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“Issue school-by-school performance report cards to parents and the public. Use the results of this report card to hold schools accountable–rewards for those performing on an exceptional basis and sanctions for low performing schools.”  1998 Policy Foundation recommendation (February 2011) The status of Arkansas’ first formal government report to issue grades to districts based on performance is […]

  The capital gains tax “makes Arkansas less competitive in attracting capital as compared with states with lower or no capital gains tax rates.” Murphy Commission, Policy Foundation, 1998   (February 2011) Legislative branch action to freeze part of Gov. Mike Beebe’s proposed $109 million spending increase for FY 2012 creates the policy option of […]

(January 2011) Funding for core Arkansas government functions—education, corrections and transportation—could occur at slightly increased rates while other operations are frozen at current levels, providing $31 million in savings to cut state income, capital gains and grocery tax rates.   Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe has called on tax cut proponents to identify spending cuts.(1)  Spending cuts […]

(December 2010) Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe has called on tax cut proponents to identify spending cuts.  But spending cuts are not required to cut income, capital gains or grocery tax rates. Three 2011-2013 budget alternatives that increase state spending at lower percentage rates or freeze spending at current levels would provide an extra $57 million-to-$109 million […]

Tax policy recommendations extracted from a statewide conference on taxation and two Policy Foundation research papers include a proposal to repeal the state capital gains tax.  (Arkansas Policy Foundation, 1998) (October 2010) Arkansas Republicans are poised to increase their numbers at the state Capitol next month, which means capital gains taxes are likely to emerge as an issue […]

(August 2010) Five ‘A’-rated Arkansas school districts in four Policy Foundation studies have fewer discipline incidents, with one exception than three in Pulaski County (Little Rock, North Little Rock and the Pulaski County Special School District). The five districts—Bentonville, Fayetteville, Greenwood, Lakeside (Garland County) and Valley View—received ‘A’ grades in four consecutive Foundation Arkansas School District […]

“Consider an across-the-board (tax) cut, reduce the marginal rates, exempt taxpayers below a certain income level from filing, and expedite the process of indexing for inflation (Arkansas Policy Foundation, 1998)   (August 2010) The federal Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act (1978), also known as ‘Humphrey-Hawkins’ assigned a target unemployment rate of 4.0 percent for […]

(July 2010) The Policy Foundation will host a July 30 event honoring the late Dr. Milton Friedman (1912-2006), the 1976 Nobel Laureate in Economics and a proponent of educational choice. His wife, Rose D. Friedman (1910-2009) was also an economist. The couple co-authored several books, including a 1980 best-seller, Free To Choose that served as […]

  (July 2010) Little Rock charter schools reported no discipline incidents but 26 of 34 local traditional public schools reported weapons incidents, staff assaults or student assaults, according to a Policy Foundation review of 2009 Arkansas School Performance Report cards.   Ten open enrollment charter schools are in Little Rock. (1) They are the Arkansas […]

The Policy Foundation’s interest in ethics reform dates to 1998 when it made recommendations to prevent double-dipping in terms of compensation.  Double-dipping has reemerged in the past year following media reports that Arkansas government officials returned to work after “retiring” to draw taxpayer-funded salary and retirement benefits.  A lack of transparency, in this episode contributed to the problem. […]