Beebe makes case for state’s stimulus share
Posted on Thursday, December 4, 2008
HOT SPRINGS — Gov. Mike Beebe said Wednesday that he would consider using up to $ 60 million of the state’s projected $ 300 million surplus to plug budget holes, and he urged President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders not to hold that extra money against the state by slighting Arkansas in a federal stimulus package.
Beebe told an Arkansas Farm Bureau convention audience that he hopes Obama’s announced plans to advance an economic stimulus plan won’t shortchange states such as Arkansas that currently have a surplus. More than 40 states now have deficits totaling at least $ 24 billion.
“Whatever’s going to happen coming out of Washington with regard to infrastructure development packages and trying to turn the economy around, that we do it in a way that helps those who truly really need the help, but doesn’t punish those people who have really been good stewards,” Beebe said.
After his speech, Beebe told reporters that he didn’t want to fund all of the roughly $ 146 million of unfunded requests in his proposed state budget for fiscal 2010 with the surplus, but would like to use surplus money as a “rainy-day fund” to cover anticipated shortfalls in Medicaid and prisons.
“Whatever parameters, whatever safeguards, whatever controls that the Legislature feels would be reasonable, I’ve suggested that they include those things,” Beebe said.
Beebe declined to place a cap on how much money could be used for the rainy-day fund, but he said a “worst-case scenario” of a prolonged economic slump could require “$ 50 million or $ 60 million of surplus money in a rainy-day fashion to plug temporarily some gaps.... But none of that’s been finalized.”
Any federal stimulus project would focus on infrastructure improvements in roads and bridges, Beebe said, not just loans to shore up banks or businesses. And he said Arkansas’ “conservative budgeting” shouldn’t be held against the state.
“I don’t begrudge the fact that Michigan might need more help than somebody else. They’ve got huge unemployment numbers.... I’ve said that in Arkansas if we’ve got to do a little extra in the Delta or in south Arkansas to get them going, other parts of the state shouldn’t begrudge that. However, it doesn’t mean you totally leave out those folks that aren’t hurting as bad because they’ve done better in their stewardship,” Beebe said.
Beebe said he’s had conversations with Obama and hasn’t gotten any indications that the state might be slighted in any stimulus.
“I’m just being cautious. I’ve heard some of my colleagues talk about the need for so much more because of their particular situations.... You can’t do public policy that discourages good stewardship and good government and good sound fiscal policies by saying, ‘ Well, they’re going to do OK, we don’t have to help them, ’” Beebe said.
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