Blog

Summary: A healthy state economy creates new jobs at rates greater than or equal to the U.S. average.  Public assistance is seen as short-term aid, not a multi-year entitlement.  Two metrics (employment growth, food stamp usage1) illustrate problems with the Arkansas economy since January 2007.   (October 2014) Arkansas payroll employment has declined, and the number of […]

“The new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a burden on Arkansas taxpayers, though executive branch officials are in denial about its budget exposure. Legislators need to understand that nationalized medical insurance, in the economic long term, will restrict their ability to fund services like public education that are required under the Arkansas […]

  (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 […]