By John Lyon and Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Clamor of Washington-style partisan politics rose from Democrats at the Arkansas state Capitol today in response to a Republican push to reshape Gov. Mike Beebe’s proposed budget.

GOP lawmakers, whose numbers swelled to new levels of influence in the 2010 election, insisted they are not promoting partisanship but want to engage in debate over the budget.

State Rep. Kathy Webb, D-Little Rock, co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, talks to reporters Thursday about a budget proposal by Republican lawmakers. (John Lyon photo)

“I am very disappointed that they have chosen to interject partisan, Washington politics into the process,” said Rep. Kathy Webb, D-Little Rock, co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, a day after Republican lawmakers unveiled a proposal to cut $21 million from Beebe’s $4.7 billion proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

A resolution to allow consideration of the Joint Budget Committee’s budget bill, expected to align closely with Beebe’s recommendations, cleared a House committee on Monday but has not come up for a vote on the House floor because of expected GOP resistance.

Republicans hold 44 seats in the 100-member House, more than enough to block the two-thirds vote required to pass a non-appropriation measure during fiscal session.

House Minority Leader John Burris, R-Harrison, and Sen. Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, have filed resolutions to allow consideration of an alternative budget proposal. Burris said Wednesday the proposal would lop $21 million from Beebe’s budget, cutting 11 state agencies’ budgets by 3 percent.

Webb said today the Joint Budget Committee’s resolution is nonpartisan, but Republicans are trying to make the budget process about party lines.

“Everybody who wants to put forth ideas about where to cut the budget should do that, but it seems kind of like a line is being drawn in the sand,” she said. “It’s just a little confusing to me that this is how they’ve chosen to do this.”

Burris denied the charge of partisanship.

“Debate is not partisan, no matter how much people would like to characterize it as such,” he said. “There are legitimate issues, changes that we think could be made to the governor’s proposed budget. Proposing those changes is not partisan at all.”

Beebe said today he has instructed the agencies named in the proposal to identify what they would cut if the GOP plan were enacted. He said he should be ready to respond to the proposal by Tuesday.

The governor said Republicans have told him they want to bank the savings from cuts and use them for future cut taxes. He said he would love to eliminate the state sales tax on groceries, which has been lowered three times since he took office, but “you’ve got to make these tax cuts in a responsible way that doesn’t affect central services.”

Asked about Webb’s comments on partisan politics, Beebe said he understood her concerns.

“The budget proposal and the revenue stabilization bill that we have proposed is a Joint Budget bill. It’s not a Democratic bill, it’s not a Republican bill,” he said.

Beebe added that Arkansans “do not want Washington, D.C., to come to Little Rock.”

Traditionally, amending the Revenue Stabilization Act — the mechanism by which the Legislature sets spending priorities — happens at the end of a session.

“What we’ve committed not to do is wait till the end and then show up and start expressing our problems. (We want) to start the debate now,” Burris said.

Lamoureux said he believes Republican lawmakers are making a positive contribution to the budget process.

“I think it’s helpful. The governor now knows how another group of people feel,” he said.

Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, who co-chairs the Joint Budget Committee with Webb, said he feels good about the way the process is working.

“From my view, we’re all discussing multiple aspects of the final budget, and John Burris has some ideas, Sen. Lamoureaux has some ideas and certainly I have some ideas,” he said.

House Speaker Robert S. Moore Jr., D-Arkansas City, said of the Republican proposal, “I don’t see where an arbitrary 3 percent (cut) is prudent budget management.”

Moore said forecasting is not an exact science, and agencies need “a little bit of cushion built in for those periods when things don’t go according to forecast.”

But Moore said he saw the GOP lawmakers’ actions not as partisan politics but as an effort to make themselves heard.

“Is it different from what’s been in the past? Well, maybe it is a little bit, but it’s everybody bringing their voice to the table.”

Moore, Webb and Beebe all said they were particularly concerned about a part of the GOP plan that calls for reducing Beebe’s proposed $114 million increase in Medicaid funding to $100 million and making up the difference with one-time money from the state’s surplus.

“We’re already in a deep problem on Medicaid,” Moore said, referring to a projected shortfall in the program of more than $200 million by July 2014. “I certainly don’t understand the logic in sweeping that $14 million off.”

Burris said reforms that the state is developing may lead to a reduction in projected Medicaid needs. He said the GOP plan would add less to the base level of funding for Medicaid than Beebe’s plan, thereby setting a precedent for future years.

“Maybe you don’t have to add so much to the base, because when we start making next year’s budget we go right back to the base,” he said.