For liberty

To The Editor:

Well Hallelujah, finally the Great State of Arkansas is now Number one in the nation on a very important area. Imagine that, little old Arkansas leads every other state in the union in a category. But as it turns out it’s a rather dubious distinction. Arkansas, yes Arkansas, leads the country in the area of government spending per capita. Yes, our state spends more money per person than any other state in the Union. Let that sink in for a moment. I know that there are some that will think that this is great news, I’m not one of them.

About a month ago I heard in a TV interview where Sen Dismang, following the general session, commented that “Arkansas did not have a spending problem, it had a revenue problem.” Then a few days later, I heard our own Governor Hutchinson say the same thing on radio interview. My immediate thought was, “No way, he did not say that!” This was very confusing because I thought all along we were over-taxed and they were trying to make tax cuts through reforming our tax structure and hopefully cut spending! Well, I decided to do a little research and here is some of what I found.

In 2015, the most recent financial reporting* says Arkansas spent $23.6 billion in tax dollars. That is $7,935 per capita vs. contiguous states that spent on average $5,456 per capita. In other words, we spent 45.4% more than the average of OK, MO, TN, MS, LA and TX. When compared to the total U.S. states average of $5,711 per capita, I found that AR spent 38.9% more than the total U.S. average.

Later, I shared these numbers at a meeting and was asked by a state representative, who attended that meeting, to remove Texas from totals of contiguous states due to its large population and the impact it might have on the numbers. After doing so, I found thatAR spent 38.5% more than the other 5 contiguous states less Texas.

In addition, he asked that I compare Arkansas with all states in U.S. whose populations were similar to Arkansas’s, to determined how we would compare to those whosepopulation were plus or minus 1 million of Arkansas. These states included OK, UT,CN, IO, KA, MS and NV. Their average spending was $5,770 per capita. I found that Arkansas spent 37.5% more than states with comparable population.

Arkansas’s total spending in 2015 was $23.6 billion (state and federal tax dollars) therefore; if Arkansas legislators and the Governor were to reduce spending by the 37.5% the average of comparable states number we would save $8.8 billion, that is a really big number!

I’ve always felt that Arkansas state government was a bit oversized, having watched it grow so much over the years. As a matter of fact, I believed it was a bit bloated. I thought a good place to start looking for cost savings would be employment.

were 63,297 full time equivalent employees** in state government in 2015. I found that state of AR employs 213.3 people per 10,000. When excluding employees who are part of education, it leaves 122 people per 10,000 in population, which comes to 35,895 employees. The average employment, excluding

education workforce, in surrounding states was 87.81 people. That means we employed 38.9% more people in comparable jobs than the average of surrounding states. Thus, we have 35,895 emp. x 38.9% = 13,963 excess employees compared to average.

No doubt we have a bloated government requiring excess taxes and spending to compensate them.

Assume average state employee pay, benefits and tax = $50,000

Therefore, 13,963 x

$50,000 = $698,158,000 in potential savings annually

It is evident that Arkansas has been and continues to be on a spending binge which no doubt makes it very difficult to reduce taxes on its citizens and businesses. With Governor Hutchinson and the legislative leadership of Senator Dismang and House Speaker Gilliam increasing spending 3% in each of the past three legislative sessions, regretfully there seems to be little chance we can expect any effort

on their part to cut spending. Coupled with their effort to increases taxes by approximately $400 million last session, I don’t hold out much hope that we will see significant reform.

We don’t have a revenue problem we have a spending problem!

John A. Wilson President TEA Party Patriots of Union County El Dorado