By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — State lawmakers say they’re starting to get a better idea of what Arkansas can and can’t do with its share of the $787 economic stimulus package President Obama recently signed into law, but many questions remain.

“Certainly at this time earlier this week we had more unknowns than we’ve got today,” Rep. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia, House chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said Friday. “We’ve still got a lot of unknowns.”

Arkansas’ share of the stimulus, expected to be at least $2.1 billion, comes with strings attached, but Gov. Mike Beebe said last week he has been assured that states will have flexibility in how they spend certain portions of the money.

“Not a lot has been sent in written form in terms of instructions on how this will work, how that will work, what kind of flexibility there will be, those kinds of things,” said Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant. “We expect those to be, hopefully, forthcoming in the next couple of weeks.”

One of the biggest questions has been how the state can spend the portion of the money dedicated to education. Arkansas will receive $370.7 million for public education, in addition to $133.8 million in Title I money for public school students in poverty.

“I know there’s some anxiety with some of our members who have heard that some of the education money can only be used to restore cuts in education,” said House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway. “Well of course we haven’t made cuts in education. We’ve been going in the opposite direction for a long time.”

According to a federal budget brief on the stimulus that was distributed to House members Friday, governors are required to spend the education money first to restore any funding cut from their education budgets.

After restoring cuts, “the governor shall allocate any excess funds to local education agencies …”

LEAs can use the money “for modernization, renovation or repair of school facilities, including recognized green building rating systems,” according to the brief.

In his weekly column and radio address Friday, Beebe said those types of projects benefit the state in several ways.

“Modernizing public school facilities and retrofitting public buildings for greater energy efficiency serves our fiscal, educational and environmental bottom lines, simultaneously,” the governor said.

Arkansas is to receive $358 million for transportation, which Beebe has said will fund improvements to the state’s roads, highways and bridges.

“These projects will make our state a safer place to live and work; they will create immediate jobs and make us more attractive to new business development,” Beebe said in his column.

The state will get $730 million for Medicaid. Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, said he hopes some of that money will go to rural health care.

“I believe we can make a difference in the lives of our people,” he said. “But we don’t know that yet. We’re just hoping.”

Some money will be available through competitive grants. Broadway said he is interested to see what grants will be available to help small businesses.

“If a company has an idea or a product that’s ready to go to market, what ways can we help them get that off the ground and try to start creating jobs that are going to be even longer term?” he said.

States are required to spend the money with transparency and accountability. Beebe announced Friday that a state Web site will soon be established to allow Arkansans to track every dollar of the state’s stimulus money, similar to the site the White House has established.

Lawmakers hailed the news.

“If there was ever a need for that, there is with this package,” Teague said.

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On the Net:
To track federal stimulus spending:
www.recovery.gov