Panel endorses funding requests
State agencies seeking Rescue Plan money for projects
A legislative panel on Tuesday advanced the state Department of Human Service’s request for a total of $6.3 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to assist hospitals in DeWitt, Harrison and Lake Village, and the state Department of Finance and Administration’s request for $5.8 million of those federal funds for improvements at the Camden-based Arkansas Fire Training Academy.
The Legislative Council’s Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee recommended that the Legislative Council approve the requests. The council is scheduled to meet Friday.
The committee also advanced the Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s request for $5 million in state restricted reserve funds to provide incentives for the development of film and television production in Arkansas, and the state Department of Public Safety’s request for $500,000 in restricted reserve funds to support physical security enhancement and other measures to assist “nonprofit ideology-based/spiritual/religious entities” in preventing and responding to terrorist threats and other extremist attacks.
The Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee recommended the council’s approval of the state Department of Human Service’s requests for the following amounts of federal American Rescue Plan funds:
• $3.4 million for Chicot Memorial Medical Center, a licensed 25-bed critical access hospital in Lake Village. For sustainability, the hospital selected strategic hospital improvement and chose to focus on improving operating margin and net days in accounts receivable, according to state Department of Finance and Administration consultant Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services.
• $1.5 million for the DeWitt Hospital and Nursing Home, a licensed 25-bed critical access hospital in DeWitt. For sustainability, the hospital selected transformative hospital reform to convert to a rural emergency hospital, according to Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services.
• $1.3 million in American Rescue Plan funds for the North Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Harri
son. The medical center is a licensed 174-bed hospital in Boone County. For sustainability, the hospital selected strategic hospital improvement and chose to focus on improving operating margin and full-time equivalents per adjusted occupied bed, according to Alvarez & Marsal Public Sector Services.
In September 2022, the Legislative Council voted to send the North Arkansas Regional Medical Center’s request for $10 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds back to a committee after then-state Rep. Michelle Gray, R-Melbourne, said she didn’t favor the request because she didn’t feel like closure was imminent for the hospital.
After Tuesday’s legislative committee meeting, state Department of Finance and Administration spokesman Scott Hardin said $13.7 million of the $60 million in American Rescue Plan state fiscal recovery funds set aside for hospitals will be unallocated if the council signs off on these three requests for hospitals Friday.
The $5.8 million in federal American Rescue funds requested for Southern Arkansas University Tech would be used for improvements to existing buildings and programs at the Arkansas Fire Training Academy and the construction of a specialized Emergency Medical Services training facility, SAU Tech interim Chancellor Gaye Manning said in a letter dated Nov. 28 to the Department of Finance and Administration’s Office of Budget.
The estimated costs for the Emergency Medical Services training building is $4.05 million for a fire truck for the Camden site: $700,000; for a fire truck for the Jonesboro site: $500,000; and for a new ambulance: $150,000, according to SAU-Tech’s request.
In March 2021, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that is designed to help the United States recover from the economic and health effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
Arkansas was awarded $1.57 billion in American Rescue Plan state fiscal recovery funds, and the unallocated balance will decline to $321.9 million if the Legislative Council approves the requests for the three hospitals and SAU Tech, Hardin said Tuesday.
INCENTIVES FOR FILM AND TV PRODUCTION
The legislative panel also recommended that the Legislative Council approve the transfer of $5 million in state restricted reserve funds to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission to provide funding to incentivize development of film and television production with the aim of creating a thriving film industry in Arkansas.
Any unobligated funds not committed to a film or television project by June 30, 2024, would be returned to the restricted reserve fund, state Department of Commerce Chief Financial Officer David Bell wrote in a letter dated Nov. 14 to state Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Jim Hudson.
The committee recommended that the council require the commission to report which companies are awarded these incentives and how much each company receives.
Arkansas Film Commissioner Christopher Crane told lawmakers that the program “is performance-based.
“Within the statutes … a production will put in an application,” he said. “We will do an initial audit on what is going to be expended and then that can change. Once we do an incentive agreement, then that amount is there. Once they are finished with the production, then the Department of Finance and Administration does an audit of all those expenditures before any funds are remitted to the production company.”
Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, questioned how many companies would receive the incentives. Crane said he expects that probably seven or eight companies would receive incentives.
RIGHT TO WORSHIP SAFELY GRANTS
The legislative panel recommended that the Legislative Council approve the state Department of Public Safety’s request for $500,000 in state restricted reserve funds for the department to support physical security enhancement and other measures to assist “nonprofit ideology-based/spiritual/ religious entities” in preventing and responding to terrorist threats and other extremist attacks.
The panel recommended that the council require the department to report which groups the grants are awarded to and how much each group is allocated.
The department will call the program the Right to Worship Safely Grant program.
Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, asked Tuesday about what the department would use for parameters for the size of grants distributed through the program and who would decide what groups would receive grants.
In response, state Department of Public Safety Secretary Mike Hagar said “right now there have been no parameters set.
“Because this is new, we truly don’t know what to expect,” he said. “This is kind of new to all of us. We already have started receiving correspondence on people’s intent to apply, or institutions’ intent to apply, but we have not seen anything in the form of a formal request yet.
“And truthfully, we don’t know if we are going to receive five or 500 [applications] and we don’t know if it is going to ask for $500 or $500,000,” Hagar said. “So the committee is just going to look at it once all the applications are received and … go through and try to just make the determination to where we can help the most people possible with the amount of money that we have based on the need they present in their application.”
Hagar said the committee will be comprised of eight members.
Last month, state Department of Public Safety Chief Fiscal Officer Karen Perry told lawmakers that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders “promised to aid the Jewish community during the recent rise of antisemitic rhetoric crime, and this will allow funds for [the Public Safety Department] to provide grant funding to support security enhancements for nonprofit organizations.”
On Nov. 17, the Legislative Council authorized co-chairs Rep. Jeff Wardlaw, R-Hermitage, and Rice to approve the department’s request for the one-time funding upon “receipt of grant of written guidelines for distribution of the grant program to include more specific definitions regarding what constitutes being under threat and what expenditures will be allowed to be covered by the grant funds, and parameters regarding amounts for individual grant awards.”
Rice and Wardlaw said last week that the grant program will begin accepting applications Jan. 1, so they forwarded the request back to the Legislative Council Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee for further review.