The next legislative session is just around the corner, and we already know there will be efforts to make major cuts to personal income taxes in Arkansas. Are those big tax cut ideas good for kids and families in our state? Not if you ask economic experts, and certainly not if you look at what […]

Helping working Arkansas families grow their assets will build a stronger middle class and a healthier economy, which benefits us all. Our state has come a long way in making it easier for all Arkansans to build assets, but we need to continue to make smart policy choices that encourage asset building in our communities. Assets are not just […]

If we rebuild our tax code in a way that works for everyone, we can afford to make public investments that will contribute to the common good. Unfortunately, recent tax cuts have put more money in the pockets of those at the top and less in the pockets of everyone else. The revenue we lost […]

Despite claims to the contrary, personal income tax cuts don’t help small businesses grow. Business owners hire when there is increased demand, regardless of what the tax rates are. In Arkansas, the majority of firms are small businesses (96.6 percent) who don’t have enough income to justify major hiring decisions based on small marginal tax rate […]

States should think twice before enacting big personal income tax cuts. Despite the claims of tax-cut proponents, low tax rates aren’t associated with economic prosperity, and are more likely to lead to budget problems. Most major studies over the past 15 years have shown that personal income tax cuts don’t cause economic growth. If someone […]

Every year, the Annie E. Casey Foundation releases the Kids Count Data Book, a comprehensive, 50-state look at child welfare. This year, Arkansas made gains in economic well-being, but we lost ground in health, becoming one of the bottom five states in that category. What would it take for Arkansas to climb all the way up […]

This November, elections are critical to the well-being of Arkansas’s children and families and to the future of this great state. Arkansas voters will help decide which candidates win a number of important public offices, including the U.S. Presidency, a U.S. Senate seat, and House and Senate seats in the Arkansas General Assembly. The winners […]

Nearly half of Arkansas single moms live in poverty. The best way to make sure that moms and their kids have bright financial futures is to start making smart policy decisions. This Mother’s Day, let’s give moms a gift that will last, like health insurance, maternity leave, after-school and summer programs, quality pre-K and tax […]

Tax day would certainly be a little happier for hundreds of thousands of working Arkansans if we had an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). President Reagan called EITCs “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.” An Arkansas EITC would supplement the wildly successful federal version which helps working families across […]

What if Arkansas were a national leader in children’s education and health? What if we had one of the lowest rates of child poverty in the nation instead of one of the highest? What if our abused and neglected children received the attention they deserved from caseworkers who weren’t overloaded? It’s not impossible. We can […]