By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — A state lawmaker who has been investigating so-called “double-dipping” by elected county officials says he hopes his fellow legislators feel strongly enough about the issue to take it up during next year’s fiscal session.

Rep. Allen Kerr, R-Little Rock, said he plans to file a batch of bills next year aimed at ending the practice of elected officials “retiring” in order to collect retirement benefits yet continuing to work.

To get his non-budget bills considered in a fiscal session, Kerr would need a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate.

“It’s a long shot,” Kerr acknowledged in an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau. “It just all depends on how good a salesman I am in committee and trying to convince both the House and the Senate this is something that needs to be taken care of right away.”

Kerr’s proposals, now submitted for interim study, would define what termination of employment means; lengthen the time an official must be away from a job before returning from six months to one year; do away with the rule that allows county officials to earn two years of retirement for every year of service up to 10 years; and require that the Legislature’s committee on public retirement be notified when an official who has retired goes back to work in a different position.

“Obviously there’s been a lot of misinterpretation of the rules and of the laws and room for abuse, and we’re going to try to tighten that up,” said Kerr, who has been seeking to make public the names of elected officials who have improperly collected retirement benefits while also collecting a paycheck.

State Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said in an opinion in September that it was up to the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System to decide whether to release the names of double-dipping officials — APERS is exempt from the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act — but that nothing prevents Kerr from releasing a list of names being compiled for him by the Bureau of Legislative Research.

Some lawmakers are doubtful that the Legislature will be interested in looking beyond the budget next year, except to set the amounts for the first lottery-funded scholarships.

The Revenue Stabilization Act, which is part of the budget process though not technically an appropriation bill, and a bill on lottery scholarships “are the only two non-appropriation bills that are on my radar screen,” said Rep. Bruce Maloch, D-Magnolia, House chairman of the Joint Budget Committee.

“What we’re trying to encourage our members to do is focus on what the voters intended, which was for us to spend our time on the budget and to not spend any more time than was necessary,” said House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway. “I’ve been telling members to expect a short and sweet session.”
But Wills said any member can get a bill considered if he or she can secure a two-thirds majority vote.

“I understand there may be some retirement bills coming out of the retirement committee to address some of the concerns that members have,” he said.

Sen. Gilbert Baker, Senate chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said it would be “a very high hurdle to get non-appropriation bills through,” but added he would be willing to consider legislation dealing with double-dipping.

“If there was an issue we were going to deal with beyond appropriation that I was interested in it would be the double-dipping issue,” he said.

In any event, Baker said he expected the fiscal session to last about three weeks.

“When I talk to Senate leadership and other members I think everyone is focused on getting in, getting our appropriation bills passed, doing Revenue Stabilization and getting out of there,” he said. “I keep hearing three weeks to get it all done, and that’s surely my focus. I think we should get in, take care of the budget and get out.”

The fiscal session will convene on Feb. 8 and will be limited to 30 days, though it can be extended another 15 days with the approval of three-fourths of the members of the House and Senate.

Kerr said he believes taking up his bills would not require extending the session beyond 30 days.

Last year Arkansas voters approved a constitutional amendment calling for regular legislative sessions in odd-numbered years and fiscal sessions in even-numbered years. Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, House chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee of Joint Budget, said the first budget session may not be a good opportunity for bringing up new matters.

“I think this first fiscal session we’re going to be very tough on letting that happen, because we’re going to make sure we follow the exact wording of the voters’ will, which was to take up fiscal matters. I think it would be an extreme situation before we took up anything else,” he said.

Could Kerr’s bills wait until 2011? Kerr said the attention the issue has received has probably already discouraged the practice to some extent, but he would rather act sooner than later.

“The longer we wait, the longer that money trickles out, the more chance for abuse,” he said.

——-
Reporter Rob Moritz contributed to this report.