Beebe lays out capital expenditure recommendations
It’s about time the Governor threw his hat in the ring on how the surplus was going to be spent. Too bad Beebe is only throwing $209 million at school facilities. It’ll be more like a billion dollars to bring our school facilities up to grade, not $400 million, and the cost keep rising as we sit on our hands. I personally would of liked to seen the Legislature take up consolidation again. How can a state with a little over a million students justify having 302 school districts, superintendents, assistant superintendents, and the facilities to house these 302 school administrations? In Texas, they have 23 superintendents and school districts. If Texas can do it why cannot we, one school district per county? Arkansas could save 10’s of millions of dollars and fix a very inefficient, counter-productive, and antiquated system. Hell, with consolidation, we could get our schools up to snuff, pay raises for the teachers and the Legislators would still have plenty of pork left to fight over, something to think about.
Gov. Mike Beebe recommended $663 million in capital projects Wednesday using funds from the state’s official $843 million surplus projection.
The recommendations include $397.5 million for state agencies, which includes $209 million for school facilities. The cost of school repairs, which Beebe has said could be as high as $400 million, likely will be revised in the governor’s proposal, according to state fiscal officers.
A $50 million economic development incentive quick action closing fund is accounted for under the recommended state agencies appropriation, as is $4 million for the “maintenance, renovation, equipping, overhaul, acquisition, improvement, upgrade and repair” of a state police aircraft.
The recommendations also include $201.7 million for higher education and $18.3 million for mandatory debt obligations.
Beebe also proposed $44 million to settle a lawsuit with the federal government concerning incorrect billing for computer services and $1.5 million for the Illinois River improvement project, to protect and improve water quality in Northwest Arkansas.
Beebe’s recommendations did not include $100 million he has proposed for highway improvements.
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Posted on February 22nd, 2007 by George Sand
Posted in Arkansas Politics. | EMail This Post
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