The Arkansas Senate Tuesday must have heard Attorney General Dustin McDaniel loud and clear on Friday.

With a deadline for appropriations bills looming, the Senate inserted a crucial amendment to House Bill 1427 passed Friday on a 78-20 vote (see yesterday's LNL). The amendment was based largely on an opinion delivered by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel shortly after the bill passed four days earlier.

The Senate amendment means a new look for the newly created Community Assistance Commission, which will allocate funds for local projects. The commission will now consist of four members each appointed by the House speaker, Senate president and governor, elected to four-year staggered terms.

Originally only the two legislative leaders would each have appointed four commissioners to serve consequent two-year terms.

McDaniel recommended both staggered terms and governor-appointed members in his opinion Friday, immediately after the HB1427 vote. Both alterations, McDaniel argued, would help avert the perception that the commission is under undue legislative influence.
The amendment is supported by HB1427's two biggest legislative beneficiaries, House speaker Benny Petrus and Senate president Jack Critcher, both Democrats. But Governor Mike Beebe, also a Democrat, still isn't sold on the whole idea of a commission.

Beebe says that because the commission is filled with legislative appointees who could potentially be influenced by lawmakers, "you've got the problem that the [Arkansas Supreme] court may strike it down."

Republican State Senator Shawn Womack suggested that Beebe's continued opposition to HB1427 was in his own interest. Womack noted that if the Legislature does not spend its portion of general improvement money "then [Beebe] gets to spend all of it or it all goes to executive departments,"

Governor Beebe still has not yet indicated if he will veto HB1427. If he doesn't then under House and Senate rules, according to the Arkansas News Bureau, the earliest it could become law is Thursday.