ALC-JBC Budget Hearings

AI recap

Transcript

You You You You You You You You You You You All right, members, if you could go ahead and take your seats, we're going to get started with today's AOC, JBC budget hearings, we'll call this meeting to order. First time on the agenda is the administrative office of the courts, get somebody down here for that and we've also got Jennifer, you're going to give us the report, okay. And when you get see to just introduce yourself for the record and then we'll get started with the presentation. Justin Clark, the deputy director and the director of legal services at the administrative office of the courts. Good morning, I'm Bert Stain, I'm the juvenile services division director at the administrative office of the courts. Sam Kaufman, I'm the finance director at the administrative office of the courts. To hold off on the director of the court information systems division for the administrative office. All right, thank you, Jennifer, you can go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jennifer Rook, Bureau of Legislative Research, we're going to take a look at the administration office of the courts. Starts on page 271. On page 272 is their department appropriation summary. They have 31 appropriations. The agency is requesting about 80.7 million for both years of the biennium. There are no significant changes and there is no executive recommendation. I am going to go over their five largest appropriation requests. The first one can be found on page 277. It's their dependency neglect representation. It is funded from the state central services fund and the administration of justice fund. The agency is requesting about 8.7 million for each year of the biennium. On page 278 is their operations appropriation. It is also funded from the state central services fund and the state administration of justice fund. They are requesting about 7.4 million for each year of the biennium. The third you can find on page 282. This is their court automation. It's funded from special revenue. They are requesting about 8.3 million for each year of the biennium. The fourth is on page 297. This is the trial court administrators. It is funded from the state central services and state administration of justice fund. They are requesting about 11.7 million for each year of the biennium. The last one is page 298. It's the court reporters. It's funded from the state central services fund and the state administration of justice fund. They are requesting about 14 million for each year of the biennium. Again there is no executive recommendation for them and this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you members. Andrew, excuse me, represent Collins, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Off to the right here. So I'm curious on the specialty courts. Why was nothing expended in fiscal 26 for that? And do you anticipate that changing in fiscal 28 or 29? I guess there's two different ones. So maybe explain to me the difference between the two and then why there was nothing on specialty court program but there wasn't specialty courts. How representative Collins, could you give me the pages in your budget bond or so that I can make sure I'm looking at exactly the same thing that you are? Well, I'm looking at the summary on page 272 so you could see it there and you can see the two. So db5 is specialty courts and then in 65 is specialty court program. I guess and while you're flipping to it, I mean my purpose in questioning is we've made this a priority, especially court program. I know that some of the allocation is more recent, but I want to make sure we're utilizing that because of all the benefits that the specialty court program provides as far as efficiency and administration and justice. So the db85 specialty court appropriation, which is 2.95 in your binders is relatively new money. That was the protect act money that AOC was given by the legislature to do two things. One was to employ contractors to be defense counsel on the specialty court teams. The other appropriation that's related to protect that money was to allow the agency to contract with treatment providers in the areas of the state who otherwise wouldn't have been able to fund a full team. We are still, this is new money still ramping up, still contracting with different providers but that's the answer to that one. So then my follow-up bid you anticipate now that you're ramped up more or less on the contracting with providers that there will be expenditures on that going forward. I mean, we will actually engage in those contracts going forward. Yes, that is what we anticipate is that there would continue to be an increase in that. You may recall that due to some other constraints with the Department of Corrections funding that we haven't been able to expand any of the circuit court, specialty court programs either. And so that's part of why you're also seeing this money kind of be steady but we do expect there to be an increase in funding there. Okay. We're in use of those funds rather. Use from zero. Okay. Thank you. Thank you representative. Representative lunchroom. You're recognized. Thank you, too. My question is on page 272. When you look at the bottom totals of your actual expenditures for $59 million, your budget expenditures for $77 million, there's an $18 million difference which is great. Y'all didn't over do your budget but going forward there seems to be another million increase at $78 million and then another increase to $20 million when actually your actual spend is a whole lot different. So can you help me understand why the actual expenditures and the budget is so much different? I mean that's like $20 million, almost 30. So I think there are two primary explanations for that. The first is we have a significant amount of federal grant awards. Those are often multi year and the feds operate on a different fiscal calendar than we do. So there are times where we will have an odd overlap of the end of the state fiscal year, the beginning of the federal and so expenditures will slightly go up and we like to consider better practice to go ahead and ask for the appropriation for that full federal award in the event that we're able to spend or that calendar sort of incongruence happens. The other area is administration of justice funding so we're appropriated, whatever the amount is for the different pieces that are AOJ fund funded, however that fund is only funding most of our appropriations at 55%. So there's a gap of 45% and those are the two primary reasons why there's that difference in appropriation and spending. Okay. I noticed there was a difference in your court and technology, it was $2 million and you're actually budgeted for $4 million. Is there a reason you didn't go ahead and finish the technology initiative? Let's get to that. It's page 272, line D, B1, a lot of my readers. So that was also a federal grant, we got a $4 million two year federal grant and we've just actually just finished spending down that grant. So we've got a little bit in this fiscal year, but that grant has been expended. The good news is we got another $2 million federal grant to continue. Okay. So that's probably related to that court and technology fund. Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. Thank you. Senator Love, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask, in this, I guess, there's a question of staff, I noticed you said we don't have an executive rent, do we usually not have an executive rent for the administration of the courts? That's correct. Yes, sir. Okay. All right. So that's just a common piece. It's for the Constitutionals. Constitutionals don't get an executive recommendation. Okay. All right. Thank you. Representative Wooten, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 271, you show 386 positions. And then on page 273, on the next page 272, you show 401 positions. And then you have one position that's been vacant for over two years. Can you explain? Are you 15 positions open at the present time, but they're not two years old? Is that what we're looking at? Correct. Exactly. Okay. What is your turnover rate? It's, I would say it's pretty minimal. For the most part, we have, I mean, honestly, we have pretty good retention with our employees, but we do have just a normal turnover. We have to compete with the private sector, and we'll take advantage of that. One is the percentage. I couldn't find that for you, sir. Okay. It would you get the percentage and the turnover rate. And I've got the same questions that have been presented to you. There's a $20 million difference between the budget and between the actual expenditures. And if I understand you, you're saying it's federal money. It has to do with the end of the fiscal year, being in October versus ours in July. Is that correct? In large part, in addition, there are times where the federal expenditure, we will be able to complete the award in a given year. And so sometimes we may have one fiscal year where the expense is smaller, and in the next fiscal year, it's going to be larger. All right. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Representative. All right. Members, seeing no other questions, we have a motion. We have motion to accept agency requests. Can I get a second? A second. Any discussion? All right. Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? All right. The aye has. Ayes have it. It takes a sound to item number two. Thank you. Number two is obviously the Attorney General. Thank you for coming down. If you would just introduce yourself for the record, we'll get on with the presentation. Black Mayo, Chief Deputy Attorney General. Sarah Sherrod, Chief Fiscal Officer. Bear in deadly office of intergovernmental affairs. Jennifer, you can go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And we're going to take a look at the Attorney General. This is on page 305. Their Department of Appropriation Summary is on page 306. They have eight appropriations. They're requesting about 42 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. They are not requesting any change levels, but I'm going to take a look at a couple of their appropriations for you guys. The first one can be found on page 307. This is their administration appropriation. They are asking about 26.4 million in appropriation for each year of the biennium. It is funded from the State Central Services Fund. On page 312, is there settlement fees appropriation? And they are asking about $10 million in appropriation for each year of the biennium, and it is funded from cash funds. Again, there is no executive recommendation, and this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you, Jennifer. Members, any questions on this item? All right. Seeing none. Senator Ryesh, you just on time. You recognize. Thank you. The settlement from lawsuits is that on page 312. Yes, I don't have exactly what you're looking at, but yes, it's the settlement for cash funds. Somebody there, have it. You give us, give us that amount. Yes, so on page 312, it shows the, in the summary, the funding source of cash funds there for expenditures would be from settlement funds. That amount is what? Excuse me? That amount is what? Our appropriation is for $10 million. Okay, and you received, how much? Yeah, it varies. Do you have in the report what you received on settlement from lawsuits? Is that in this report? No. Do you know what that figure is? We can get that information to you for, for whichever time period. Are you not required publicly to? Are you required to give that to the legislature? We're required to report every quarter, which we do any expenditures from those settlement funds. I think we submitted one last week for the relevant quarter, but you are not required to put it in the budget. For the appropriation, the legislature has given us the authority to spend up to $10 million in unrestricted settlement fees. And so that is in the budget. I can see that and the problem with the other report is it doesn't get much eye view. So that's why I just wondered if there was something in this report that is required, and you're telling me it is not required to put in the report. How much the attorney general has received this last year from all suits? I would say that that is, we do provide that information in the quarterly reports at the beginning of each of those reports. There's a section about the settlement payments we've received, so for any time period, if you look at the quarterly reports for that time period, it would show the total amounts we've received. Do the quarterly reports give the expenditures for that fund? Yes, every settlement fund expenditure is on that report. Any legislature can go back and request those quarterly reports. Yes, and we're always happy to provide more specific information about any individual expenditure. That was a question. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Senator. Representative, would you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 305, you show 192, and on page 305, you show 175. You got 17 vacancies. Is that the reason for the difference? Yes. Okay. So, yesterday in personnel committee, you asked for two additional positions or reclassification? Are you familiar with that? We did not ask for any additional positions. We eliminated one position and reclassified four positions. Okay. On the reclassification, you have one position that is over two years old. What position is that? Which of the four positions are you referring to? I'm off of that. I'm on the vacancy. On the report, I have a 10-5. It shows one position that is over two years old. What position is that? And why has it been vacant for over two years? Senator, I represented if I don't think we have that information in front of us about which specific position. I know that we can absolutely get that for you. I know that we do have turnover, but we're regularly towards the very top of our purpose. What is your turnover rate? We'd have to, we'll provide that specific information about percentages and turnover. We can get that information for you. We don't have that compiled right in front of us. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Representative. All right, members, seeing no other questions, we have a motion. We have a motion in the second, second, any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed, the ayes have it. Thank you for coming down. That takes us to item three, auditor of the state. We'll just introduce yourself when you get, when you get sit down and, and we'll get on with the report. Jason Brady, deputy auditor. Christina, deputy, chief of staff. Jennifer, you can go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, the auditor of state, their budget quest starts on page 315. Very next page is their department appropriation summary. They have 10 appropriations. The agency is requesting about 97.7 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. They do have two with change levels, and I'll go over those two. On page 317 is their operations appropriation. It is funded from the State Central Services Fund. They're requesting about 3.8 million for each year of the biennium. They are asking for an increase of 3,300 for conference and travel expenses due to the rising cost of travel. An increase of 3,500 for professional fees because they have hired a consulting firm to do a thorough study of the office's IT systems. And on page 319 is their unclaimed property appropriation. Spended from State Central Services. They're requesting about 4.2 million for each year of the biennium. They are also asking for an increase for conference and travel expenses in the amount of $3,000. It's also due to the rising cost of travel. Again, there is no executive recommendation. And this concludes my presentation. Thank you, Jennifer. Members, any questions on this item? All right. Representative Richards, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you tell me a little bit more about the thorough examination of the technology systems? Yes, they're happy to. So we've inherited and antiquated, and I'm talking a little bit out of my IT knowledge. But an AS400I series system that was, as I've been advised, very popular in the 80s and 90s. But unfortunately, it's coming to a point where we're finding it difficult to find people who can code it. Fortunately, a previous employee of the office who was retired has come back and helped us in that system to keep it coded up, particularly with our work recently with S4HANA. It's been instrumental. So we're trying to do an entire IT mapping of our office, and that relates to working with Kilmar, who is our unclean property. That's related to our bank that we work with. That's related to DFNA and the S4HANA system. So right now, we're just coming in and doing an IT general mapping, trying to figure out everything that we need from there. And then we'll try to decide where we go next on that. Obviously, it's probably looking at new systems. Having that coded to accommodate all the other things that we need to do. But we're at the very beginning of all of that, sir. And I hope that addresses the question. I'm assuming you're working directly with the Office of State Technology for that. So no, sir, we're not. Since we're a constitutional office, we're outside of that. And we are working with a company that actually was suggested us by an IT person in the treasury that we previously worked in the Treasurer's office. So that's where we're working with on the IT mapping. So you're not required to work with the Office of State Technology on that. Okay, all right, thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Representative Wootenian, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 315, you show 680 positions. Is that correct? Yes, sir, according to this report, yes, sir. But on my report, it shows 321. Where is the difference of 300 employees roughly? Mr. Chairman, with your tolerance, could we ask Lori from Deputy Prosecutor, the prosecutor's office to come forward? Absolutely, yeah. Representative, a large part of, as you know, we are the payroll officer for Deputy Prosecutors. And so I think she would be better suited to answer your question, yes, sir. Thank you for your tolerance. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm just trying to get the difference of the, just introduce yourself when you sit down and we'll get on with the question. Mr. Chairman, remember the Committee on Lori Comperes, I'm the Deputy Prosecutor Coordinator. Okay. Can you answer that question, and why there's 300 different, roughly 300 different on page 315, it shows 680, you know, my report on I show 321. So what is the difference, or where is it, where are those 300 employees that are roughly? I'm not sure I can explain the exact number, but I can get that for you, but I can't explain about some vacancies that we have in the Deputy Prosecutor positions because those come through our office. We are authorized for 289 deputy prosecuting attorneys across the state. I think we have about 8 vacancies right now, many about 6 of those, maybe not quite that many, but I can get the exact numbers for you are in Pulaski County. As you may be aware, there's a new elected prosecuting attorney coming in in January. So in Pulaski County, they've had some vacancies in those positions because there are some deputies leaving and the new elected is in the process of hiring people, but that won't take effect until January. So that explains some of the vacancies that we have, but I don't think we have a difference of 300 vacancies, but I can double check those numbers and let you know for sure. I will show and clarify that for us because there's 300 roughly over 300 positions that are not listed, they're not shown. Well, I'm confirming here we have 8 vacancies, and none of those are going to be vacancies. Well, I realize that, but what I'm saying is the report that I have shows 321 in the auditor's office, but you're saying you have 289 positions, but they're not accounted for as they are in this report on page 315. Is that correct? I think Mr. Duke can explain the discrepancy in those numbers. I'm not sure. I can say that we are authorized for 289 deputy prosecutor positions, and we have currently 8 vacancies. None of those have been vacant very long. 289 is 297. Is that what you're saying? Yes, sir. Not 320. Okay. All right. But they still not accounted for on the report that I have, so that's fine. Okay. We'll check the number. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You good? Thank you. Okay. All right, Senator Simon, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm just looking on page 317. Under the State Central Services regular salaries. See an increase of about 15% regular salaries. No change in the number of positions in on the page 319. The property program looks like about an increase in salaries of about 33%. And again, no change in the number of positions. Am I reading that correctly? That's correct, sir. So asking for a 33% salary increase on. Let me pardon me, just a moment, sir. Let's see. Salaries were submitted at a base level plus any career service for appropriations amount in FY 2829. Salaries were adjusted at base level plus career service for 2829. First, the FNA office of budget via the B bass or planning budgeting administrative services. We went to ACES in 2025. And as we were advised, this is part of the process, sir. So yes, sir, that is correct. The auditor's office made no additional request. But this is the pay plan result. That is correct, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you, Senator. All right. Members, seeing no further questions? We have motion? We have motion in the second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you for coming down. All right. Members, this takes us down to item number four. This would be Arkansas Court of Appeals. Good morning. We'll introduce yourself for the record. We'll get on with it. Good morning. I'm Anne Solomon, Chief Staff Attorney for the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Good morning, Mark. Clap and Bawk. Chief Judge, Arkansas Court of Appeals. All right. Good morning, Jennifer. You can go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Arkansas Court of Appeals request starts on page 327. They have one appropriation. It's on page 328. It's funded from the State Central Services Fund. They are requesting about $7.4 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. They are asking for an increase of 90,000 in legal counsel. This is due to a very busy criminal docket and the court paying for the court appointed attorneys for indigent appellants. And they would like to have some flexibility to adjust the fee amount to be able to continue to keep qualified attorneys. Again, there is no executive recommendation and this concludes my presentation. All right, thank you. Jennifer, members, any questions on this item? Representative Hudson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for being here with regard to ensuring that you have the funds to keep enough attorneys available for indigent defendants. Are we keeping up with that demand? We are keeping up with that demand. We have in the last, in the last biennium, we asked for an increase to this appropriation line item as well. And we have seen that in each year of this current biennium, we've had to come and ask for various temporary appropriation to meet the need, but you all have been generous and granted that request. We had 167 times last year that we awarded attorney's fees and that is a significant increase. From two years ago, but we're keeping up with the need, but we do want to be able to continue to keep up and not have to come to you all in an emergency situation and ask for more money. All right, thank you. Seeing no further questions, do we have a motion? Motion in second? Any discussion? Seeing none, all of us in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you for coming down. Members, now it takes us down to the Arkansas Governor's Mansion Commission. Morning, just introduce yourself for the record and we'll get on with the presentation. James Caldwell, CFO for Shared Administrative Services. Good, Jennifer, you're up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Governor's Mansion starts on page 329. Very next page 330 is their Department of Appropriation Summary. They have two appropriations. The agency is requesting about $2 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. First is their operations appropriation on page 331. It is funded from the State Central Services Fund. They're requesting about $1.5 million for each year of the biennium. They are asking to reallocate $25,000 from utilities to annual maintenance. Due to utility expenses remaining flat and they're redirecting these funds to maintenance to better support ongoing and unpredictable upkeep needs of the mansion. The second appropriation is on page 332. This is the Grand Hall Mansion and Grounds Appropriation. It's funded through cash funds from proceeds generated through the use of the Grand Hall. They're requesting about $500,000 for each year of the biennium and there's no change from the current biennium. There is no executive recommendation and this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you, Jennifer. Members, any questions on this item? All right. Seeing none, do we have a motion? Motion. Motion, silent. Second, any discussion? Seeing none, all those members say aye? Aye. Opposed? Aye. Please have it. Thank you. Takes it down to the Office of Governor. Item six. Stay in there, huh? Yep. All right. Jennifer, you can go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Governor's appropriation starts on page 333. The appropriation summary is on page 334. They also have two appropriations. They're requesting about $7.3 million for each year of the biennium. Again, there's no executive recommendation. The first appropriation is their operations on page 335. It's funded from the State Central Services Fund. They're requesting about $6.8 million for each year of the biennium. The second is on page 336. This is the Governor's Emergency Proclamation. It's funded from the Governor's Emergency Fund. They're requesting $500,000 for each year of the biennium. Again, there's no executive recommendation. And this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you, Jennifer. Members, any questions on this item? All right. Seeing none, we have a motion. Motion. Motion. Have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those members say aye? Aye. Opposed? You guys have it. Takes us down to the Commissioner of State Lands. Good morning. Just introduce yourself for the record. And then we'll get on with the presentation. Sam Sparrow, fiscal director. Payton Murphy, general counsel. Do you say Payton? Payton Murphy. Thanks. All right, Jennifer, you're up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner of State Lands starts on page 337. On page 338 is their department appropriation summary. They have four appropriations. They are requesting about 37 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. They are not requesting any changes over their current of current appropriation levels. And there's no executive recommendation. And this concludes my presentation. All right. Members, any questions? All right. Seeing none, come again, motion. Motion. We have motion. Second, any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye? Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Members, takes down item 8. This will be legislative audit. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Just introduce yourself for the record. And we'll get on with it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Committee. Kevin White, Arkansas Legislative Audit. Good morning. Good morning. Janet Case and CFO, Arkansas Legislative Audit. All right. Good morning. All right. Jennifer, you're up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. They start on page 343. Legislative Audit. They have one appropriation. It's their operations appropriation on page 344. It is funded from the State Central Services Fund. Add Valorum Tax, Federal Funds, and Lottery fees. They're requesting about 51.2 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. They're not asking for any significant changes. Again, no executive recommendation. And this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you, members. Any questions? Representative Garner, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Chair. Sorry. You look so cute up there. I just have one question about the professional fees. We've gone from $30,000 to $700,000. I just wondered what that was for something significant going on. Yes. Thank you, Representative. That line on what that's available for is if Legislative Audit had an independence issue as parautating standards and required for us to contract for those services and provide us that ability. Perfect. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Members, any other questions? All right. Seeing none, do we have motion? We have motion in the second Indian discussion. Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Members, take us down to the Bureau of Legislative Research. Good morning. Just introduce yourself for the record and we'll let Jennifer do her thing. Marta Garrity with Bureau of Legislative Research. Andrea Barksville, Bureau of Legislative Research. All right, Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our appropriation starts on page 345. On page 347 is the operations appropriation. It is funded from the State Central Services Fund. Requesting about 23.6 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation and there is no significant changes. On page 349, this is the Bureau acting as the dispersing officer. They're requesting about 1.7 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. The first one is the interim committee study expenses on page 350. Funded from State Central Services. Requesting 271,000 for each year of the biennium with no changes. On page 351 is the interim committee expenses. Funded from State Central Services. Requesting about 1.5 million for each year of the biennium. Again with no changes. Again there is no executive recommendation. This is the best agency. Hands down. This concludes my presentation. All right, perfect. Representative Collins, you're up. I just wanted to say how great you are. Now I'm just kidding. I do have a question. I see professional fees appropriation 298,000 expenditures and fiscal 26 were 1 million. I guess what was the difference in do you expect the professional fees to exceed the appropriation and 28 or 29? It's consultant fees represented Collins. So it's just budgeted at that amount. We have the ability to transfer funds from other budget lines. So yes, I do expect that amount to exceed based on consultants that the legislature decides they want to hire. Okay, and where does it get transferred in from if I could ask? Contingency. Okay, got it. Thank you. All right. Members, any other questions? Seeing none, we have a motion. A motion. I have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all of them by mistake. Aye. Opposed? The aye's have it. Thank you. Our members takes us down to item 10. This would be the office of Lieutenant Governor. Good morning. Just introduce yourself and we'll go on with it. John Austin Lynch, Director of Communications and Legislative Affairs for Lieutenant Governor's office. All right. Thank you. Okay, Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Lieutenant Governor's budget request starts on page 352. And on page 353 is their one appropriation. This is their operations appropriation. They're requesting about 687,000 for each year of the biennium. It is funded from the State Central Services Fund. There is no executive recommendation and there are no significant changes. And this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you, Jennifer. Members, any questions? All right. Seeing none, do we have a motion? The motion is second. We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. The aye's have it. Thank you. Next on the agenda item number 11 is Office of Prosecutor Coordinator. Good morning. Go ahead and introduce yourself again. I know you've been here once. Okay. Thank you. All right. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I'm Lori Confira. I'm the deputy prosecutor coordinator. All right. Thank you. Okay, Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Prosecutor coordinator budget request starts on page 354. On page 355 is their department appropriation summary. They have four appropriations. There's one that has a change level. The agency is requesting about 2.6 million for each year of the biennium. The executive recommends about 2.4 million for each year of the biennium. The change level can be found on page 359. It's the prosecutor coordinator operations. It's funded from the State Central Services Fund. The agency is requesting 1.7 million for each year of the biennium. They are requesting an increase in operating expenses and the amount of $139,245 increases in rent cost of housing state conflict attorneys, subscription rates for web-based legal research system, and continuing legal education programs. The executive provides for the agency request with the exception of the increase in operating expenses. And this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you. Senator Hester, you're recognized. I'm over here. I've got a few questions on when the public defenders were here. They said, based off of a court ruling a few years ago, that they're no longer received. The counties are no longer paying mileage for their special prosecutors or public defenders or even do the counties pay for your mileage? I believe so. I was asked that question not long ago. I know the state does not pay for the mileage for the deputy prosecutors. So I believe most of it is reimbursed by the counties. But I can't say that for certain, but I can double check that. I do know the state doesn't cover it though. So you guys asked for an operations increase. One of the rules was was because it says rental increase. Like. And then the executive reg doesn't account for that. Do you have a real rental increase? Why are you written from? Let me explain the difference because I think, first of all, let me say our long term fiscal officer retired. And we have a new fiscal officer in the former one did most of the budgeting. So we think there may be some, some things in here that we actually won't need. We rent from the tower building. So we did have a 2% increase in the rent. We had also included money for increased in training. We think actually that may have been incorporated into the last by NM. So I'm not sure that we're really going to need all that. And I think we can be okay with the executive reg that the rent does sometimes increase. But it's about a 2% increase. And then we had also asked our West law subscription that is continually increasing. So sometimes for operating expenses that, and I know I do the contracts for that. So it goes up every time we renew. And so we were trying to account for some of that as well. And it may not be your position to talk about it this time. Would we expect when we get in the session a request for more prosecuting positions or more funding from that perspective? Yes, sir. And that would go under the auditor, which we were here previously. We still have one unfinished election down in Jefferson County. So there's a runoff there. We won't know that one until November. So we wait until after that. We will have some. I'm not sure of the exact number, but we usually wait to ask for those new deputies, but especially in election year where we have new prosecutors coming in and trying to assess how many deputies they might need. Many of y'all may be familiar with our process, but that goes through the board of directors of the prosecuting attorneys so that they can determine where those needs, where those deputies are needed most. So people would make requests, or the electives would make requests to the board, and the board would decide how many to ask for. Thank you, Senator. Representative Ladyman. You recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, Senator Hester asked my question. I'm right here. He asked my question, but I got another question. The pause for justice. What is that? I don't have a problem with the amount. You didn't spend all the money, but what program is that? The pause for justice was added, and it's part of the Protect Act, where we have several facility dogs, courthouse facility dogs that are housed around the state. We have, we are now fully staffed. The Protect Act allowed us to have six dog handlers and the canine companions is the organization that gives us the dogs. They are highly trained. They go to court with vulnerable victims. Many of those are child victims to help them testify in court. Or a lot of times they're used at meetings with the prosecutors. They're available to anyone the court determines to be a vulnerable victim. And so that's what all of that money is for that program. And like I said, they're housed. We have one in Northeast Arkansas, one in Northwest Arkansas. We have one in a couple in Central Arkansas. And now our ones in South Arkansas have also been hired. And so we are now fully staffed in that program. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Seeing no further questions, we have a motion. A motion with a second. We have a second. Any discussion? All right. Seeing none, all those members say aye. Aye. Opposed? Your eyes have it. Thank you. Next on the agenda is Secretary of State. If you gentlemen would just introduce yourself when you get seated. Kenneth Eddett and Business Office Director. Matt Pidge, Deputy Secretary of State. Good morning. All right, Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Secretary of State's budget request starts on page 364. On page 365 is the Department of Appropriation Summary. They have 15 appropriations. They're requesting about 58.8 million for each year of the biennium with no executive recommendation. On page 366 is their operations appropriation. It's funded from the State Central Services Fund. They're requesting about 26.8 million for each year of the biennium. They do have a new appropriation. That's on page 374. Let's need our budget manuals and it will be new to the bill. It's the unborn children monument. It was established in Pierre in August of 2025. It is funded from private donations. They are requesting 20,000 for each year of the biennium. Again, there's no executive recommendation and this concludes my presentation. All right, members, any questions on this one? Seeing none, do we have a motion? A motion? Second? Any discussion? Seeing none, all those papers say aye. Opposed? You guys have it. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Members, moving over to item 13. This would be the Arkansas Supreme Court. Good morning. Just introduce yourself and we'll go ahead and get started. Casey Rainey, fiscal officer, Arkansas Supreme Court. Thank you. All right, Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Supreme Court's budget request starts on page 381. And on page 382 is their department appropriation summary. They have two appropriations and they're requesting about 14.2 million for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. Their first is their operations on page 383. It's funded from the State Central Services Fund. They're requesting about 8 million for each year of the biennium. There are Arkansas Reports line item. They are asking for an increase of 36,000. Well, 24,000 in FY28 and in FY29, they're asking for 36,000. This is based on projected cost increase on various contracts and a projected increase related to the provision of close captioning services for courtroom streaming services. On page 384 is the bar of Arkansas appropriation. It's funded from cash funds through attorney loss and space. They're requesting about 6.2 million for each year of the biennium with no significant changes. Again, there's no executive recommendation and this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you for that. Members, any questions? All right. Seeing none, do we have a motion? We have a motion. Second. We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Opposed? The treasurer of the state is next. Good morning. Just introduce yourself and then we'll get started. Michael Harry. I'm the chief compliance officer and director of government affairs for the treasurer. All right. Thank you, Michael. Okay, Jennifer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Treasurer's budget request starts on page 385. On page 386 is their department appropriation summary. They have 11 appropriations. Four of them have change levels. The agency is requesting about 4.2 billion for each year of the biennium. There is no executive recommendation. I'm going to go over the four appropriations with change levels. The first is the operations on page 387. It's funded from the State Central Services Fund. The agency is requesting about 8.3 million for each year of the biennium. They're asking to increase their operating expenses by 150,000 due to increased annual custodial fees. And they're asking to increase the preparedness, security and safety line item by 150,000 to support necessary security enhancements for office operations. On page 390 is the local sales and use tax to cities. The agency is requesting 1.18 billion for each year of the biennium. It's funded from local sales and use tax. This is an increase of 50 million due to continued growth in sales tax revenues. It's going to be the same on page 391, the local sales and use tax to counties. It's also funded from the local sales and use tax. They're requesting 1 billion with an increase of 10 million. And on page 392 is the uniform tax rate, it's min. 74. It's funded from the uniform tax rate trust fund and the agency is requesting 1.94 billion for each year of the biennium. This is an increase of 140 million due to increasing revenues. Again, there's no executive recommendation and this concludes my presentation. Thank you, Jennifer. We have a couple of questions. Excuse me, Senator Krop. You're recognized. More of a comment. I appreciate the jacket today. Well, well chosen. Thank you, Senator. It's my special budget jacket. Yes, thank you. Yeah, I hope it works. Representative Lightman, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a question. On page 390, page 390. So that increases. So are you you're projecting or you believe that the sales tax income will be 50 million dollars greater? Is that right? Yes. I hope you're right. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Wooten. You're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On page 385, an explanation for it. You show 30 positions. I saw 33 on the report of the field. Do you have three vacancies? Is that? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Representative. All right. Members, seeing no other questions? We have a motion. A motion. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes haven't. Jacket worked. Thank you. All right. We're doing the county aid treasure of the state. I guess you're sticking around. All right. Yes, sir. All right. Jennifer, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. County aid starts on page 398. On page 399, is there a department appropriation summary? They have four appropriations. The agency is requesting about 718.4 million for each year of the biennium. The executive provides for the agency request. On page 402, is there carry forward report? And they are not expected to carry forward any appropriation or funding, I mean. And this concludes my presentation. All right. Thank you, Jennifer. Members, any questions? All right. Seeing none, we have a motion. We have a motion. Can I get a second? We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Takes us down to the municipal aid, same office. All right. Jennifer, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Municipal aid starts on page 409. On 410, is the department appropriation summary. They also have four appropriations. They're requesting about 256.4 million for each year of the biennium. The executive does provide for the agency request. The agency does have carry forward language and that report is on page 413. And they are expected to carry forward 184,642. And this concludes my presentation. All right. Members, any questions? Seeing no questions, we have a motion. We have a motion. Have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. All right. Members, flipping pages here. We're going to item number 17 department of corrections. And we're going to switch analysts unless Jennifer wants to stay. Okay. Yeah, come on up, Lindsay. Thank you. All right. All right. Now we've got everybody here. If you would just introduce yourself for the record and we'll get started. Lindsay Wallace, Secretary Arkansas Department of Corrections. Wade Hodg, Chief Staff Department of Corrections. Chad Brown, CFO Department of Corrections. Next to paying director for the vision of correction. Shanice Davis, BLR, fiscal division. All right. Thank you. Good morning, all of you. And Shanice, you can go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair and good morning, members. We're going to start on page 421 in your budget manuals. On this page, you'll find the overview for administration and shared services with the Department of Corrections. They have three appropriations with the total agency request approximately 222.5 million in both fiscal years 28 and 29, which is about a 5.8 million increase from fiscal year 27 authorized. Executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Looking at the first appropriation that make up this division on page 423, you will see the juvenile sex offender assessment appropriation. Funds for this appropriation are derived from special revenue. There are no changes. The agency is requested to continue the appropriation from fiscal year 27 authorized in the amount of 170,000 in fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Continuing to the second appropriation, which is the county jail reimbursement or page 425. There are no changes. The agency is requested and continued appropriation from fiscal year 27 authorized in the amount of 34.8 million in general revenue funding of 34.8 million in fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request. If you turn to page 426, you will find the county jail reimbursement carry forward fund balance report. Act 790 of 2025 contains special language allowing any remaining balance to be carried forward in the following fiscal year. The actual funding carry forward amount is approximately 3.7 million and the funding will be used to reimburse counties for housing inmates who want sentenced to the Department of Corrections. The final appropriation for administration and shared services is the Department of Corrections shared services appropriation on page 428. The turtles and the fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29 agency request column is approximately 187.6 million. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request. And Mr. Chair, this concludes the administration and shared services appropriation. All right. Thank you, Shanice. We have a few questions here, Representative. Rose, you're up first. You're recognized. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Secretary, thank you for being here and your team. Just a quick question. I know there's a formula I was looking at your county jail reimbursement numbers and I noticed that there was no change in the request for the next year and that you had a, let's see, the actual carry forward numbers were close to about 3.7 million dollars. I know the county jails that I represent take these reimbursements at a loss. I know others do as well. And I was just curious if you could comment on that there's no change. You've got carry forward funds. Is there a formula or a reason why we're not making any changes to that in terms of the amount that is reimbursed. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, sir. So we don't set that right. That is actually said, I think by the chief fiscal officer and you all in conjunction with the governor's office. So we're just a pass through. So it's it's $40 now and that became the rate in 2022 and 2020. It was 32. So it has been that same same rate since then. So it's your determination. You guys just don't have any input on what that rate is. We historically never have. We've just been like I said the past, the past through a way to pay them. Sure. Well, thank you for the answer, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Representative Senator Love. You are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I actually represent the roast to my answer, but I'm curious. You said the reimbursement rate today is $40 per end date. Yes, sir. What is what is the daily rate for the Department of Corrections per end date? It's approximately $75. What's the exact amount, Chad? Yes, cost per day. It's about $75.44. Okay. So I guess in secretary while she said, of course, you all don't have a recommendation to increase that by any amount. And you said who was who was basically in charge of it? I don't have the set statutorily. I don't have the code reference for that. But yes, the chief fiscal officer, the legislature and the governor's office all agree. I think on that rate. Chad, do you have the code section by chance? No, I'm under. Okay. All right. I'm sorry, the auditor. Okay. It's set by code. I can get you the code section. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I'll have a comment during our taking up of the budget. Thank you. All right. Noted. Representative Layton, you're up. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I got a question on page 428. That first line, regular salaries. I'm just curious, you know, that's increasing by like $4.5 million. Why is that? It looks like you have 208 employees. You're budgeted for 252 authorized to 85. Is that because you're going to hire more people? Are you increasing salaries? What's the reason there? Representative, I believe this appropriation is for the 285 positions in FY28 and 29. So that'd be the appropriation for those positions. So if you were able to fill those, then you would need that much money. Is that correct? Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Representative. Senator Rice, you're next. Thank you. Thank you all for being here and always coming in and answering questions. It's good to see the main ones here that can answer questions. Where is the Board of Corrections paid out of? Senator, the Board of Corrections is paid out of the Division of Corrections General Revenue. Okay. Is that broken out anywhere? No, sir, it's not. Now we can, it's broken out with our internal system in the S4HANA system and we can pull out those numbers if needed, but it's not broken out on its own line item. Has there been any changes recently? In regards to the Board of Corrections salaries? No, sir. I don't, not to my knowledge. Okay. That's well. Senator Rice, they don't receive salaries. They receive, I think, stipends and per-dem. Well, stipends are per-dem. Is that changed? No, sir. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Representative Wooten, you're up. Thank you. As a follow-up, Secretary Wallace. And you may answer this too. The $75 that's paid by the state or it costs us is because we provide a lot of additional services that are not provided otherwise. Yes, sir. In the local jails. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Okay. On my report shows that you have a total of 6,281 employees. Of those 500 are over two years old. And the book of that is made up by the corrections department which is 359. Is that basically security positions that are vacant? Representative, I believe that's a mix of maintenance and construction positions. There's probably some correctional officers in there as well and foreign positions. The great majority of those will be the correctional officer positions, but there will be, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. What is, even with the pay increase that we've given down there, what is the rate of turnover that you have among correctional officers? Percentage. Yeah. Representative, before we look at the number of correctional officers hired and terminated over the past five years, it's a pretty high turnover rate. It's almost 85%. How much? 85%. 85% turnover rate. So that means that 15% have experience for maybe a year longer in position or two years, five years. What I'm after is that those should be experienced officers relative to what they're asked to do and perform. And you have an 85% turnover rate, which means 15% stay with you, but that's too high. But what do we do? What do we do in the marketplace to solve that problem down there? Yes, sir. The 85% turnover rates for our entry level positions, correctional officers and corpals. And so we do have those experienced officers that stay with us more often. And we are looking at some things and currently making some changes in our hiring practices to make sure that we're hiring the right people. To get people who would be with us for a longer period of time. Well, basically what we're doing is not worked with an 85% turnover among correctional officers. That's correct. I mean, it's just common knowledge that they come and go down there. It's an open door policy. So we need to deal with that from this body, from your board and otherwise to solve that position. Yes, our representative would not. I completely agree with you. And we're looking at all of those things. I think nationwide, this is not something that we are the only one experiencing that. So we are above a lot of states. We've actually increased the pay. And so that helps get them in the door. But then everybody is struggling keeping them with us. So what we're doing, we're looking at our process, how we're hiring them, who we're hiring. Kind of trying to raise our professional standards. We're looking at a centralized hiring process. And someone in this, in this body has asked previously about a culture study that the University of Arkansas at Little Rock did to us. Or did for, did for us a couple of years ago that the board of corrections put forward. And it's kind of showed, yes, money is a big part of it. But it's also the culture, not just the type of work it is, but it's how you talk to one another. It's the work that's being done. It's communications. It's all of those things. So we're looking to see what we can do from a training perspective. From our mid-level leadership, up to the, you know, leadership at the units to change sort of that culture. To see what we can do to keep them here longer. Okay. What is your average pay for a correctional officer to say of two years experience? It's 50, so do you want that number? 55. It's about $55,000 a year. See, that's, that's not near enough. I mean, we just need to face up to it. But there's many other factors. We're mortgages of facilities, availability of personnel and that type of thing that you're trying to deal with, and having a cope with. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And looking at page 428 again. There's been a significant amount of talk about the need to increase capacity and at our facilities. And I'm wondering if this budget adequately counts for hiring additional personnel, health care for the inmates that would be served. And, and all of the operating expenses surrounding that type of increased capacity. Representative, I don't, I don't think I can answer your question based on the budget we're looking at right now. This is the shared services budget. So once we get deeper into the rest of the budgets, like part or division of correction and community correction, I think that'd be a better conversation at that time. Okay. So you're saying that the regular salaries here are not fully reflective of. No, man, this is just shared services salaries only. This doesn't include division of correction and community correction. Thank you. Representative Hudson, that'll be item 19 just for your information. Representative Collins, you're recognized. Off to your right here. Thank you. So it's just I want to draw something out because we've talked about the rate per day to House of Prisoner. We've talked about the low rates we're paying and the high turnover on our corrections officers. And the connection is and just want you to address it. I mean, we have the lowest cost per day to House of Prisoner of any state in the country. And I mean, I guess in a certain sense, I applaud the efficiency. But in a broader sense, I'm concerned that it's too low because the cost of our corrections officers probably is baked into that. And the conditions of inmates probably baked into that too, as well as overcrowding. So I'm concerned, I guess, about it being so low because it tells me that it might not just be that we are thrifty and efficient. But in fact, we might have some real gaps in what we're doing. You know, you've got Kentucky at $116 a day with Carolina $150 a day. Some states that $300 or more a day. Why are we so low at $75 a day relative to those other states? And do you guys see that as a good thing or as something that maybe is shining a light on some issues we need to address? Thank you, Representative Collins, for the question. I can't really answer that because I don't know what everyone makes into their cost per day. We have a specified formula for what our cost per day looks like. I don't know what other states look like. Some states have unions. So that may factor into what their cost per day is. Okay. All right, Representative Beck, you're up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just clarification. Did you say you had an 85% turnover annually or over five years? That was the five year average. That's the five year average that you have 85% annually. So what we were looking at was from 2019, instead of looking at the vacancy rate, because the vacancy rate can be changed based on the number of budgeted versus un-budgeted positions you have. So I think the numbers that wait is referring to refer to what we looked at as our field positions versus our available positions. And so from 2019 to 2026, I think was the numbers that he was looking at. Pretty go on piece of paper. And the total number that we hired versus the ones that we terminated in that time frame was where he he plugged that right from. And I can't find my piece of paper where I had it written down. Yes. So from 2019 to September of 2026, we hired 8,298 entry-level correctional officers and corporals. And we terminated 7,494 in that same time period. So that's what he was referring to. It's a lot of turnover. Yeah. I don't know how you manage a group with that kind of term. Well, we're just hiring and firing or terminated. Some of them are not necessarily fires there. You know, they three day no-call no-show or for whatever reason. Those are all terminations in that same bucket. So you're continually running a training academy, which is additional cost into our budget. And all of the, I mean, it's just this constant wash. You hire and then you lose at the same rate almost that you're bringing them in. And we made a little bit of headway, as you could tell by, you know, we hired more than we terminated in those time frames. Some years better than others, but again, it's just this constant wash of people in and out the door. Thank you. Thank you, Representative Beck. Senator King, you're recognized. So talking about this, to understand this 85% of entry-level, our new hires into the corrections has the turnover rate, right? Yes. So how do you think in rural Franklin County, where a $50,000 your jobs are not getting filled around there in other capacities? How in the world do you think you can even have a start up there? In any rural areas, especially up in the northern west part? I don't think we have information to speak to that. Okay. Where's John? All right, Representative, ladies and gentlemen, you're the last question. You got in under the wire. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, we've talked a lot about salaries, and that's important. But another thing is working conditions. So, do you all look at or can you propose things that might improve the working conditions or facilities improvements? Because it's not always the money. It's where you work, who you work with, what conditions you're working under. So, is there any recommendations? Anything we could do in that arena? Yes, sir. Those all kind of are hit on in that culture study that I mentioned. That's all some things that we've been looking at. I mean, I provided a copy of that at some point. I can't remember which committee it was that asked for it, but I did provide it to y'all. I'm happy to provide it again. But you're exactly right. It is the working conditions. It's the culture. It is the atmosphere and the camaraderie or lack thereof between staff. It is the physical plant. And those are all things that we're working to improve. I have a, I think, a really good example of where we've sort of flipped that. And that's at East Arkansas at our prison at Brickies. They had an abysmal vacancy rate. It was bad. There were not enough staff there. A warden is there now who has done a tremendous job in shifting the culture, making staff feel welcome, making them feel like they're part of, you know, something bigger than just the shift that they work on. They have a lot of employee events. And it has twofold made changes. I believe to that facility because he's also focused on the inmates. They have a lot of spiritual programs, a field ministry that's there. And it has done precisely what you're talking about. So it's kind of a model in my mind for what we can do when we look at all of those things and make those adjustments. It starts at the top. I mean, you know, maybe there needs to be training for your top managers, your wardens to do the soft skills and work with the people and make them feel good to come to work. One more quick question. Do you have your training budget? Is that broken out of what you spend on training? Or is that in a lot of other numbers? Well, first of all, again, that's not in its own line item in the budget. That's something we can pull and track within the system. So if you want to provide that information, we'll be more than happy to do so. I would be very interested in that. Sure. Because that's a result of the turnover. So, you know, if we can reduce the turnover, then we should be able to reduce your training budget. Sure. I can provide that for you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, members. Seeing no other questions. Do we have a motion? Motion. Motion. Second. Second. Any discussion? Representative Wooten, you have a discussion? I'll come back to you if you'll give me just a second. Senator Loeb, did you have a discussion topic? All right. You recognize? So, colleagues, I've been out here for 16 years. And one of the issues that we have always faced, and this is with our county jails, is that the reimbursement is not high. Now, I do respect the fact that Representative Wooten said that, you know, I know that the $75 is including some of the services that our prisoners received down at the A-D-C. But here's the reality. Most of the funding is for holding prisoners and actually providing three huts and kites. Now, we need to make sure that we are taking care of our county jails, because our county jails are getting more dangerous. They're holding more A-D-C prisoners. We need to ensure that they're taking care of. Our county jails are, as I travel the state, they're talking about their facilities. They need to be updated. They're holding, they're holding our prisoners. We need to make sure that the reimbursement reflects what they are doing. And so, I would just say moving forward, that we need to make sure that we increase this reimbursement to our county jails so that we can make our county jails whole. Thank you. Thanks, Senator Reps and a baby. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to say that I think this body and the leadership in both chambers take the county jail reimbursement very seriously. And it's something that we will address and take into consideration legislatively. But it's not just one side of the aisle that's focused on that. I think we all take that into account. And it's a very serious matter for us. So thank you. All right. Seeing no other discussion. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? The eyes have it. Representative Wooten, did you have a point of personal privilege? You're recognized. If my Mr. Chairman. Yeah. I want to commend all of you. I certainly want to show you and your staff and the others down there that this body is totally in support of that needs to be. I have firsthand knowledge having been a state trooper involved in three riots down there. And I know what the situation is from a correctional officer standpoint. And I was also a state police sergeant and we went down there and had to deal with the situation. And it's not fun. It's not enjoyable. And it's an experience that I don't worship on anyone. But it's the fact of life that we've got to do more in the prison system from to help you deal with the situation down there. And it gets larger every single day. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right. Thank you, Representative. Members, that takes us down to item 18. This will be division of community correction. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We'll take a look at the division of community correction on page 430. On this page, you'll find the agency summary. They have four appropriations with the total agency requests approximately 104.3 million in both fiscal years 28 and 29, which is about 11.1 million increase from fiscal year 27 authorized. Executive recommendation provides for the agency requests. Looking at the first appropriation within the division of community correction, it will be on page 432. This is community correction special. This appropriation is due to lots of support adult probation and parole services as well as special programs for substance abuse and mental health treatment. It is funded with court fees and sanctions paid by offenders. The agency is requested to continue appropriation in the amount of approximately 14.9 million in fiscal years 28 and 29. The executive recommendation provides for the agency requests. Moving on to the next appropriation is community correction state on page 434. This appropriation is for daily operations and funding consists of general revenue, federal revenue and other funds. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of approximately 88.9 million in both fiscal years 28 and 29 and general revenue funding of 65.5 million in each year of the biennium. The executive recommendation provides for the agency requests. The next appropriation with changes is DLC HQ cash ad men on page 436. This appropriation is due to lots for maintenance repair, construction and supplies for the Department of Corrections headquarters. Funding derives from cash revenue through building rental income. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of 500,000 in both fiscal years 28 and 29. In the operating expense line item, the request an increase of 500,000 for the cash appropriation approved by ALC for fiscal year 27 for general operations for the department headquarters. The executive recommendation provides for the agency requests. The final appropriation for the vision of community correction is the federal asset forfeiture on page 438. This appropriation is for operate and maintenance costs and funding derives from federal asset forfeiture settlements. There are no changes. The agency is requesting continued appropriation from fiscal year 27 authorize in the amount of 75,000 in fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29. The executive recommendation provides for the agency requests. And Mr. Chair, this concludes the division of community correction appropriation. All right. Thank you, Shinnees. Members, any questions? All right. Seeing none, we have a motion. We have a motion. How about a second? I have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. That takes us down to item 19. Everybody staying good? All right. When we lost one. All right. Shinnees, you can go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let's take a look at the division of correction agency summary on page 440. The total agency request is approximately 573.8 million in fiscal year 28 and 574 million in fiscal year 29. Represent increases of approximately 88.9 million in 89.1 million of a fiscal year 27 authorized. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Mr. Chair, this agency has 10 total appropriations. Only five have changed levels. And for the second time, I will focus on those appropriations that have those change levels. The division of correction begins on page 442. This is work release cash appropriation. And it is cash funding. The work release program allows inmates to hold paying jobs in the community and provides eligible inmates an opportunity to earn wages, pay restitution, fines and fees. Participants reimburse the division of correction $22 per day to offset calls for maintenance and operation of the census. The agency is requesting continued appropriation in the amount of approximately 8 million in both fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29. David Service's line item has been discontinued as all obligations have been fulfilled. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request. Moving on to the inmate care and custody appropriation on page 446. This account is used for the maintenance operation and improvement of the division of correction relating to non-form or crop producing programs. Funding consists of general revenue, non-revenue income, excess farm profits and other funds, including federal reimbursements. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of approximately not $496.6 million in fiscal year 28 and $496.8 million in fiscal year 29. In general revenue of $582.5 million in each year of the biennium, the executive recommendation provides for the agency request. On page 447, you will find their employee compensation report and its submission is required by Act 120 or 2026. Turning to page 448, you will find the inmate care and custody carry forward fund balance. The actual funding carry forward amount is 12,182.15 and the funding will be utilized on county jail reimbursement or maintenance needs. On page 450, you will find the prison industry appropriation. The prison industry program aims to operate the various industry programs in an efficient and cost effective manner that provides inmate productive and significant training opportunities. More than 800 inmates participate in these programs. It is funded by special revenue. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of approximately $12.5 million in fiscal year 28 and 29. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request. On page 452, you will find farm operations appropriation. This program is involved in almost every area of farming, providing vegetables, meat, milk and eggs which are consumed by the inmate population. The primary goal is to provide useful and meaningful work for inmates, producing sufficient cost effective food for the inmates. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of approximately $20 million in both fiscal year 28 and 29. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request. The final appropriation with change levels is on page 454 and is the inmate welfare treasury cash appropriation. It is a self-supported store operation providing the opportunity for inmates to purchase various commissary supplies such as hygiene items, paper and stamps. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of approximately $25.6 million in both fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29. The executive recommendation provides for the agency request and Mr. Chair, this concludes the division of correction appropriation. Thank you, Denise. I recognize my co-chair Senator Boyd at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This were three different places in the discussion. So I think I'm aiming at the right place, but my co-chair can correct me if I'm wrong. So there's ample data suggesting that jail reimbursement fails to meet county costs. That said, the population of Arkansas is really shifting westward. Our prisons seem to be over in the east part. And with that comes transportation costs to the counties. So it seems to me like one thing, because no matter what happens with county jail reimbursement, one county is going to have more efficiencies than some counties. So I don't know that we're ever going to get the reimbursement for every county exactly the same. But the one thing that the state seems to be could do is provide the transportation and not forced counties to transport state prisoners. Are there any discussions or thoughts about doing that, anything in the budget that? I'm going to let director Payne chime in on this here in just a second, but I did find that code section and I wanted to share that with y'all related to the cost for county jails. And it's 12271114 and it does provide in that code section that the reimbursement rate shall include the county's cost of transporting the inmates to the division. So one, we have not spoken really about that because it's contemplated by the statute as the reimbursement rate covering that. So I think there would probably have to be a change to the statute for us to carve something else. So what you're saying is we've set code in such a way that we cause counties that are farther away to have to pick up more of the burden. But at the same token, we pay all the counties the same. That's what the statute says are yes. Okay, that's good inside. I appreciate that. There's nothing to add. That's fine, but I just wanted to have that discussion. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Boyd, Representative Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I have a couple of questions all kind of on the same topic. So it looks to me like the prison industries brings in about $9 million a year. Is that about right to start with? Yes, sir. According to the FY26 data, yes, sir. Okay. And then, I mean, you mentioned that the prisoners are doing a lot of this work. Do they get paid a wage? And is there an average wage that they are paid? No, sir. So they get paid no wage on that. Okay. So that's $9 million basically coming in due to their work, but without paying them. The same kind of question looks like $7 million coming in any wage paid to the inmates working on the prison farm. No, sir. Okay, so that's $7 million. It also says that you guys on the work release charged the inmates $22 a day. What is how many inmates are we talking here? What is basically the total amount of that fee collected on the inmates? Because I see $22 per day per inmate, but I don't know how many inmates are on work release, and how many days they're on work release. So like, what would that number be? Well, so we went up by $26, our revenue was $6.3 million. So that's $6.3 million. And then, where would I find on here the prison phone net between the contract and the fees paid by the prisoners? What's the net collections to the division for the prison phones? So that would be our coin list, and that starts on page 455 in your manuals. This is a little bit trickier to answer, sir. The FCC came out and put some regulations on our phone collections and video collections, so that's dropped drastically. Right now, I think we earned two cents per minute. For those calls, two cents per minute per voice in two minutes, two cents per minute for video. So those collections will have dropped significantly in past years. I hate to answer that right now. I'd rather go back and pull some numbers and get you that accurate information based on those situations. All right. I would appreciate that. And then the other question I have is commissary. Is there kind of a net profit that you guys have on commissary? What page is that? Representative Collins, what page are you looking at? I'm trying to find out because I don't know where that is in this. Okay. All right. So it starts on page 453. Okay. So on page 454, you'll see the data. In FY26, it looks like our revenue was 20 million commissaries a little bit different as well. Even though that's the revenue that we generate, we still have to buy product to bring in. So that's not your overall revenue. So there's expenses going out revenue coming in at the same time. So I can get you that information as well. Well, that would be good. I don't really know what those expenses are. Is it the 16 million operating expenses roughly maybe? Well, so we have about 28 commissary positions that we fund out of that out of this fund. But when I say we purchase commissary items, we have vendors that we purchase items through like batteries, food, stuff of that nature. Those invoices may range from a million dollars a month to half a million a month. So as we're pushing money out the door, we also have the inmate population buying those commissary items and bringing the revenue back in. But they wouldn't exceed what you're what you have an appropriation for. Well, if we did exceed what we have an appropriation, we would come back and request more appropriation through this body. Understood. I guess my point is if I add all these things up, these fees and ways in which the division profits and unpaid labor, I mean, we're talking about at least without having anything in there for phone, 25 million dollars or so. That's quite a lot to be putting on prisoners through for the most part, don't have the ability to earn money really coming from their families. It's more of a point, but I just would you agree? I don't think I have an opinion on that, sir. All right, thank you. Perhaps you have a lady. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I might have a couple of questions if I'm asking too many, just tell me and I'll go to the bottom of the queue, but you're asking too many. Do the inmates pay you rent? Do they pay rent for what they're saying? Yes, and I'll be fine. In the work release, they do, yes, sir. They pay you rent. So they go out and they get a job and they come back and pay rent. So the money they're making, they pay for their rent. Yes, sir. Do they pay you for the food they eat? No, sir, they don't. So you're providing that at no charge. Do they pay you for their clothing that they wear? Or do you provide that at no charge? No, I don't think so. You're providing that at no charge. Do they pay the guards for guarding them or do you provide that at no charge? We provide that, sir. So there's a major expense for the comfort and food and keeping of those prisoners. They're making a lot of money, but they're also getting a lot of services that they don't pay for. Just want to make that point. My actual question is on page 442, just curious on the capital outlay line. You spent 238,000, but the budget is 2.4 million. Why is there such a big difference there? I mean, what's planned for that 2.4 million? Is that incidental capital improvements or is that a major project? So representative, exactly what you said is correct. That additional appropriation we use for food, M&O. We also fund some projects out of this as well. We buy vehicles out of this, so there's other things that come about that we use this fund for. Some of those things, we don't know they're coming our way during the fiscal year. So it's good to have that additional appropriation. So maybe a lot of small expenditures. Yes, sir. Okay, thank you. One more, Mr. Chairman, if I'm mind. Page 452 on the employee, the number of positions. And this is farm operations. So it says you have 37, but you're funded for 52. What's the difficulty in filling that? I mean, is that because... Now these are prisoners, is that right? Are these... Okay. Why can't we... No, sir, these are normal positions that you guys have heard. Why can't we fill that? What's the issue? I think that's the million dollar question, sir. If we knew, we would have probably all 52 of them filled. So we really don't know the answer to that. Director Payne is welcome to chime in. But I think location and pay, a lot of those are going to be down at the farm at Cummins. And there's just not a lot of people around there. So the workers that you have. Mr. Payne, you might be the last of this. But do they travel a long way? Do we know how far they travel? Some travel 20, 30 miles. I mean, not very far. But once they're there, some of these guys work in various places across the state. Like my cattle person works at Wrightsville as well as he covers Cummins. My livestock overall supervise it covers Calico Rock, Wrightsville Cummins. So they work at various places throughout the day. Is that because we can't find the folks in other areas? Or is that because you just utilize their time that way? We utilize the supervisor's time that way. But some of it is because we can't find staff in those areas. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Representative Layman. Representative lunchroom. You're recognized. Thank you. My questions on page 446. The actual expenditures. The grand total is 406 million. And then the budgeted was 419. But then in FY28, it goes up to 496. So that's a $90 million increase when we've actually done a pretty good job with the budget. It was 406. And the budgeted expenditures were 419. That's a $90 million swing in a one-year time frame. Can you answer why that's. Sure. Yes, ma'am. So if you look at it, I just want to point this out for reference. But if you look at your personal services matching all the way down to jail contracts, none of those numbers change from left to right. So if you look at your regular salaries, all of that money is in your regular salaries. Okay. So if we budgeted all 4,934 positions, that's what the appropriation would look like. Okay. All right. Well, that makes sense. I'll step out of the queue. All right. Thank you. Senator Simon, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Where on here would I find details about facilities maintenance? Would that fall under the inmate care and custody? Where are you at? I mean, on page 446. Okay. Would that be? What page? What page? 446? Repeat your question one more time, please. I'm just wanting to know where facilities maintenance would fall into, like maintenance of the actual facility. So facilities maintenance would fall in the detail earlier in your pages. Yeah, but it wouldn't mean it would. I can get you that information so you don't have to sit there watching me fall into pages. But it's in the detail in your manual and I can pull that information for you. Okay. I'd like to know that and I'd also like to know kind of by facility. What is budgeted for? What has been budgeted for? And what is, what are we looking for in the future? And the reason why I asked that is because I know I've been in to some of these facilities, one in particular. I mean, I'm not a contractor, but whenever it rains, and we have to have trash cans sitting in the hallways to collect water and water is running down the walls. And we can't use portions of the facility because it's flooded whenever it rains. And we're talking about adding on to existing facilities or potentially building existing building more facilities. We need to make sure that we can take care of what we have first. Would you agree? Yes, sir. Okay. So yeah. So that's just my question about facilities. Okay. On the positions, I noticed that we were budgeting or looking at potentially 4,934 back to page 446. I'm assuming most of that is for correctional officers. Are we expecting to be able to get close to 5,000 positions this year? And I know this might be kind of redundant based on all the personnel questions. But I would define that more as they're more security positions. Security just correctional officers, but the correctional officer probably hold the biggest chunk of that number. So that's there's no way as a department, we can afford 4,934 positions. Our budget just can't handle that based on the funding that we have. So we look at our M&O expenses. We look at all those things. And then we budget the amount of positions. We get the director paying. How many positions do you need to keep your facility safe? And we start working through those details before these ever get printed. So when the AOP, the annual operating plans comes out, we look at what we can spend. We look at what we can afford. We look at what's coming. And that's how we try to lay out our budget. Okay. But if I heard you correctly, you said we don't have the budget to be able to even fill these positions. No, sir. And some of these not all of them. Security officers are doing the job before people in some cases. Well, but maybe that leads to that 85% turnover rate. Well, sure, but if you also look at what we have currently that's advertised, if we have 300 positions advertised right now that we can't fill from a money perspective, why in the world would I want to budget more positions if we can't fill what we have? So until we can prove we can fill what we have, I don't want to look at those other positions. So we have money that we need to spend elsewhere on our facilities, infrastructure, things around the state. Gotcha. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Senator. Representative Valt, you recognize. I'm right here. And I know my voice is my stuff. So I feel good too. The floor 52, which is the farming. I see an operating expense. You're adding $4 million dollars to your appropriation. Can you tell me why we're adding $4 million to operating expenses? Well, from Representative from FY27 to 2029, those appropriations stay the same. There's no change in the authorized appropriation. It's just what was budgeted. It's an operating expense. It says $8 million, $9 million, $12 million, $12.9 million. Sure. So $8.9 is what we spent in FY26, which I know you know that. I'm pretty happy that you're going to $12.9 in appropriation. I want to know why we're jumping $4 million dollars in appropriation. Well, we're not. If FY27 aren't authorized appropriation, our appropriation act was $12.9 million. So our current appropriation is $12.9. We budgeted $9.6 out of it. My paper doesn't show that. Okay. Well, we budgeted $9.6 out of that $12.9 million. For 2027. I say, okay, that's fine. Go down to the bottom and tell me why we're going $8.2 million more. Are we doing that, too? I'm not trying to make you talk more, but where are you at? It looks like we're trying to. We spent $11 million more appropriated for 2028. The executive is $20 million. Is that it? Am I reading that wrong, too? You spent $11 million. Your appropriation is $13.9. So our FY27 authorizes $19.9. We budgeted $13.9 out of that based on the revenues that we think will come in for the farm. Okay. And then the last thing I have is on capital outlay. So with capital outlay, I know. For capital outlay, I'll say that's for a lot of our heavy equipment that comes our way. So if we need to purchase heavy equipment for anywhere around the farm, you're talking about 20,000 acres of farm around the state. So tractors, combines, anything of that nature that gets us started. So for us, it's a good safety net to have. If we need something right away. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you representative. Representative Hudson, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I want to go back to the question I asked prematurely earlier. Because it sounds to me like the answer is no. We are not accounting for nor are we able to hire. In the event we need increased capacity at these facilities. Is that correct? We are hiring at the rate that we can. We're improving our recruiting efforts, working with the department of the military, working with more job fairs, trying to get more advertisements out. But I mean, we're doing everything that we can to bring as many people as we can at all of our facilities. So and thank you for that. But I think I heard that there are 300 open positions currently. So, you know, in the event we increase capacity at any facility. It doesn't sound to me like we would be able to hire sufficient to sustain the needs of a larger facility or a larger population at these facilities. I don't think at any of our facilities we have any more room to expand. It would require additional infrastructure and additional looks at all of that. I think we've done that whenever Governor Sanders came into office and started looking for places that we could add at our existing facilities. So I think Director Payne would agree with me whenever I say, everywhere we have now, where we have staff, we are pretty well buttoned up. Okay, so looking on page 446 at the regular salaries and Representative Lundstrom was asking about the increase to $290 million. I'd roughed out some math on that. And it looks like if we've got actual positions fill the $4,420,228,229 million roughly, that averages to about a $52,000 annual salary. If I multiply that out by $4934, I get about $255 million. So that's still a $40 million difference between $290. Could you explain the difference in that appropriation? I would have to go and do some math as well on that on what you just explained. For my math, I would like to know what the actual salary is so I can put the match and everything on it as well. So if you don't mind, let me go back to my office and I'll do that calculation as well and I'll see how close I can come to yours. That would be great. I mean, that was an English major. So I mean, I could be wrong here. I've got one last question on page 447. I'm trying to make some sense of the employee compensation report. The act so I could make sure I understood exactly what was supposed to be reported. But the current liability as of June 30, 2026. What time period does that cover? That would be the previous fiscal year. So in all of the previous fiscal year, we spent $135,000 on overtime. No, ma'am. Okay. So what does that cover? So I'll just start from left to right on holiday. We probably, we, we accrue about $12.00 million a year. Director Payne's folks have been working some of that off. So that's down to $6.5 million. Straight time. That's probably what was left over on the books. I believe that your gap time from 40 to 46 hours. So the six hours in between 40 and 46 is that. And your overtime is your time and a half at 135 million. So I would assume at the end of the fiscal year that didn't get expensive in the next fiscal year, that was probably the liability that was hanging out there. Okay, now that makes sense. And so projected for 2027 or expecting to pay about 13.9 million in overtime. What page are you looking at? Same page, 447. Same page, yes, ma'am. Okay. Is that number so high because of the fact that we have a shortage of employees at this time? Well, let me, let me back up just a little bit. The short answer is yes. Okay. So the Department of Corrections is kind of a teeter totter of a, of an organization. So the more people, Director Payne and his folks hire, the more overtime comes down. The more turnover we have, the more overtime goes up. So it's a fine game that we play in an apartment. But we're assuming based on previous fiscal years, this is what we spent. So we're going to project this out. But it may not be that much. If we start hiring folks and retaining them, then that overtime number is not going to be $13 million. You're welcome. Representative Annett. Thank you. I have a question. Are all the units already filled with medical staff personnel? Sorry. I don't know what well pass vacancy rate is, but yes, absolutely. Well path has got a great offering of services and their staff at every single facility. Yes. Okay. So we can get that information. I don't know what their vacancy rate is. Yes, ma'am. Are they required to have those positions filled? Yes. There are performance standards in their contract where they have to be at a certain rate of fill. I don't, again, I don't know what that number is off the top of my head, but yes, ma'am. Okay. Can you get me the yes, ma'am that are not filled? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Representative. I have one final question. Representative Wooten. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, my question has to do with page 440 and page 452, I believe, dealing with the forming operation. I think most of it's been covered. But are we experiencing the same thing down there that the form industry is experiencing relative to low cash, low prices and that type of thing? Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. My question has to do with the cash rent. How many acres do we rent out to farmers around Warner and around that at Cummins and then over at Brickie and up at Calico Rock and other facilities? Do we have a cash rent figure that we rent for? Or do we just take what they, how do we derive the income for the form? You're saying rent to other farmers outside of us? Do you have any of that? No. In other words, you utilize all your acres. You don't lease any out of it out. No, sir. Around the, okay. We don't rent somebody. So where would I look to see if we are, are we profitable in the farming operation? I see a special revenue of $6.7 million and then we have a budget stabilization trust. I'm not sure. That's $5.6 million. How do we tell if we're profitable in what we're doing, forming wise, down there with the produce and the horse auction and the cow sales and the producing of crops, the raw crops? I'll try to explain it the best I can. Okay. So what we, our goal is we have an inmate consumption of $5.6 million. And that's basically a loan that's given to the farm every year. We meet that inmate consumption. And that's basically the produce that we provide and put in the kitchens to actually feed the inmates that we have. So that's our, our number one goal is to meet that consumption. We also farm, we pay salaries, we pay, we buy meat, we buy a number of things out of that. So it's not necessary that we're trying to profit. We're trying to save the state money by providing food to the inmate population. So yes, we made profit, but we'll take that money and put it back in the kitchen to save the state money. Okay. Secretary Wallace, this is a question for you and your financial advisor. How much are you paying or will you pay or have you paid to state, to state shared services in administration as a result of the new rule? How much, how much money are they taking out for use in the shared services? That's right around 1.7 million, I think, annual. Seven. Seven. Yes sir. 1.7 million. Okay, and I'm going to put you all on the spot, but in your opinion, is that worth seven, is it saving you seven million in your operation down there? Well, in the penitentiary. That's, that's a hard question to answer. It's big of an operation as we are. It's 1.7 million dollars, not seven. 1.7, yes sir. Thank you. All right, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. All right, thank you, Representative Tosh. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Over here to you, right. Good to see you. I just a quick question for you that, you know, doing a little research. I look back and I think it was in the late 70s or the early 80s that the Department of Corrections appeared before the legislative body and asked for their first appropriation to help fund the Department of Corrections. I think that was a request for $10,000. Having up and to that point, the Department of Corrections has always been self-sufficient and raised the crops and it didn't cost taxpayers a dime. And now the day you appear before us and we're looking at, I don't know what is it, $20 million, or whatever the appropriation request is. So I'm just trying to, and maybe you can't even answer this question and maybe it's just, but what happened? Some were along the way. How did we go from being a self-supporting self-sufficient Department of Corrections and asking for $10,000 now to $20 million? You know, I can understand that things change, but it's just, and that's probably not even the question you want to attempt to answer. So I understand. So, but just leave it at that. Thanks. All right, thank you members, seeing no further questions? Do you have a motion? Motion. We have a motion. Second, any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Yes, have it. It takes us down to item 20. This would be the post-prison transfer board. I think we're adding one more person, or two. Thank you. You two, Demmond, you please introduce yourselves for us. Kevin Smith, administrator, post-prison transfer board. I'm Bois Hamlet, chairman of the parole board. Thank you, sir. All right, she needs you to go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The post-prison transfer board appropriation can be found on page 465. The post-prison transfer board is responsible for conducting parole hearings throughout the state, making decisions on conditional release of inmates from correctional facilities, and reviewing pardon and executive clemency of applications, and making recommendations to the governor. The board is funded from general revenues through the miscellaneous agencies following. The agency is requesting appropriation in the amount of $2.8 million in both fiscal years, $28.29, and general revenue funding in the amount of $2.7 million for each year of the biennium. The agency is requesting an increase in professional fees of $5,000 each year to cover parole hearing, attorney fees, and translator services. Executive recommendation provides for the agency request, and Mr. Chair, this concludes the post-prison transfer board appropriation. All right, thank you, members, any questions? Senator Rice, you're recognized. Thank you all for being here. Quick question. Some committee, I've been in recently. Somebody made the comment. And the best I remember that the post-prison transfer board had changed addresses. Three times lately, is that correct? I know, that's not correct, Senator. Okay. Where I heard that. They did say that, but that's not correct. Okay, all right, thank you for clarifying that. That gives you the opportunity to clarify that. Can you tell me, on your website, this happened a few years ago, I printed all for constituent a copy of a pardon request, never served time, you know, kind of deal. And he went through the trouble of doing it and turned it in. They said, well, that's not even a current copy. I printed it off the website. Can you tell me, is that on the website now that I can print off something for somebody and it be current? I believe we do have the current pardon request application on our website, but I will verify that there's not an older copy on there somewhere. Okay. If you would, or if you would get one sent to me, where I won't make that mistake again. Thank you. All right, Senator Simon, you're recognized for a budget question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to know about how many parole hearings you hear per year. That ranges each month, but between 600 to 800 is a typical amount for the parole hearings that we do also have verification hearings as well, and those range from 300 to 400 a month. Okay, all right, thank you. Thank you, Senator. Members, seeing no further questions, do we have a motion? The motion is second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed? No, I have it. Final item on the agenda. It would be the Arkansas Sentencing Commission. Good morning. If you introduce yourself, then we'll get on with it. Good morning. My name is Alain Lee. I'm the Director of the Sentencing Commission. All right. Thank you. All right. Shaneesh, you can go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our last appropriation of the day for corrections is on page 468. And this is Arkansas Sentencing Commission. The Arkansas Sentencing Commission establishes maintained and revises sentencing guidelines, monitors, and assesses the effective legislation and policy on correctional resources. They educate the criminal justice community and the public regarding laws and policy and are responsible for instituting citizen standards to ensure convictions are proportional to the seriousness of offenses. Operations are funded from General Revenue through the Missileaneous Agency's Fund. The agency is requesting appropriation and the amount of 504,000 in fiscal year 28 and 505,000 in fiscal year 29. And General Revenue of 429,000 for each year of the biennium. The executive recommendation provides for the agency requests. And Mr. Chair, this concludes the presentation for Sentencing Commission. All right, members, any questions on this item? Okay. Seeing none, do we have a motion? We have a motion. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. That is the final item on the agenda. A couple of things before we go. Just a reminder that special language will meet this afternoon at 130. Also, your white binders that are on your desks. Those binders need to stay here. If you've made notes in those documents, you're welcome to take the documents from inside the binder, but please leave the white binder on your desk. Mr. Coach, anything from you? All right. Thank you for the work. We're adjourned. Thank you.