying more than $20 million worth of tax cuts approved in 2013 and set to go into effect in fiscal 2016, which begins July 1.
In 2013 and 2014, funding for the private option narrowly cleared the House and Senate with the required three-fourths supermajority of the 100-member state House of Representatives and 35-member Senate.
The current program extends insurance coverage to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty level -- $16,105 for an individual, for instance, or $32,913 for a family of four. More than 180,000 Arkansans have enrolled in private health insurance through the program, according to the Department of Human Services.
Federal Medicaid funds pay for 100 percent of the program until fiscal 2017, when the state will pick up 5 percent of the cost. The state's share of the tab will gradually increase to 10 percent in fiscal 2020.
Dismang said it's too early for him to speculate on the odds of the private option surviving in the Legislature this year.
He said there is a strong possibility that work requirements will be added to the private option, which state officials said is designed to help the working poor.
Private-option foe Sen. Bryan King, R-Berryville, said he doesn't know whether the Republican-controlled Legislature will end the program.
"Whether they want to admit this is a bad financial mistake, I don't know," he said.
As Senate president pro tempore, Dismang said he wants to help other senators reach their goals, after legislative leaders helped him be successful during the past few sessions.
He also hopes to have a strong working relationship with the House and Asa Hutchinson.
"I think I'll be successful if the membership is successful," Dismang said. "I'll be doing everything that I can on those policy issues and those ideas we agree on."
DISMANG'S ROOTS
With parents who were educators, Dismang was born in Pocahontas and raised in Maynard.
The family moved to Beebe when he was 9 after his father took a job there as the elementary school principal.
Dismang graduated from Beebe High School in 1997 with honors and served as student body president and editor of the school newspaper. He played linebacker and tight end on the football team and was a shot-putter on the track team.
He said his interest in politics goes back to his grandfather Allen Barnes' unsuccessful bid as a Republican for Ripley County commissioner in Missouri about 20 years ago.
Dismang said he enrolled at Harding University in Searcy in what he described as "one of the best decisions my parents helped me make." He lost a bid for student body president there.
With a longtime interest in mathematics, Dismang earned bachelor's degrees in accounting and economics in 2001. During college, he served a summer internship in Tim Hutchinson's U.S. Senate office a few years before Tim Hutchinson lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Mark Pryor in 2002. Tim Hutchinson is Asa's brother.
Dismang said his friends at Harding included Jeff Hoggard of Searcy, who is an attorney and a lobbyist representing Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, FASTER Arkansas, Arkansas Tech University and Entergy Arkansas Inc., and other clients. Dismang said he originally intended to hire Hoggard as his Senate chief of staff, but Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield got him first.
After graduation, Dismang worked stints for the BKD accounting firm, Hix & Associates, and Thomas & Thomas accounting, all in Little Rock. He is married, has two sons and attends Cloverdale Church of Christ in Searcy.
Dismang, a former chief financial officer for real estate investors C. Whitwell and John Ryles in North Little Rock, created his Dismang Consulting Services LLC in 2008, which he said provides accounting oversight largely for Whitwell and Ryles' companies.
LEGISLATIVE CAREER
Dismang said the father of his wife, Mandy, told him about a legislative seat that was available in 2008 because of term limits. His family subsequently moved from Little Rock to Beebe. Mandy's father, David Staggs, is a family-practice doctor, who also owns the Searcy Athletic Club, where Mandy works and is part owner.
Dismang defeated Beebe Democrat Kieth Williams and replaced Bald Knob Democrat Mark Pate in the House.
House Speaker-designate Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said he had considered entering the race in 2008, but ultimately backed Dismang.
After one term, Dismang ran for the state Senate, but urged Gillam to replace him in the House, eventually publicly supporting Gillam's successful bid.
Dismang defeated former Rep. Sandra Prater, D-Jacksonville, in 2010 to win the Senate District 29 seat vacated by term-limited Democrat John Paul Capps of Searcy.
In mid-2012, Dismang moved his family to Searcy to be closer to his wife's parents.
In the general election in 2012, he beat Rep. Tiffanny Rogers, D-Stuttgart, in District 28 after the boundaries of legislative districts were redrawn by the Board of Apportionment. District 28 includes all of Prairie County and parts of Arkansas, Lonoke, Monroe, White and Woodruff counties.
Dismang clashed with Beebe in 2009, trying and failing to block a tobacco-tax increase favored by the governor. Since then, he's worked with Beebe to pass the private option and keep it funded. In last year's session, the Legislature overrode Beebe's line-item veto of Dismang's proposal to grant a sales-tax exemption for sand used in oil and natural gas drilling. A lawsuit has been filed challenging the constitutionality of the measure.
"I don't know of anybody in this current crop [of legislators] that I have been more pleasantly surprised at his growth and development than Jonathan Dismang," Beebe said.
"He's level-headed, he's exhibited really good leadership ability, he's smart and understands the issues," Beebe said. "Early on, he didn't exhibit much in the way of leadership, but he was brand new. He was fresh. It wasn't fair to expect that."
Dismang said Beebe has been a mentor to him and they have something like a father-and-son relationship, adding that on political matters he's probably disagreed with Beebe a majority of the time.
As for his political future, Dismang said he'll serve two years as Senate president pro tempore and "then beyond that I think that's a family discussion for us." His sons are 5 and 10 years old.
"I only have short-term goals with regards to politics at this point," he said.
Asked whether he expects to have a Republican challenger who opposes the private option in the 2016 election, Dismang replied, "I am confident that I'll have an opponent. Over what issue, I'm not sure. There may be multiple [issues]."
Dismang, who is serving as acting governor while Beebe attends Arkansas State University's bowl game in Mobile, Ala., said he's not interested in winning the Governor's Mansion someday.
"I'm very happy with the service I have been able to do so far," he said. "What I do is very stressful on our family and they put up with me. But as far as where this goes, I don't know. I honestly don't have a long-term goal."
SundayMonday on 01/04/2015