The Arkansas Capitol building in Little Rock.
LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas’ public schools, colleges, prisons, foster care system and a host of other services face significant cuts if lawmakers don’t keep the state’s hybrid Medicaid expansion, House Speaker Jeremy Gillam said Monday as he geared up for a funding battle over the program.
Gillam released an alternative budget detailing the potential cuts as lawmakers prepare to return to the Capitol this week for a session expected to focus on the program, which uses federal funds to purchase private insurance for the poor. Lawmakers last week approved by large majorities Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s plan to keep the hybrid expansion, but it was shy of the three-fourths vote the Medicaid budget bill funding the program will need.
“Everybody in the state loses if we go down an alternate route. There’s no way around it,” Gillam, a Republican, told reporters. “The state agency folks do, the teachers do. It’s across the board and I think this is reflective of that, the fact that the entire state will share some pain and will lose out if we go down that road.”
Most state agencies would see their budgets cut by about 3 percent under the budget plan offered by Gillam. The reductions would be needed to increase funding for the state’s traditional Medicaid program and for hospital care for those without insurance.
Hutchinson, a Republican, has proposed adding new restrictions to the hybrid expansion, including a requirement that some participants pay premiums. The program was created three years ago as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health law, and it has sharply divided Republicans who control both chambers of the Legislature.
Arkansas’ public schools would see their funding reduced by $7.3 million under Gillam’s alternate plan. The cuts would go toward programs not considered part of an adequate education under a school funding lawsuit and include services such as pre-kindergarten. The state’s prison system funding would be cut by $3.4 million and State Police would face a nearly $2 million cut. The plan also calls for cutting higher education funding by $4.8 million.
Hutchinson said the plan would also mean a $10.9 million cut in the state’s foster care system, a reduction he said would require cutting 255 positions and increasing average caseloads.
“The consequences of this cut alone is devastating and will directly impact the resources available for our foster families, our social workers and nearly 5,000 children in our state’s foster care system,” he said in a statement.
Gillam and Senate President Jonathan Dismang said they expect to take up the Medicaid budget bill early in the session that’s set to begin Wednesday. Opponents of the hybrid expansion have said they want a separate vote on the program, but Hutchinson and legislative leaders have rejected that idea.
Republican Rep. Bob Ballinger, who said he’s prepared to vote against the Medicaid budget if necessary to oppose the program, questioned whether Gillam’s plan would be necessary since the state has a surplus it could tap into. He also noted that opponents have floated the idea of capping enrollment for the program and winding it down.
“It may not be that we even have to make those cuts at all,” Ballinger said.
(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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