State agency proposal fails to pass
Amendment would redefine state constitutional officers
A proposal that would specify that state agencies include the state’s seven constitutional officers, including the governor, under the state’s General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law failed to clear a legislative subcommittee Wednesday.
State Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, proposed the amendment to Senate Bill 53, which is an appropriation measure for the state Department of Transformation and Shared Services, in fiscal 2025 that begins July 1.
No member of the Joint Budget Committee’s Special Language Subcommittee made a motion to approve Mayberry’s proposed amendment, after several state lawmakers raised questions about the proposal for 20 minutes, so the proposal died in the subcommittee.
Mayberry’s proposed amendment also would specify that a “state agency” includes the state’s seven constitutional officers, including the governor, under state law regarding the marketing and redistribution of state personal property.
Besides the governor, the state’s other six constitutional officers are the lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and land commissioner.
Mayberry proposed the amendment after Arkansas legislative auditors and Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office last week disagreed about whether the
governor’s office potentially violated seven state laws, largely linked to accounting, purchasing and distribution of state property, related to the office’s purchase of a lectern and travel case for about $19,000. The Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state in September for the purchase.
Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin said in an advisory opinion requested by the governor that the governor’s office is not a state agency within the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law’s general definition of state agencies, and is not subject to the marketing and redistribution process under state law.
Legislative auditors disagreed with Sanders and Griffin’s offices in their reply to the governor’s response to the audit.
Legislative auditors said they found an invoice breaking down the charge showing the lectern cost $11,575. The the state also was charged a $2,500 consulting fee, $2,200 for the travel case, $1,225 in freight costs for the lectern, $975 in freight cost for the case and a $554 credit card processing fee. The governor’s office purchased the lectern from Beckett Events LLC, an Arlington, Va.-based events management firm, for $19,029. The invoice was for a a custom-built 39-inch Falcon Podium and travel case.
Auditors said they could not determine the reasonableness of the consulting fee and the reasonableness of the cost of the podium, but they determined the costs for the travel case, freight shipping of the travel case and freight shipping of the podium appear reasonable.
Auditors forwarded their report to the 6th Judicial District prosecuting attorney and the Arkansas attorney general’s office.
Sanders’ office sharply criticized the audit report, calling it deeply flawed.
Mayberry told the Joint Budget Committee on Wednesday that her proposed amendment “is not a change.”
“It is a clarification,” she said.
Mayberry said there has been some concern about the definition of state agencies, adding that state lawmakers need to make sure that state agencies include the state’s seven constitutional officers under the state’s General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law.
“This has been the general practice of our auditors for decades, and we are just clarifying,” she said.
In response to questions from fellow lawmakers, Mayberry defended her proposed amendment as constitutional, saying it’s within state lawmakers’ power to add “caveats” to appropriations they approve.
Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said he was thoroughly confused about why Mayberry was singling out the state’s seven constitutional officers, and not proposing holding the judicial branch, legislative agencies, higher education institutions, the Game and Fish Commission and the Department of Transportation to the same standards.
“Your language is just odd to me,” he said.
Dismang, who is a co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said Mayberry’s proposed amendment probably provides fodder for future court cases and that state lawmakers don’t need to do that.
Mayberry said it would require a bill, separate from her proposed amendment, to apply to other parts of state government such as legislative agencies and the state’s higher education institutions that Dismang referred to.
In response to a question from Sen. Jimmy Hickey, R-Texarkana, she said legislative auditors didn’t ask her to propose this amendment, and she made the decision to propose the amendment to represent the people in her legislative district.
“This is commonsense accounting” to require constitutional officers to save receipts and to get the most out of taxpayer dollars, Mayberry said.
Hickey said certain appropriation measures already include the language that Mayberry is proposing as adding to state law. He said he didn’t want to potentially affect any future court cases by approving Mayberry’s amendment.