On purchasing power

Gov. Sarah Sanders lamented what she labeled as “government’s spiraling growth” with average annual increases of 3 percent in the budget “in the recent past.” Unfortunately, she did not define “recent past,” but one can examine the validity of her statement by looking at the growth of Arkansas’ operating budgets from Fiscal 2019 to Fiscal 2024.

Over that five-year period, the budget increased 2.3 percent per year, or 12 percent. If the governor checked the Consumer Price Index over that time period, she would be aware there was an increase in prices (inflation) of 21 percent. The real “spiraling growth” of the purchasing power of those budgets was minus 8 percent.

To gain a better understanding of the first budget offered to the Legislature by this governor, it is there to see rather quickly. The fund to pay for vouchers, the Education Freedom Act, will receive a raise of $65.7 million. That is more than 60 percent of the proposed $109.3 million increase. That increase in the allocation of public funds to subsidize the few that opt to attend private schools is more than 71 percent greater than her proposed increase in funds for our public schools.

When one removes the above noted amounts from the proposed $109.3 million increase in appropriated funds, that leaves $5 million to be spread over the remainder of the state’s more than $6 billion operating budget. Given the relatively small size of the increase (less than 0.1 percent), the ongoing inflation will mean a further decline in the number of “real” dollars to finance other parts of our state government.

Before leaving for her trip to Asia, Governor Sanders said rubber was hitting the road to achieve what the people elected her to do. It seems Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders may have missed the road we elected her to hit. PHILLIP TAYLOR

Fayetteville