LITTLE ROCK – Gov. Mike Beebe says he wants to avoid picking fights with the Legislature as it convenes Monday for its first-ever fiscal session under a 2008 constitutional amendment requiring lawmakers to meet and budget annually.

Beebe opens the month-long session Monday with an address to a joint session of the House and Senate that he says will be more scaled back than the “state of the state” speeches he traditionally offers.

“The overwhelming feedback I’ve gotten from the majority of the members has been they want it quick-in, quick-out and limit it to the budget and setting the lottery scholarships,” Beebe said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. “So my approach is going to be consistent with that, a much more limited address that just talks about where we are.”

Where the state is right now is a more dire financial situation than last year. This year’s session comes after the state has had to cut $206 million from its budget because of declining tax revenues. Beebe’s proposed a relatively flat budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that calls for no raises for state workers.

“It contemplates a very slow growth, and it’s a conservative budget that just prioritizes those things that should be prioritized in my mind,” Beebe said.

One of Beebe’s budget proposals that’s likely to face scrutiny during the session is his call for a balanced budget reserve fund of $34.5 million. Any revenue that comes in above projections would flow into that fund.

Some lawmakers have complained that tax revenues that come in above projections should go into general revenue rather than a separate fund.

“The thing I’ve had a hard time getting my arms around, if we don’t meet projections, that $34.5 million isn’t there anyways,” said Bruce Maloch, co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee.

Beebe compared the reserve fund to a $40 million “rainy day fund” that was created from the state’s surplus during last year’s legislative session. Beebe said that fund, which has been used to make up for revenue shortfalls, has only about $6 million left that’s uncommitted.

Beebe, however, said he’s not going to fight over the reserve fund if lawmakers feel like it would give him too much power.

“I am sensitive to not overreaching with the Legislature,” Beebe said. “If they’re uncomfortable with that, I understand that and I’m not going to push it. But it was their idea to give me the $40 million this time to get through and be able to place money properly, and it worked.”

Beebe last week also bowed out of a fight with lawmakers over the only non-budget issue the Legislature is expected to consider during the session: the amount of scholarships to be funded by the state’s lottery.

A legislative panel recommended that the lottery fund $5,000 scholarships to four-year schools and $2,500 scholarships to two-year schools for incoming freshmen, current college students and non-traditional students. Saying he wanted to rely on a smaller estimate of lottery revenues, Beebe had recommended smaller scholarship amounts for students already in college.

Beebe last week said he would sign the amounts recommended by the lottery’s oversight panel if the legislation reached his desk.

“I’m not going to fight about it,” Beebe said. “I’ve warned them, and I hope I am wrong. I hope I’m being too conservative on the money estimates.”

Beebe and legislative leaders say they hope to set a precedent with the session, which they say will likely take less than a month.

Under the 2008 amendment, the Legislature will hold general legislative sessions in odd-numbered years and fiscal sessions in even-numbered years. Arkansas becomes the 45th state to require its Legislature to meet annually.

The fiscal session will occur right before the March filing period for state and federal offices, and several key lawmakers are also eyeing runs for Congress. That includes House Speaker Robbie Wills, who is running for the 2nd Congressional District, and Joint Budget Committee Co-Chairman Sen. Gilbert Baker, one of eight Republicans running for the U.S. Senate.

Beebe said he’s not worried about politics interfering with the session.

“I think it will be the opposite. I’m for good public policy and these folks who are running for office aren’t going to stand in the way of good public policy,” Beebe said. “The best politics is good public policy ... All of these folks who are running for all of these offices are pretty smart folks and they’re going to see that.”