Hello and welcome to Arkansas Week.

I'm Chris Kane.

The Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce has produced a strategic playbook to help Arkansas more be more competitive over the next decade.

The first plan was launched in 2015 to improve the state's competitiveness.

Next, we're going to hear from Arkansas State Chamber CEO about the new data collected over the past ten years and moving forward.

That's coming up later in the show.

But first, Arkansas is preparing for major changes to its Medicaid expansion program with new work and community engagement requirements set to begin next year.

For many are home recipients.

State officials are right now holding town halls across the state to explain the changes and help people prepare before the new rules take effect.

Joining us now is Mary Franklin, director of the Division of County Operations at the Arkansas Department of Human Services, to go over all these changes.

And Mary, thanks for taking some time to join us.

I know you all have been busy.

What exactly are these new work requirements and community engagement requirements?

And what do they mean for our home recipients?

Good morning.

Thank you for inviting me to the show so that I can talk more about this and help spread awareness.

The Medicaid program will have new, community engagement and work requirements that go into effect on January 1st, 2027 for those who receive services in the Our Home Medicaid group.

This new work and community engagement requirement will mean it applies to individuals who are age 19 through age 64.

And the requirement will mean that they need to be working or otherwise engaged in the community through volunteering or in, participate in educational program or training programs for 80 hours a month unless they meet an exemption.

And Arkansas, to our understanding, beginning this rollout before the federal deadline, January of 2027, why do you think it was important to start this early to get these town halls going and to get feedback and also share information with our home recipients?

Because we we want, to help people be aware so that they can prepare for the requirement when when there can be penalties that take effect in January.

If someone who receives our home services is not meeting the requirement or exempt.

We are actually going to do a soft launch of this entire program beginning in July.

And by soft launch, we mean we're going to start notified notifying our beneficiaries, where they stand as far as if the requirement was already in place, we're going to let them know what we've been able to determine based on data checks that will do, whether they are meeting the requirement or exempt from the requirement or with their statuses, and just fully educate them about what the requirement is, what it means when it takes effect.

And, we'll be doing that between July and December to help our clients get ready.

You mentioned exemptions a moment ago.

What?

Who will not be required to report hours?

Who are the exemptions?

So, an exemption would be for those who are pregnant or in the postpartum period.

Anyone under age 19 or over, age 64.

People who are former, foster children that are under age 26.

Those who are, tribal members or Alaskan natives, those who are veterans with disabilities.

Anyone who has a disability, blindness or, anyone who might be considered medically frail, meaning that they have a physical, or intellectual behavioral health disability that, impairs their or interferes with their activities of daily living.

And also those who are participating and meeting the work requirement through the state's Tanev program or the Snap program will be considered exempt from this program.

Other groups who are going to be exempt will be those who are, caregivers for dependent children that are 13 or younger or for some other person that is disabled.

Or anyone who's entitled to Medicare Part A or enrolled in part B, those are all the exemptions.

Arkansas was the first state in the country to implement the Medicaid work requirement.

That was back in 2018.

And when that happened, more than 18,000 people lost coverage.

What lessons did DHS learn from that experience?

The requirement in 2018, required individuals to report monthly what their status, what was they had to attest monthly.

And it was an active reporting in to DHS.

One of the big differences is this new requirement will not require monthly reporting.

This new requirement we will be checking at application when someone first applies for the program to see in the month before if they were, meeting the requirement or exempt.

And then we'll be checking again at renewal for those same things.

And we will be checking, in a process we call ex parte first meeting we're going to use, we're going to check data sources.

We're going to see and we're going to use our system and check data sources and see if we can determine someone is meeting that requirement or exempt from that requirement before we ask them to do anything.

And then if we do need to ask them to provide more information, we are also, launching an outbound verification center.

We're getting ready to finalize a contract where this outbound verification center will be working to make contact with anyone that we've not been able to verify their status related to our home community engagement and work requirements.

And they will be attempting outbound phone calls, emails, texts.

And when they reach people, they will be offering assistance to help those who might need to report information to us, to verify their status so that, they can keep their coverage.

Our goal here is to help people, so, you know, find a job, find purpose, find meaning.

All those things can lead to better health.

And that is what the Medicaid program is for, so that individuals can access care and get the care that they need to improve their health.

And being active in the community and having a job, all can contribute towards better health.

And so we don't want to see people lose coverage, because they don't know the requirement or, because they're not ready for the requirement.

So all of that is why we are doing these things well ahead of January is to help our Arkansans be ready.

You mentioned a moment ago is 80 hours a month volunteer activities.

There's a kind of a big umbrella.

Can you break down some of the different opportunities that folks have as far as meeting those requirements and getting those 80 hours?

Sure.

And I can give a little more detail about the the earnings.

It's 80 hours a month, or earning the equivalent of federal minimum wage for 80 hours a month, which is $580, and in Arkansas, a minimum wage as well, above the federal minimum wage.

So in Arkansas, if you are making at least minimum wage here, it would not be a full 80 hours that someone would have to be working in order to be compliant with this rule.

Other ways that, individuals can be compliant could be attending school, attending training, volunteering at a nonprofit or government organization.

And or if they are providing care for someone under eight, you know, under 13, 13 or under or, another individual who is disabled.

Those are all ways that people can be compliant with this requirement.

One of the things that I know you all are focusing on, and you just mentioned the outreach efforts, right, to try and make sure that it is extended to all those who are in this program.

How do you balance that with the accessibility and technology?

That maybe rural areas may not have or be as accessible to, to be able to make those reports and to connect with the offices to make sure that they are staying with their coverage or keeping their coverage, while at the same time meeting the requirements and reporting them accurately.

We are multiple ways that our clients can communicate with us and provide information.

Online is not the only avenue, but it is an avenue that clients, can create accounts.

They can upload documents online.

They can tell us what's going on online.

They can also, provide information, to the local county offices.

We have a physical office in all 75 counties.

People can return information to us there.

They can mail us through regular mail, they can email us.

And our outbound call center will be calling in working to help individuals, to provide information if they need that additional support.

You've already had a couple of these town halls.

What can you tell us about the feedback, and things that were shared among the members of the town hall and your office to try and make sure that everyone is on the same page as the page gets turned.

Later this year.

So we've we've had, positive feedback about the, the town hall and the effort that we're making to help get the word out and educate beneficiaries.

We've answered questions about what types of things, can someone use to verify information if they need to verify information?

We've had some questions about, what types of volunteer opportunities would meet that volunteering requirement if someone isn't working?

So and we've been happy to take and field all those questions and answer questions, we've gotten a suggestion about a way that we could improve, our online, our online portal.

And so we're taking all of that feedback and, are glad to have it as we get closer towards January of 27.

In your mind, what is this successful rollout of this new change for DHS and the new requirements implement over the next year?

What does it look like?

How do you see it rolling out and being a success after you're going through all these series of town halls and then making those changes?

So, success would be, well, you know, for us would look like that.

We have, you know, made sure that we've notified beneficiaries and in more than one way, you know, post-meal through the outreach that we are doing through social media, through the information page with our communications team has built on our website at ah.gov/engage and that, people understand what the requirement is and know the various ways that they can, meet that requirement or provide information to us if we need additional information so that their coverage can continue.

And Mary, finally, before we run out of time, what would you say to those watching right now who may be, a little nervous about these changes?

Who are recipients?

Who are your clients as they go through this process with you?

All?

Advice I always like to give is, please keep us up to date on your contact information.

You can report address changes, email and phone number changes to us in multiple ways through our call center.

That's toll free at (855) 372-1084.

Can report changes through access Arkansas gov or even argv slash access anywhere.

You can do those same things in person, in a county office or even mail or something.

If you need us to update your address and email and, phone number.

And you can also sign up for those email and text alerts so that if we need to communicate with you or we send you a letter that you can be alerted electronically, that there's a letter coming, that there might be something that you need to do.

So that, is something that we can't stress enough how important it is for us to stay up to date with how we can communicate with you.

Mary Franklin with.

She is the director of the Division of County Operations at the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

Mary, thank you so much for joining the program.

We appreciate your time and safe travels as you continue those town halls across the state.

Thank you.

All right.

We're going to take a short break.

Stay with us.

Arkansas week continues right after this.

And welcome back to Arkansas Week.

So Arkansas has seen strong economic growth over the past decade, with employment increasing nearly 14% and personal income rising more than 50% since 2014.

But business leaders say the state still faces challenges in workforce readiness, infrastructure, energy capacity and long term competitiveness.

The Arkansas State Chamber is now releasing a long term strategic plan called Arkansas Advantage 2035.

This outlines recommendations to help the state compete for jobs, investment and talent over the next decade.

Joining us to go over it all is Randy Zook, president and CEO of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas.

Randy, thanks so much for stopping by.

I know you've been busy, and I know this is one of those days where there's a lot going on in the state, a lot of announcements over the last 12 months that I know you're very awfully proud of.

Let's talk about looking back and getting to where we are now and then before we move forward.

Over the last decade, what do you think has been the biggest driver of economic growth for the state?

Well, it's hard to argue against the steel industry, for instance.

But I think in total the best thing is that our economy has become much more balanced.

We're no longer just an egg state.

For instance, egg is still the number one industry, but there are a number of other sectors that have increased dramatically.

Health care is obvious.

It's driven on a national basis, but our manufacturing sector is very strong, led by the steel industry at Complex and Mississippi County.

It's just incredible what's going on out there.

Steel County of the country now largest number one steel producing county in the U.S., not the state, but the county.

Five primary steel mills and 2 or 3 more.

At least on the way I say.

I think there's a lot of reports coming out of the expansions of them as well.

So not only starting something, but building on top of it.

Absolutely.

It's just remarkable.

Let's talk about, the employment has grown 14% over the last decade.

That's faster than a lot of our neighboring states.

Why do you think Arkansas has an advantage in something like that?

Well, again, we've got a balanced economy and we're creating we've got sectors or areas in the state.

Look at the defense industry, for instance, in South Arkansas, centered around Camden and Holland Industrial Park, just booming, running wide open.

The lithium play is in a nascent, nascent stage at this point, but it's coming.

That's going to drive a lot of high tech employment in South Arkansas, where we need it badly.

But the river valley from Conway all the way to Fort Smith, each of those communities is healthy and growing.

Conway, Russellville, Morrilton, Clarksville and Fort Smith, of course.

And then northwest is just on fire.

That's all you can call northwest.

I was about to say almost feels like an entity of its own.

It is literally as it's just been in Washington counties are just just you can't keep up with the growth.

It's a lot of fun to watch it.

And a lot of kids, a lot of kids coming out of school there and that part of the state of the university, but also the poultry industry remains very strong.

J.B.

hunt is now the number one, truck line in the U.S.

it's just absolutely incredible.

And the Walmart complex drives it all.

You know, the Walmart headquarters is just, a ninth wonder of the world.

The city.

Yeah, it really is the city.

And it's really great.

Yeah.

It's just wonderful to see.

Okay, so we've talked about obviously a lot of growth.

But with that growth can come challenges.

And you mentioned workforce skilled workforce in particular.

What kind of challenges that you mentioned the lithium and the smack smack over formation.

South Arkansas the job opportunities are there.

Do we have the skilled workforce that is needed to fill those jobs, or is it something we have to continue to expand on?

What kind of challenges that we definitely have to continue to invest in.

And but the good news is we have made remarkable progress over the last five, six, seven years.

We're we're we're creating those institutions and strengthening existing institutions to provide that kind of technical skills and technical knowledge that's necessary for the job.

Many of the jobs in today's economy, not, you know, it's not nothing is all or all or nothing.

It's it's important that we move across several sectors transportation, construction, advanced manufacturing, health care.

All of those sectors need skilled people to to meet the challenge, the challenges, and to, fill in for the opportunities that are available in that report.

That I read through it mentioned really the skilled workforce starts much earlier than what people probably realize.

What are some of the things that were highlighted in that that may surprise people about what we need to do as a state in terms of proficiencies early on in elementary school?

Well, we're just like the most of the rest of the country.

We are way behind in making sure that that our primary school system is is up to the task.

We have way too many kids coming out of third or fourth grade, fifth grade who cannot read at fifth or fourth or fifth grade level.

Likewise on our math skills.

So we've got basics to do.

But the good news there is that the Department of Education, with Governor Sanders leaning in very heavily, the Department of Education is is beefing up our our preparation for our preparation programs for teachers were increasing the number of teachers.

We've obviously increased the pay for teachers.

So we're taking the basic steps and moving ahead, to become better at that than we have been in the past.

But we kind of let things slip for too long, and now we've got to play catch up.

But it's just like the rest of the country.

The entire U.S.

is in the same boat.

I know in every interview you probably go on these days, you are prepared to answer something about AI in a data center because of the massive economic development that they're bringing to the state, there's certainly going to be a lot of questions around them.

I know you all have done everything you can to answer these questions and be transparent.

Tell me about these conversations you're having with Arkansans who are coming and sharing their feedback about it and what you all are trying to explain to them.

I know you just referenced, you mentioned in the break, you went to one of these data centers, and just the massive scale of these may be hard for some people to even conceptualize because they're so new.

It it really is.

I mean, you know, you don't have to look too far around the countryside, adjoining states, like there's a, the, x, data center and the old Electrolux plant in Memphis.

Gargantuan.

That's the only word you can use these things.

The scale and the speed at which this is happening, I think, is what, causes some people to be a little bit concerned.

Maybe a little leery of what in the world is this all about?

The bottom line is it's here or it's today.

It's the current.

And and to be, cutting edge technology, artificial intelligence is nothing new.

But it's the rate at which we're expanding that sector across the country.

I mean, there are hundreds of these data centers that are either under construction or in the in the planning stage, we've got at least 5 or 6 available to us, potentially here in Arkansas, there are major tax generators, property tax generators, not so much in terms of employment.

But the the reality is we've got to participate.

We can't be left behind because it's going to define the it's going to define the economy of the 21st century.

So we need to embrace it.

We need to prepare for it.

And obviously it's going to require some big investments.

And those are those are happening.

These companies are not not afraid to to plow literally hundreds of millions if not billions into these sites.

And it it's it's here.

So we've got to we've got to embrace it and take advantage of it.

And we're doing that.

Our electric providers are stepping up and planning the investments to make sure they've got adequate supplies.

Our water systems are more than adequate.

So that's kind of a, nonstarter as far as a concern as, as, a as far as any concern you might have, but, it's it's going to be fun.

It's exciting.

Big investments, big capital investments and throwing off major property tax, streams for school support and community support.

You mentioned, the benefit that's going to bring to the state.

I'm curious, are there job opportunities?

Is there workforce for data centers as well?

There are in other sectors we've mentioned, of course, there's construction jobs.

What about permanent jobs?

And are they high skilled jobs like we talked about with the lithium formation, where they're going to keep people in these areas and help them grow, like we saw with the steel mills up in north northeast Arkansas.

Well, it's interesting, the range of jobs that these data centers, require.

It's not just data technicians, but it's electricians.

It's Hvac technicians, it's plumbers.

It's pipefitters.

The basics of maintaining those facilities go way beyond just the computer servers themselves.

That's important.

And the electrical supply and the maintenance of that supply.

So a range of jobs, just not a not in the thousands.

Each of those facilities are talking about, jobs in the hundreds long term.

But the construction bill, the construction pay off is just enormous.

It's hard to get your arms or your head around it unless you go look at one of those sites CMB built.

All right.

So we're just talking about how property taxes with data centers are such a benefit, right, to these, these local areas.

On the flip side, you're able to sell businesses on coming into the state with low property taxes.

How much has that been a driver for manufacturing coming in and other types of jobs outside of the data centers that have really been able to find Arkansas attractive because of neighboring competition, where we have more incentives that we can offer as a state.

Arkansas is being discovered by not just data centers and data companies, but a range of manufacturers.

Because look at our look at our physical advantages.

We're smack in the center of the country.

So logistically, we're a great point in which to make stuff and ship stuff to the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

So geo geography is in our advantage.

Our property costs are still relatively low compared to many other states, not every other state, but we're competitive.

That's the keyword.

And we've been taking very smart steps and measured increments to reduce our tax rates and our tax burden on manufacturers, as well as other companies.

Employers, though, job creators find us very attractive as a, as a place to do business.

And we're easy to do business with.

We want that growth.

Tell me about, the plan that you guys have strongly supporting issue three, which will be on the ballot this November for viewers who may not be familiar with.

We only have about a minute and a half left.

Tell us why you support that and what that proposal will do.

This is a critical incentive package that we need to be competitive.

48 other states.

That would be all.

But to, have these these incentives available and we need to to prepare ourselves to compete other than on industrial sites, but things like retail and and transportation services and, and housing development, we need to be competitive with those fields as well.

And issue three will make that possible.

No increase in tax knowing diversion of existing taxes from schools or anything of that sort.

It's strictly a competitive, widely used, set of incentives, a set of incentives that would benefit developed development.

Okay.

Right.

Yes.

It's the lifeline for the delta part of the of the state, the eastern third.

Smaller towns will find these very like you can do whatever you want to with them or do nothing if that's your choice.

So nobody's going to be forced to use them, but they will be available if you're if you so choose.

All right.

I've only I got less than a minute left.

Give me your best 20s of.

You've been there at the chamber for 17 years.

20s what is Arkansas going to look like in the next decade, as we just got the report on the last?

Well, I think we're going to look a lot like we do today.

I think we're going to be sensible about preserving our way of life, our our natural resources, our outdoor life opportunities.

I think we're going to preserve those and enhance them.

So I think Arkansas is going to look a whole lot like it does today, but it'll be, there'll be a few more people here.

People are discovering us.

It's a great place to live.

It's a great place to raise a family.

It's a great place to grow a business.

And people are discovering that.

I appreciate you stopping by, Mr.

Zook.

Thank you so much.

Randy Zook from the state chamber.

We appreciate your time.

That is all for this week's edition of Arkansas Week.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll see you next time.