Senator Teague’s Building Implosion

March 16, 2013 Leave a Comment
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Several weeks ago, I wrote a piece about Senator Larry Teague’s proposal to require all public construction projects in Arkansas to use “American-made” products. At that time, Senator Teague told me he thought the bill would “be law by the end of the week.” After that, the bill sat in the Senate for several weeks with no action until it was finally passed out of Senate Committee this week. Today, the full Senate voted on the bill. It received 17 votes, one shy of the 18 needed to pass. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 General Assembly, Economic Freedom Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Raising the Minimum Wage: Unfair to Working Students And Still a Bad Idea

March 4, 2013 1 Comment
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The House Public Health Committee is slated to take up Rep. Butch Wilkins’s minimum wage hike tomorrow morning. The proposal would raise the state’s minimum wage from $6.25 to $8.25 -- unless you’re a full-time student who works less than 20 hours a week. Under current law, these students are only entitled to 85% of minimum wage -- Rep. Wilkins’s bill would cut that percentage by 20 points, down to 65%. What would the real effect be for working full-time students? Let’s do some … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 General Assembly, Arkansas Legislature, Economic Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Why Hiking the Minimum Wage is Bad for Everyone

February 25, 2013 4 Comments
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This week, state Representative Butch Wilkins introduced a bill to increase the government-mandated minimum wage from $6.25 to $8.25 per hour -- an increase of 32%. Raising the minimum wage is one of those ideas that sounds great as long as you don’t think about it very much. Perhaps the most immediate consequence for Arkansans will be the artificial spike in prices on consumer goods. How many of you would like to pay 32% more for your meals? But of course you won’t pay exactly 32% more … [Read more...]

Filed Under: 2013 General Assembly, Arkansas Legislature, Economic Policy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Stephen Speaks!

February 8, 2013 Leave a Comment
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Those thinkers over at the Advance Arkansas Institute made good on their promise yesterday to bring Steve Moore to Little Rock for a speech. And might I just add: it was quite a barn burner. I’ve provided a video excerpt of Mr. Moore’s comments below. The clip begins with Moore emphatically telling the audience of approximately 100 -- which included a large number of state legislators of both parties -- about the importance of reforming the tax code in Arkansas. “If you just stand … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Politics, Tax Reform Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Advancing Arkansas: Incoming Speaker Carter Seeks Tax Reform Debate

January 10, 2013
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I recently sat down with incoming Speaker of the House Davy Carter to discuss his plans for the legislative session that begins on Monday. Carter is entering his third and final term as a state representative from Cabot. He was elected as Speaker this past November. Speaker Carter agrees with essentially every other state legislator I have talked to: Medicaid is by far the biggest challenge facing the state. So, how do we fix it? The Speaker declined to offer a specific plan at this point, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Legislature, Arkansas Politics, Arkansas Republicans Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Arkansas Needs Higher Taxes!

October 10, 2012
Tax me More

After 200 years of ranking at the bottom of the 50 states for poverty, we have finally identified what ails us in Arkansas: our taxes are too low! If you don’t believe me, take our Lieutenant Governor’s word for it: in a statement released by his office yesterday, Lt. Gov. Mark Darr said “Today I am announcing my support of Ballot Issue #1 concerning Arkansas Highways. No one hates taxes more than me; however, one of the primary functions of government is to build roads and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Arkansas Legislature, Mark Darr, Tax Reform Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

AAI’s Newsletters Are Still Free

September 24, 2012

AAI's weekly newsletter went out today. Here's a look at what you missed if you're not already subscribed: America’s Vanishing Economic Freedom: The 2012 Economic Freedom of the World report was released this week by the Cato Institute and Canada’s Fraser Institute, and it showed that the United States has plummeted to 18th place in the ranked list, trailing such countries as Estonia, Taiwan, and Qatar. Even such notorious welfare states as Finland and Denmark, not to mention … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Policy, Obamacare Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Marriage Reduces Child Poverty in Arkansas

September 20, 2012
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The following article is a guest post from Robert Rector,  a leading authority on poverty and the welfare system and a senior research fellow in domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation. He is author of the new report “Marriage: America’s Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty” with related papers and charts for Arkansas and the other states. The continuing collapse of marriage in America, along with a dramatic rise in births to single women, is the most important cause of childhood … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Policy, Marriage Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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