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(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 […]

(UPDATED: November 12, 2021) More than 110,000 Arkansas students will attend charter, home or private schools,or are eligible to participate in a public school choice program in the current (2021-22) school year, state Department of Education and non-profit records show. The niche school choice market has grown from 66,627 students (2013)(1) to an estimated 110,496 […]

(November 2021) More than 20,000 K-12 students participate in the Pulaski County school choice market in the current school year, public records show. The market includes students enrolled in Pulaski County charter and private schools, along with public schoolstudents eligible for a choice program. Home school students are also part of the market but the […]

“The most callused aspect of the (Arkansas) education monopoly 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 and daughters.” […]

(September 2021) Arkansas policymakers have taken action to boost Arkansas’ economic competitiveness by cutting the top income tax rate from 7.0% to 5.9%. Gov. Hutchinson and state legislators are poised to take the next step by reducing the rate again in a special legislative session this Fall. Tax cut opponents maintain there is no economic […]