Board hears rules committee update; pending legislative review of recent rule changes

TJ Fowler, legal counsel for the Treasury, reported to the State Board of Finance that two recent rule revisions are progressing through the administrative and legislative review processes. He said the December 3, 2019 rule revisions were approved by the legislature on Nov. 20, 2020 and became effective when placed in the Arkansas Code by the secretary of states office roughly two weeks later.

Fowler said a second set of revisions passed at the boards Aug. 11, 2020 meeting completed the public comment period on Dec. 31, 2020 with no comments and has been sent to the legislature for subcommittee and full-legislature review. "All of the state board of finances rules have been given to that committee, and we're gonna start meetings in the next couple months formalizing all those new rules to make sure that everything is standardized," Fowler said.

Why it matters: the revisions are part of a wider effort to standardize statutory and rule language across agencies. Fowler said the board would be informed of meetings and recommendations and that any formal changes would require the board to promulgate rules under the new verbiage.

The board took no additional action on the rules at this meeting and will await further legislative review.