With the Private Option and the Governor’s tax cut package out of the way, the legislature is moving on to other business. It was a busy week at the Capitol.
EDUCATION: This week Gov. Hutchinson announced the formation of the Governor’s Council on Common Core Review. The Council will be chaired by Lt. Governor Tim Griffin. The Council will consist of 16 members appointed by the Governor. The aim is to have a diverse group professionally and geographically. The members will be announced in early March. The group will make initial recommendations in the summer and more in the fall. This will likely impact other Common Core legislation already filed or being developed. An AACF staff member has applied to be on the Council.
JUVENILE JUSTICE: The United States Supreme Court, in a series of decisions during the last decade, has said that children are constitutionally different from adults and should not be subject to the nation’s harshest punishments. The Fair Sentencing of Minors Act (HB1197) seeks to remove life without parole as a sentence that can be imposed on minors under age 18 in the state of Arkansas. There are currently 116 inmates being held in the Arkansas Department of Corrections without possibility of parole. The cost of life incarceration is approximately $2.5 million per inmate.
TAX AND BUDGET: HB1344 was filed this week and would be a great step towards reducing poverty for hard working Arkansans. The Working Families Opportunity Act (WFOA) is a tax credit that piggybacks on the Federal version that is already in place (the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC). Low-income people who receive the federal EITC get a bigger credit with every dollar they earn up to a certain amount of income. Then it plateaus and starts to taper off. The state WFOA would increase these benefits by a certain percentage. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that 279,000 Arkansas households received the Federal EITC in 2012. The potential pool of people eligible for the state WFOA would be similar to the 279,000 who get the Federal EITC.
And an old foe rears its ugly head. The “Highway Robbery” bill (HB1346) would take funds away from services for children and families and use it to pay for highways and roads. A similar bill came up in the 2013 session. Among the many services the bill could impact are K-12 education, higher education, health care, juvenile justice, public safety, and pre-k. The full financial impact of the bill will not be known until a fiscal impact statement is released by the Department of Finance and Administration.
HEALTH: This week SB343 was filed. It allows local entities (companies, corporations, municipalities, counties, etc.) to determine the fluoride levels of their water system. The bill establishes a maximum not to exceed a level established by the Department of Health. It does not set a minimum standard for local water systems. This bill is expected to be presented in the House Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee next week.