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(May 2022) Nonfarm payroll employment is the broadest economic indicator at the state level. Utah had a higher jobs creation rate than any state in the last economic expansion, according to a Policy Foundation analysis of employment data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, […]

(2Q-2022) States without an income tax led the Southeast and Arkansas’ border region in jobs creation in the first two years of the national economic expansion that began in April 2020, Bureau of Labor Statistics records show. Florida led the 12-state Southeast region in jobs creation between April 2020 and April 2022, the most recent […]

First in a series of interviews. “What stays in my mind about Arkansas are the wide-open spaces. It was my first long-distance drive west of theMississippi in a car. Some people think this type of drive is boring but to me it was very meaningful. There wassomething very special about the big road and the […]

(2Q-2022) Three years into a national economic expansion, Arkansas trails the national average in jobs creation, according to a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics records. Arkansas led 11 other states during the period. A national economic expansion began in April 2020, the National Bureau of Economic Research notes. Between April 2020 and April […]

(April 2022) Total Arkansas exports to Russia in 2020 were minuscule and totaled only $7,453,518 of Arkansas’ total exports of $5,196,834,082, state Department of Commerce records show. Russia ranked 50th in the world that year among Arkansas export markets. The Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991. Exports to 14 post-Soviet nations totaled $16,071,847. Ukraine […]

(March 2022) Nearly 290,000 Arkansas filers paid the top state income tax rate last year, according to a state Department of Finance and Administration document. Tax cut opponents claim only a few Arkansans pay the top rate. A total of 289,164 Arkansas tax filers paid the top 5.9% rate in 2021, the document shows. By […]

“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.” Arkansas Policy Foundation Mission Statement (March 2022) Thirteen states including Arkansas reduced individual income tax rates in 2021. Policymakers in twoother states in the Southeast region–Georgia and Mississippi–took […]

(March 2022) The natural state of the U.S. economy is expansion, though recessions occur as a result of the business cycle. The economy is in the 13th expansion of the postwar era, according to the Cambridge-basedNational Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the arbiter of the U.S. cycle. In the post-war era, the U.S. economy expanded […]

(2Q-2021) Cutting Arkansas’ top income tax rate to 4.79% would place it among the third of states with the lowest rates, a reversal of its relative position in 2015 when it ranked among states with the highest rates. Gov. Asa Hutchinson will call a special legislative session to consider income tax cuts. Since Hutchinson took […]

“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.” Arkansas Policy Foundation Mission Statement (December 2021) A pending proposal to reduce Arkansas’ top income tax rate from 5.9% to 4.9% would improve the state economy’s competitive position […]