Arkansas House Speaker: Fight over Franklin County prison unlikely to come up during fiscal session

The fight over Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ plan for a 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County is unlikely to be a part of the agenda when Arkansas lawmakers convene next month, House Speaker Brian Evans said.

The Republican from Cabot said a majority of House and Senate members agree that a prison needs to be built but are in a “wait and see” pattern on the prison proposal. Funding for the prison was not part of the budget proposal Sanders outlined to lawmakers earlier this month.

Evans agreed with Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester that tax cuts are expected to be taken up after the fiscal session that begins April 8.

In an interview with the Arkansas Advocate last week, Evans discussed several issues that could come up during the session including school vouchers, public television and Medicaid funding. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Arkansas Advocate: How long do you expect the special session to last?

Evans: The first couple is just some formalities in getting the session open. We believe that after that, it will take approximately three weeks. My expectation and plan is for us to finish up either on Thursday, April 30 or Friday, May 1.

Arkansas Advocate: It’s been said that immediately after finishing the fiscal session, there might be a special session for tax cuts.

Evans: Definitely. Tax cuts are more of a policy issue, which we do not normally take up during the fiscal. If we can stay on the fiscal session schedule as we’re planning it, we do anticipate coming back the following week to do a special session on cutting taxes.

Arkansas Advocate: The governor has made it clear that she wants to continue phasing out the state’s income tax. There are some things, such as the LEARNS Act’s Education Freedom Account school voucher program, that cost more over time. Have you heard any concerns about whether cutting taxes might make it more difficult to pay for some of these initiatives that the governor and a lot of the Legislature champion?

Evans: Right now, Arkansas is in a very fiscally strong position, both in our current revenues and in our savings. We’re roughly north of $3 billion that we have set aside in catastrophic and restricted reserves. Even if there was a real unforeseen downturn in the economy, we’re in very good shape. We’re not going to see a loss of services or care that we are providing for Arkansans.

When it comes to budgeting, there are certainly fixed costs, things that we are bound to provide, but the reality is that budgeting also becomes priority spending. It’s where you’re going to spend the revenues in excess of your fixed costs. Our governor has made it very clear that she will be the education governor, so when you’re looking at things such as the continued implementation of the LEARNS Act and the Education Freedom Accounts, that is a priority in the proposed balanced budget.

The LEARNS Act passed with an overwhelming majority of the vote in both chambers, so we’re going to continue to do that while also continuing to provide strong funding and increases for our public schools. If you go back and look over the last two years of adequacy studies, we have given the largest increases in funding for public schools in the history of the state. Also, we recognize that we have to continue to put more money into Medicaid to take care of Arkansans.

Arkansas Advocate: Speaking of which, the federal government plans to implement Medicaid work requirements, and the state plans to add some criteria that people in the Medicaid expansion program have to meet to continue to receive expansion coverage. Do you anticipate any debate over putting more money into Medicaid? Some members have said that Medicaid is not going to the people who really need it, or that there should be more safeguards to make sure it does go to the people who really need it.

Evans: Absolutely. I think that we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that we are diligent in our efforts to eliminate Medicaid fraud. We have certainly seen a lot of groundwork that has been done on that while yet continuing to provide those services for those Arkansans, and we have those in every one of the 100 House districts.

Debate is a good thing because it brings all conversations to the table, it promotes collaboration and it helps us put out a better product in the end, so I do anticipate that there would be some good debate over that. From the standpoint of having a conservative majority in the House, we’re going to make sure that we’re doing our due diligence and that we are making the best decisions for those taxpayer dollars.

Arkansas Advocate: Last year, the Senate voted down a $750 million prison appropriation bill that the governor supported. What do you anticipate if the House takes it up this year?

Evans: We have somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,600 state prisoners that are currently in county lockup. That is not ideal and that is not sustainable. If our number one priority in government is providing safety for our citizens and protecting our families, then that discussion of prison funding and expansion of our correctional system has to take place right now. I just think we’re in a “wait and see” pattern. [Last year], had that appropriation come out of the Senate, I think the votes were probably there in the House to pass it.

However, as time has gone on and there have been more voices coming to the table, I think the reality is that while we, a majority of the members of the House and Senate, agree that we need to build another prison, it’s where and how that’s going to bring on a lot of discussion. As it sits right now, I don’t see that significant fight happening right now in the fiscal session.

Arkansas Advocate: One appropriation that’s struggled to get enough votes to pass the House for the last few years is the public television appropriation. There’s been public pushback over Arkansas TV’s move to cut ties with PBS. The network’s CEO, former Rep. Carlton Wing, has said it can’t afford to continue paying for PBS content. No matter how much money it has, it needs the Legislature’s go-ahead to actually spend it. Do you anticipate the appropriation again needing several attempts to pass, or any headbutting about the new mission of Arkansas TV versus what the public wants?

Evans: As you mentioned, it has been cumbersome to get this appropriation passed. That was due to some very hard-line feelings that a group of members had about the programming that was being produced and aired across the Arkansas airwaves at the time. I think they demanded change. They demanded change in management, in operations and in programming.

So I think the dynamic has changed. I think that there’s some uncertainty, potentially, with those that were very strongly for the appropriation in the past but now are unsettled about the change. Everyone will always say that we need change until you’re the one that has to change.

I think what former Rep. Wing is doing is saying, “Look, I recognize that there was an ask for change, and we’re making those changes.” We’re doing it to promote Arkansas, but we’re doing it [with] fiscal responsibility so it’s sustainable. The current model was not working when it came to funding. Arkansas public television was very vulnerable to a national rate scale, and we did not have a seat at the table on that. So I think he’s made some tough decisions regarding how they will address their funding needs while really pushing to showcase Arkansas through Arkansas television.