ACRE Review

Arkansas Center for Research in Economics Awards 70 Scholarships this Academic Year

by Michelle Stoll, ACRE Communications Manager Each semester, The Arkansas Center for Research in Economics (ACRE) gives UCA students the opportunity to apply for scholarships by participating in one of its weekly reading groups, such as the economics group, law group, philosophy group and Biz@Bear group. This academic year $28,700 was awarded for 70 reading […]

Transparency at the Local Level: Report Shows Progress, but Work Still Needed

By Michelle Stoll, ACRE Communications Manager The Arkansas Center for Research in Economics (ACRE) has released its 2023 County and City Web Transparency Report, Access Arkansas. The report assesses the information that county and city governments publish online, as well as how accessible that information is. Localities are then ranked according to this analysis. Previous […]

Legislative Session Wrap-Up: ACRE’s Top 10 Revisited

By Jeremy Horpedahl, ACRE Director and UCA Associate Professor of Economics The Arkansas General Assembly has informally adjourned, meaning that the time to pass new bills is over. They will reconvene in May to formally wrap up the session, but the major action is now concluded. Prior to the session, ACRE put together a Top […]

A Taxpayer Bill of Rights in Arkansas?

By Jeremy Horpedahl, ACRE Director and UCA Associate Professor of Economics Every session the Arkansas legislature considers many major and minor changes to both tax and budget policy. But it’s much rarer to see proposals to dramatically reform the entire fiscal process in Arkansas. As state legislators have begun to debate potential constitutional amendments to […]

What’s Happening with Corporate Taxes in Arkansas?

As the legislative session continues, one major topic that has still not been addressed is tax reform. While the personal income tax will likely get some attention this year, changes to corporate taxation are just as important and several bills may be considered. Despite the progress made in reducing the state’s corporate income tax from […]

Shedding Light on FOIA: Celebrating Sunshine Week and Promoting Transparency

by Dr. Joyce O. Ajayi, ACRE Policy Analyst This week is Sunshine Week, and I couldn’t be more excited! For those unfamiliar with it, Sunshine Week is an annual event across the country that celebrates government transparency and encourages the public to participate in the democratic process. One of the things I am most excited about […]

Occupational Licensing-related Bills will Benefit Arkansans

by Zachary Burt, ACRE Policy Analyst The 2023 Legislative Session has seen a flurry of occupational licensing-related bills over the past two months. Many of these bills make small tweaks to licensing rules or board compositions, but several bills with a potentially large impact have either already been passed or stand a high chance of […]

UCA Undergraduates Attend Women in Economics Symposium

By Terra Aquia, ACRE Program Coordinator During the legislative session ACRE staff are frequently focused on bills and testifying before committee. But our dedication to education and outreach to students is a pillar of ACRE’s mission and presents opportunities for student involvement year-round. Recently, ACRE Policy Analyst Dr. Joyce Ajayi and ACRE Program Coordinator Terra […]

ACRE’s Mid-Session Legislative Update

By Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl, ACRE Director and UCA Associate Professor of Economics The Arkansas General Assembly has now completed 7 weeks of its 2023 Regular Session. While there is still a lot more work to be done this year, we’ve already seen some major developments, and at ACRE we are closely watching several pieces of […]

Expanding Government Transparency in Arkansas: Why House Bill 1399 Matters

By Dr. Joyce O. Ajayi, ACRE Policy Analyst  The Arkansas Center for Research in Economics (ACRE) has been tracking county government web transparency since 2018 with our publication Access Arkansas: County Web Transparency. Since we first published our report, Arkansas counties have become much more transparent, both through their own individual choices to publish more […]