On October 23 and 24, 2003, all project staff are required to attend the Outreach Staff Planning Retreat at the Ramada Inn Limited in Little Rock. Each pilot site is encouraged to bring one or two coalition members to assist the group in constructing an effective work plan for the upcoming year. AACF will cover […]

In December, the Arkansas General Assembly will convene in a special session to develop plan for reforming education (and finding the funds to implement the plan) in response to a 2002 Arkansas Supreme Court mandate in the Lake View case. Funding education reform will be an expensive undertaking. According to a recent study by the […]

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) believes that any plan for raising new revenue to pay for education reform should be based on core beliefs and guiding principles. This plan should be realistic, allow the state to provide a better education for our children, and protect and promote the economic well-being of the state’s […]

As Governor Huckabee and the Arkansas General Assembly grapple with how to reform the public education system, they will eventually have to make major decisions about how to pay for these reforms. Paying for education reform will require large tax increases that could have major implications for the economic well-being of the state’s working families […]

State agencies came to the table in January 2003 with budgets that were already cut by $362 million. They sought approval for budgets that were higher than the current FY2003, but still lower than the approved budget from the 2001 session. Falling revenues during 2002 and 2003 caused extensive cuts to be made by all […]

Estimates show an Arkansas lottery would generate $169 million in sales. Only 33 percent of this amount, about $55 million annually, would be available as tax revenue for the state treasury. The creation of a lottery would decrease state and local sales tax revenue by about $9.6 million, while revenue from state personal income taxes […]

Arkansas’ state tax revenues took a nosedive during state fiscal year 2002. Net available general revenues for SFY 2002 were down 2.3 percent from SFY 2001, and were 6.2 percent less than originally forecast for the year. The shortfalls resulted from an already declining economy, the events of Sept. 11, and an unrealistic state general […]

In May 2001, Judge Collins Kilgore issued a historic ruling in the Lake View School District case – the state’s current school-funding formula is unfair to poorer school districts and provides inadequate funding for education. The case is expected to have major implications for education funding, other programs serving children and families, and tax equity […]

Eliminating state and local sales taxes on food would reduce funding for programs serving vulnerable children and families. The combined loss in local, state, and federal funding would be at least $631 million annually. Arkansas would lose at least $517 million in various state revenues and federal matching Medicaid funds. The federal loss does not […]

A collaboration with the Finance Project, this brief provides practitioners of local out-of-school time programs with techniques, tools, and strategies for improving their program and tracking their effectiveness over time.