By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe said Tuesday he wants to use some of the state’s “rainy day” fund to hire additional foster care case workers in the state Department of Human Services.

“I’ve authorized DHS to pursue in moving some of our rainy day money into what is needed next year to be able to sustain and maintain that higher level of employees in family services,” Beebe said.

The exact amount of money needed to hire the additional 60 caseworkers was not known Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the governor said.

The Legislature last year added $9 million to the Division of Children and Family Services budget to hire more than 160 new case workers and staff over two years, to retrain existing case workers and staff and to improve the division’s data collection forms.

The division hired 100, but recent state budget cuts — $206 million since October — postponed indefinitely the hiring of the remaining 60.

“I’m thrilled,” said Rep. Donna Hutchinson, R-Bella Vista, who last week expressed concerns that recent improvements to the state’s trouble foster care system would be set back by recent budget cuts. “(Beebe’s) the only one who has the discretionary funds to move around.

The governor has about $40 million in General Improvement Fund money to use for one-time projects.

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor’s decision to use the one-time funds to hire new employees was based on the belief that the economy would improve and state revenues would rise.

“This is money to keep the expansion of DCFS intact until the budget recovers,” DeCample said.
Beebe said the recent budget cuts may have delayed the hiring of needed case workers and implementation of other improvements within the division, but no expansion plans have been abandoned.

“They actually got a substantial increase in funding (in the 2009 legislative session) and we’re not cutting that,” the governor said.