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“(A) stronger FOIA has the potential to save Arkansas taxpayers millions of dollars … Records we obtained … show outstanding tax liens …. while taxes are raised and counties aren’t fully reimbursed for housing state inmates in county jails.” Watchdog.org,1 March 20, 2015   (December 2017) One year after the Efficiency Project recommended reducing more than $300 million in […]

(December 2017) Arkansas’ top income tax rate (6.9%)1 is the second-highest in the 12-state southeast region,2 trailing only South Carolina (7.0%), according to the Federation of State Tax Administrators.3  The organization serves the principal tax collection agencies of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Philadelphia, and New York.4   South Carolina 7.0% Arkansas 6.9% West Virginia 6.5% Georgia […]

  (October 2017) The Arkansas Policy Foundation and Reason Foundation cordially invite you to a panel and workshop event, titled “Arkansas School Choice and School Finance in the 21st Century”   The event includes a panel discussion on “National Trends in School Choice and Implications for Arkansas” with Rep. Jim Dotson and Arkansas Parent Network’s […]

“Define and implement a system of performance-based pay for all state employees.” Murphy Commission, “Making Arkansas’ State Government Performance Driven and Accountable,” September 19981   (September 2017) The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT) has advanced a performance-based pay program, a reform first recommended in 1998 by the Murphy Commission, a Policy Foundation project.   The performance-based […]

  Facilities Partnership funding is distributed in an inefficient manner. Policy Foundation Efficiency Project, Second Report, Recommendation #49, p. 181   (August 2017) Freshman Gov. Asa Hutchinson has asked a state panel to recommend changes to a K-12 public school spending practice criticized last year by the Policy Foundation’s Efficiency Project.   “We’ve been going […]

“Analysis of these themes and issues has led to larger findings related to statewide issues and opportunities, which have been summarized into nine major recommendations.” PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Efficiency Review of Arkansas State Government (August 2016)   (August 2017) The state Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) is acting on nine major recommendations from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP […]

(June 2017) Tom Easterly, a Murphy Commission Education Team volunteer who later played a role in a landmark Arkansas State Supreme Court decision has been named the Policy Foundation’s ‘Unsung Hero’ of 2017.   Easterly, 97, was awarded the honor based on the following criteria:   ∙         His work to address issues that focus on America’s founding […]

(July 2017) Management consultants conducted efficiency reviews in Kansas, Louisiana, and North Carolina this decade, at costs ranging from $2.6-to-$4.2 million.  Volunteers led an earlier Kansas project.  A Policy Foundation review of published reports in these states1 found a broad range of estimated savings ($9.3 million to $2.7 billion). To-date savings vary by state, according to state executives and […]

  “Certain funds are not being distributed to low-income K-12 school districts as originally intended.”  Policy Foundation Efficiency Project, Second Report, Recommendation #50, p. 181   (May 2017) Mission creep describes the tendency of government programs to expand beyond their original purpose.  One Arkansas example is a 1997 program that pays incentive bonuses to teachers that obtain national-board certification […]

  “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   (May 2017) Arkansas state legislators cut taxes for low-income Arkansans1 and military retirees in this year’s […]