Legislators on the Arkansas Tax Reform and Relief Task Force on December 6th discussed possible changes to property taxes in the Natural State. Randy Bauer of PFM, the consulting group under contract with the state of Arkansas, began the meeting with a broad overview of recent tax reform efforts across the country. Bauer’s commentary was […]
Are Targeted Business Subsidies Good For Economic Growth?
Can Arkansas’s public officials stimulate the economy with targeted business subsidies? ACRE policy analyst Jacob Bundrick and scholar Dr. Thomas Snyder investigate this question in a working paper titled “Do Business Subsidies Lead to Increased Economic Activity? Evidence from Arkansas’s Quick Action Closing Fund.” The study, released by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University […]
Tax Reform Task Force Hears From Other States’ Legislators on Successes, Failures
By Caleb Taylor Members of the Arkansas Tax Reform and Relief Legislative Task Force met Tuesday to hear from state legislators from North Carolina, Oklahoma, Kansas and Indiana about the successes and shortcoming of their respective tax reform efforts. General themes common in testimony throughout the day were that tax reform should be done deliberately, […]
Property Taxes in Arkansas
By Jeremy Horpedahl and Nicole Kaeding (Cross posted at the Tax Foundation blog) This week Arkansas’s Tax Reform and Relief Task Force continues its work of investigating how to improve the tax system in Arkansas. In addition to hearing from legislators from Indiana, North Carolina, Kansas, and Oklahoma on their tax reform experience on Tuesday, […]
Task Force Examines Sales and Excise Tax Challenges, Fixes
By Caleb Taylor Arkansas’s Tax Reform and Relief Legislative Task Force met on November 7th and 8th to discuss the state’s sales and use tax, as well as excise taxes (click links to see presentations). As the Task Force continues to meet, ACRE will offer summaries of the proceedings and how they relate to tax […]
How to Improve Arkansas’s Sales and Use Tax
By Nicole Kaeding and Jeremy Horpedahl [Also posted at the Tax Foundation blog] Arkansas’s Tax Reform and Relief Task Force will continue its job of working to improve Arkansas’s tax system next week. Now that the process of choosing and hearing from the consultant, PFM Group, is done the Task Force is now really getting […]
The Sales Tax, Special Elections, and Voter Turnout
By Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl Arkansas has the third highest combined state and local tax rate in the nation. How did this happen? Research we are conducting at the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics suggests that part of the reason is that many counties and cities have elected to increase their own sales tax rates. […]
Issue 3 and Local Economic Development
By Mr. Jacob Bundrick Will Issue 3 bring jobs or bankruptcy taxes? Issue 3 proposes to allow local governments to appropriate tax dollars directly to private companies for economic development projects and to pay private organizations for economic development consulting work. Issue 3 would also expand the type of projects for which local debt can […]
Issue 3: Unleashing Economic Development Bonds
By Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl and Mr. Jacob Bundrick Issue 3 is a complicated ballot measure. The bill runs 9 pages of legal text and it amends at least six sections of the Arkansas Constitution. No wonder voters are confused! In this blog post, we will discuss the benefits and costs of Issue 3’s major […]
Why Tax Incentives for Sports Venues and Film Production Fail
By Mr. Jacob Bundrick Recently, I’ve written about how financial incentives that states provide to businesses in the form of tax breaks and subsidies don’t increase economic activity, have fiscal costs, are ineffective in steering the economy, and lack taxpayer protections when the firms that get money don’t meet their promises. In my final post […]