A legislative panel on Tuesday endorsed the state Department of Education's requests totaling $30 million in state restricted reserve funds to pay for improvement projects at the Arkansas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Arkansas School for the Deaf.
The Legislative Council's Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee also recommended that the Legislative Council on Friday approve the state Department of the Military's request for $5 million in restricted reserve funds to support the Arkansas National Guard Foundation.
The subcommittee also recommended the Legislative Council approve the state Department of Veteran Affairs' request for $1.4 million in restricted reserve funds to help cover the cost of shifting state operation of the Arkansas State Veterans Home in Fayetteville to a private contractor.
State Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Nate Todd said he established a working group comprising commissioners from the Arkansas Veterans Commission and department employees to evaluate the optimal operating model -- including state-run, contract or hybrid -- for the veterans home in Fayetteville in February 2021 and "their evaluation feedback resulted in my decision to have posted a Request for Proposal for outsource operation."
"In compliance with State regulations, the details of the bid discussions are confidential until a contract is awarded," Todd wrote in a letter dated Nov. 8 to state Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Larry Walther.
"It is the recommendation of the negotiations team that outsourced operation of the [Fayetteville veterans home] to a contractor with substantial expertise in skilled nursing facility operations and State Veterans Home operations serves the best interests of the Veterans and residents who call ASVH-F their home," he wrote in his letter.
Karen Watkins, chief financial officer for the state Department of Veterans Affairs, told state lawmakers on Tuesday that two vendors have submitted bids.
"We are still in negotiation with a potential vendor," she said.
In his letter to Walther, Todd said the $1.4 million would be used "to wind down the State operation" of the Arkansas Veterans Home at Fayetteville and "fund one-time outsource operation startup costs."
Operational costs in the current fiscal year 2023 that started July 1 have exceeded operating revenues by an average of $150,250 a month, and contract nursing costs have nearly doubled from a monthly average of $154,630 in fiscal year 2022 that ended June 30 to an average of $304,330 per month this fiscal year-to-date through Oct. 31, he said.
The Arkansas Veterans Home is currently operating with an employee vacancy rate of more than 50% and annual turnover rate of more than 100%, Todd said in his letter.
The subcommittee on Tuesday voted to suspend its rules to allow it to consider this request and several other requests as part of a supplemental agenda.
State Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, who is a co-chairman, said it would have been nice to get more advance notice of this request.
In response, Watkins said "we apologize for the lack of notice."
The state veterans home in Fayetteville "has had some ongoing fiscal challenges," she said. The facility is 42% staffed with only 38 state employees. It had a 70% occupancy rate last year with 64 residents and currently has 65, she said.
"It just a challenging operating environment," Watkins said.
Many other states, including Alabama, Maryland and Texas, outsource operations of their veterans homes, she said.
In another request that cleared the legislative panel Tuesday, the Arkansas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Arkansas School for the Deaf would get $15 million each in restricted reserve funds under the state Department of Education's requests for funds.
Funds for the Arkansas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired and Arkansas School for the Deaf would be used for new residence buildings, instructional spaces, demolition and decommissioning of buildings, fencing, gates and other improvements on their campuses, Greg Rogers, chief financial officer for the state Department of Education, said in letters to Walther.
The state Department of the Military requested $5 million to support the Arkansas National Guard Foundation to retire some bond issues, Scott Stanger, the department's chief of staff, said in a letter to Walther.
The mission of the Arkansas National Guard Foundation is to provide charitable and educational support to members of the Arkansas National Guard, their dependents and survivors, veterans and other charitable organizations that support veteran communities in Arkansas, Stanger said.
In other action, the Legislative Council's Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Subcommittee advanced the following requests for restricted reserve funds:
• $600,000 to the state Department of Public Safety for the State Crime Laboratory to contract with a laboratory to analyze outstanding sexual assault kits.
Department of Public Safety Secretary A.J. Gray said in a letter to Walther that the department also is seeking $1.3 million in additional spending authority to allow the crime lab to process sexual assault kits in an effort to reduce the current backlog.
The crime lab has experienced a significant increase in sexual assault kit submissions, coupled with high employee turnover, he wrote in his letter.
Kermit Channell, director of the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, said the funding would allow the crime lab to contract with a private lab and catch up on processing about 500 sexual assault kits.
• $482,000 to Southern Arkansas University Tech for construction of a one-story burn building at the Arkansas Fire Training Academy.
This training facility would replace the one-story burn building recently demolished at the suggestion of Engineering Consultant Inc. because of damage in the 2009 tornado, SAU Tech Chancellor Jason Morrison said in a letter to Walther.
• $250,000 to the Department of Education for a grant to the nonprofit association Arkansas Community Colleges.
The funding would enable the nonprofit to implement strategies to keep training updated, expand nontraditional means of skills development, consult with industries for employer needs, and build up infrastructure to standardize awarding college credit with nontraditional means, said Maria Markham, director of the state Department of Education's Division of Higher Education.
• $157,891 to the Department of Education for Northwest Technical Institute. The funding would help offset fiscal 2021 category D funding that was not reinstated in fiscal 2022 under the Revenue Stabilization Act, Markham said.
• The legislative panel also endorsed Gov. Asa Hutchinson's request to transfer $100,000 in rainy day funds to the Department of Education's Division of Higher Education for grants to higher education institutions to support on-campus food pantries throughout the state.
Nick Fuller, assistant director of finance at the Division of Higher Education, said the grants will be for $5,000.