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 […]
ACRE Review
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 […]
Shining the Light on COVID-19 Relief Funds for Arkansas
by Mavuto Kalulu, Assistant Professor of Economics According to the Pew Research Center article, “Public Trust in Government: 1958-2022,” published on June 6, 2022, only two in ten Americans trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always.” The seemingly good news for state governments is that people trust their state […]
Arkansas Celebrates Historic-Low Income Tax Rates
by Joseph Johns, ACRE Policy Analyst The Arkansas General Assembly has been making historic strides toward reducing the cost of living for Arkansas families. Following the tax changes made in a special session last month, Governor Hutchinson has now enacted a total of five tax cut packages during his administration. The top marginal income tax […]