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Dear Friend,
LITTLE ROCK (April 28, 2011) – The Arkansas Citizens First Congress today released its Community Guide to the 2011 Arkansas Legislative Session which reports how every legislator voted regarding some of the bills on which CFC expressed a position. It also explains the disposition of each bill supported or opposed by the CFC to monitor progress toward the organization’s Ten Priorities for a Better Arkansas.
“Significant steps were made on prison reform, children’s healthcare and education,” said Bill Kopsky, Executive Director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, the organizing and policy arm of Arkansas Citizens First Congress. “The most egregious tax, environmental and immigration bills were all defeated.”
Kopsky noted an increase in partisanship, particularly in the Arkansas House of Representatives, with the vote score range for each party defining the gap between Democrats and Republicans on the CFC issues. “The bills we care about tend to be more controversial,” he said. “But I think the difference in consensus between the 2009 and 2011 sessions is significant.”
“Taxes largely defined the 2011 legislative session, and some low-income tax relief was passed this session. The most egregious budget busting tax cuts for the wealthy were defeated, but corporations received more tax cuts than working people,” said Kopsky. “Our position is that any tax cut should be accompanied by a corresponding budget cut so lawmakers and the public can make a transparent choice about what they are giving up. And any tax cut should target Arkansas’s middle- and low-income people who already pay higher tax rates than the wealthiest Arkansans.”
Find out more or access the entire report at http://citizensfirst.org/updoads/2011-legislative-scorecard
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