A look ahead to special session

To the casual observer, the major political issues of 2016 will be about budgets and spending.

But if you look more closely, you'll notice that elected officials reveal their true political opinions when they debate and vote on money matters.

The legislature will convene in fiscal session on April 13 to approve budgets for all state agencies, and to approve funding of public schools, colleges and universities. The governor is expected to call at least two special sessions, likely just before the fiscal session and just after it. One will be to iron out details of the Medicaid budget and the other to consider the governor's proposal to increase spending on highway projects.

Everyone wants better highways. Every legislator will go into the special session in full support of good roads, safe bridges and less traffic. By the way, they also support motherhood and apple pie.

However, during the special session all of us will have to make some difficult decisions and simply being for good roads will not resolve any of the problems facing us. It will take additional money to build and maintain highways because the main source of revenue for the State Highway Department, motor fuels and taxes, is stagnant compared to inflation. The state collects 21.5 cents a gallon on gasoline and 22.5 cents a gallon on diesel.

Over the past several decades, both car and truck engines have greatly improved their fuel efficiency, which means that drivers go a lot father on a tank of gas. Traffic has steadily increased wear and tear on roads, and at the same time the cost of asphalt and steel has gone up.

Depending on the type of maintenance required, each dollar spent by the Highway Department buys 60 to 70 percent less than it did in 1993.

The governor has proposed a method of increasing highway spending by $750 million over the next 10 years, which would allow Arkansas to qualify for an additional $2 billion in federal highway funding over the same 10 year period.

His plan would not raise any new taxes, but it would divert spending from other areas in state government. At this point, legislators know very few details about which existing programs would be reduced in order to boost spending on highways. Like most legislators, I won't know how strongly I support the highway plan until I know exactly what areas are being cut.

For example, if the additional highway money comes out of the budget of the Correction Department, which operates state prisons, I would be less inclined to vote for the plan. As much as I want to improve roads and bridges, it's a higher priority to maintain adequate prison space for dangerous criminal offenders.

It is known that the governor proposes to increase highway spending with $48 million a year from state surplus funds. If the state doesn't end the fiscal year with a surplus, we would have to search for revenue from other sources to maintain the Highway Department's budget. My preference is for a more stable source of revenue, but using surplus funds may be necessary in today's economic and political climate.

You can count on the legislature to enact extremely conservative budgets during the fiscal session, because the more fiscally conservative the budget, the greater the likelihood of a surplus.

Arkansas legislators have always been very conservative, but if the foundation of the highway program is based on budget surpluses, then legislators will hold down spending to historic levels and they will eliminate wasteful spending over the next five years.

We have several avenues to explore. All of them are difficult and I doubt we'll decide on all of them during one special session. For example, it has been suggested that Medicaid bring in managed care of facilities that treat the elderly and people with disabilities. However, that is a complex and sensitive approach and I sympathize with families who have a loved one inside a long term care facility.

For them, it would be frightening to suggest authorizing health officials in Little Rock to cut back on care in order for institutions to save money.

I do expect a resolution to the private option issue during the special session. It's likely that legislators will make minor adjustments to the program so that recipients take on more responsibility for their decisions. That means making co-payments for visits to the doctor, pursuing work and taking adult education to learn job skills.