House Management Committee
January 25, 2023
Jump to section below:
- HR 1004: Recognizing the Woodlawn Bears
- HB 1180: House appropriation bill
- HR 1005: Recognizing restoration of Morrow historic home
HR 1004: Recognizing the Woodlawn Bears
Rep Wing: We have first item on the agenda, House Resolution 1004. Representative Holcomb, you are recognized to present your resolution.
Rep Holcomb: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee, it’s pretty much self-explanatory. This is the eighth time that Woodlawn Bears have won the State Championship and I just thought it bared recognition, so that’s it in a nutshell. I’ll be ready to answer any questions you might have.
Rep Wing: All right, any questions from the Committee? These baseball players must be– well, it sounds like a good proud program.
Rep Holcomb: It is a school where everyone that works there lived there at one time or their parents went to school there. They don’t get paid much but they want to be there. And so the school under the financial conditions that they’re under have excelled exceedingly well in a lot of areas, so doing well.
Rep Wing: Well, we’re grateful that’s translated to success in and off the field.
Rep Holcomb Thank you.
Rep Wing: Good deal. All right, what’s the will of the Committee? Got a motion do pass, all in favor say aye. Any opposed? All right, thank you very much, Representative Holcomb.
Rep Holcomb: Thank you, Chairman. Committee, appreciate it.
Rep Wing: All right.
HB 1180: House appropriation bill
Rep Schulz: Representative Wing, you’re recognized to present House Bill 1180.
Rep Wing: All right, thank you, Mr. Chair. This is our House appropriations. Mr. Chair, with your permission I’d like to bring Buddy, Parliamentarian, to the table with me.
Rep Schulz: Permission granted.
Rep Wing: All right. Well, as we said, this is the Act for the House appropriations. This is different than the one that we passed earlier which was just our session appropriations. And with that, I will let Mr. Parliamentarian give us the highlights of this.
Rep Schulz: You’re recognized.
Speaker Shepherd’s spending history
Parliamentarian: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The highlights of the House appropriation operations appropriation, it maintains continuing levels of funding over all appropriation sections. Just a background on that: For over the previous 4 fiscal years of Speaker Shepherd’s administration, the House appropriation level has been steadily reduced, by 15% in fiscal year 2020, by 10% in 2021, by 10% in 2022, and by 5% for the current 2023 fiscal year.
Since Speaker Shepherd became Speaker of the House, appropriation level has been reduced by 34.6% from $7.1 million to $4.7 million. But the level this time will continue the same as it is during the current fiscal year. It adjusts grades for 5 positions, it adds no new positions, and it changes titles for 3 positions. So if there are any questions along those lines I’ll be happy to answer those.
Rep Schulz: You’re recognized.
Rep Allen: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Buddy, you’ve already answered most of my questions but I just had another one I was trying to find out. The video equipment of these meetings, is that paid through this budget?
Parliamentarian: Yes, sir. Well, it’s paid through our M&O and a lot of the M&O funds we utilize year in and year out are in the session appropriation.
Rep Allen: Okay, and is that by a third party or is that paid to a third party or is that paid–
Parliamentarian: Well, part of it is. We pay a company called Sliq, S-L-I-Q. And that company provides streaming services. So we own the equipment, operate the equipment but–
Rep Allen: They provide streaming.
Parliamentarian: –they provide the service, they tie into the equipment, and provide the streaming services, which includes closed captioning and archiving. So all the meetings of the legislature since 2010 are archived and available to the public.
Rep Allen: And what line item would that be under? I know it’s rolled up under one, do you know which one it is?
Parliamentarian: Well, again the M&O, that would be under the Speaker’s office on page 2, line item 31. And that would be a potential source of resources to pay for that component of that operation. But as I mentioned, the M&O component of our session appropriation bill, we’ll use that first. And then if we need to replenish that or we can transfer funds from this appropriation or from within the other appropriation to meet those needs but that’s never been necessary.
Rep Schulz: Any other questions? What is the will of the Committee?
Rep Wing: Make a motion do pass.
Rep Holcomb: Second.
Rep Schulz: All in favor? Congratulations.
Parliamentarian: Thank you.
HR 1005: Recognizing restoration of Morrow historic home
Rep Wing: All right, next item on the agenda, House Resolution 1005, Representative Charlene Fite, you are recognized.
Rep C Fite: Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is my first time before this Committee I believe.
Rep Wing: Hey, we are honored.
Rep C Fite: Well, it’s my honor. How many of you know where Morrow is? Nobody? It’s south of Fayetteville. If you blink you’ll miss it but there is the neatest house in Morrow. It’s a farmhouse that was built in 1828 and recently a family bought it and they have restored it. They did a lot of the work themselves. This is an older couple, and they brought it back to how it used to be. And they had it all decorated at Christmas and let people come in for free and see it.
And they recently, they were placed on the National Registry of Historic Places and also the Arkansas Registry. And this Friday night they’re going to be recognized by Preserve Arkansas with the Volunteer Award. So I wanted to also recognize them before the House of Representatives.
Rep Wing: Any questions from the Committee? You know, it’s been a lifelong question of how to get to to Morrow and so you have answered that for us. I think that bodes well. The dad jokes flow in this committee.
Rep C Fite: Yeah, I see that.
Rep Wing: All righty, what’s the will of the Committee? Got a motion do pass. All in favor say aye. All right, any opposed? Thank you and congratulations, Representative Fite. Thank you for your work on this.
Rep C Fite: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Committee.
Rep Wing: Thank you. All right, seeing no further business we are adjourned.