This morning she visited Hebrews 11:1, the coffee shop owned by Republican candidate for state representative Arnetta Bradford, then Rainbow of Challenges headquarters with Arkansas Secretary of the Department of Human Services Kristi Putnam. She finished the morning with a visit to Beryl Henry Elementary to meet with its staff. These events were closed to the press and public.
At Tailgaters Burger Company, which was open to the public, the governor arrived at noon, many of her cabinet officers having preceded her. They lined up in front of a display of the national and state flag in the southwest corner of the restaurant and greeted the governor as she arrived.
Rep. Danny Watson, who will be leaving office after this year introduced Senator Steve Crowell, who himself introduced the governor. “I know nobody really wants to talk to me, and they want to talk to somebody else. So I have the pleasure of introducing our governor of the great state of Arkansas. Governor Sarah Sanders,” he said.
“Thank you all so much,” Sanders said as she took a handheld mic. “It is great to be back in Hope. This is a special place for me and for my family. As a lot of you know, both of my parents grew up here in Hope, and so I have a lot of memories my grandparents lived here. And I've actually forced our staff to go on a lot of additional stops today, as we've made this capital for a day, we've driven by my my dad's boyhood home. I’ve told stories about the bands they were in.”
Sanders then explained that she and her staff had toured several Arkansas towns that have been named Capital For a Day. This involved day-long visits to these towns. Hope is another example of this, with events continuing into the afternoon with a visit to Hope Livestock Auction Inc starting at 2:00 p.m. and then a last event starting at 4:00 p.m. at Hope Baking Company.
Yesterday, she said, marked the first anniversary of her taking office. Huckabee explained why she campaigned for governor. “I ran because I wanted something different. Arkansas is home for me. I absolutely love this state. This is where I was born and raised. This is where my kids were born. This is where my husband and I want our kids to grow up and where we hope that one day they'll raise their own families. But the Arkansas that I love, the Arkansas I grew up in was not necessarily going to be the one that my kids inherited, if we didn't start doing something about it.”
She spoke about the passage of the LEARNS Act as pertaining to her own family. “I know that every single decision that I make will have a direct impact on the life of my own kids. I have three kids, Scarlet, Huck and George. They are sixth grade, fourth grade and second grade. And so a lot of the things that we're dealing with every day are things that are happening at my own house.”
The raising of pay, especially for new teachers, Sanders mentioned, as well as the hiring of 80 literacy coaches. “If we do not have kids that are reading at or above a third grade reading level, we know that we are setting them up for a lifetime of failure. So really investing in that early education and that early literacy is so key and so critical,” she said.
Public safety legislation was also one of her points of pride over the past year. “One of the most important functions of all of government is to keep our people safe. And frankly, we haven't done a good enough job at that. And we have to invest in our law enforcement. We have to stand up and remind them that we will always back them up, and we will give them the tools, the resources that they need to do their job successfully. And when they arrest somebody, they should know that we're not going to turn that person right back out onto the streets and into your community.” She referred to the Protect Act, which she signed April 11 of last year, which lengthens terms for repeat violent offenders.
She then had the members of her cabinet who were present introduce themselves and make short speeches about their agencies. These included James Hudson, Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration; Wes Ward, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture; Shea Lewis, Secretary of the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism; Kendall Penn, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs; Kristi Putnam, Secretary of the Department of Human Services; Leslie Fisken, Secretary of the Department of Transformation and Shared Services; Allison Bragg, Inspector General; Daryl Bassett, Secretary of Labor and Licensing; Jacob Oliva, Secretary of Education and Major General Jonathan M. Stubbs, Arkansas Secretary of the Military.
After Stubbs finished speaking, Governor Huckabee thanked the large group of attendees in the restaurant for coming by and thanked the staff of Tailgaters, too. She then recounted how she spent her morning, and was complimentary of the staff of Beryl Henry, Hebrews 11:1 and Rainbow of Challenges.
The governor and her staffers remained for about 45 minutes, taking questions and taking pictures with constituents. Asked whether many of the 427,000 Medicaid recipients who had lost eligibility as a result of the state’s post-COVID assessment have enrolled again, Secretary of Human Services Kristi Putnam provided a run-down of the time-line on this issue since she entered office.
“What happened is during the public health emergency, the federal government required us to offer an additional amount of money of a percentage above what they normally pay,” Putnam said. “But, as a condition of receiving that, we had to continue eligibility for Medicaid, so we couldn't discontinue anyone. And that was a good thing, because it helped people keep coverage and get their COVID shots and get care that they needed.
“We knew that during the time that the public health emergency started to the time that it was ended, we've had two minimum wage increases. And we've also had a very, very robust labor market. So many of those 427,000 people who lost eligibility for Medicaid--it's because they've increased their income to the point they're no longer eligible for Medicaid. Now, that doesn't mean they don't have coverage. They have options for coverage elsewhere. But what we are trying to do is make sure that if there is someone was discontinued in error, that we are working those applications first.”
She added that her office is mindful of the limited funds available for Medicaid coverage for state residents, so the priority is for Medicaid funding to go where it is needed. She said the Department of Human Services no longer has a backlog of applicants, so those applying should see decisions within 30 days.
Putnam said in any given month about 20 to 30 thousand people cycle in and out of the Medicaid program and that right now the number of enrollees stands at about 880,000, "which is closer to what we had before the pandemic started."
Video of the Tailgaters event will be posted below this gallery.
