AN ACT FOR THE ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY - MID-SOUTH APPROPRIATION FOR THE 2026-2027 FISCAL YEAR.
HB1021 is the annual appropriation act for Arkansas State University–Mid-South for fiscal year 2026-2027. It authorizes funding for the university’s regular salaries, extra help, personal services matching, operating expenses, contingency needs, and cash-fund expenditures. The bill also sets maximum numbers of employees and salary rates across administrative, academic, auxiliary, and temporary positions, including faculty, IT staff, student services, maintenance, and food service roles.
In addition to the university’s core operating budget, the bill appropriates funds for ADTEC/University Center Partners and allocates those funds among participating institutions, including Arkansas Northeastern College, Arkansas State University-Newport, the University of Arkansas East Arkansas Community College, Arkansas State University–Mid-South, Phillips Community College of the UA, Arkansas State University-Jonesboro, and the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. The bill includes special language directing ASU–Mid-South to disburse those funds in consultation with ADTEC and contains standard compliance, legislative intent, and emergency provisions so the act takes effect on July 1, 2026.
HB1021 does not create new substantive higher-education policy; instead, it establishes the legal authority and spending limits for Arkansas State University–Mid-South for FY2027. It appropriates a total of $6,517,317 from state operations funds and $25,000,000 from cash funds, plus $1,578,918 for ADTEC/University Center Partners, while also setting staffing caps and salary ceilings that govern how the university may use those funds. The act also references and operates within existing state fiscal laws, including procurement, accounting, revenue stabilization, salary procedures, and higher education expenditure restrictions.
The available context suggests the bill was routine and noncontroversial. It was sponsored by the Joint Budget Committee, had no recorded committee transcript debate, and no recorded votes in the provided history. Its final status as Act 31 indicates it moved through the process as a standard appropriations measure with broad institutional support and little visible opposition.
No specific points of contention are reflected in the provided materials. Because there are no committee transcripts or vote records, there is no evidence of disagreement over the funding levels, staffing authorizations, or the ADTEC/University Center Partners allocations. The only potentially notable issue is the special-language requirement that ASU–Mid-South consult with ADTEC when distributing partner funds, but the record provided does not show any dispute over that provision.