Arkansas rather opaque on tax cronyism practices

By Caleb Taylor | The Arkansas Project

Arkansans who care about transparency in government received some bad news today.

According to an American Legislative Exchange Council study on tax cronyism released today, Arkansas is one of the worst states in the nation when it comes to reporting exactly what special breaks the state’s tax code gives to favored industries.

William Freeland, an ALEC research analyst who worked on the report, told The Arkansas Project in a phone interview:

The biggest thing here on Arkansas is in your reports: you guys don’t report whatsoever any sales tax expenditures. Most states … do carve outs not just for income tax and their corporate tax if they have them, but they certainly do sales tax carve outs and there is a good deal of them. Your state does not, at all, report on any of those.

at The Arkansas Project.