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(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 […]

(February 2014) Most articles filed by education reporters focus on traditional K-12 public school districts.1  An unreported story is the increase in home-schooling, part of the alternative Arkansas school choice market.   The number of Arkansas home school students has increased from a mere 572 (1985-86) to 17,215 (2012-13), state Department of Education records show.2  Home school students, as a percentage of local enrollment, […]

Prudence should guide fiscal policy. Public services should be provided in an efficient, cost-effective manner.  Savings should be used to encourage economic growth and make Arkansas competitive in terms of jobs creation and income growth.  The Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project spent three years (1996-1998) studying state government before advancing ideas to make government cost-effective and […]

First in a multi-part series on term limits, approved by the people in 1992 and 2004.   (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 1992.1   Amendment 73 to […]

“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 […]

(January 2014) Proponents of nationalized medical insurance long ago conceded the problem of adverse selection, i.e., buyers and sellers with asymmetric information1 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 […]