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Arkansas
Mike Huckabee, Republican
Legislature: Democratic
Took Office: 7/96
Grade: B
Perhaps no current governor has been elevated to the
statehouse under stranger circumstances. Huckabee, a Bap-
tist minister, was elected lieutenant governor in 1994. Two
and a half years later, Clinton's heir, Jim Guy Tucker, was
convicted of a felony as a result of the Whitewater investi-
gation and was immediately removed from office. In the
midst of those tumultuous events, Huckabee became the first
Republican governor of Arkansas in recent memory. Upon tak-
ing office in July 1996, Huckabee immediately backed a 1/8-
cent sales tax hike to fund the Games and Fishing Commission
and the Department of Parks and Tourism. The voters enacted
that hike as a constitutional amendment in November 1996.
In his first budget, however, he redeemed himself by propos-
ing a sweeping overhaul of Arkansas's archaic income tax
system. The $80 million tax cut package was enacted in 1997
and became the first broad-based state tax cut in more than
20 years. It increased the standard deduction, eliminated
the income tax "marriage penalty," and indexed the state tax
brackets for inflation. The next challenge for Huckabee
will be to implement the sweeping tax reduction initiatives
recommended by a 1998 blue-ribbon private-sector panel, the
Murphy commission, which has endorsed a flat tax and an end
to the state capital gains tax. Huckabee's spending record
has been uninspiring. Bill Clinton was one of the nation's
biggest spending governors in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Tucker followed suit, and Huckabee has mostly continued that
trend. Huckabee has shown a reluctance to take on the
state's powerful education establishment and the government
employee unions. Until he cleans house, Arkansas will re-
main handicapped by one of America's most notoriously cor-
rupt, bureaucratic, and inept state governments.
Score
Grade
Rank
Overall Fiscal Policy Score
52
B
17
Spending Score
49
C
21
Revenue and Tax Rate Score
52
B
15
Amount
1.2%
Average Annual Recommended Change in Real Per Capita General Fund Spending through 1999
-0.9%
Average Annual Change in General Fund Spending Per $1,000 Personal Income 1996-98
0.0%
Average Annual Recommended Change in General Fund Revenue Per $1,000 Personal Income through 1999
-0.4%
Average Annual Change in Real Per Capita General Fund Revenue 1996-98
-0.8%
Average Annual Recommended Tax Changes as % of Prior Year's Spending through 1999
0.0
Change in Top Personal Income Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)
0.0
Change in Top Corporate Income Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)
13.5
1998 Combined Top Income Tax Rates (Personal plus Corporate) (*0.5)
0.125
Change in Sales Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (% points)
0.0
Change in Gas Tax Rate, proposed and/or enacted (cents per gallon) (*0.5)