By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The state Board of Corrections voted today to delay opening a 360-bed unit in Malvern and temporarily halted payment of unused holiday pay because of recent budget reductions.

“Right now we just can’t afford it,” prison spokesman Dina Tyler said after the board met.

Last month, Gov. Mike Beebe announced a $100 million cut in this fiscal year’s state budget because of a drop in expected revenues. For state prisons, the 2.2 percent cut is about $9.1 million, although the Department of Correction only had to reduce its budget by $6.6 million because it received nearly $3 million in one-time funds at the beginning of the fiscal year.

Depending on revenue, the department had hoped to open up the new Malvern facility in late December or early January. It would have cost the department about $7 million to run the new unit for the remainder the fiscal year.

Without the new unit, Tyler said, the number of state inmates being held in county jails will continue to rise.

“This will exacerbate the backup in the county jails and further increase the amounts that we will owe the county jails over the allocation provided,” Sheila Sharp, assistant director for administrative services, wrote in a memo to the board.

“We project invoices exceeding funding will occur by the end of December,” she said.

Tyler said the department expects to save about $1.8 million by postponing payment of unused holiday pay.

“They’re not losing their pay, it’s being banked,” she said, adding that the employees will eventually be paid for their unused holiday pay up to 150 hours.
Board Chairman Benny Magness said the cuts were difficult.

“Obviously we have to do our part during tough times,” Magness said. “We hope the economy improves and we can go back to our regular funding.”

Other proposed reductions, which have to be approved by the state Department of Finance and Administration, include:
—Hiring freeze on non-security positions, which is expected to save $1.1 million.
—A 5 percent reduction in maintenance and operations budget, about $1.75 million.
—A 50 percent reduction in a contingency appropriation set aside for lawsuit settlement and non-budget emergency situations, which amounts to $250,000.
—A 50 percent reduction in the training budget, amounting to $168,000.
—The balance of salary savings projects currently not committed, about $1.2 million.