By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe left a meeting with legislators today unswayed in his opposition to a proposed tunnel linking the Capitol to new office and meeting space in a building on the Capitol mall.
The governor met with House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, and Sen. Steve Faris, D-Malvern, to discuss the proposed tunnel and planned renovations to the fifth floor of the Multi-Agency Complex — popularly known as the Big Mac Building — northwest of the Capitol.
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said later the governor would not release funding for the $1.8 million tunnel project.
“He doesn’t think it’s necessary, especially in this economy, both for the state and the people in the state,” DeCample said. “He doesn’t think it’s something we need to do.”
The Legislative Council voted last week to move forward with planning for the proposed tunnel. Faris said Monday the governor made clear up front that he opposed the tunnel, and the lawmaker said the bulk of the meeting centered on the renovations.
“The governor had never been given the courtesy of seeing the overall plans,” Faris said. “The bulk of the meeting was to show him what the special renovation was going to be. We talked about the committee rooms that are being planned and the office space across the way.”
The plans include refurbishing 70,000 square feet of space being vacated by the State Library, which is scheduled to move from the Big Mac Building into renovated space in the old Dillard’s building on Capital Avenue this fall.
The old library space is to be converted into a series of offices and two large meeting rooms, one able to handle 100 or more people.
Bureau of Legislative Research employees would occupy many of the new offices, while House members would take over current bureau staff offices now in the basement of the state Capitol.
The refurbishing project is expected to cost about $6.5 million, according to State Building Authority Director Anne Laidlaw. The project is to be paid for through a previously approved appropriation from the state General Improvement Fund.
David Ferguson, director of the Bureau of Legislative Research, said last week that the tunnel is needed so bureau personnel can carry documents and other papers back and forth between buildings. Not only would the tunnel make it more convenient, it would protect employees and documents from the weather, he said.
Also, Ferguson said, the state would be in jeopardy of not meeting requirements of the American with Disabilities Act if it required everyone to leave the Capitol and walk across a parking lot to get to the other building, Ferguson said.
