ALC Rules: Nov. 20, 2025

Representative Lane Jean All right, members, the clock on the wall is wrong. And I’m sitting here looking at it, didn’t look at my watch. So we’re going to get started in one minute so get to your seats. All right, members, we’re going to get the Administrative Rules subcommittee called to order. 

Just a reminder for anybody out in the public that wants to speak on a rule, there’s sign-up sheets right there behind the witness table. If you’d like to speak on a rule, please sign up and be specific of what rule you want to speak on. And then after we get started, we’ll take up those sheets and bring them forward so we’ll see if anybody has any comments on any of these rules. 

Members, if you haven’t already, go ahead and log in to your station. And also silence your cell phones if you haven’t already done so. First item on the agenda is the reports on item B, Department of Corrections and the post-prison transfer. There are no new additions, but these are reports that they have to file. 

Do we have any questions about any of these reports? If not, we will file these reports. The next item is item C and the Arkansas teacher retirement. Do we have anybody here? There’s Mr. White. If both of you will identify yourself and give a brief description of what you’re doing, and then we’ll see if we have any questions. Good morning and welcome. 

Teacher Retirement rules

Mark White Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mark White, Executive Director of Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. 

Jennifer Kelly Jennifer Kelly, General Counsel, Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. 

Representative Lane Jean You may proceed. 

Mark White Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I know we have several items. Would you like me to take these one by one or just go through it? 

Representative Lane Jean Just go ahead, go one by one and then we’ll get the questions towards the end. 

Mark White Okay. All right, item number 1, this is to section 10-207. This is implementing Act 938 which revised our trustee requirements to remove the requirement that one of our trustees be a minority member. 

Representative Lane Jean Okay. Go ahead. 

Mark White Okay, then item number 2, this is section 10-302 regarding confidentiality of our member accounts. This is just clarifying language about when we require a written confidentiality agreement. And then item number 3, 10-329. This implements Act 587, which allows certain early childhood employees of child care facilities to become members of our system if their facility accepts state dollars through the Department of Education. Then item 4, section 10-501. 

And 4 and 5 are the same explanation. Both of them are implementing Act 227, which revises gap year service. That’s where a classroom teacher can purchase service credit if they’ve missed a quarter or semester in the school district. Then item 6, section 10-513. This is just correcting a misspelling. Item 7, section 10-613. This is implementing two acts. Act 222 is just clarifying some language around deadlines to make the language consistent with other parts of the statute. And then Act 363 allows payment of benefits to a special needs trust. 

And then number 8, this is section 10-616. This is just correcting a typo in one of the subsection headings. And then item number 9, this is section 10-710. This is implementing Act 226, which clarifies when a member can modify their T-DROP distribution election. And then number 10, this is Section 10-712. It’s simply correcting a typo. 

Number 11, Section 10-804. This is implementing Act 224 that reduces the waiting period for a spouse to become eligible for survivor benefits from two years to one year. Number 12, section– I’ll say 12, 13, 14, and 15 all are the same act. It’s all implementing Act 225, which allows all qualifying dependent children to receive child survivor benefits through age 22. And that’s those four items. 

And then the last item, number 16, section 10-826. This is clarifying that when you have a qualified domestic relations order, and that is where essentially a divorce court is making an order dividing retirement assets between a member and their former spouse, just clarifies that we do not owe any benefits to that former spouse until there’s a court order that has been filed with us and approved. And with that, I’ll be happy to answer any questions. 

Representative Lane Jean Members, do we have any questions? Do we have anybody from the public that signed up? We have nobody from the public to sign up. We have no questions. So without objection, these rules will stand reviewed and approved. Thank you very much, Mr. White. Thank you all for coming. Next will be the Department of Sentencing Commission. We have anybody? Here they come. Ms. Lee, if you’ll introduce yourself and give us a brief explanation of what you’re doing. 

Corrections and Sentencing

Elaine Lee Good morning. My name is Elaine Lee. I’m the director of the Arkansas Sentencing Commission. We have one rule in front of you today. That is 11-102. This involves our 50% and 25% offenses and eligibility for release to post-release supervision. As you know, the 100% and the 85% offenses are statutory. T

he 50% and the 25% are given to the Arkansas Sentencing Commission to determine where they fall. New offenses are 50% by default, and so the sentencing commission determines whether or not they should be 50 or 25 percent. I’m happy to answer any questions. 

Representative Lane Jean Do we have any questions for Ms. Lee? Anybody signed up for the public? Nobody signed up for the public. And seeing no questions, so without objection, this rule will stand reviewed and approved. Thank you for coming. Next on the agenda is the Department of Finance Administration. Ms. Smith, if y’all will identify yourselves and then give us a brief of the next three items of what you’re doing on the rules. 

DFA Rules

Alicia Austin Smith Thank you, Mr. Chair. Alicia Austin Smith, Chief Counsel for the Revenue Division of DFA. 

Keith Linder Keith Linder, DFA. 

Alicia Austin Smith We will take these one at a time as instructed, but I will give an overview that essentially what we’re doing is because of the Code of Arkansas rules. We are reviewing really old rules that need to just be repealed. So that’s what we’re doing. So the first rule we called it the in lieu of tax payments rule 2002-1. It only covered agreements through 2003 and was actually superseded by by statute. So we are asking that this rule be repealed. 

All right. The second rule is the Enterprise Zones Rule 1989-1. That rule was replaced by rule 1993-11. So we are asking that that rule be repealed. And finally, we have rule 1993-11. That rule was expired upon the promulgation of a jointly promulgated rule by DFA and AEDC. And so that rule is no longer necessary as well and should be repealed. We’re asking that all three be repealed. And we’re happy to answer any questions. 

Representative Lane Jean Members, do we have any questions from Ms. Smith? Seeing none, nobody signed up for the public. Okay. Seeing no questions, without objection, this rule will be reviewed and approved. Thank you for coming. 

Alicia Austin Smith Thank you. 

Representative Lane Jean Next up is DFA, the Racing Commission. We have two rules. If you all identify yourselves and then you can proceed on the two rules, one at a time. 

Christy Bjornson Good morning, I’m Christy Bjornson, regulatory administrator in DFA. 

Byron Freeland I’m Byron Freeland, the attorney for the Arkansas Racing Commission. 

Walter Ebel I’m Walter Ebel, general counsel for Oaklawn. And I’m just here to help answer any questions. 

Byron Freeland John Campbell was also listed, but he’s ill, so he couldn’t make it today. 

Representative Lane Jean Go ahead. 

Horse Racing rules

Byron Freeland We have four changes to two rules. They’re both in the same section. Each year Oaklawn has a meeting with the horseman and comes up with rules that they would like to change. Mr. Ebel’s here. He was involved in that process. 

So these are the rules that Oaklawn and the horsemen came with up that they wanted to change or alter for the coming racing season, which starts in December. The first one is, it involves Lasix, and you may not know what Lasix is, it’s furosemide. Lasix is a diuretic and it affects the lungs of a horse and the small capillaries. It’s used on humans also. Lasix is a trade name. And according to my sources, 97 percent of the horses run on Lasix, are given Lasix. And so it’s very widely used. It’s a diuretic. 

Anyway, there’s a rule and they want to change if a horse has not been given the Lasix– Lasix has to be given four hours before the race and it’s done by Lasix vets. And the Lasix vets cannot practice on the track. They are local vets who come in and just do that one thing. They give Lasix shots in the mornings before the races. 

But if a horse for some reason has not been administered Lasix, the vets, it’s by mistake, the stewards and the state vet can still approve that horse to run. That’s the first change. And it’s the 23 CAR section 357. Second change is 357 CAR. If a horse is running on Lasix, they run a Lasix-free race, that is disregarded for purposes of taking them off the Lasix rules. Like there are, stakes races are Lasix free generally. And most of this– there are only a few stakes races each day at Oaklawn. 

Number three, it’s a change to the time period from 60 days to 120 days for a horse owner to declare the horse ineligible to be claimed. This, we’re getting into the claiming rules. And that’s consistent with the federal rule that’s probably preceded and it’s been used anyway for the last year or so. 

But the 120 days is consistent with the federal rule. Number four is another claim that repeals all claiming preferences. In the past, the owner would get a claiming preference if he had a horse that was claimed in a race. And so the complaint was that the larger owners had many preferences, so they would have claiming preferences in a lot of races. And that’s being repealed. 

And those are the four changes. We had no public comment when we had the meeting. And we’ve not had any since that time. And I don’t know if there are any here to speak for it. 

Representative Lane Jean Okay. Anybody got any questions for the racing commission? Do we have anybody from the public signed up? We do not. All right. Seeing no questions, these rules will stand reviewed and approved. We thank you all for coming in today. Thank you. Number five, we got Department of Parks and Heritage. If they’ll come forward. Looks like we got two rules. Each of you will identify yourselves and whoever’s going to lead off, lead off after you introduce yourselves. 

Clay Stone Clay Stone, General Counsel. 

Susie Cowan Susie Cowan, the Industry Relations Manager for Arkansas Tourism. 

Parks and Tourism rules

Marty Ryall Marty Ryall, Director of Legislative Affairs, Parks, Heritage and Tourism. We have two proposed rule changes. They both have to do with grants that are administered by our Tourism division at Parks Heritage and Tourism. 

The first one is the festival advertising grant. The purpose of this grant is to assist local festivals in the promotion of their event. Current rules provide a maximum of $2,000 with a two-thirds match. This was enacted in 2015. Our proposed rule change would increase the amount to $5,000 with no match required up to $5,000, and up to $10,000 if you have a two-thirds match. It also streamlines the application process and requires digital submissions. 

The other is the Regional Tourist Association grants. These rules were originally enacted in 1969. This proposed rule change modernizes the application by streamlining the process and moving it to a digital process and also removes inefficiencies and duplicative processes. 

Representative Lane Jean Do we have any questions for Parks and Heritage? We have nobody from the public signed up to speak. Seeing no questions, we will take up these two rules and approve them without objection. Thank you for coming in. Members, the next thing on the items, the next two, one of them is the Arkansas Rural Medical Practices. Anybody here? Okay. Ms. Rebecca, if you will give a brief description of what we’re doing here. And this will take a motion and a second and a vote. 

Rebecca Miller Rice Rebecca Miller Rice with the Bureau. Good morning, members. As many of you will recall, Act 781 in 2017 and Act 65 in 2021 established a systematic review of all agency rules to ensure that they were relevant and necessary for the proper operation of each agency. In accord with those acts, Governor Sanders divided the agencies into rule review groups, and this year we have group three coming before us in the upcoming months. 

Each agency was responsible for going through all of their current rules. They provided us a copy of the rule, the justification for the rule, and they’ve made a determination as to whether they want to continue to keep the rule and enforce it or to repeal it. Should the agency wish to repeal a rule, this review would allow them to do so without going through the full rule promulgation process. It is important to note that during this review, there are no changes or amendments being made to any of these rules. 

It is strictly whether the agency wants to keep them and continue to enforce them until otherwise amended or repealed, or whether they want to repeal them. And this subcommittee, you have a report before you for each of the agencies on today’s agenda. Those reports divide up the rules that they wish to keep and the ones they wish to repeal, if they wish to repeal any. Some do not. This subcommittee is charged with considering those rules and may accept or reject the recommendation of the agency to extend its rule or repeal it. 

Representative Lane Jean Ms. Platt, do you have anything else you want to add? Identify yourself first. 

Tammy Hanson Platt Good morning. My name is Tammy Hanson Platt. I’m the administrator of the Arkansas Rural Medical Practice and Student Loan Program. And we do not wish to repeal our act. 

Representative Lane Jean Okay. All right. Any questions? Seeing none, I need a motion and a second to approve. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Thank you, Miss Platt, for coming. The next is the Arkansas Teacher Retirement. Mark’s coming up. Do you want to give a brief description of what we’re doing, Miss Rebecca? 

Rebecca Miller Rice Thank you, Mr Chair. Mr. White will just present his rule to the subcommittee and whether he wants to keep or repeal it. 

Mark White Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mark White, Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. We are asking to keep our existing rules. And these rules simply govern our members, how they earn credit, and how they receive benefits. 

Representative Lane Jean Any questions for Mr. White? Seeing none– you got a question? Representative Rye, you’re recognized. Hold on, hold on, hold on. 

Representative Johnny Rye Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mark, just one small question for you. Up until this point, we’re in excellent shape within the school retirement for our teachers. How are we standing now? 

Mark White Yes, sir. Financially, doing very well. Our funded status, we just got it back for this year. We’re at about 84percent funded status, which that’s good for a pension system. But for us, it’s particularly good because in the last 10 years we’ve changed the underlying assumptions twice to make it even more conservative. If we were still operating under those old assumptions, we’d be well past 90 percent. 

Representative Johnny Rye You know, Mark, overall we thought that 80, as long as we were at 80 or above, we were in great shape. But you say 82 or–? 

Mark White We’re at 84 right now. 

Representative Johnny Rye 84. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Representative Lane Jean Any other questions from any members? We do need a motion. A motion. And a second. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Mr. White, thank you for coming in. Members, the next item on three, they have no reports. No action is required, but we did want to list them. But there’s nothing changed, so there’s not nothing on the next A through E. So no action is required. And the next is item E. This is the outstanding rulemaking. You want to give it a brief description, Miss Rebecca, what we’re doing here. 

Rebecca Miller Rice Thank you, Mr. Chair. The agencies that have outstanding rulemaking resulting from the 2023 legislative session are listed on your agenda. And they provided written updates. Those agencies are here if members have any questions for them. 

Representative Lane Jean Kind of review it. If you have any questions, I’ll call them up. If not, I’m going to keep them in their seats. And we can take up everything on E. Seeing no questions, we’ll take up items E1, 2, and 3. And no action is required there. 

Rebecca Miller Rice Mr. Chair, item F are the outstanding– well, they’re not necessarily outstanding at this point. They’re rules that are going to be promulgated as results of the 2025 legislative session. Each agency is required to provide a monthly written update to the subcommittee, just letting them know where they are in the rules. Those reports are in your packet. Each is individualized by the agency. And they will continue to report until that rulemaking is in place. 

Representative Lane Jean We’ve had time to look at your reports. Do we have any questions on any of the reports in your packet? Let me see if I can get you on, Representative Stetson. 

Representative Stetson Painter Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a question for staff. Do they also provide– the agencies provide you guys updates for the previous rules that are outstanding too from the 23 session each month as well? 

Rebecca Miller Rice Yes, Representative Painter. Those are the ones that are listed on under item E in the agenda. It’s just those three agencies that still have outstanding. And those are their monthly written updates. 

Representative Stetson Painter Okay. I just want to make sure. Appreciate it because some of them seem like out there for a very long time. And I hate to be in the 27 legislative session and we’re still working on this. So appreciate it. 

Representative Lane Jean Any other questions? No action is required on this. Seeing nothing else, we will stand adjourned. Thank you for your time.