BENTONVILLE -- Benton County justices of the peace sided with Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Monday asking state legislators to support funding for the governor's Arkansas Works program.
The Legislative Committee approved supporting Hutchinson and sent it on to the Committee of the Whole, which meets at 6 p.m. today.
Arkansas Works
The state Legislature is meeting in Little Rock to consider funding for the Arkansas Works plan, which is an Arkansas version Medicaid expansion that provides health insurance to about 267,000 low-income state residents. Twenty-seven votes are needed in the state Senate and 75 votes in the House to reauthorize use of federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private healthy insurance for low-income Arkansans in fiscal 2017, which begins July 1.
Source: Staff report
The justices of the peace were split 5-2 on the resolution, with Kevin Harrison, committee chairman and justice of the peace for District 5; Jerry Sheridan, justice of the peace for District 1; Shirley Sandlin, justice of the peace for District 8; Susan Anglin, justice of the peace for District 9; and Michelle Chiocco, justice of the peace for District 10, voted in favor of it. Jay Harrison, justice of the peace for District 3, and Brent Meyers, justice of the peace for District 14, voted against it.
The Legislature is meeting to consider funding the plan, which is an Arkansas version Medicaid expansion providing health insurance to about 267,000 low-income residents. County Judge Bob Clinard told the justices of the peace the issue was raised at a recent meeting of the County Judges Association. Clinard said if the money isn't approved, county turnback money is a possible source for the cuts needed to make up the estimated $100 million shortfall in the state budget.
Benton County's state turnback is just more than $200,000. Clinard said highway higher education money could also be cut.
"It's a huge deal," Clinard said. "Whatever they do is going to impact the budget in Benton County. This has potentially huge ramifications."
Anglin suggested the county send state legislators a resolution setting out some of the possible impact on county budgets and other entities.
"There's nothing that won't be impacted if this doesn't pass," Anglin said. "The University of Arkansas Medical Sciences stands to lose as much as $65 million in patient money."
Meyers said he opposes the entire program.
"I'm against the whole thing to start with," he said. "It's socialized medicine."
Meyers said a new president and Congress could overturn the Affordable Care Act next year and he doesn't want the state taking on any added burden.
"We're voting in another form of socialism," he said. "It's got to stop somewhere. The $200,000 we stand to lose on turnback is nothing compared to what it's going to cost us if the ACA fails."
Tom Leadabrand, justice of the peace for District 12, participated in the discussion although as a non-committee member he didn't vote. Leadabrand said voting against paying for the program now doesn't make sense to him.
"This can all change next year," he said. "The governor's plan is we're not going to have to pay for the whole thing ourselves. The alternative is it's all going to come out of our pocket. When January comes I'd rather have the $100 million in our pockets. I just don't see the dollars and cents making sense so at this point I'd say I'm in favor of it."
The committee also agreed to revisit plans to put pay increases for elected officials, including justices of the peace, on a regular system. Barb Ludwig, the county's human resources administrator, said one plan was suggested last year but not adopted. That plan would have raised elected officials' pay during three or four years until it matched the pay of the same offices in Washington County.
Ludwig said Benton and Washington counties are comparable in size and have similar revenue. Ludwig said Washington County's elected officials were paid about 81 percent of the maximum allowed by the state while Benton County officials were paid about 77 percent. The state sets minimum and maximum pay ranges for county officials according to the population of the county and the range increases by three percent every year.
The justices of the peace asked Ludwig to prepare updated information showing Benton County pay compared to Washington County and to the state pay range, as well as a proposed schedule for equalizing the pay rates between the two counties or reaching different percentages of the state pay range. The issue was sent to the county's Personnel Committee for more discussion.
NW News on 04/12/2016