Good morning #arpx! We're back for another couple days of fiscal session. Today in Joint Budget Committee are various amendments to funding bills; later in the personnel subcommittee we'll hear Sen. Terry Rice's proposed amendment to defund Joe Profiri's position.
Rep. Lundstrum pauses proceedings to make sure we're not spending any more money on unemployment services/benefits. Classy as always, Rep.
We are not, predictably (but we should be!)
Treasury is up to ask for a bit more money for salaries; Sen. Bryant is noting that the C-suite employees are getting as much as 20%+ raises, while lower level employees are getting as little as 2% (far below COL/inflation rates)
Treasury rep can't answer where exactly these salaries are going.
Ark. has a portfolio of $11 billion, managed by 4 investment managers; if we didn't have those folks, it would cost something like $180mil to outsource that financial management.
He notes that treasury has to compete hard with the private sector for financial managers, much more so than other constitutional officers.
Rep. Cavanaugh: why can't you tell us where these raises are going? Several of these folks make more than the Governor and her staff. You've already asked for substantial raises the past 4 years.
Cavanaugh, cont: It appears to me that we're taking care of a select few. You've also reduced the office's hours to make it harder for citizens to access. This is giving me heartburn.
A: not my call to say who gets a salary bump. 2 individuals have left for higher paying jobs.
John Thurston is notably absent today. Treasury rep is getting raked over the coals here.
Cavanaugh: "We're talking about his budget with questions only he can answer. It would've been a good idea for him to show up."
Sen. Mark Johnson: pretty lopsided raises since Jan. of last year. Top of the office got 33% raises. Since March of last year, two investment managers got nearly 100k in raises. Lots of other employees getting in the 30k range of raises.
493k total in raises since Thurston took office. Where does this end if we keep giving raises at this rate? Can we cap raises with special language?
Johnson asks if the treasury would pull this down and come back with some special language to avoid a "blank check" situation.
Rep. Pilkington: The concern is that when we were here last time, we needed additional funding for the investment team, which didn't go to that team. "Trust me bro" is not a policy. This is the highest page schedule in the state.
John Thurston makes just over 100k, let's note.
Treasury: "We're not trying to play tricks; our investment team got raises."
Pilkington: "Smaller or larger than the C-suite staff?" He wants some stuff in writing.
Rep. Lundstrum makes a motion to hold this until more info + the Treasurer can come to answer questions.
Rep. Cavanaugh: we gave you $150k two years ago for emergency prep, and were told that was a 1-time thing. You're back asking for more.
A: this is specifically for boosting our IT security.
Lundstrum's motion passes - this budget item will be back tomorrow, and hopefully Thurston will show up.
Notably, the Game and Fish appropriation has passed out of committee. Long-time listeners will remember that a last minute fight over the salary of the head of the Commission derailed the last fiscal session, necessitating a special session to fix it.
Dismang asks to suspend the rules tomorrow in special language subcommittee; apparently there was a misunderstanding on when bills needed to be filed.
Okay they're adjourned. We'll be back in 15 minutes for personnel, where Terry Rice will attempt to defund Joe Profiri's position as Special Advisor to the Governor.
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