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  (September 2014) An amendment by Arkansas Medicaid expansion proponents is inadequate because it fails to estimate unfunded liabilities, according to a public comment submitted to state and federal authorities by the Policy Foundation.  The comment notes, “An estimate of unfunded liabilities is consistent with principles of open government, i.e., transparency.   The Policy Foundation’s public comment […]

“Incorporate Activities Based Costing (ABC) into the state’s accounting system with expenditures tied not only to costs but to measurable performance outputs. Adopt performance-based budgeting throughout state government.  Appoint a “performance management” director who works for the Governor through DFA, and provide for a small volunteer performance accountability “advisory group” to be put in place for oversight purposes. Murphy […]

“The most callused aspect of the current education monopoly in Arkansas is that it willingly and deliberately forces children–except those whose parents have wealth–to attend bad schools. And it does so with financial resources taken from parents already struggling financially and at the expense of their ability to choose a better school for their sons […]

(July 2014) Arkansas recently became the 25th state to enact a private school choice program, an idea originating with the late Dr. Milton Friedman (1912-2006), the 1976 Nobel laureate in Economics.   A speaker sponsored by the Policy Foundation will discuss Dr. Friedman’s education reform ideas at a July 30 public forum in Conway. Dr. […]

“There is significant evidence that reductions in marginal state tax rates encourage state economic growth …Rates on productive behavior should be reduced.”   “Reduce the state’s income tax…repeal the state’s capital gains tax.” Arkansas Policy Foundation, Murphy Commission project, 1998   (July 2014) Arkansas state government’s $78.7 million general-revenue surplus in the fiscal year (2013-14) […]

(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 451 Arkansas counties-more than half of the state-was lower at the end of 20132 than […]

“The most callused aspect of the current education monopoly in Arkansas is that it willingly and deliberately forces children–except those whose parents have wealth–to attend bad schools. And it does so with financial resources taken from parents already struggling financially and at the expense of their ability to choose a better school for their sons […]

(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.   Arkansas taxes income including capital gains, and has a job creation rate less than half the U.S. average since the […]

  “There is significant evidence that reductions in marginal state tax rates encourage state economic growth …Rates on productive behavior should be reduced.” Murphy Commission, Policy Foundation project,1998   (April 2014) The Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project, spent three years reviewing Arkansas’ tax system before publishing two studies1 in 1998 that concluded rates were a […]

  Second in a multi-part series on term limits, approved by the people in 1992 and 2004.   (March 2014) The number of female General Assembly members has nearly tripled since the people of Arkansas approved term limits in 1992.1   Amendment 73 to the state Constitution limits Arkansas constitutional officers2 to two four-year terms.  The amendment […]