By Caleb Taylor What were the major tax reforms passed by Arkansas legislators during the 2019 session? ACRE Scholar and UCA Assistant Professor of Economics Jeremy Horpedahl and the Tax Foundation’s Vice President of Federal and Special Projects Nicole Kaeding outlined the recent “series of tax reforms to improve the competitiveness of the state’s tax […]
ACRE Review
Investing More in Student Instruction? Students Improve
By Caleb Taylor How should public schools allocate funding to get better student outcomes? Morgan Burke, an ACRE Fellow and UCA biology student, recently wrote an op-ed for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette titled “Rethink spending: Focus school funds on instruction,” arguing that Arkansas is misallocating its spending on administrative funding when the money could be better […]
Misallocated Incentives: How Arkansas Could Be Better
By Aaron Newell Where should state governments’ target economic incentives? Should they attempt to boost already thriving counties, or should they focus on developing poorer counties? Dango Kumwenda, an ACRE Fellow and UCA MBA student, recently wrote an op-ed for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette titled “Bad incentives: Rich counties benefit most,” arguing that Arkansas is misallocating […]
ACRE Analyst Quoted in Article About Incentives and Land-Based Salmon Farms
By Aaron Newell Policy makers trying to create a better environment for businesses have many different options – but some are better than others. ACRE Policy Analyst Jacob Bundrick recently discussed some of these options with John Evans and Rachel Sapin of IntraFish.com. In an article published on March 12th, “Could incentives power more US […]
Arkansans’ Occupational Licensing Burdens May Lighten
By Caleb Taylor Arkansas’s lower income workers face some of the heaviest licensing burdens in the country. That hurts job seekers, entrepreneurs, and consumers. These regulations also disproportionately harm military spouses, ex-offenders, minorities and immigrants. But new legislation could lead to better rules and more opportunities for Arkansans. House Bill 1527, or the Red […]
Art Carden on the Unintended Consequences of Well-intentioned Policies
By Aaron Newell Prices are the conductors of the economic orchestra that guide resources from places where they have relatively low value to places where they have relatively high value. When these prices are interfered with, people are left worse off than if the prices had been left alone. Art Carden, Associate Professor of Economics […]
Could Arkansas’s New Minimum Wage Increase Poverty?
By Aaron Newell How is the new minimum wage increase going to affect Arkansans? After passing with 68% of the vote in November, the minimum wage will rise to $11 an hour by 2021. Some say it will provide Arkansans with a living wage. Others say it will force businesses to lay off employees. But […]
Momentum for Transparency Grows in Arkansas
By Caleb Taylor ACRE Policy Analyst Mavuto Kalulu recently praised two new steps toward transparency for Arkansas’s county governments: Faulkner County Circuit Clerk Crystal Taylor’s [no relation] work on transparency, and legislative efforts to require counties to publish their budgets online. In an article published in the Log Cabin Democrat on March 6th entitled “Circuit […]
New Protections for Property Rights in Arkansas: Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform
By Aaron Newell Civil asset forfeiture reform has been on the minds of Arkansas legislators, as well as policymakers around the country. The US Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion in Timbs v Indiana, ruled that the excessive fines clause of the US Constitution applied to state laws, and in particular civil asset forfeiture laws. […]
What’s “Special” About Special Elections?
By Jeremy Horpedahl A new bill would limit special elections which have contributed to Arkansas having the third highest average sales tax rate in the country. HB1402 was approved by the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs February 13. The bill was amended twice after approval, and it currently is waiting to be heard […]