Tolbert ReportStatewide blogger, CPA, and columnist for Arkansas News Jason Tolbert shared his opinion of the first part of AFP-Arkansas' five-year state budget analysis. We are grateful to Jason and Stephens Media for running the article.

"Does the state budget need a diet?"

By Jason Tolbert

One of Mike Huckabee’s major platforms during his tenure as governor received a lot of bipartisan praise. Faced with a health crisis in 2002, he went on a dramatic lifestyle change that resulted in losing over 100 pounds. He used himself as a real life example and became an advocate for the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise. About three years ago, I read his book “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork” and followed the advice to lose about fifty pounds myself.

A lot of people are now concerned about a different kind of obesity problem — one affecting our growing government.

One conservative group in Arkansas has turned its attention to the state budget. The Arkansas Chapter of Americans for Prosperity released an “Arkansas Five Year Budget Report” two weeks ago that diagnosed the state with chronic obesity, to paraphrase.

“For too many years elected officials have used the ‘we have a balanced budget’ logic to divert attention away from the fact that Arkansas has a spending problem,” said Teresa Crossland-Oelke, state director of the Americans for Prosperity. “Our state is on an unsustainable spending path and will face some tough budget decisions in the very near future if we continue on this course.”

You may have heard brief mention of this report if you follow state legislative news closely. A minor controversy broke out when Oelke asked to have the report distributed to state representatives by the House staff. At first, Oelke was told the report was too political in nature but when pressed by several legislators, they relented and passed it out.

The report finds that state government has in fact grown over the last five years by an average of about 7 percent with some years growing more than others. The biggest year of growth was for fiscal year 2005 when the state budget grew by 10.88 percent. The report admits that the Lake View school funding issue played a role, but it blames the Legislature for that and not the Supreme Court. This is a point long debated in conservative circles, but the fact is that the court all but forced the Legislature to increase spending on public schools (...).

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