Policy Research

  "Define and implement a system of performance-based pay for all Arkansas state employees and public K-12 employees, including teachers." (Murphy Commission, 1998 stud, "Making Arkansas State Government Performance Driver And Accountable") (July 2008) Teachers...

  "In its amicus brief filed with the state Supreme Court in the Lake View case, the Arkansas Policy Foundation points out that, in 1996, the Clinton administration recommended a similar accounting system for the country's public...

(June 2008) The National Education Association (NEA), the largest government-sector labor union in the United States, lost members in Arkansas in 2007, records show. There were 16,528 Arkansas NEA members as of Dec. 31, 2007...

(June 2008) A long-stated goal of Arkansas state government officials is achieving 100 percent parity with the U.S. average in terms of per capita personal income (Bureau of Economic Analysis). Government economic development officials have...

One educational group escaped scrutiny in the consolidation debate that occurred after the Court's decision in Lake View: Arkansas' education service co¬operatives. Much of the debate about K-12 consolidation revolved around the student enrollment threshold...

Arkansas has the highest income tax rate among the states that border it, according to 2008 data compiled by the Federation of Tax Administrators. The group has published a chart that shows Arkansas has a...

(April 2008) Economists from the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, the Univ. of Arkansas and the Policy Foundation participated in a recent forum on the Arkansas economy that aired statewide on public television (AETN). The monthly...

  "In order for Arkansas to move from a low-wage to a high-wage economy, the state needs to decrease marginal tax rates ...in order to attract (high-income) workers to Arkansas." ("Taxes And Savings in Arkansas."...

"The state's income tax should be reduced … Consider an across-the-board cut, reduce the marginal rates, exempt taxpayers below a certain income level from filing, and expedite the process of indexing for inflation (Improving Productivity...

Performance-based budgeting would require state government to develop quantifiable measures for all functions and then allocate tax dollars based on the effectiveness of meeting performance goals. Activities-based costing allocates tax dollars in a consistent and...