Does the Arkansas Military Department have to pay C-Step and Youth Challenge teachers the new minimum salaries in the current fiscal year, or do the increases wait for future budgets?
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This page answers the general question as of 2016. Ezel answers yours: what it means for your facts, under current Arkansas law, with citations.
Plain-English summary
Major General Mark Berry, the Adjutant General of the Arkansas Military Department, asked whether Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-2406(b)(1), as amended by Act 1177 of 2015, "imposes a statutory stay" on the teacher salary increases the Act required for teachers in the Civilian Student Training Program ("C-Step") and the Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge Program. The Act would require these teachers to be paid at least the minimum teacher compensation schedule under Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-2403 (which Act 1087 of 2015 had increased), "to the extent that funds are specifically appropriated by the General Assembly."
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge gave a two-part answer. The narrow legal question (does the Department's pay obligation require a specific reference to § 6-17-2403 in its appropriation act?) is no: as long as the General Assembly appropriates funds for teacher salaries in the programs, the obligation kicks in. But the broader and more practical question (does the budget-calculation mandate in § 6-17-2406(b)(2) apply to the Department's current fiscal-year budget?) is no, because Act 1177 did not take effect until weeks after the new fiscal year started and the current budget was already locked in. Future fiscal-year budgets must include the higher salary calculation.
Currency note
This opinion was issued in 2016. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.
The timing problem
The opinion's analysis turns on Arkansas's appropriation process and the effective dates of the 2015 legislation:
- Act 716 (the Military Department appropriation bill): Signed March 27, 2015, with a July 1, 2015 effective date. This was the Department's FY 2016 appropriation, already in force when Act 1177 came along.
- Act 1177 (the salary mandate): Signed April 7, 2015, with no emergency clause or specified effective date, so it became effective July 22, 2015. That was three weeks after FY 2016 started.
State agencies' budgets are calculated well in advance of a legislative session under Ark. Code Ann. § 19-4-201 et seq. The legislature drafts appropriations based on those pre-calculated budgets. Because Act 1177 was enacted after the Military Department's FY 2016 budget had already been calculated, passed, and gone into effect, the AG concluded the budget-calculation mandate in § 6-17-2406(b)(2) could not retroactively apply to the FY 2016 budget. It would, however, apply to future budgets.
Constitutional appropriations rule
The AG anchored her analysis in Ark. Const. art. 5, § 29 and art. 16, § 12, which together require that "no money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance of specific appropriation made by law." Director of Bureau of Legislative Research v. Mackrell (1947) confirms the rule: "A specific appropriation is an absolute prerequisite to the drawing from or payment out of the state treasury of any money therein required to be appropriated."
Funds for C-Step and Youth Challenge teacher salaries had in fact been specifically appropriated in the Military Department's FY 2016 appropriation (Act 716, §§ 4 and 5). So the Department's obligation to pay at the minimum schedule was triggered in the sense that there was money available. The question was whether the higher Act 1087 minimum schedule applied to a budget calculated before Act 1087 increased the schedule.
Why "future budgets" is the right answer
The budget-calculation mandate in § 6-17-2406(b)(2) tells the Department to "include the calculation of teacher salaries ... based on § 6-17-2403" when it builds its budget. That instruction is naturally forward-looking. It governs how the Department prepares the budget it submits, not how it spends a budget already calculated and appropriated under prior law. Because Act 1177 took effect mid-fiscal-year, after the Department's budget had been built and the appropriation had passed, applying it retroactively would force the Department to spend funds in excess of its appropriation, which Ark. Code Ann. § 19-2-104 prohibits.
The AG also noted a footnote that "Arkansas National Guard" in subsection (b)(2) appeared to be a typo and the legislature likely meant "State Military Department."
Common questions
When do the higher salaries kick in?
For the Military Department, in the next fiscal year for which the General Assembly drafts a new appropriation based on the higher § 6-17-2403 schedule. Whether the legislature actually appropriates enough money in that year is a separate question the AG was not in a position to predict.
Could the Department voluntarily pay the higher amounts in the current fiscal year?
Only up to the limits of its appropriation. The Department cannot spend in excess of its appropriated amounts (Ark. Code Ann. § 19-2-104). If the current appropriation has room within the line item to pay at the higher rate, that is a budgeting decision; if it does not, the increase has to wait.
What if Act 1177 had had an emergency clause?
Then it would have taken effect immediately upon the Governor's signature, possibly catching the FY 2016 budget cycle. The opinion does not directly address that hypothetical, but the AG's analysis suggests an effective date before the fiscal-year start might have changed the answer.
Source
Subject
Does Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 6-17-2406(b)(1) impose a statutory stay to the teacher salary increases mandated by Act 1177 until funding can be specifically appropriated? RESPONSE: It is unclear what you
Source
Official summary
Does Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 6-17-2406(b)(1) impose a statutory stay to the teacher salary increases mandated by Act 1177 until funding can be specifically appropriated? RESPONSE: It is unclear what you mean by "a statutory stay." If the question is whether the appropriation act for the Military Department must specifically reference Ark. Code Ann. Sec. 6-17-2403 before the department is obligated to pay its teachers the salary increases to the minimum teacher compensation schedule, then the answer is "no." But the question is broader, and must also address whether the budgeting mandate in section 6-17-2406(b)(2) applies to the Military Department's current fiscal year budget. As to this question, my opinion is that the salary calculation required by Act 1177 applies to future fiscal-year budgets, and not the current fiscal-year's budget.
Original opinion text
STATE OF ARKANSAS
ATTORNEY GENERAL
LESLIE RUTLEDGE
Opinion No. 2015-109
January 8, 2016
Maj. Gen. Mark H. Berry
Military Department of Arkansas
Office of the Adjutant General
Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Bldg. 6000
North Little Rock, AR 72199-9600
Dear General Berry:
This is in response to your request for my opinion concerning salaries of teachers
with the Civilian Student Training Program ("C-Step") and the Arkansas National
Guard Youth Challenge Program.
Your question pertains to Ark. Code Ann. § 6-14-2406(b) (Supp. 2015), as
amended by Act 1177 of 2015. Section 6-14-2406(b), quoted below, appears to
require that C-Step and Youth Challenge Program teachers be paid in accordance
with the minimum teacher compensation schedule (codified at Ark. Code Ann. §
6-17-2403 (Supp. 2015), as amended by Act 1087of2015):
(1) To the extent that funds are specifically appropriated by the
General Assembly, a teacher employed by the C-Step Program
or the Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge Program, or
both, shall be paid no less than the minimum amounts under § 6-
17-2403.
(2) The budget of the Arkansas National Guard [sic] shall include
the calculation of teacher salaries for teachers in the C-Step
323 CENTER STREET, SUITE 200 · LITTLE ROCK. ARKANSAS 72201
TELEPHONE (501) 682-2007 · FAX (501) 682~8084
ARKAN SASAG .GOV Maj. Gen. Mark H. Berry
Adjutant General
Opinion No. 2015-109
Page 2
Program and the Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge
Program based on § 6-17-2403.1
With the foregoing background in mind, you have posed the following question:
Does Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-2406(b )( 1) impose a statutory stay to
the teacher salary increases mandated by Act 1177 until funding can
be specifically appropriated?
RESPONSE
It is unclear what you mean by "a statutory stay." If you are asking whether the
appropriation act for the Military Department must specifically reference Ark.
Code Ann. § 6-17-2403 before the department is obligated to pay its teachers the
salary increases to the minimum teacher compensation schedule imposed by Act
1087of2015, the answer is "no."
But I believe your question was intended to be broader, and address whether the
budgeting mandate in section 6-17-2406(b )(2) applies to the Military
Department's current fiscal year budget. As to this question, my opinion is that
the salary calculation required by Act 1177 applies to future fiscal-year budgets,
and not the current fiscal-year's budget.
DISCUSSION
It appears that your question is prompted, in part, by the phrase "specifically
appropriated" in section 6-l 7-2406(b )( 1 ). Your question appears to ask whether
the Military Department's obligation to pay its teachers under the minimum
teacher compensation schedule depends upon there being a specific reference to
that compensation schedule in the appropriation act for the department.
If that is your question, my opinion is that the department's obligation to pay
according to the minimum teacher compensation schedule is not dependent upon
such a specific reference in an appropriation act. Rather, so long as-and to the
1
Act 1177 added new subsection (b)(2) to Ark. Code Ann.§ 6-17-2406. See Acts 2015, No.
1177, § 2 (N.B.: I believe subsection 2 meant to refer to the "budget of the State Military
Department" and not the "budget of the Arkansas National Guard"). Maj. Gen. Mark H. Berry
Adjutant General
Opinion No. 2015-109
Page 3
extent that-the General Assembly specifically appropriates funds to pay teachers
in the C-Step and Youth Challenge Program, the obligation is triggered.2
This answer to the narrow question you asked, however, cannot be the end of the
analysis. The real issue underlying your question appears to be whether the
budgeting mandate in section 6-l 7-2406(b)(2) applies to the Military
Department's current fiscal year budget. In my opinion, the answer to that
question is "no."
State agencies' budgets are calculated well in advance of a legislative session. 3
The legislature drafts appropriation bills based upon those budgets, which are re-
reviewed and considered prior to their adoption. 4 The General Assembly
considered and passed its appropriation bill for the Military Department, and the
Governor signed it into law as Act 716 on March 27, 2015, with an effective date
of July 1, 2015.5
Act 1177 was not signed into law until April 7, 2015, with no emergency clause or
expressly stated effective date. It therefore became effective July 22, 2015. 6 This
was a full three weeks after the start of the new fiscal year, (when the Military
2 Funds for teacher salaries in the C-Step and Youth Challenge programs were in fact specifically
appropriated in the Military Department's current fiscal year appropriation. See Acts 2015, No.
716, § § 4 and 5. Were that not the case, the Military Department would be constitutionally
prohibited from drawing money from the state treasury to pay its teachers at all. The Arkansas
Constitution clearly states that "no money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance
of specific appropriation made by law, the purpose of which shall be distinctly stated in the bill,
and the maximum amount which may be drawn shall be specified in dollars and cents .... " See
ARK. CONST., art. 5, § 29 (emphasis added). Accord ARK. CONST. art. 16, § 12 ("[N]o money
shall be paid out of the treasury until the same shall have been appropriated by law; and then only
in accordance with said appropriation."). See also Dir. of Bureau of Legislative Research v.
Mackrell, 212 Ark. 40, 45, 204 S.W.2d 893, 896 (1947) ("A specific appropriation is an absolute
prerequisite to the drawing from or payment out of the state treasury of any money therein
required to be appropriated.").
3 See Ark. Code Ann. § 19-4-201 et seq. (Rep I. 2007 and Supp. 2015).
4 Id. at § 19-4-203 (Repl. 2007).
5 See Acts 2015, No. 716, § 21.
6 See Op. Att'y Gen. 2015-044 (opining that acts from the 2015 regular legislative session
without an emergency clause or specified effective date became effective on July 22, 2015). Maj. Gen. Mark H. Berry
Adjutant General
Opinion No. 2015-109
Page 4
Department's current appropriation went into effect) and certainly well after its
budget was calculated.
In my opinion, this makes it clear that the budgetary mandate in section 6-17-
2406(b )(2) was not intended to apply to and could not have applied to the Military
Department's current fiscal-year budget. It will, however, apply to the
department's future budgets, subject to the state's appropriation and funding
processes. 7
Sincerely,
~ LESLIE RUTL
ATTORNEY GENERAL
7 Like any state agency, the Military Department's spending is limited to the amounts that the
General Assembly chooses to appropriate. See, e.g., Ark. Code Ann. § 19-2-104 (Repl. 2007)
(expenditures in excess of appropriations prohibited). Whether the legislature has appropriated or
will appropriate sufficient funds and whether those funds are available for teachers' salaries to
meet the minimum teacher compensation schedule are factual determinations that I am neither
authorized nor equipped to make.
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