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 […]
ACRE Review
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 […]
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 […]
State Solutions to Local Tax Burdens
By Joseph Johns, ACRE Policy Analyst Arkansas has reduced its state income tax in recent years. However, Arkansans still face considerable tax burdens at the local level. Taxpayers face multiple local tax burdens that chip into their earnings and reduce the overall well-being of Arkansas’s citizens. Currently, there are two bills before the Arkansas legislature […]
Does School Choice Hurt Students Left Behind in Traditional Public Schools?
by Thomas Snyder, UCA Professor of Economics and ACRE-Affiliated Scholar The topic of school choice is back at the forefront in Arkansas with our new Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. One of the most common arguments you’ll hear against school choice is “What about those students left behind in traditional public schools?” If public money and […]
Taxes and Inflation in Arkansas
by Joseph Johns, ACRE Policy Analyst Consumer price inflation hit 40-year highs in 2022. The rapid increase in prices has already hit households hard in their wallets as they buy everyday goods and services. But for taxpayers in Arkansas, there could be another hidden cost of inflation: your taxes could be going up in real […]
Recent Tax Cuts in Arkansas Haven’t Cut Into the State Budget
By Jeremy Horpedahl, ACRE Director Beginning in 2015, Arkansas has been making gradual reductions in both personal and corporate income tax rates. The cumulative personal income tax reductions could be saving middle-income families in Arkansas $2,000-$5,000 every year, as an analysis by ACRE Policy Analyst Joseph Johns shows. Not only has the top income tax […]