Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson on Thursday recommended lawmakers to increase public school funding by $550 million over the next two years to raise teacher pay as the Republican prepares to leave office in January.
Hutchinson presented his budget recommendations to a legislative panel days after Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders was elected the state’s next governor. Hutchinson, who was barred by term limits from seeking reelection, acknowledged that the decision on the budget will be up to the Legislature and Sanders next year.
Hutchinson said his funding proposal “allows the next administration and the General Assembly maximum flexibility in terms of raising teacher salaries and raising the outcomes for education in the state.”
The proposal calls for increasing public school funding by $200 million in the fiscal year that begins July 2023 and by $350 million the following year.
Hutchinson earlier this year called on lawmakers to raise teacher pay, but decided against putting it on the agenda for a special session in August due to a lack of support in the majority-Republican Legislature.
The House and Senate education committees have since endorsed proposals to give teachers $4,000 raises, though they differ on when the raises should be granted.
Sanders, who announced her transition team on Thursday, stopped short of saying whether she agreed with Hutchinson’s budget recommendation.
According to KY3-TV a spokesman for Sanders, Judd Deere said in a statement, “Governor-elect Sanders looks forward to continued conversations with the governor and her legislative partners during the transition as she works to develop a budget that makes government lean and efficient, cuts taxes, and prioritizes the promises she made to Arkansans to make our state one of the best to live, work, and raise a family.”
Hutchinson recommended the state’s overall budget increase by 5% to $6.3 billion in the next fiscal year. The budget proposal projects the state will end that year with a nearly $255 million surplus.
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