Featured Articles

Conway Forum to Examine Dr. Milton Friedman's Education Reform Ideas

(July 2014) A Conway forum hosted by the Policy Foundation will consider the education reform ideas of the late Dr. Milton Friedman (1912-2006), the 1976 Nobel laureate in Economics.

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Income Tax Cut Emerges as Issue

(July 2014) Arkansas state government's $78.7 million general-revenue surplus in the fiscal year (2013-14) that ended June 30 illustrates it is possible to cut income tax rates without cutting state programs.

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Weak Recovery: 45 Arkansas Counties Lose Jobs

(June 2014) One sure sign that current administration economic policies are not working is the widespread decline in Arkansas payroll employment, the broadest indicator at the state level. Jobs data released this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show employment in 45 Arkansas counties-more than half of the state-was lower at the end of 2013 than five years ago (June 2009) when the recovery started.

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Private School Choice on the Agenda

(May 2014) Three states bordering Arkansas have approved student private school choice programs, while legislators in a fourth are eyeing the reform.

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Post-Murphy Commission Tax Cuts

(April 2014) The Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project, spent three years reviewing Arkansas' tax system before publishing two studies in 1998 that concluded rates were a factor affecting economic development.

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States Without Capital Gains Taxes

(April 2014) States without capital gains taxes are creating new jobs at a higher rate than the national average in the current economic expansion, according to a Policy Foundation analysis of payroll employment data.

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CNBC Report On Arkansas

(April 23, 2014) CNBC, a financial news network with an international following cites a private report that found Arkansas ranks 50th in the nation for taxpayer return on investment in six main categories with 27 metrics.

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Arkansas Term Limits: More Women in General Assembly

(March 2014) The number of female General Assembly members has nearly tripled since the people of Arkansas approved term limits in 1992.

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Emergency Room Visits & Nationalized Medical Insurance

(March 2014) Nationalized medical insurance proponents, at the federal and Arkansas levels claim their policies will lead to a reduction in hospital emergency room visits as the uninsured obtain coverage. Yet emergency room incidence in Massachusetts, oft-cited by proponents, remains greater than the U.S. average, data reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation show.

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Arkansas School Choice Market Expands

(February 2014) The Arkansas school choice market expanded from an estimated 59,860 K-12 students in 2011to 66,627 in 2013, records show. The growing niche market includes students participating in public school choice programs to flee failing Arkansas public schools. It also includes homeschooled students, and those enrolled at private and charter schools.

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Arkansas Term Limits: Fewer Attorneys in General Assembly

(February 2014) The number of General Assembly members who list "attorney" or "lawyer" as their current or former profession has declined by nearly one-third since the people of Arkansas approved term limits in 1992.

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One of the Largest School Districts in Arkansas

(February 2014) Most articles filed by education reporters focus on traditional K-12 public school districts. An unreported story is the increase in home-schooling, part of the alternative Arkansas school choice market.

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Long-Term Economic Reasoning & Arkansas Medicaid Expansion

(January 2014) Arkansas Medicaid's unfunded liabilities are an overlooked issue in the current controversy around expanding the program. The state Department of Human Services (DHS) terms Medicaid "a pay-as-you-go program for which budgets and appropriations are done each year." Yet Medicaid's unfunded liabilities, in terms of economics, cannot be ignored.

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Adverse Selection

(January 2014) Proponents of nationalized medical insurance long ago conceded the problem of adverse selection, i.e., buyers and sellers with asymmetric information create an unsustainable risk pool with few healthy and many unhealthy enrollees. The federal Affordable Care Act tries to address adverse selection via the individual mandate, limited open enrollment, moderate fines and enrollee subsidies. Proponents are preoccupied with enrollment figures because a minimum of 2.7 million healthy young Americans must enroll to create a sustainable risk pool under the 2010 act.

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Tax Rates Can Be Cut Using Surplus Revenues

(December 2013) The state's November General Revenue Report shows another fiscal year (2013-14) surplus emerging, another reminder that Arkansas' uncompetitive tax rates can be cut using surplus revenues.

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Business Owners Are Public Servants

(December 2013) Business owners--from the anonymous innkeeper whose generosity provided shelter to Joseph and Mary to the high-tech geniuses behind Space Age technological wonders--exist to serve the public, i.e., consumers. This insight is lost when civil discourse descends to class warfare instead of examining the factors behind a market-based order, which leads to the production of consumer goods and economic prosperity.

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Supply, Demand & Arkansas Medicaid Expansion

(November 15, 2013) Barely 20 percent of Arkansans eligible for expanded Medicaid coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act have enrolled after six weeks of the program. Media reports on technological glitches with a federal site have ignored other problems with Arkansas Medicaid expansion that betray a basic misunderstanding of economic supply and demand.

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Arkansas Higher Ed Tuition Costs Outpace Inflation

(October 2013) In-state undergraduate tuition costs for students attending Arkansas' largest public universities continue to outpace inflation despite the lowest multi-year increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) since the early 1960s.

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The Unprecedented Contraction of Arkansas' Civilian Labor Force

(September 19, 2013) Arkansas' civilian labor force--all employed and unemployed Arkansans--is contracting in an expansion, an unprecedented development in state labor market records that date to the mid-1970s. The trend may continue when the August employment report is released Friday.

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Arkansas Education Needs High Standards

(September 2013) Two state Department of Education reports obtained by the Policy Foundation illustrate that low educational standards continue to contribute to subpar Arkansas employment growth, as surrounding states outperform in an economy that entered its fifth year of expansion in June.

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Limit State Spending, Create Jobs & Paychecks

(August 2013) Arkansas state government does not have a revenue problem. State revenues have recorded surpluses for the last three fiscal years: $300 million (2012-13), $146 million (2011-2012) and $94 million (2010-2011). The people of Arkansas, by contrast, are faced with weak employment and income markets. Arkansas payroll employment has increased by less than the U.S. average since the recession ended in mid-2009. Arkansas per capita and median incomes trail the U.S. averages.

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Dr. Milton Friedman's Education Reform Ideas to be Discussed at July 31 Conway Forum

The 101st anniversary of the birth of Dr. Milton Friedman (1912-2006), the 1976 Nobel Economics laureate will be commemorated at a July 31 forum hosted by the Policy Foundation in Conway.

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The Oligopoly

(June 2013) Business enterprises in a market-based economy serve consumers. Any enterprise intent on selling a good or service begins by asking, ‘What are the economics?’ The problems to be solved include determining market type, estimating consumer demand, identifying the required supply of the product, assessing the costs involved, and setting prices using market signals. These issues are not merely academic. They are practical, and will determine whether or not the enterprise is a success.

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ACORN & Taxpayer Funding

(June 2013) Three decades before Congress voted to defund a welfare lobby founded in Arkansas, congressional auditors found the group disregarded federal guidelines by using trainees in a taxpayer-funded program for political activity. The episode illustrates the peril of legislators creating bias in the policy arena by subsidizing pet groups with tax dollars.

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Surplus State Revenues & A 6.5% Top Income Tax Rate

(June 2013) Arkansas Republicans, in control of the General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction reduced the top state income tax rate from 7.0 to 6.9% in the session that ended last month.  But the top rate could have been cut to 6.5% in the new fiscal year if policymakers had earmarked surplus state revenues for relief starting with the middle class.

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Medicaid Expansion & Economic Shortages

(May 2013) Economists and medical professionals have understood for some time that shortages exist within Arkansas’ health care system. But the bipartisan group of state lawmakers that expanded Arkansas’ Medicaid rolls by an estimated quarter-million recipients (250,000) ignored this issue in three public acts that expanded the program. The unintended economic consequence is that existing Arkansas medical shortages will worsen.

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Top Arkansas Income Tax Rate Reduced From 7.0 to 6.9 Percent

(April 2013) The state legislature has reduced the top Arkansas income tax rate from 7.0 to 6.9 percent on net income greater than $44,000 for “tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2015.” The measure also cuts income taxes for lower-income Arkansans beginning in January 2014.

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States of Employment Growth

(April 2013) The capital gains tax cut approved by the first Republican-controlled state legislature since Reconstruction is a modest step toward creating a more pro-growth economic climate in Arkansas. The measure, sponsored by House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, increases the capital gains exemption from individual income taxes from 30 to 50 percent. Carter defined the issue in terms of creating incentives for job creators.

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School Letter Grades Approved

(March 25, 2013) The state General Assembly has approved part of a 15-year-old Murphy Commission recommendation that clarifies for parents the public school rating system, amending annual school report cards from numerical to letter grades.

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Medicaid Unfunded Liabilities Expand Under So-Called "Private" Option

(March 2013) The unfunded liabilities of the state’s ‘ARKids First program,’ a major part of Arkansas Medicaid are estimated to expand by more than $1 billion under a so-called “private” option under review by state legislators.

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The State of Arkansas Manufacturing

(February 2013) Beebe administration officials are asking the state General Assembly to approve a $125 million bond deal for a steel production facility at Osceola in east Arkansas that promises 525 new jobs. But the state of Arkansas manufacturing is so weak, compared to historical levels that the proposed mill is likely to have minimal impact on employment and GDP.

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Overlooked Issues in Medicaid Debate

(January 15, 2013) Arkansas policymakers are debating Medicaid expansion, yet a number of key issues have been overlooked by observers.

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Mission Statement

The Arkansas Policy Foundation is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization that analyzes the impact of public policy on Arkansas and makes recommendations.

The Foundation emphasizes the importance of tax policy and education reform.

Principles of tax policy: Arkansas would benefit from comprehensive, pro-growth reform; Arkansans are not under-taxed; taxes and rates do matter to entrepreneurs; dynamic scoring of tax changes and effects provides benefits.

Education reform: The Foundation seeks intellectual honesty and complete openness in reporting the lack of academic progress in Arkansas' school system.

The Foundation encourages citizenship.

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