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Governor calls special session, includes 31 items on agenda Saturday, Apr 1, 2006 By Aaron Sadler Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Huckabee on Friday beckoned legislators to the state Capitol for a special session next week to address the latest court order to remedy chronic education funding deficiencies. Huckabee set a Monday start for the special session and put 31 items on the agenda, including such non-education issues as a ban on smoking in the workplace and raising the state minimum wage. The governor planned to address a joint session of the House and Senate on opening day. He and legislative leaders said they hoped to complete business and adjourn by Friday. The state Supreme Court ruled in December that school funding for the current school year and the 2005-2006 term was unconstitutionally inadequate. Justices cited lawmakers' failure to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for schools and also criticized facilities funding. The court gave lawmakers until Dec. 1 to develop remedies in the school funding case first filed by the now-defunct Lake View School District in 1992. A majority of members in the House and Senate have signed on to a $132.5 million remedy that includes extra money for districts' inflation costs and support for the state teacher retirement system. "I'd love to be able to say that we've really dealt with Lake View once and for all, and that the next General Assembly coming into session in 2007 is not going to have the word 'Lake View' on every other conversation," Huckabee said. "I think we are actually going to be there." The small eastern Arkansas school district was merged with a neighboring district in 2004, a direct result of a consolidation law enacted two years ago after the high court 2002 decision that struck down Arkansas' school funding system. Seventeen items on the governor's special session call are directly related to education. Others include Huckabee proposal to ban smoking in workplaces, including restaurants, and a proposal to increase the state's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.25. Also included are proposals to require electronic monitoring of sex offenders and stiffen penalties for sex crimes involving children under 12, and to restrict protests at funerals, specifically stop picketing by members of a Kansas church who have protested at funerals of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. Other proposals would give tax incentives to biodiesel fuel suppliers, authorize money for a Department of Health and Human Services antiviral stockpile, allow an exemption for some convicted felons to work at munitions plants and authorize a bond issue for projects at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The governor issued the call Friday afternoon after discussed the special session with legislators in a 37-minute telephone conference call. The House and Senate education committees recommended the bulk of education items to be considered, including the $132.5 million funding increase and an appropriation for additional school facilities aid. In a compromise that allowed the Senate to reach consensus on the education package, the amount set aside for facilities funding would be limited to $50 million this year and the Legislative Council given oversight on facilities spending. Huckabee required a consensus on the education recommendations before he would call a session. House Speaker Bill Stovall, D-Quitman, said last week that a majority of House members supported the plan. Senate leaders ironed out a last-minute compromise Thursday. "(Senators) worked very hard to come together," Huckabee said. "They've been able to do that and it is to their credit. I hope the people of Arkansas will appreciate what has to happen and the dynamics of getting there, because it has been a very admirable effort on their part." Most legislators' questions during the conference call were about the proposed smoking ban. Sen. Ruth Whitaker, R-Cedarville, accused the governor doing an about-face by proposing the smoking ban after opposing an earlier state Health Department rule that would have banned smoking in restaurants. "It's an infringement of personal property rights and more government intrusion," Whitaker said. Huckabee said the proposed regulation change targeted a particular industry and was set forth by the Health Department, not the Legislature. Last year, the House defeated legislation that would have banned smoking in restaurants. Huckabee said a ban on workplace smoking would result in a $19 million reduction in health care costs and a significant reduction in the number of heart attacks in the state. "I realize that bill has created some anxiety for some (legislators), and some have thought, 'Well, this is a property rights issue,'" Huckabee said. "What I would want to really say to you is that it is a property rights issue. The property of one's own lungs and heart deserve to be able to breathe clean air." The governor said the ban eases pressure on cities that border each other, where local leaders may have to choose whether a smoking ban would have an adverse economic impact. As far as cities like Texarkana, which border a city in another state, Huckabee said Arkansas should be a state to take the lead in anti-smoking legislation. A survey released Tuesday showed about 65 percent of the state's registered voters support a workplace smoking ban. The minimum wage proposal enjoys strong support in the Legislature, brought on by a push from community agencies and churches to enact a constitutional amendment increasing the minimum wage. The proposed November ballot measure would increase the state's minimum wage by $1, then raise the rate annually based on inflation. The proposed legislation includes a $1.10 increase but no inflation indexing. |
