MonticelloLive

The members of the 86th General Assembly can look back on 2007 as one of the most productive in the history of Arkansas.
During the legislative session the General Assembly voted to reduce taxes by record amounts, mainly through cutting the state sales tax on groceries in half.
Also during the session, legislators voted to spend most of the available budget surplus on improvements to public school facilities across Arkansas.
After the session concluded, the state Supreme Court released the state from its jurisdiction in the 15-year-old Lake View school funding case. In its final ruling in the case, the court said Arkansas state government distributed funding to school districts equitably and adequately, as required by the state Constitution.
Numerous states are in long, drawn out litigation over the equity of their school funding formulas. Officials and educators in those states can look on Arkansas with envy, because they know how difficult it is to get out of court when state government is a defendant in a school funding lawsuit.
In 2008, lawmakers will continue work on the major issues that state government always faces - public education, access to quality health care, highway construction and maintenance, the affordability of higher education and prison overcrowding.
There is no regular session of the legislature scheduled until January of 2009, so if the legislature convenes in 2008 it would be in a special session called by the governor to address urgent needs. Legislative committees meet regularly in the interim, however, to keep up with issues affecting their constituents and state agencies.
Toward the end of 2008, legislative budget hearings will begin. At budget hearings lawmakers conduct an intense review of all state government spending, in preparation for adopting state agency budgets during the 2009 session.
The governor has appointed a 30-member round table to work on solutions to the troubling lack of health insurance among Arkansans. According to the state’s surgeon general, 20 percent of Arkansans between 19 and 64 do not have health insurance.
Children whose families cannot afford health insurance can qualify for Medicaid or ARKids First. Senior citizens have their health care paid for by Medicare. The lack of health coverage among adults is even worse in the poorer parts of Arkansas. In the Delta of eastern Arkansas, an estimated one of every three adults has no health insurance coverage.
The round table is also expected to work on a statewide trauma system. It would bring ambulance service and emergency medical treatment to even the most isolated areas of Arkansas. In the 2007 legislative session, a bill to create a state trauma system was introduced but failed to win final passage because of disagreements over how it would be funded.
The severance tax on natural gas is expected to generate heated debate as the legislature prepares for the 2009 session. There are some who want to raise the tax to pay for maintenance of roads and highways.
The general election in November will have at least two proposed amendments to the state Constitution, both referred by the legislature. One calls for annual sessions, with the on in even-numbered years for budgets only. The other would delete obsolete language from provisions governing elections.
Supporters of a lottery are circulating petitions, trying to get a proposed amendment on the ballot which, if approved by voters, would create a state lottery.