Arkansas State Budget Under the Ax

While Arkansas has slid by unscathed by much of the current economic woes that have brought much of the country to its knees, the yearly state budget’s fluctuations have taken a turn for the worse, according to KHTV out of Little Rock.

Acting on advice from the Department of Finance and Administration, Governor Mike Beebe announced today that the proposed 2010 state budget will include a hefty $100 million cut.

Programs most severely effected by funding cuts will be the Department of Corrections, Community Corrections, the Department of Health and the State Police, all of which receive the most funding from the state.

Standing firm in funding are those programs that receive federal funding along with state funds, such as the Department of Labor and the Department of Human Services.

Governor Beebe advised an already overcrowded corrections system to “punish them in some other way besides taking up a penitentiary bed that we need for a murder or rapist, armed robber or somebody that will hurt you."

Beebe also stated that layoffs will not be necessary as long as unfilled positions remain empty.